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Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west; it is sited 7 miles (12 km) from Cheltenham, from Monmouth, from Bristol, and east of the border with Wales. Gloucester has a population of around 132,000, including suburban areas. It is a port, linked via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal to the Severn Estuary.
Gloucester was founded by the Roman Empire and became an important city and colony in AD 97, under Nerva as Glevum.
It was granted its first charter in 1155 by Henry II. In 1216, Henry III, aged only nine years, was crowned with a gilded iron ring in the Chapter House of Gloucester Cathedral. Gloucester's significance in the Middle Ages is underlined by the fact that it had a number of monastic establishments, including St Peter's Abbey, founded in 679 (later Gloucester Cathedral); the nearby St Oswald's Priory, founded in the 880s or 890s; and Llanthony Secunda Priory, founded in 1136. The town is also the site of the siege of Gloucester in 1643, during which the city held out against Royalist forces in the First English Civil War.
A major attraction of the city is Gloucester Cathedral, which is the burial place of Edward II and Walter de Lacy; it features in scenes from the Harry Potter films. Other features of interest include the museum and school of art and science, the former county jail (on the site of a Saxon people and Norman castle), the Shire Hall (now headquarters of the County Council) and the Whitefield memorial church. A park in the south of the city contains a spa, a chalybeate spring having been discovered in 1814.
Economically, the city is dominated by the service industries and has strong financial, research, distribution and light industrial sectors. Historically, it was prominent in the aerospace industry.
In 1926, the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company at Brockworth changed its name to the Gloster Aircraft Company because international customers claimed that the name Gloucestershire was too difficult to spell. A sculpture in the city centre celebrates Gloucester's aviation history and its involvement in the jet engine.
A variant of the term -cester/chester/caster instead of the Welsh caer was eventually adopted. The name Gloucester thus means roughly "bright fort". Mediaeval orthographies include Caer Glow, Gleawecastre and Gleucestre.
This etymology was first suggested by the Austrian philologist, Alfred Holder, in 1896. An alternative etymology has been proposed, which argues that the first element of the place-name is related to a Welsh word signifying 'valiant', rendering 'Gloucester' to mean 'fortress of the valiant'.John Walter Taylor, "Dumbleton and the Celtic Substrate" (Dublin, 2022)
Gloucester became a Colonia in 97 as Colonia Nervia Glevensium, or Glevum, in the reign of Nerva. It is likely that Glevum became the provincial capital of Britannia Prima.
Within about 15 years new privately constructed properties replaced the earlier barracks and public buildings, temples and bath houses were under construction in stone. Piped water began to be supplied. Drains and sewers were laid. On the site of the legionary principia an imposing central forum was laid out surrounded by colonnades and flanked on three sides by part-timbered ranges of shops. Closing off the south of the forum was the 100m x 40m Basilica. Many fine homes with mosaic floors were built in the town.
At its height, Glevum may have had a population of as many as 10,000 people. The entire area around Glevum was intensely Romanised in the second and third centuries with a higher than normal distribution of villas.
At the end of the third century or the start of the fourth, major changes were made to the city's second-century wall. It was replaced in two stages by a stronger and higher one of stone resting on massive reused stone blocks. In the second stage, the blocks rested on deep timber foundation piles. Stone external towers were added; two parallel wide ditches were also cut in front of the new walls.
Remains of the Roman city can still be seen:
The first bridging point on a navigable, defensive barrier, great river and the foundation in 681 of the abbey of St Peter by Æthelred of Mercia, favoured town growth; and before the Norman conquest of England, Gloucester was a borough governed by a sheriff, with a castle which was frequently a royal residence, and a mint. In the early 10th century, the remains of Saint Oswald were brought to a small church here and shrine built there, a draw for pilgrims. The core street layout is thought to date to the reign of Æthelflæd in late Saxon times.
In 1051, Edward the Confessor held court at Gloucester and was threatened there by an army led by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, but the incident resulted in a standoff rather than a battle.
