Role model

摘要

Agrey garrison town pinched between the granite dome of Dartmoor and the sea, Plymouth seems surprisingly shy about declaring any interest in its surrounding waterways. Its enclosing granite walls speak of exclusion. Soldiers and sailors come and go. It is a masculine town, and much of its street furniture has a preventive quality about it. High railings run down the centre of major streets, on pathways more railings separate cyclists from pedestrians and flagpoles are encircled by barbed wire. In this environment, music and the arts have survived in small scale, almost invisible pockets. Nancy Astor invited Patrick Aber-crombie to prepare a plan for rebuilding the centre after the Second World War, but since her departure the town has been without a patron. There has been no individual, no aristocrat, no 'captain of industry' who might act as a benefactor for matters of the arts.