North Prospect, previously known as Swilly, was the name given to the first council estate built in Plymouth during the 1920s, primarily to accommodate officers settling back in Britain following the devastation of the First World War. The Housing Act of 1919 promised “Homes for Heroes” and an improvement on the overcrowded and inadequate living conditions that existed in early twentieth century Britain. Swilly was Plymouth’s response to this Act. Swilly House had been at the centre of a prosperous country estate. The original Anglo-Saxon word from which Swilly is derived means “farmland.” Before the Second World War much of the locality of what is now North Prospect and the western edge of Beacon Park was known as Swilly. Swilly Post Office was at the corner of South Down Road and West Down Road. The council estate, designed with plenty of open space and trees, was prosperous up until the 1950s when the area began to get a reputation due to the economic and social problems of its residents. The officer class who originally lived in the area began to be superseded by poorer families from the most deprived areas of Plymouth, particularly Devonport, in the 1930s. Due to severe underinvestment by subsequent council administrations, Swilly, its housing stock and the community at large became increasingly vulnerable to criticism and even contempt. At this point, the name “Swilly” and its derivatives “Swill” and “Swilli” became a derogatory term for any “economically deprived” residents of Plymouth, and efforts were made initially to apply the name Swilly only to the council estate and later to get rid of the name altogether. In the 1970s the name was euphemistically changed to North Prospect and the area has since seen considerable urban regeneration. North Prospect consists in many residential streets connected with North Prospect Road where the local shops are located. Its name is still synonymous with economic depression and petty crime in Devon and Cornwall, though the spirit of the community, selective use of ASBOs and a new police station have gone some way to deal with the minority who continue to foster the area’s negative reputation.
Quote from Wikipedia.org