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Plan to redevelop historical area of city submitted

Edward RoweGloucestershire political reporter
Gloucester City Council A computer generated image of what the site might look like once developed. The sky is blue and there's a grassy mound in the foreground with a couple of trees and people sitting on the grass. The building itself is traditional brown brick with a white brick attachment in the foreground of the image. At the back of the image the corner of the brown brick building attaches to a what looks like a building made of metal, glass and wood which protrudes out from the more traditional brick.Gloucester City Council
The project was granted £11m of levelling up funding three years ago

A historic area of Gloucester could be transformed in a regeneration scheme to help improve the city centre.

The 13th Century monastery, Greyfriars, is historically significant, with excavation works earlier in the year revealing Roman and medieval remains.

The area behind Eastgate shopping centre in Gloucester will have a performance venue, as well as a revitalised market and food court. It is hoped the plan will help increase footfall in the centre.

City council leader Jeremy Hilton described the submission as a "hugely significant moment".

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Phase one of the plans involve relocating the Eastgate Market to Bell Walk and refurbishing Addison's Folly along with the former Pavilion Bowls Club building.

Hilton said he hoped the refurbishment would encourage more independent vendors into the market, giving people a better offer.

The city council put a bid into government for levelling up funding and received £11m in 2023.

Gloucester City council An artistic impression of the new market. The overwhelming colour is grey, with a grey floor and a grey ceiling. The lights and metal work is exposed on the top of the ceiling whilst people are walking around enjoying the market. There's picnic benches and chairs where people are sitting down chatting and eating. At the back of the image their appears to be a bar and on the front left of the image is a fruit and beg stall with a woman purchasing some goods.Gloucester City council
An artist's impression of what the new market will look like on the inside

New performance venue

A second application will go in to develop the performance venue and cultural arts space.

Hilton said having an events space will help bring different acts to Gloucester.

"At the moment we can't get [certain acts] into Gloucester because we don't have the big enough space with the right acoustics," he said.

It is anticipated the market hall could take up to 600 people standing.

Gloucester Guildhall, a theatre on Eastgate Street, is a stone's throw away from the new proposed venue.

Its future is yet to be decided by the city council but Hilton said the Guildhall will "compliment" the new venue.

"I'm quite confident we're going to deliver this project close to the budget [but we] can't be absolutely sure," Hilton said.

The city council anticipates the project to be completely finished by spring 2028.

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