Smeaton's Tower

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 04/06/2018

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PLYMOUTH The Hoe Smeaton's Tower

(Formerly listed as The Smeaton Tower, THE PROMENADE, Hoe, previously listed as: THE HOE, Plymouth, The Smeaton Tower)

25/01/54

GV I Resited upper part of the former Eddystone Lighthouse. 1759 by John Smeaton, erected here on new base in 1882. Circular tapered tower of painted granite ashlar; octagonal lantern with glazing bars and ogee-shaped roof surmounted by ball finial and weather vane; small four-pane windows to tower. When this lighthouse was first built it was considered to be an important technical achievement.

HISTORICAL NOTE: The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) was formed by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903. From 1905 its members, known as suffragettes, used forms of direct action in their campaign, beginning with civil disobedience and escalating to include serious criminal damage and bombing. On 19 April 1913 a home-made suffragette bomb, consisting of a cylinder packed with explosive matter, was found at the entrance to Smeaton Tower. ‘Votes for women’ and ‘death in ten minutes’ were painted on the outside, but the wick, which had been lit, had blown out and the device did not ignite. These random attacks were carried out regularly by the WSPU in 1913 and 1914. Plymouth may have been targeted as Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested there on her return from a speaking tour of the USA the previous December.

This list entry was amended in 2018 as part of the centenary commemorations of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.

Listing NGR: SX4776253799