Short answer: Royal William Yard is a vast former naval victualling depot converted into restaurants, bars and a cinema, with good parking — rare in this city. A seasonal ferry runs from here to Cornwall, and Devil's Point with its three hours of free parking is right next door.
A huge early nineteenth-century naval victualling yard, built in granite and limestone to supply the fleet, now converted into restaurants, bars, apartments and a cinema. The scale is the point: these were industrial buildings for feeding a navy, and nothing about them was built small. Walking round costs nothing.
Plymouth parking is expensive, especially on the Barbican. Royal William Yard has good parking, and Devil's Point immediately beyond it gives three hours free with accessible paths and benches. For a day on the western waterfront that is the pairing to use.
A seasonal ferry crosses from here, which turns an afternoon in Plymouth into an afternoon in two counties with no car involved. It is weather and tide dependent, so check the return sailing before you go across rather than after.
There are restaurants and bars in the converted buildings and an independent cinema, which makes this the part of Plymouth that works in the evening as well as the afternoon. It is a different crowd to the Barbican — less tourist, more local, and quieter midweek.
The waterfront runs Hoe, Barbican, then west to Royal William Yard and Devil's Point. Doing it east to west on foot gives you the view first and the food last, and leaves you at the end of the day somewhere you did not pay to park.
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