start of content
The Regency Legacy
A range of impressive Regency properties in the Brunswick Road area of the city give witness to Gloucester′s brief attempt to promote itself as a Spa resort in the early 1800′s, but the far more significant legacy from this period is the completion of the Gloucester to Sharpness Canal in 1827.
The canal, which enabled sea-going vessels to gain access to Gloucester without having to navigate the dangerous lower River Severn, was begun in 1791 and completed thirty five years later as England′s longest and deepest canal, heralding a century of intense commercial activity for the city.
The first of the massive warehouses, the North Warehouse, was built in 1827 and this was followed by at least a further twenty similar structures throughout the next forty years. The canal, the docks basins and the docks buildings expanded dramatically in size and number in order to cope with huge volumes of sea-borne traffic that were attracted by Gloucester′s strategic access to the English Midlands. Gloucester was booming again.
Whilst nearby Cheltenham was being developing as a fashionable Spa, the City of Gloucester was a commercial powerhouse and a trading centre of national and international importance.
Previous
The Georgian Legacy
Next
The Victorian Legacy
|