Nuneaton Town Centre

Conservation Area March 2009 Appraisal and Management Proposals Draft for Public Consultation PART ONE : THE APPRAISAL 1.0 INTRODUCTION

2.0 SUMMARY OF SPECIAL INTEREST

2.1 Principal features 2.2 Narrative Summary

3.0 ASSESSING SPECIAL INTEREST

3.1 Location and Setting 3.2 Origins and Historic Development 3.3 Introduction to Character Areas 3.4 Character Area 1 : Commercial Centre Principal features Location and Topography Uses Historic Development

The Market Place Queens Road Abbey Street Bridge Street Newdegate Street Stafford Street Coventry Street

Townscape and Architectural Character

The Market Place & Bridge Street Queens Road Abbey Street Newdegate Street Coventry Street

Negative Features

3.5 Character Area 2: Civic and Administrative Centre 3.6 Character Area 3 : Riversley Park, and Coton Road 3.7 Character Area 4 : Park Fringe 3.8 Character Area 5 : The Church, Vicarage & Schools

PART TWO : FUTURE CARE 4.0 MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS

4.1 Introduction 4.2 Suggested Conservation Area Boundary Changes 4.3 Management Proposals

2 PART 1

1.0 INTRODUCTION 2.0 SUMMARY OF SPECIAL INTEREST

Conservation areas are designated under the 2.1 Principal Features of Special provisions of Section 69 of the Planning (Listed Architectural and Historic Interest2 Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 where they are defined as ‘[areas] of special • Street pattern of the medieval town, part of architectural and historic interest the character which has its origins in the Anglo- Saxon pre- and appearance of which it is desirable to urban village settlement of Eaton. preserve or enhance” • Large, later infilled market place attesting the commercial importance of the medieval town to This document is an appraisal of the special its founders the Priory of St Mary and its parent architectural and historic interest of the abbey of Fontevrault in France. Nuneaton Town Centre Conservation Area • Medieval Grade 1 listed Church of St Nicholas (designated in 1979 and extended in 1987 (1)) standing somewhat isolated on the edge of the and immediately adjacent areas currently lying town. (2) outside the present conservation area boundary. It seeks to define and describe the area’s 2 special interest in order to assist in its future management and change. An understanding of what is special about the area should aid council members and officers in determining future planning applications that will affect it. The appraisal also provides an opportunity to review the boundaries of the area and to suggest possible future management proposals.

The document is divided into two parts. The first part comprises the appraisal itself, and the second part contains management proposals1 resulting from the appraisal. Both parts will be subject to • Listed buildings associated with the church periodic future review to take account of any including the 17th century former vicarage and significant change in the area concerned. It is the earlier and later grammar school buildings. (3, anticipated that much of the appraisal in part one 4&5) will remain relevant over a longer period than • Variety of late-Victorian and Edwardian civic management proposals in part two. and commercial buildings in the town centre. No unified building type or style but the more The appraisal is not intended to be wholly important are generally built of red brick with comprehensive in its contents, and failure to terracotta or stone detailing. (6&7) mention any particular building, feature, or space should not be taken to imply that it is 3 of no interest. It is currently in draft form and comments on its contents are invited.

1 Currently draft proposals 2 The omission of any particular feature here or elsewhere in the document does not imply it is of no interest

3 Existing Nuneaton Conservation Area Boundary designated in 1979 and extended in 1987. 1

4 • Examples of successful late 19th /early 20th 4 century businesses developing into department stores but retaining individual component buildings. (8&9) • A small group of good quality late 19th / early 20th century bank buildings on prominent corner positions in and around the Market Place in various styles of the period. (10&11) • Good representation of interwar civic and commercial buildings in main streets including the Town Hall (now Council House) in Coventry Street and the Co-operative Society building in Queens Road (12&13) • Surviving lengths of traditional building frontages of Victorian, Edwardian and inter-war periods along commercial streets (14& 15) • Edwardian Riversley Park and post-war George Elliot Memorial Gardens lying close to the town centre (16&17) • Substantial 19th century buildings, mostly houses, flanking the west side of Coton Road opposite Riversley Park. (18) 5 2.2 Summary Nuneaton was one of the earliest market towns to be established in North Warwickshire in the mid-12th century. But it was slow to expand, and even by the 1880s it was of compact size and not much larger than it had been in the late Tudor period. 3 Through much of the19th century it had experienced mixed economic fortunes but then at the end of the century, as coalfield production burgeoned, it expanded

