Secrets of Gloucester’s Historic High Street with Janina Ramirez

Join Professor Janina Ramirez for a tour of Gloucester High Street and discover some of the key architectural features found on English buildings from the 15th to 20th centuries.

Thanks to our High Street Heritage Action Zone, buildings on Westgate Street in Gloucester have been revived. One of four original Roman routes, Westgate links the spectacular medieval cathedral to the rest of the city. Funded by Historic England and Gloucester City Council, the project ended in March 2024.

Chapters
00:00: Introduction
00:45: The 15th or 16th century Folk of Gloucester
02:30: The 17th century Mayor's House
03:54: An 18th century townhouse
04:44: The 19th century Lloyd's Bank
05:38: A 20th century commercial building
07:06: Your high street's architecture

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[dominofalling]

This was brilliant, by making people aware of their historical surroundings means you never need to be bored when you are out and about. We now have a chance to be entertained by the history in our built environment.

Thank you Prof.

[philmalley]

. Well done janina, gloucester owes you so much for the PR

[nimrod]

Professor Ramirez, enjoyed your enthusiasm, passion and knowledge.

[trancewinston]

A great video that everyone from Gloucester should see. I only wish that Janina also featured The New Inn building here too.

[brakecompo]

Excellent video, I live a few miles from Gloucester and go there regularly, so it was nice to learn a little about a few of the buildings that I admire regularly. This presents a rather rose tinted view of Gloucester’s buildings, as far too much was lost in the 1960s in a sustained attack on Gloucester’s historic buildings by the Council, until was stopped in the 1970s, and the scale of loss of historic buildings is breathtaking - noted that Janina Ramirez didn’t venture into Eastgate Street for example! While it will be impossible to roll back the scale of post-war development, I would argue that on redevelopment the developers, should be forced to replicate the old facade on the replacement buildings. A general complaint that I have about almost every high street is the way that garish modern shopfronts have destroyed the character of high streets- in our daily lives we tend not to look up and see beautiful buildings on upper storeys, and it is the garish and soulless wall to wall plate glass shopfronts that define the visual environment.

[leightonolsson]

Domestic and urban architecture is far more fascinating than the majority stately homes and castles

[simongee]

I've long maintained that if you look above 'shop window' level in most streets, it's really surprising what there is to be seen - ! 😊

[chris]

Very interesting and well presented video.
It’s a shame the nice buildings - from all ages - are sandwiched between ugly unplanned monstrosities.
Thank you professor.

[Jon-es-io]

‘Timber framed’ structure. I would never have guessed.😉
Haven’t seen Janina on the screen in a long while. JR is one of my favourite historians.❤

[peckerdecker]

I like the aerial photography.

Excellent camera work.

[Incognito-turnip]

I was born in gloucester in 1987.

The city centre needs something to make it feel more special.

Gloucester has always been upstaged by cheltenham. I would love to see some great decisions made to help the city thrive.

Perhaps a nice inviting green space for people to meet and socialise in the city centre in summer.

[silverbaker]

I grew up in Gloucester and I know many of these buildings well, though it is nice to see they being preserved. I watched the last building 'Boots' being built. There was a massive excavation there during the 70's as it covered part of the original Roman town wall, part of which can still be viewed through a glass canopy at street level. I spent far too many hours in that shop on my way home from school 🤭

[jennytodd]

Very interesting and informative. The filming of the buildings were filmed well.

[BenEllwood]

❤ Gloucester. I was lucky enough to tour some of the high street buildings while they were being refurbished.

[TheMightyAntar]

A wonderful video. It would be good to look at street furniture, lots of tiny details which can make a massive difference to the atmosphere and individuality of any town or city

[fdfsdfsvsfgsg]

Thank you for this insight, Philomena.

[Degjoy]

Dass diese Infos mir so sehr interessieren würden, hätte ich nicht niemals gedacht

[simongee]

The principal advantage of jetting was that for a limited ground 'footprint'; land as now was expensive, you could extend the rooms above as much as the structure would allow thus giving a lot more room for business or personal purposes.

[HighWealder]

We spotted you at The Wallace collection a few years ago ❤

[faithlesshound]

As a city founded by the Romans (Glevum + castrum = Gloucester) this town is almost two thousand years old.