During the Anarchy, Gloucester was a centre of support for the Empress Matilda,Gesta Stephani, §47 who was supported in her claim to the throne by her half-brother, Fitzhamon's grandson, Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester (also known as Robert of Gloucester). After this period of strife ended with the ascent of her son Henry to the throne Henry II of England, Henry granted Robert possession of Cardiff Castle, and it later passed to William Fitz Robert, 2nd Earl of Gloucester son of Robert. The story of the Anarchy is vividly told in a series of 19th-century paintings by William Burges at the Castle.
Henry granted Gloucester its first charter in 1155, which gave the burgesses the same liberties as the citizens of London and Winchester. A second charter of Henry II gave them freedom of passage on the River Severn. The first charter was confirmed in 1194 by King Richard I. The privileges of the borough were greatly extended by the charter of King John (1200), which gave freedom from toll throughout the kingdom and from pleading outside the borough.
In 1216, King Henry III, aged only 9 years, was crowned with a gilded iron ring in the Chapter House of Gloucester Cathedral. During his reign, Eleanor, Fair Maid of Brittany his cousin was briefly imprisoned at Gloucester Castle as state prisoner from 1222 to 1223, and from 1237 to 1238, in addition to sometime during the reign of King John.Seabourne, Gwen. Imprisoning Medieval Women (2013) pp. 67, 70, 79, 81–83
Gloucester's significance in the Middle Ages is underlined by the fact that it had a number of monastic establishments, including St Peter's Abbey founded in 679 (later Gloucester Cathedral), the nearby St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester founded in the 880s or 890s, Llanthony Secunda Priory, founded 1136 as a retreat for a community of Welsh monks (now near the western bypass), the Franciscan Greyfriars community founded in 1231 (near Eastgate Shopping Centre), and the Dominican Blackfriars community founded in 1239 (Ladybellegate Street). It also has some very early churches including St Mary de Lode Church, Gloucester near the Cathedral and the Norman St Mary de Crypt Church, Gloucester in Southgate Street.
Additionally, there is evidence of a Jews community in Gloucester as early as 1158–1159; they lived around present-day East Gate Street and had a synagogue on the south side, near St Michael's church. (2026). 9780230278165, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230278165 Gloucester was probably the home of Rabbi Moses, who established an important Anglo-Jewish family. The Jews of the town were falsely accused by the Dominican monks of murdering a child, Harold of Gloucester, in an attempt to establish a cult similar to that of William of Norwich, which failed entirely. Nevertheless, the accusations were recycled around the time of the Edict of Expulsion. In January 1275, Eleanor of Provence expelled Jews from all of the towns within her dower lands, and the Jews of Gloucester were ordered to move to Bristol but finding an especially difficult situation there, relocated to Hereford. (2026). 9780230278165, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230278165
housed the Parliament between 1378 and 1406.]] In the Middle Ages, the main export was wool, which came from the Cotswolds and was processed in Gloucester; other exports included leather and iron (tools and weapons). Gloucester also had a large fishing industry at that time.
In 1222, a massive fire destroyed part of Gloucester.
One of the most significant periods in Gloucester's history began in 1378 when Richard II convened Parliament in the city. Parliaments were held there until 1406 under Henry IV of England. The Parliament Rooms at the Cathedral remain as testimony to this important time.
Gloucester was incorporated by King Richard III in 1483, the town being made a county corporate in itself.
Gloucester was the site of the execution by burning of John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, in the time of Queen Mary in 1555. In 1580, Gloucester was awarded the status of a port by Queen Elizabeth I.
The 16th and 17th centuries saw the foundation of two of Gloucester's grammar schools: the Crypt School in 1539 and Sir Thomas Rich's School in 1666. Both still flourish as grammar schools today, along with Ribston Hall and Denmark Road High School.
