Catalogue description Kingsholm Comprehensive Development Area

Kingsholm Comprehensive Development Area

See also 2/2/2; 8/4/1; 11/3/1; DC124/24

The Kingsholm area had long been regarded as a problem in terms of sanitation and housing conditions. It had expanded rapidly throughout the 19th century, most of the building being artisans' houses for the working class. The combination of overcrowding and poor drainage made the area round Sweetbriar Street the least sanitary in Gloucester. Consequently the area to the north-east of the city was the subject of sporadic slum clearance in the early part of the 20th century. This became more focused following World War II, when the building of council estates to the south and east made the rehousing of a large number of families possible.

The Kingsholm redevelopment culminated in the area to the north-east of Alvin Street being almost totally cleared and rebuilt with council maisonettes and flats in the 1960s, including an eleven storey tower block, Clapham Court, built in 1963.