Celebrating Gloucester by Paul James

Gloucester is perhaps not as well-known a place as it should be. It is one of the top ten historic cities in England, but doesn’t get the plaudits for it like York or Chester. It is better-known as a brand for the city’s rugby team, for Single or Double Gloucester Cheese, for the Gloucester Quays outlet centre or the Gloucester Services motorway service station – particularly after the recent Channel 4 series.

It certainly isn’t your stereotypical cathedral city – there is much more to it than you would realise from reading a tourist brochure (if such things still exist in a digital age). In writing my book, ‘Celebrating Gloucester’, I wanted to get under the skin of the city and to portray it in a positive but balanced and realistic way – celebrating what it is and can be rather than what it may have been in the past or perhaps never was.

Gloucester is a city that cannot be taken for granted. It has numerous royal connections but backed the Parliamentarians in the Siege of Gloucester in the English Civil War – probably the city’s finest hour. Its politics have swung back and forth, largely in line with the national mood – so no politician, local or national, can ever feel too comfortable. People in Gloucester can be hard on their city, borne out of a wish to see it improve, but woe betide anyone from outside who criticises the place.

It is a city of contrasts – a historic city with lots of modern buildings (some of which, in hindsight, we’d rather not have!), a city with numerous historic churches and friaries which today celebrates its cultural diversity and an urban heart of Gloucestershire surrounded by beautiful countryside.

Following the deindustrialisation of the post-war years and the wish to undo some of the brutalist interventions of the 1960s and 70s, Gloucester has been on a journey of regeneration over the last 20 years or so. None of it has come easily and there is still plenty to be done. Challenges such as the pandemic and changing consumer behaviour means that regeneration is something of a moving target and, as with almost every other town and city centre, Gloucester’s historic core needs to evolve in order to thrive.

Regeneration Gloucester-style doesn’t equal gentrification. Gloucester is very much still a working city. Some people say that nothing is made here anymore, but that’s not correct. It’s true that many of the large-scale manufacturers of the past, like Fielding & Platt engineering or Morelands matches, no longer exist. But Gloucester still makes things – ranging from dental drill bits exported all around the world, to valves for the oil and gas industry to the famous Olbas Oil decongestant.

Regeneration comes in many forms – ranging from big physical development schemes like Gloucester Quays and The Forum to smaller-scale projects like Tash Frootko’s colourful attempts to make Gloucester a ‘Rainbow City’.

Buildings are only one part of what makes a town or city. Gloucester is the place it is today because of its people. Communities from all backgrounds live happily alongside each other, particularly in the Barton and Tredworth area where dozens of languages are spoken. There are plenty of big and colourful characters – none more so than Town Crier Alan Myatt, who can often be seen cycling around the place in his full livery.

It doesn’t take itself too seriously and revels in some of its quirky traditions – like the Mock Mayor of Barton, the Assize of Ale and the world-famous cheese rolling.

It’s a place with much more to it than can be seen from the surface, but it’s worth finding out more and you may be pleasantly surprised. I hope ‘Celebrating Gloucester’ goes some way to helping people to understand better a place that deserves to be more well-known.

Paul James's book Celebrating Gloucester is available for purchase now.