City of Gloucester

1. CITY OF GLOUCESTER

22. 'Gloucester (Caer Glw, Gleawecastre, Gleucestre) was the Roman municipality or colonia of Glevum, founded by Nerva A.D. 98-98. Its situation and the foundation in 681 of the abbey of St Peter by Aethelred favoured the growth of the town; and before the Conquest Gloucester had a royal residence and a mint. Numerous charters have been granted to the town. Gloucester was incorporated by Richard III in 1483, the town being made a county in itself. The chartered port of Gloucester dates from 1580. Numerous fairs have been granted. The iron trade of Gloucester dates from before the Conquest, tanning was carried on before the reign of Richard III, pin-making and bell-founding were introduced in the 16^th, and the long-existing coal trade became important in the 18^th century. The cloth trade flourished from the 12^th to the 16^th century. The sea-borne trade in corn and wine existed before the reign of Richard I.'

(Encyclopedia Britannica 14^th Edition)

Gloucester, city, port, and county town of Gloucestershire, is situated on the River Severn, 35 miles north of Bristol, 27 miles south of Worcester and 114 miles west of London. Population 1961: 69,687. Area within the city boundaries: 5,347 acres. Area within the proposed inner Ring Road: 130 acres. The city is the junction through main roads A.38, A.40 and A.417. Until the Severn Bridge at Aust opens, Westgate Bridge remains the first upstream road crossing of the Severn. The city is an important railway junction served by the Western and Midland Regions of British Railways. The Gloucester and Sharpness Ship Canal runs south-west to Sharpness Docks in the Severn Estuary.

23. The traditional industries are match works, foundries, railway carriage and wagon works, printing, timber yards and sawmills, chemical works, rope works, flour mills, engines and agricultural implements, and boat and ship building yards. The modern industries include aircraft, nylon, frozen foods, and others. It is today predominantly a prosperous city based on a diversity of industry.

24. The city lies sheltered by the Cotswolds on the east and the Forest of Dean on the west. The centre, with which this plan is concerned, is precisely the site of the Roman Colony, strategically placed on land above flood level for control of the river. Because of the water meadows to the west and north physical development has taken place to the south and east, where it has reached the Cotswold escarpment. This movement undoubtedly began when the mediaeval walls were razed after the Civil War (intended as a punishment, but eminently advantageous in reality). In the 19^th century the central area was again confined but this time by the railways, which today are as overwhelming a restriction on town planning as were the city walls. Although the plan of the city is unbalanced the centre of business and commerce has not itself shifted, and the 'square half-mile' of Gloucester has become under greater pressure in regard to space (and therefore to land values) than at any time in its history. Within this area, now to be defined by a ring road, are crowded all the ancient and modern elements of a considerable city: the Cathedral and its precinct, the Civic Centre, the Shire Hall (properly belonging to county rather than city), the Technical College, the Prison, industry and docks, and such a virile conglomeration along the Cross roads and elsewhere of market, shops, offices, hotels and the like that the Gaumont Cinema, rebuilt in 1956, is for instance due to be demolished for the value of its site as a multiple store.

25. The purpose of this plan is to accept the facts of modern progress, and to endeavour to make them constructive rather than destructive of the city as a whole. It is not enough in planning to ensure that a city organism works smoothly, or that a rise in land values does not cause a fall in civic values: all history (and none more so than that of Gloucester itself) teaches that there can and should be an equal and parallel rise in all elements of civilisation. It is therefore hoped that the disposition of commercial buildings on this plan will not only be good for business in its own right, but will tend to draw out and emphasize the qualities that in the past made Gloucester one of the famous cities of the world.

26. The character of the ground plan was determined by the Romans, but the character of the architecture is primarily mediaeval. The one gives a road plan based on Roman military use, and the second, apart from the historic monuments, gives a multitude of sites in private ownership. Although neither of these elements can receive the impact of modern traffic and large scale modern commercial development without some compromise, yet it seems a reasonable objective in planning that the twentieth century should be a continuity of history, rather than a break. It is chance that has placed Cheltenham as a next-door neighbour, for no greater contrast between the two cities can be imagined. Cheltenham is perhaps the most gracious example of nineteenth century lay-out and architecture in the country, but primarily reflects the civilisation of one century only. Gloucester, on the other hand, is part of a continuous progress of development, whose form was already established before the dissolution of the monasteries, and is primarily not one of order, but of individuality. It is essential to bear this in mind, and to recognise the much more difficult problem of retaining this individuality at a time when multiple though, finance, and production tend to submerge the individual into the mass.

27. When a newcomer comes today to Gloucester from all parts except up Westgate Street, he may at first be unimpressed. It is true he has seen from afar the majestic tower of the Cathedral, but after the dignity of the tree-lined terraces of Cheltenham (for example) he may feel unaware tha6t he is approaching any centre other than that of a normal prosperous industrial city of the kind that is usually found in the Midlands and the North. The Cathedral may not even be seen. The traveller is first seriously notified that this is not so, however, by the tower of St. Michael, which manifestly interferes with the present rush of traffic at the junction of the cross roads and stands significantly as a symbol of history. After this he becomes aware that history is all around him, but it still depends upon his personal inclination whether he seeks it out or whether he transacts his business and passes on. Scattered all over the city are fragments of history of all dates and kinds, ready, like volumes in a classical library, to be taken out and read. (Appendix II). Even the most casual traveller would be foolish not to discover the Cathedral, for after threading the cars in the precinct, and even the porch, he would be rewarded with an impression of imagination, boldness, determination and technical skill, combined with loftiness of purpose, that would leave him breathless. 'It is one of the most problematical buildings in the history of art. Here, if anywhere, an entirely new conception of form appears at one stroke in the conception of English late Gothic - it was to last for centuries...' Geoffrey Grigson, English Cathedrals 1950.