Gloucester

[bottle]

Gloucester Quays

 

£200,000,000 (two hundred million) development has been approved by the Secretary of State for Glouceter Quays.

 

This a brownfield site with listed buildings and an ancient monument (all protected) just south of Gloucester Docks on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal.

 

There will be one thousand new homes, including two hundred low-cost homes. A food retail store covering 7,800 sq metres and a factory outlets shops covering 20,000 sq metres.

 

An 80 bedroom hotel, a leisure development and the Gloscat campus.

 

There will also be 6,000 sq metres of car parking.

 

There will also be a 'new' dock at Monk Meadow (part of the site) and a new bridge across the canal.

 

This is a joint development between British Waterways and Peel Holdings

 

From "The Citizen" Gloucesters local paper.

[KG1]

Gloucester Quays Development

 

[Breals]

Although its interesting for the passing boater to ponder the industrial history of the area, that area of Gloucester is an eyesore, and people who live there have to put up with it day to day.

 

Gloucester as a whole punches well below its weight as a city. Virtually the only things going for it and the Cathedral and the Docks. I haven't seen the detail of the current proposals, but I did a project on the area at college so I got a feel for what Gloucester Council were hoping for - an extension of the City centre that makes good use of the waterside spaces for new cafes and bars etc. There are new homes too, and no-one doubts we need these!

 

I remember wandering about the area between Llanthony Priory and the Canal, and it was bleak and alienating, just a mass of scrapyards and derelict buildings (some of which contained piles of hyperdermic needles) with scrubby nettles and Buddliea bushes... and this only a few hundred yards from the city centre.

 

No doubt those who prefer to moor in an area which feels threatening and neglected will bemoan the new development, but I cautiously welcome it. I just hope the proposals will be sensitive to the site's gritty working past and all the interesting warehouses can be preserved (I think the proposals include their retention). And lets hope the Silo can stay. Maybe a new Art Gallery, lol!

Edited June 24, 2006 by Breals