During the English Civil War, the fall of nearby Bristol encouraged the reinforcement of the existing town defences. The siege of Gloucester commenced in 1643 in which the besieged parliamentarians emerged victorious. The Royalist's plan of bombardment and tunnelling to the east gate failed due to the inadequacy of the Royalist artillery and the besieged sniping and conducting artillery fire on the Royalist encampment. By the mid-17th century, only the gatehouse and keep of Gloucester Castle remained, the latter of which was being used as a gaol until it was deemed unsuitable and demolished in the late 1780s. By 1791, the new gaol was completed leaving no trace of the former castle.
In the 19th century, the city grew with new buildings including Wellington Parade and the Grade II Listed building Picton House (c. 1825).
The 1896 Gloucester smallpox epidemic affected some 2000 residents.
During the Second World War, two petroleum storage depots were constructed in Gloucester. A Government Civil Storage depot with six 4,000-ton semi-buried tanks was constructed on the Berkeley Canal in 1941/42 by Shell-Mex and BP and connected to the pipeline that ran from the Mersey to the Avon. It was also connected to the Air Force Reserve Depot and a Shell Mex and BP facility for road and rail loading. Due to severe tank corrosion, it was demolished in 1971/2 and disposed of in 1976. The second depot was an Air Force Reserve Depot with four 4,000-ton semi-buried tanks constructed in 1941/42 by Shell, Shell-Mex and BP at the Monk Meadow Dock on the Canal. Originally, delivery was by road, rail and barge and pipeline. It was also connected to the docks and to the Shell Mex and BP installation for rail and road loading facilities and the civil storage site. It was transferred from the Air Ministry to the Ministry of Power in 1959, closed in the 1990s and disposed of in the later 2000s.Whittle, Tim: Fuelling the Wars – PLUTO and the Secret Pipeline Network 1936 to 2015, 2017, , p. 213.
Gloucester's most important citizens include Robert Raikes (founder of the Sunday School movement) who is still commemorated by the name of Robert Raikes' House in Southgate Street. Its most infamous citizen was Fred West.
In July 2007, Gloucester was hit badly by a flood that struck Gloucestershire and its surrounding areas. Hundreds of homes were flooded, but the event was most memorable because of its wider impact – about 40,000 people were without power for 24 hours, and the entire city (plus surrounding areas) was without piped water for 17 days.
In 2009, Gloucester Day was revived as an annual day of celebration of Gloucester's history and culture. The day originally dates from the lifting of the Siege of Gloucester in 1643, during which the city held out against Royalist forces during the First English Civil War. "Tradition revived for city pride", BBC News, 5 September 2009. Retrieved 11 September 2011.
The second coat, termed the "Tudor coat", was granted in 1538. It features the roses of York and Lancaster, the boar's head of Richard III, a ceremonial sword and cap, and two horseshoes surrounded by nails, to represent Gloucester's historical association with ironworking.
Although grants made by Commonwealth heralds were nullified after the Restoration, the Commonwealth coat continued to be used by the city rather than the Tudor coat. The Commonwealth coat, along with the crest and supporters, was legally granted to the city by letters patent dated 16 April 1945. This was reconfirmed in 1974 following the local government changes of that year.
Gloucester Guildhall at 23 Eastgate Street was built in 1892 and served as the city's administrative headquarters until 1986, when the council moved to North Warehouse at Gloucester Docks.
On 1 April 1974, the modern district of Gloucester was formed under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the same area as the abolished County Borough of Gloucester. The reforms also saw the city become subordinate to Gloucestershire County Council, losing the independence it had held since 1483. The parish of Quedgeley was subsequently transferred into Gloucester from Stroud District in 1991. Quedgeley retains its own parish council, unlike the rest of Gloucester, which is an unparished area. In 2017, Quedgeley Parish Council changed its name to Quedgeley Town Council, making it a town within a city.
