Bonfire Night on the Hoe: times, access and closures

Plymouth's Bonfire Night is back on Thursday 5 November, and once again it's the Hoe that takes centre stage. The good news is that it costs nothing to get in, so it's an easy one to drop into with the family without any tickets to sort. The fairground, rides and stalls open at 4pm, and the whole site wraps up at 10pm, so there's plenty of time to wander around before the main event.

The sequence is the part worth planning around. The bonfire is lit at 7pm right in front of Smeaton's Tower, and half an hour later, at 7.30pm, the fireworks begin. They're put on by Devon-based Sonic Fireworks and launched from the wall of the Royal Citadel, and the display runs for about 15 minutes, filling the sky with rockets, shells, bursts of colour, fountains and cracker bombs. That hour between 7pm and 8pm is the busiest part of the night, so if you're bringing young children or would rather not be shoulder-to-shoulder, arriving earlier is the sensible move.

Getting around needs a bit of thought, because the road closures are wide-reaching. From 6pm to 9pm, Hoe Road, Madeira Road, Citadel Road, the Armada Way loop, Windsor Place, Osbourne Place, Notte Street, The Crescent, Princess Street and Lockyer Street are all shut. The number 25 bus keeps running into the closed areas until 6pm, but after that it's a walk in. The Civic Centre car park is closed, so Western Approach and Theatre Royal are the recommended places to leave your car, and Great Western Railway, Plymouth Citybus and Park & Ride are all running their normal services.

On the ground, the Hoe is a paved promenade with a grassy bonfire area that slopes gently, and there's a designated Sensory Garden near the Osbourne Place entrance. Blue Badge parking is available at the west end of the Promenade, off Elliot Street, from 4pm to 10.30pm. Accessible toilets are at both ends of the Hoe, with the public block holding six unisex toilets, an extra accessible toilet and a large accessible changing room. There's also an accessible viewing area at the top of the Belvedere, first come, first served, and if you have specific access questions, eventaccess@plymouth.gov.uk is the email to use.

A word on the sensory side: it's a loud night with flashing lights, and the fireworks from 7.30pm bring plenty of flashes, even if there are no stroboscopic lights in the entertainment. Ear defenders and sunglasses are worth packing if you're sensitive to noise or bright lights.

If you want to make a night of it, the Hoe puts you within easy reach of a few local landmarks. Smeaton's Tower is the Grade I listed memorial to the engineer John Smeaton, 72 feet high with 93 steps up to the lantern room for views across Plymouth Sound. The Royal Citadel is the 17th-century fortress that doubles as the launch site, still occupied by the 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery. The Box and the Black Friars Distillery, the oldest working gin distillery in England, are both nearby if you're staying in the area after the fireworks have finished.