City Centre, Barbican & Sutton Harbour
Plymouth 027 · 6 sub-areas · 13,495 residents
Plymouth 027 is a densely populated neighbourhood in Plymouth, home to around 13,500 people and one of the city's most renter-heavy areas — nearly half of all households are privately rented. A typical two-bedroom flat runs about £868 a month, noticeably below the UK median for a two-bed, and well under what you'd pay in most southern English cities.
City Centre, Barbican & Sutton Harbour is a mid-density neighbourhood of Plymouth in the South West region. It sits between busier and quieter parts of the local authority and isn't dominated by a single use — there's a mix of workplaces, housing and local services. The population skews young, with a high concentration of 18- to 34-year-olds; the rental market is active and turnover is high — people move through rather than stay.
Overview
What's it like to live in City Centre, Barbican & Sutton Harbour?
4 parks and 1 playgrounds are within five minutes' walk, so greenspace is reliably close at hand; there's a serious food scene on the doorstep — 58 restaurants and lots of variety within a five-minute walk; nightlife is genuinely on tap — 16 clubs within a kilometre; Recorded crime is higher than the national norm — common for built-up urban areas, but worth weighing if you're looking for a quieter base; Public transport is genuinely strong; most errands and a fair share of social life don't need a car; rents are roughly in line with the national norm, at around £985 a month for a typical home; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 6 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
City Centre, Barbican & Sutton Harbour in Plymouth
Living in City Centre, Barbican & Sutton Harbour
Plymouth 027 has a strong student and young-professional character that sets it apart from most of Plymouth's other neighbourhoods. With nearly half of all residents aged 18–34, it's one of the most youthful parts of the city — busy, transient, and structured around people who are early in their careers or still studying. That energy shapes everything from the local amenities to the housing stock, which skews heavily towards flats and shared houses rather than family semis.
On costs, this neighbourhood sits at the more affordable end of what Plymouth offers. Two-bed rents average around £868 a month and one-beds come in at roughly £692 — both well below the UK national median. The trade-off is that rent still takes a significant bite out of take-home pay here: residents spend around 51% of take-home pay on rent, which reflects local wages rather than high rents. The median resident salary is about £29,000 a year, close to but slightly below the Plymouth workplace median.
Tenure tells an interesting story. Only around one in five households owns their home — far below the national norm — while a third are in social housing and 46% are privately renting. That's an unusually high private-rental share for a neighbourhood with this level of deprivation: the area sits in the second decile on the Index of Multiple Deprivation, meaning it's among the more deprived parts of England. Single-person households make up nearly half the total, reinforcing the impression of a neighbourhood built around individuals rather than families.
Practically, the nearest mainline rail station is roughly 790 metres away — around a ten-minute walk — which gives reasonable access to Plymouth city centre and the wider rail network. Greenspace is closer than you might expect: three-quarters of residents are within a walkable distance of green space, with the nearest patch just over 200 metres away on average. See the streets and sub-areas below for more.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Plymouth 027 a nice place to live?
- It depends on what you're looking for. If you're young, renting, and want affordable city living close to Plymouth's centre, it works well. Rents are low, greenspace is close, and the rail station is a ten-minute walk. The trade-off is a high crime rate and a deprivation ranking in the bottom 20% nationally — it's not a polished neighbourhood, but it's lively and relatively cheap.
- What is the rent in Plymouth 027?
- A one-bed typically runs around £692 a month, a two-bed around £868, and a three-bed around £1,042. These are estimates scaled from city-level data using local sale prices. All three are noticeably below UK national medians, making this one of the more affordable parts of an already affordable city.
- Is Plymouth 027 safe?
- Crime here runs at around 474 incidents per 1,000 residents a year — well above the UK national average. High-density, high-transient neighbourhoods with large student populations tend to record elevated rates, especially for theft and anti-social behaviour. It's worth being aware of, though the figures are partly a function of population density and footfall rather than serious violent crime alone.
- What's the commute from Plymouth 027 to Plymouth city centre?
- The nearest mainline rail station is roughly 790 metres away — about a ten-minute walk — giving easy access to Plymouth city centre. Around 35% of residents drive to work and 15% use public transport, with nearly one in five working from home. There's no metro or tram network in Plymouth.
- Who lives in Plymouth 027?
- Predominantly young adults — nearly half of all residents are aged 18–34. Single-person households make up 49% of the total. Tenure is split between private renters (46%), social housing (33%), and owner-occupiers (just 20%). It's a neighbourhood with a strong student and young-professional feel, with relatively few families.
- What schools are near Plymouth 027?
- There are 106 schools within 2km of typical residents, so options aren't scarce. Around 67% of those are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, below the national average of roughly 89%. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is about 1.6km away. Families should check individual catchment boundaries, as the high school density doesn't guarantee automatic admission to any particular school.
- How affordable is buying a home in Plymouth 027?
- The median sale price is around £155,000 — low by national standards. On a typical local salary of about £29,000, it takes roughly 2.6 years to save a deposit, which is one of the more achievable timelines in the South West. The main challenge is that rents absorb around 51% of take-home pay, leaving less room to save.