Preamble

Report to the Corporation of the City of Gloucester

A Comprehensive Plan for the Central Area of the City of Gloucester

G.A. Jellicoe CBE MTPI FRIBA (DistTP) PPILA

Jellicoe Ballantyne and Coleridge

12 Gower Street

London WC1

December 1961

PREAMBLE

1. Terms of Reference

To prepare a Comprehensive Plan to a scale of 1/1250 for the central area of the City of Gloucester, to include all land contained within the proposed inner Ring Road.

To accept all works in progress of construction or those that are imminent; and in addition the following, for which sketch plans have been finalised:-

(a) The Civic Centre

(b) First extensions to Technical College

(c) Shire Hall extension

(d) Housing west of the Cathedral

(e) The inner Ring Road

(f) The widening of King Street

To prepare a Diagrammatic Model to a scale of 1/1500 in sufficient detail to illustrate the intention of design in volume and elevation.

To complete ready for presentation to Council by 31^st December 1961

2. Programme

The survey precedes the plan. In such a complex as the centre of a prosperous city the making of a survey, and the subsequent analysis of ascertained facts, might be so diffuse and exhausting as to confuse the issues of the plan proper. Therefore the objective of the plan must first be defined, and the minimum needs established.

The plan envisages an increased density of building, a shifting of land use, and a new traffic design. All calculations are necessarily very approximate, and subject to unpredictable change, but the following are the principal variations to the central area of 1961 shown in the prophetic plan of 1981:-

(a) A small increase of total shopping floor areas

(b) An increase in the hotel and catering trades, etc.

(c) A similar increase in private office accommodation

(d) A heavy increase in public and semi-public buildings (terms of reference para 1)

(e) Car parks of all kinds, together with certain road alterations

(f) A relatively stable residential population with increase in the NW Quadrant compensating for a reduction elsewhere

(g) A certain discouragement to industry, except those that are traditional, domestic or like the motor industry, part of the common need.

4. (sic) Except only for (g) above, no reduction in any use of land in the central area is contemplated. This use may however be redistributed. On balance, the additional space is found by (i) economic development of back land (ii) higher proportion of shopping areas to frontage, and (iii) the increased use of the multi-storey.

5. The programme includes two specific new features:-

(a) An 84-bedroom hotel. Although the existing historic hotels and inns are admirable of their kind, it is felt that there is room today for a first-class hotel in a lively environment, with easy access and car garaging, central, and quiet at night.

(b) A Conference Hall with full facilities such as restaurant, centrally placed, and in a dramatic environment, with easy pedestrian access to all parts, and adjoining a good car park. No special stage facilities are proposed, since these are included in a hall in the Civic Centre.

6. It is proposed to encourage the new pedestrian areas of King's Square to become a centre of attraction in the evenings.

7. Any programme for the future must necessarily be speculative, and can only be sensed from what appears to be the present and potential market. If, for instance, a proposal were made for increasing the residential use in the areas normally devoted to offices, such a proposal would be considered on its merits.

8. The proposals are illustrated by a plan to a scale of 1/1250 and a model to a scale of 1/1500

9. SURVEY

The following detailed physical surveys were considered relevant to the preparation of the plan, but not to inclusion in this Report:-

(a) The uses of buildings

(b) The permanency or otherwise of buildings

(c) Historic buildings and landscape.

It was not considered necessary or desirable for a detailed Land Ownership survey to be prepared, even if such were possible within the time available. The major land owners are known, and changes affecting smaller freeholders will be considered as and when they arise.

10. A survey based on observation and the Ordnance Survey, and taken throughout the summer of 1961, gave us the following gross percentage figures of existing use:-

(a) Shops 24%

(b) Offices 10%

(c) Industrial and Commercial 17%

(d) Institutional, Ecclesiastical, Civic, etc 23.5%

(e) Garages 2.5%

(f) Domestic 23%

The calculations include the several floors.

11. The collection of relevant facts is more difficult in regard to future traffic flow and volumes, but the following points seem clear:-

(a) A rough analysis has been made of what percentages (and peak load volumes) are through or local traffic. In twenty years the through traffic may be lightened by factors outside the city boundary, such as the new Severn Bridge at Aust and the Birmingham and Bristol Motorway, or it may be increased by an unpredictable increase in commercial and private use. The plan can divert through traffic to the inner Ring Road, and it can give some idea of the maximum loading of this road without further reconstruction, especially at the junctions.

(b) A full Origin and Destination survey has not been made, nor, so far as the problem of the area within the Terms of Reference is concerned, would it appear necessary. A count has been taken of the total existing capacity of space for standing cars, and the peak effect upon existing streets and road junctions. This has little value beyond the study of pressure and experience under existing conditions; the use of land will manifestly be so changed that a 1981 car-user study (office, shop, home, etc.), even if feasible, has little meaning for the future. In the twenty-year plan it is theoretically possible to stabilise the quantity of vehicles entering the centre by a calculated size and disposition of space that can be made available. It is impossible to establish, however, except by the law of averages, the number of cars from any one direction that may wish to cross part of the city for a particular destination within the central area: nor would this in the event appear greatly to matter.

