1. : The Reasons?In a mediaeval city, like Norwich, road schemes have
had a devastating impact : in many areas and upon large
numbers of old buildings - including many historic
and/or cherished pubs.
This very obvious statement refers, equally obviously,
mainly to the demands of traffic later in the 20th
Century; and the provision of such facilities as the
Inner Ring Road (including the famous or infamous
"flyover" - see 6. below).
What is not so obvious is that several road-widenings
occurred before WWII. Some were indeed to
accommodate traffic, specifically :-
However, some were undertaken in quite
a different spirit, as described below.
2. : Thinking Big
The best-known example is the huge redevelopment in
Bethel Street, St. Peter's Street and St. Giles' Street,
pre-WWII, to create the new -
- City Hall (c. 1938) and
- Fire Station (c. 1934).
Of necessity, very many buildings, and pubs,
were destroyed - to erect these large new structures.
The scheme also involved a massive widening
of [parts of] the 3 streets mentioned, plus
Gentleman's Walk on the far side of the Market.
Further clearances - also on a largish scale - allowed
considerable expansion of the Provision Market,
with a totally new layout; and the creation
(also c. 1938) of the Memorial Gardens.
(For details, see street-numbering notes)
This kind of Municipal Boulevard thinking
(carried out on a grand scale in Russia)
continued into the immediate Post-War era,
especially with the building of Debenham's
store (in Red Lion and Rampant Horse streets).
Luckily, further similar changess in the City Centre,
as envisaged in the Rowland & Pierce Plan of 1945,
were largely unimplemented.
But the Central Library and Bethel Street car-park,
which preceded the Forum, were in place by 1962,
after much further demolition. The widening of
Theatre Street was part of the scheme.
3. : Windswept
Nor were the wide boulevards of the Civic Centre
the first of their kind. Although placed rather more
firmly in the category of re-development, there were
drastic widenings of e.g. Barrack Street and nearby Fishergate.
Carried-out in the 1920's and 30's, they were a
by-product of the large "slum-clearance" programs.
The theory (amusing in hindsight) was that the
health of the population would improve if the
air could circulate more freely in the streets.
In fact, the Norwich air circulates too freely and
coldly (esp. in Barrack Street) during most of the year;
and it would have sufficed simply to replace the
slum dwellings.
As it was, with nearly all the pubs to be found
situated on the main road(s), they were
demolished (slums or not) along with the houses !
4. : Staggering
Long before the days of Town Planning, the City
seems to have discovered an important road-safety
feature, as follows :-
In the then absence of traffic-lights, at least one of any
two "cross-roads" would be offset, by a large margin,
from its continuation on the far side.
Evidence of this can still be seen at many City junctions.
Needless to say, practically every corner - offset or not -
then contained a pub!.
When trams were introduced, it was impossible
to handle "offset" portions of the desired route;
or sharp 90-degree turns - see e.g. City Arms -
so some demolitions were unavoidable.
Continued . . .
| |
4. (contd.)
Long after the trams (in the 1950's) it was necessary to
accommodate larger vehicles, especially buses, at some
of these ancient "irregular" junctions; so yet more pubs were lost.
For example, at Magdalen Gates and Bishop's Bridge. Such measures, it should be emphasised, had little to do
with the volumes of motorcar-traffic; and more to do
with large 'PSVs', catering for a rising population in
Greater Norwich.
5. : Coping
The rest of the story is more familiar . . .
the traffic "explosion" duly arrived.
Until only a few years ago, Public Policy was to
try to make room for it : with further widenings and
entirely new stretches of highway (in the urban area,
as well as outside).
St. Stephen's Street was amongst the first :
the dual-carriageway required the removal of the entire
Eastern side of the original street - which took place
between 1953 and 1963.
As the Inner Ring Road abuts the top of the street,
even the other side was partly affected - by the
later building of a large roundabout and subways.
The dualled Inner Ring entailed demolitions all along
Queen's Road, Chapelfield Road, Grapes Hill and Barn Road.
In the special case of Chapelfield (the City Wall side)
only houses were lost, no pub buildings being sited at
the single intersection.
In Barn Road, wartime bombing
had already taken care of most of the demolition.
For the remainder of the route, pubs (often at
intersections) along the affected side(s) were
demolished : See a separate detailed account.
6. : Flying
The next section of the Inner Ring was new,
and utilised much open ground, but still managed
to destroy a (functioning) pub at each end.
The destruction of two more pubs close to the "flyover"
was no more regrettable than if the new road had
broken-through at ground level . . . but caused much
more fuss at the time.
There is a separate note about the effects of its construction.
The section beyond the flyover was our ready-widened,
slum-cleared Barrack Street (see 2. above); which,
to this day, is still not dualled. Good forward-planning,
perhaps, or just a lucky break for the City Engineer?.
Similarly, the final (Riverside) stretch benefitted from
the earlier clearance of the Bishopbridge Tavern,
which had straightened the quirky alignment.
(See 3. above). Even so, two more pubs were lost
on the other ("hill") side.
Strangers to Norwich may be surprised that the Ring
was never, and will never be, completed; and remains
a sort of horse-shoe shape !
7. : Rouen Road
This new road was integral to the re-development
of the entire Ber Street - King Street escarpment.
Unsurprisingly, all of the pubs within the area were lost.
However, one stated aim (of the new road itself) was
to take the load off narrow and historical King Street;
whilst, on the other flank, Ber Street was already
the widest highway the City ever possessed in past
centuries. (See cattle movement).
It would be nice to think, therefore, that the traffic relief
provided by Rouen Road would have enabled more pubs
to survive in the two original streets bordering the area.
The truth is that opportunities were
taken to destroy pubs in both streets.
The new road was constructed in 1962.
|