Westgate Quarter the prestigious shopping district of Gloucestershire

Westgate History Trail

Westgate St

Gloucester has seen many changes in its long and eventful history, but much of the old medieval city still remains to this day.

For many centuries, Westgate Street was the busiest and most important highway in the city. The street leads to the bridge over the River Severn that was the main link in the trading routes from London and Bristol to South Wales.

In the Westgate Quarter of the city, you are walking in the footsteps of Roman soldiers, English Kings, a Christian martyr, medieval pilgrims, civil war soldiers, the Victorian inventor of the concertina and electric telegraph, and, of course, Dick Whittington himself!

Today, Westgate is renowned for food, fashion and family businesses. There are tables on the street, and in hidden courtyards, where you can enjoy good food and drink. There are butchers and bakers and, yes, even a candlestick maker in Westgate Street.

Upper Westgate Street had become the main market area of the city by the 13th century and many important trades were established here by the Middle Ages, some of which exist to this day.

Part of the street was known as the Coiffery, because of the head-dress and hat makers that clustered here. It still could be, for a different reason, as there are no fewer than five hairdressers in the street. In medieval times, Westgate Street was two narrow lanes. Look down at the street pavings. Dark brown bricks outline the position of the old buildings that filled the centre of the street, that were later demolished to create the wide boulevard that is Westgate today.

You can get a feel for what it must have been like in those days by squeezing along Mercers Entry (between the Woolwich and the Stroud & Swindon Building Societies); the last remaining tenth century side street still in public use.

Come back into Westgate Street and look up, above the modern shop fronts. There are many medieval merchants town houses hidden behind the modern facades, dating back as far as the fourteenth century.

The city’s finest timber-framed building is at number 26 Westgate Street, now a book shop. From Maverdine Lane, which runs alongside the building, you have the best view of the overhanging oriel windows and leaded lights (some with original glass) of this superb 16th century, four-storey town house.

On the opposite side of the street you can see the black and white frontage of the former ‘Fleece Hotel’. Built around 1500, the Fleece was one of the three ‘Great Inns’ created by the Abbey of St Peter (now Gloucester Cathedral) to reduce pressures from pilgrims on the Abbey’s overcrowded guest houses. It is now a cornerstone for the regeneration of the Blackfriars area, planned by the city’s unique Heritage Urban Regeneration Company - Gloucester Renaissance.

The cathedral sits in 12 acres of the Westgate Quarter, enclosed by stone walls in the 13th century to create the precincts of St Peter’s Abbey. In 1541 the new diocese of Gloucester was established, with the abbey church becoming Gloucester Cathedral.

A narrow medieval lane called College Court leads to the cathedral precincts. It may take some time to reach the cathedral as it houses stylish jewellers, gift shops, places for food and drink; including a shop that boasts more than 500 malt whiskies and 300 bottled beers and Beatrix Potter’s ‘House of the Tailor of Gloucester’.

The magnificent 15th century tower of the cathedral soars above Westgate. Local or visitor, you can only marvel at the architecture and stained glass of our cathedral and its many monuments and tombs, most notably that of King Edward II. The cloisters most recently gained fame as the location for part of Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter films.

Stroll past College Green, with its memorial to the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars, to the arched entrance to Millers Green - a tranquil, almost forgotten area of the city. Look back to the Parliament Room, a 13th century stone undercroft with a 15th century timber-framed upper storey.

The tradition of holding parliament in Gloucester started in Saxon times during the reign of Edward the Confessor. It continued after the Norman Conquest and it was at Gloucester in 1085 that William I ordered the detailed survey of the country that we know as the Domesday Book.

The main entrance to the Cathedral is College Street - home to the ‘Comfy Pew’ restaurant, gift shops, and the men’s fashion centre of Westgate, with Jomasi, Lawrence’s and Youngs. On the opposite side of the street, you can see Shire Hall’s grand entrance, styled on the temple that stands on the River Illissus in Greece.

Look down Lower Westgate to the shortened spire of St Nicholas Church. Originally 200 feet high (61 metres), it suffered a direct hit from Royalist artillery during the Seige of Gloucester in 1643.

St Nicholas House is now known as the Dick Whittington public house. It was used as a town house by the Whittington family from 1311 to 1546, and has a resident ghost.

The Folk Museum houses a piece of stonework with a relief carving of a young boy holding a cat in his arms, part of a 15th century chimney piece uncovered in 1862 during repairs to the house.

Displays in the Folk Museum include a dairy, shoemaker’s and carpenter’s workshops, an ironmonger’s shop and a Victorian schoolroom, as well as agricultural, folk life and fishery exhibits. Bishop John Hooper is said to have lodged in the building before he was burned at the stake in 1555.

Spend an hour, a day, a weekend or a week in the Westgate Quarter and there will still be more to see when you come back. All the traders, who have funded this guide, look forward to welcoming you.
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Westgate Street Gloucester

Westgate History Trail

The Westgate Quarter