This series examines the city of Plymouth through the visitors of the post-War era and the postcards they sent from their visits. The messages they sent were not of grand voyages but were concerned with friendships, relationships and everyday worries.

The original postcard images from this particular set were created in part to showcase the newly rebuilt post-war city of Plymouth, designed by esteemed town planner Patrick Abercrombie and city engineer J Paton Watson. The new city was highly regarded and juxtaposed many modern, concrete buildings alongside the historic architecture of Plymouth’s past, creating a rich palimpsest of different eras all telling the dramatic story of Plymouth’s near destruction and regeneration.

Key to this rebuild were the trees that were precisely positioned in accordance with Abercrombie’s plan. Planted as young saplings, they stood over Armada Way for around seventy years, silent observers of the city’s everyday activity, their own soundless community existing in harmony with ours until early in 2023 when 110 trees were cut down under cover of the night as part of the city Council’s new plan for the city. Witnesses to over half a century of the city’s evolution, this community of nature’s affinity with humanity has now been severed in the name of ‘development’. This is a story of the city and those who passed through it during the time of the Armada Way Trees.