Nostalgic flashback to when the railway ran along St Levan Road

It wasn’t that long ago, before the railway cut through here and before most of the housing had been built in this area, that Keyham Lake extended beyond Keyham Bridge and covered all of the green space (St Levan Park) that we see here just above the line of the southern bank of the creek, a line now defined by St Levan Road.

The Eagle Tavern (long since better known as the Ford Hotel) sat at the end of the then as yet undeveloped Alexandra Road and there was but one house in the road running parallel above it, Tamar Villa in Sussex Road.

The London & South Western Railway cut through this rural idyll in 1890, by which time Cambridge Road, Kent Road, Alfred Road, Clyde Street, Bedford Street, Melville Road and Seaton Place had all appeared on the eastern side of the tracks while the area to the west remained relatively green.

Ford Station serviced the population on that side while Station Road was later laid out for housing and to guide dockyardies to the transport link. That link closed in 1964 when the last trains stopped here, but the line and the viaduct carrying it here remained in situ until 1987.

Following the removal of the massive, seven-arched structure that bridged the 135-yard gap across the valley plans were put in place for a 39-dwelling city council housing development on the south side (14 flats, 25 houses), while on the northern side, Berkshire Drive was laid below the 500 metre stretch of railway that now forms the aptly named Linear Park.

• Pictures and text taken from the new book Post Blitz Plymouth From the Air Then & Now.