Ivybridge

Ivybridge was, at one point in the 1980s, officially the fastest-growing town in Europe, which is the kind of accolade that sounds thrilling until you see what it actually built: cul-de-sacs climbing both sides of a river valley in every shade of estate brick the late twentieth century could manage. The town is named after a bridge with ivy on it, and that tells you everything about how much fuss the place makes of itself. It sits with Dartmoor at its back and the Plymouth commute at its front, and most mornings the front wins. Nobody moves here for the town centre; they move here for the fifteen minutes it takes to be standing on a moor instead.