The city is located on the eastern bank of the River Severn, sheltered by the Cotswolds to the east, while the Forest of Dean and the Malvern Hills rise to the west and north, respectively. Gloucester is an inland port, linked via the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal which runs from Gloucester's docks to the Severn Estuary, allowing larger ships to reach the docks than would be possible on the tidal reaches of the river itself, which go well north of the city to Haw Bridge. The wharfs, warehouses and the docks themselves fell into disrepair until their renovation in the 1980s. They now form a public open space. Some warehouses now house the Gloucester Waterways Museum, others were converted into residential flats, shops and bars. Additionally, the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum is located in the Custom House.
Gloucester is made up of a variety of neighbourhoods, some of which correspond to electoral divisions of the City Council.
† Quedgeley is the only town within the city's borders. Because of this it has its own town council.
| White: White British | – | – | – | – | 99,045 | 90.1% | 102,912 | 84.6% | 103,317 | 78.0% |
| White: White Irish | – | – | – | – | 1,101 | 850 | 800 | 0.6% | ||
| White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller | – | – | – | – | – | – | 136 | 224 | 0.2% | |
| White: Roma | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 296 | 0.2% |
| White: Other White | – | – | – | – | 1,546 | 4,564 | 7,824 | 5.9% | ||
| Asian or Asian British: British Indians | – | – | 1,707 | 2,108 | 3,204 | 4,481 | 3.4% | |||
| Asian or Asian British: Pakistani | – | – | 177 | 301 | 639 | 1,160 | 0.9% | |||
| Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi | – | – | 94 | 357 | 490 | 802 | 0.6% | |||
| Asian or Asian British: British Chinese | – | – | 214 | 289 | 448 | 497 | 0.4% | |||
| Asian or Asian British: Other Asian | – | – | 234 | 275 | 1,058 | 1,603 | 1.2% | |||
| Black or Black British: Caribbean | – | – | 2,042 | 2,044 | 1,880 | 2,149 | 1.6% | |||
| Black or Black British: African | – | – | 127 | 241 | 1,100 | 1,912 | 1.4% | |||
| Black or Black British: Other Black | – | – | 617 | 238 | 506 | 765 | 0.6% | |||
| Mixed: White and Black Caribbean | – | – | – | – | 1,310 | 2,139 | 2,694 | 2.0% | ||
| Mixed: White and Black African | – | – | – | – | 121 | 316 | 569 | 0.4% | ||
| Mixed: White and Asian | – | – | – | – | 341 | 551 | 869 | 0.7% | ||
| Mixed: Other Mixed | – | – | – | – | 331 | 559 | 882 | 0.7% | ||
| Other: Arab | – | – | – | – | – | – | 119 | 332 | 0.3% | |
| Other: Any other ethnic group | – | – | 596 | 237 | 217 | 1,238 | 0.9% | |||
| Christians | 81,687 | 74.3 | 75,881 | 62.4 | 63,145 | 47.7 |
| Buddhism | 150 | 0.1 | 311 | 0.3 | 401 | 0.3 |
| Hinduism | 488 | 0.4 | 728 | 0.6 | 1,283 | 1.0 |
| Jews | 68 | 0.1 | 50 | <0.1 | 64 | <0.1 |
| Muslim | 2,477 | 2.3 | 3,885 | 3.2 | 6,200 | 4.7 |
| Sikhism | 87 | 0.1 | 134 | 0.1 | 255 | 0.2 |
| Other religion | 323 | 0.3 | 499 | 0.4 | 652 | 0.5 |
A good number of medieval and Tudor period gabled and half timbered houses survive from earlier periods of Gloucester's history. At the point where the four principal streets intersected stood the Tolsey (town hall), which was replaced by a modern building in 1894. None of the old public buildings are left except for the New Inn in Northgate Street. It is a timbered house, with strong, massive external galleries and courtyards. It was built around 1450 by John Twyning, a monk.