12. IMPLEMENTATION OF PROPOSALS

Compulsory powers are vested in the Local Authority to undertake works for the good of the community as a whole, and without such powers no such plan as this could be contemplated. It is, however, inherent in the plan that the powers are exercised to a minimum and are in fact concerned mainly with the compulsory purchase of land to encourage a momentum already generated by private enterprise. Land may be acquired for (a) public buildings, (b) public open spaces, (c) public thoroughfares, and (d) to assist comprehensive development by private enterprise and local authorities in any one area.

The key position in the plan is the proposed open space disclosing the Cathedral at the site of the Northgate. Superficially such a purchase is unremunerative, but in practice the commercial value of the site is not extinguished, but rather transferred to adjoining sites.

13. With the exception of the inner Ring Road, the Worcester Street-Market Parade connection, occasional widening, and works of a minor nature, the public thoroughfares within the inner Ring Road closely follow the existing pattern. While the framework is fixed, the potential use (such as one-way, etc.) remains fluid and changeable. The public expense is therefore kept to the minimum.

14. COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT

The recognition and acceptance of the principles of comprehensive development are vital to the Plan. Most of the commercial area in Gloucester is in small private ownership, based originally on the owner-occupier with his garden at the rear. The pressure on land and the removal of the home to the suburbs means that the street frontages rise in value, but the rear parts remain unexploited except as overcrowded service units. The keen eye of the developer sees that in any given area the historic pattern no longer provides the economic use of land; and this coincides with the view of the architect-planner, who sees potential development in wasted back land that could be a credit to the city as a whole. It is in this way that wealth is created and a city renews itself. The plan allows for a certain number of areas to be considered as a unit or parts of a unit that might be subject to private comprehensive development. The plans and model indicate the kind of development that would be suitable, and endeavour to rehouse existing freeholders, if not on the identical site, at least as close to it as possible. It is felt that the full exploitation of any one area must be of benefit to all in the attraction of custom. It is suggested that compulsory powers are used when there is a small minority of dissentient occupiers.

15. The method of control by Plot Ratio (ie.floor area to site area) has not been adopted since the total area is so small, complex, and subject to height restrictions, that each application can be considered on merit. Instead, guidance is given in Appendix I.

16. CONTROL OF DESIGN

It must be emphasised that the new buildings indicated on the drawings and model are diagrammatic only, and are concerned with form rather than detail. Where any one comprehensive area is ready for speculative development, clearly the developer who adheres most nearly to the design would be in the most favourable position; it is in fact the hope of the Consultant that the term 'the highest bid' includes the standard of architecture as well as the monetary value. For elsewhere, notes are given in Appendix I for architectural and landscape guidance.

17. In addition to this, a city of the nature of Gloucester depends for its quality on a manifold number of small details of street and open space design, including public and private signs, and planting. Since this is concerned with design, it is recommended that all such detail should be first determined jointly by the City Architect and the City Engineer.

18. Neither materials nor colour can be indicated on the model. Nevertheless the historic buildings suggest great texture of material and quality of colour, and it is hoped that both these elements can be given consideration. A single building crudely finished and coloured can draw attention to itself out of context, and harm its environment disproportionately. For instance, panels in framed structures might be materials with texture (such as slate, natural aggregate, etc.).

19. TIME

The Plan may take twenty years to mature. Except those described in paras 50-56 no stage-by-stage proposals have been submitted, not only because it is difficult to foresee the exact programme of demand and supply, but also because it would seem that each development (provided it were within the framework of the whole) would proceed independently and as justified.

20. It is suggested that the 1961 model be sealed within its perspex cover, and that variations in the development are made with a small working model to a scale of 1/1250, of the kind used by the Consultant when studying proposals in his own office.

21. VARIATIONS AND OBSERVATIONS

(a) The Consultant fells that the climate of opinion in regard to traffic may so change during the next two decades that it might not be considered unpractical to close Northgate Street wholly with a flight of steps immediately north of the pedestrian way. It is carrying the idea of the shopping precinct one further stage, and in itself would cater for the considerable school pedestrian flow at what is a hazardous crossing and one which cannot sensibly (despite the levels) be spanned by a bridge without serious architectural detriment.

(b) The comprehensive plan has been applied to the Eastgate Market area; and to King's Square, St Aldate, and land to the north. It may be that the latter area could be extended eastwards to Central Station to embrace the existing car park and Railway land outside the inner Ring Road. This would have the advantage of enabling pedestrians to cross the inner Ring Road at a high level, but would present an additional serious problem by the increased traffic that would be involved (para. 45 et seq.)