Smeaton's Tower is a Grade I listed building in the Plymouth local planning authority area, England. First listed on 25 January 1954. Lighthouse. 1 related planning application.
Smeaton's Tower
- WRENN ID
- gaunt-hammer-dew
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Plymouth
- Constituency
- Plymouth Sutton and Devonport MP: Luke Pollard (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 25 January 1954
- Type
- Lighthouse
- Address
- Smeaton's Tower, the Hoe, City of Plymouth, PL1 2NZ
- OS grid reference
- SX 477 537
- Coordinates
- 50.36434, -4.14187
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Smeaton's Tower is a Grade I listed structure located on The Hoe in Plymouth. Originally built in 1759 by John Smeaton as the Eddystone Lighthouse, the upper part of the lighthouse was moved to its current location in 1882 and placed on a new base. The tower is circular and tapered, constructed from painted granite ashlar, and features an octagonal lantern with glazing bars and an ogee-shaped roof topped with a ball finial and weather vane. The tower has small four-pane windows. When it was first constructed, the lighthouse was recognized as a significant technical achievement.
Historically, Smeaton's Tower is notable for its connection to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903. In 1913, a homemade bomb associated with the suffragette movement was discovered at the entrance to the tower. The device, which was intended to explode, failed to ignite, and messages such as 'Votes for women' and 'death in ten minutes' were painted on its exterior. This incident was part of a series of attacks carried out by the WSPU during that period, possibly linked to Pankhurst's recent arrest in Plymouth after a speaking tour in the USA. The listing was updated in 2018 to commemorate the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act.
Local climate
Smeaton's Tower sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 970 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 89% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 9 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 92% of listed buildings. Of these, 3 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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