Kings Square is at the heart of the city centre and occupies what was once a cattle market and bus station. Officially opened in 1972, it was the centrepiece of a radical redesign of the city, The Jellicoe Plan, which was first proposed in 1961. It stands beside the Debenham's (formerly Bon Marché) store built in the early 1960s. Many of the features of the redevelopment have since been dismantled; the brutalist concrete fountains in the middle of the square have gone and the overhead roadways which linked three multi storey car parks around the centre have been either closed or dismantled. The main bus station received a Civic Trust Award in 1963 but has since been demolished, with a new bus station being constructed on the same site during 2018. In 2012 a £60 million plan was unveiled to revamp the square. In 2014, the prominent Golden Egg restaurant was demolished and a new look public space was created. A prior archaeological dig revealed a Roman house underneath.
An indoor market opened in Eastgate Street in 1968, followed by the Eastgate Shopping Centre in 1973. The Kings Walk Shopping Centre was built between 1969 and 1972. The corner of Eastgate Street and Brunswick Road was redeveloped around this time; Roman remains unearthed below street level in 1974 may be seen through a glass observation panel outside the Boots building, which opened in 1980. The HSBC building on the Cross was renovated and a modern extension added to the Westgate Street aspect in 1972 which received a Civic Trust Award. Sainsbury's opened a supermarket in Northgate Street in 1970; it retains its original interior. Opposite, Tesco opened a large two-storey supermarket in June 1976 on the site of a demolished chapel. This is now occupied by Wilkinson's after Tesco moved to Quedgeley in 1984. Asda opened its first store in Gloucester in Bruton Way in 1983.
Gloucester Leisure Centre opened on the corner of Eastgate Street and Bruton Way in September 1974 and was redeveloped and rebranded (as "GL1") in August 2002. Gloucester Central railway station was rebuilt in 1977 to serve both the original traffic to that railway station and the services from the closed Gloucester Eastgate railway station (former Midland Railway) which had stood on another site further east along the same road. Opposite the station stands one of the city's largest office blocks, Twyver House, opened in 1968, which houses the regional Land Registry. The main shopping streets were pedestrianised in the late 1980s.
The 1966 Heights Plan for Gloucester sought to restrict construction of tall buildings and defend spiritual values by protecting views of Gloucester Cathedral. The tower of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, started in 1970 and completed in August 1975, can be seen from miles around. In Brunswick Road, a brown concrete tower, which housed classrooms at the Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology (now moved to a site near Llanthony Bridge). The tower was added incongruously to the existing 1930s Technical College buildings in 1971 which has now been demolished. Clapham Court, a tall block of flats, stands in Columbia Close, between London Road and Kingsholm Road. It was built in 1963 and stands on what was once Columbia Street in a small district formerly known as Clapham.
Other features of interest include the museum and school of art and science, the former county jail (on the site of a Saxon people and Norman castle), the Shire Hall (now headquarters of the County Council) and the Whitefield memorial church. A park in the south of the city contains a spa, a chalybeate spring having been discovered in 1814. West of this, across the canal, are the remains (a gateway and some walls) of Llanthony Secunda Priory, a cell of the Llanthony Priory in the Vale of Ewyas, Monmouthshire, which in the reign of King Edward IV became the secondary establishment.
The city's Northgate and Southgate streets feature a series of public art mosaic panels depicting Gloucester's medieval trades made by artists Gary Drostle and Rob Turner in 1998 and 1999. Eastgate and Westgate streets feature a series of mosaic panels made by arts group 'The Pioneers'.
The city's main theatre and cultural venue is the Guildhall. The Guildhall hosts a huge amount of entertainment, including live music, dance sessions, a cinema, bar, café, art gallery and much more. The Leisure Centre, GL1, hosts concerts and has a larger capacity than the Guildhall.
The annual Gloucester International Rhythm and Blues Festival takes place at the end of July and early August. Gloucester International Cajun and Zydeco Festival, the largest in the UK and longest-running in Europe, runs for a weekend in January each year. A Medieval Fayre is held in Westgate Street each year during the summer.
Gloucester is also noted as the home of the Frightmare Halloween Festival, the largest Halloween festival in the South West.
The main museum in the city is The Museum of Gloucester but there are several other important museums.
The Tailor of Gloucester House which is dedicated to the author Beatrix Potter can be found near the cathedral.
Since 2013 Gloucester has marked Armed Forces Day with a Drum Head Service held on College Green in the shadow of the cathedral. This is followed by a parade of serving forces, veterans and cadets through the city centre to the docks for a family day with military and military-related charity displays and entertainment in Back Badge Square in front of the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum.
Nature in Art is a gallery dedicated to the display of works of art inspired by the natural world.
The city features in the popular, well-known nursery rhyme (of unknown date and origin) about a Doctor Foster, who reportedly visited the city, got wet, and swore to stay away as a result.
In the neighbourhood around St Mary de Crypt there are slight remains of Greyfriars and Blackfriars monasteries, and also of the city wall. Under the Golden Fleece (The Monks Bar) and Saracen's Head inns early vaulted cellars still remains. In addition, in the city is St Peter's Roman Catholic Church, a Grade II* listed building. Roman Catholic Church of St Peter, Gloucester from British Listed Buildings, retrieved 3 January 2016
During the construction of the Boots store on the corner of Brunswick Road and Eastgate Street in 1974, Roman remains were found. These can be seen through a glass case on the street. At the back of the Gloucester Furniture Exhibition Centre part of the city's South Gate can be seen.
The city is home to one of three campuses of the University of Gloucestershire, based at Oxstalls, just outside the city centre. The university has also purchased the former Debenhams store in the city centre with a new campus due to open there in 2023. The university also manages student accommodation and halls of residence in the city, with the other campuses based in Cheltenham 7 miles away.
Until the construction of the Severn Bridge in 1966, Gloucester was the lowest road bridging point on the river and hence was an important settlement between South Wales and the southernmost counties of England including London. The Severn has a small anabranch here to reach Alney Island and then the main western bank. Over Bridge, built by Thomas Telford in 1829, still stands, notable for its very flat arch, but its fragility and narrowness means it is disused; since 1974, it has been paralleled by a modern bridge. The Gloucester to Newport Line railway bridge is close to both, the lowest crossing of the UK's longest river until the Severn Railway Bridge 1879–1960, which was coupled with the Severn Tunnel in 1886, the present holder of that status.
Gloucester was the site of the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company railway works, which have now closed. A new station at Hunts Grove has been considered on the southern edge of the city near Quedgeley, as part of MetroWest plans to extend Bristol commuter services to the city.
Gloucestershire Airport, sited 8 miles east of the city, is a private and special charters airfield.
The large insurer Ecclesiastical Insurance is based in the city, as is its owner, the charity Benefact Trust. Lloyds Banking Group and TSB Bank each have an office in Barnwood, the former previously having been the headquarters of Cheltenham & Gloucester Building Society.
Gloucester was the home of Priday, Metford and Company Limited, a family milling firm which survived for over one hundred years, and hydraulic engineering firm Fielding & Platt.
Gloucester Business Park is a business park on the outskirts on the city and is home to a number of big brands including Fortis and BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.
Unilever Gloucester has made ice cream, such as the Cornetto (frozen dessert) and Viennetta, since 1962, in Barnwood. It has been the largest ice-cream factory in Europe.
BBC Radio Gloucestershire has its studios on London Road in Gloucester. Heart West, previously Severn Sound, is based in Bristol. Gloucester FM is a community radio station specialising in black and urban music.
Local radio is broadcast from transmitters on Churchdown Hill (Chosen Hill).
For regional television in Gloucester is covered by BBC West Midlands & BBC West on BBC One and ITV Central & ITV West Country on ITV. Television signals are received from either Ridge Hill or Mendip TV transmitters.
A number of TV and film productions have been filmed in Gloucester; most notably at the cathedral and docks. These include three of the Harry Potter films, Doctor Who, Outlaw and .
Gloucester was also twinned with Gouda in the Netherlands, but this twinning ended in 2015.
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