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3 E. A. Veasey Nuneaton A History p97

5 rapidly accompanied by much rebuilding of its relatively run-down old centre. Expansion 8 and rebuilding continued through the 20th century, with a particularly intense campaign of redevelopment taking place in the 1960s. As a result Nuneaton today does not have the rich architectural legacy one would normally expect of such an ancient town. A significant part of its architectural character derives instead from late- Victorian, Edwardian and Inter-war commercial enterprise and civic endeavour, together with the heavy imprint of post-war town planning and mid-late 20th century shopping development. But this comparatively recent architectural heritage is set within a framework of streets and spaces 9 that had been established in the main by the mid 12th century albeit modified by various highway schemes of the 20th century.

As is often found among industrial ‘boom’ towns associated with late 19th and early 20th century coal mining, it lacks any real sense of a civic centre or focus, though in Nuneaton’s case the major reasons for this go much further back than the late industrial era. One customary focus, the parish church, now lies beyond the ring road but it is likely that it was displaced to the edge of the town when the medieval ‘new town’ was 10 11

laid out in the 12th century4. The Market Place, once a massive rectangular open space at the heart of the early town (19), was subsequently infilled with a planned rectangular ‘island’ block of development at its centre, again during the medieval period. This, together with road widening schemes of the last century, makes its presence hard to distinguish from the network of streets that converge upon it. Civic buildings, another customary town centre focus, particularly in industrial towns, were only made necessary by 4 It is likely that there was a church on the site of the present the rapid expansion and population growth of building (which dates from the mid 14th century) before what had been essentially a small market town the medieval town was laid out but no evidence of an up until the late 19th century. As the town grew earlier building has been yet found. and made greater demands on public services 6 12 15

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7 Extract fro 1902 OS Plan with the extent of the original medieval market place indicated in yellow 19

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1884 OS Plan showing Abbey Street and the Market Place as the town plan’s main elements - note the long thin burgage plots lining them and Church Street. 20

8 and governance, public buildings were repeatedly 3.0 ASSESSING SPECIAL INTEREST replaced on different sites on an ad-hoc basis as and when new larger plots became available and 3.1 LOCATION AND SETTING resources permitted, so that today they appear scattered throughout the town. Nuneaton is located in northern Warwickshire one mile to the south of the A5 (Roman Watling Though partially obscured and fragmented by Street) that forms the County’s northern road schemes and commercial redevelopment boundary with Leicestershire. It lies eight miles to of the last century, the town centre retains most the north of Coventry being almost connected to of the major elements of its medieval plan. This that city by a string of former mining settlements comprises its street network converging on the including Bedworth and Keresley that stand on market place whose principle components are the East Warwickshire Coalfield (21). the market place itself and the main street, Abbey Street. One other major element of the medieval The town is also situated at a convergence of plan however has now mostly disappeared. This ancient road routes on the River Anker indicating was the pattern of long and narrow rectangular that it was historically an important river plots to properties lining the major streets and crossing point for the area. The river is however the market place. They created a varied fine very difficult to detect within the town centre ‘grain’ pattern of historic development that today though in the past it was responsible for was still evident in street plans of the town up extensive and repeated flooding of commercial to the mid 20th century (20). Most plots have streets. (25) been amalgamated and the historic boundaries between them removed as the scale of Nuneaton lies on flat land in a slight hollow at commercial development increased during the an elevation of 270 ft on the eastern edge of 20th century. Small groups survive on the south the East Warwickshire Plateau. The latter is a west side of Market Place and along the north rural, rolling upland area of dispersed settlement side of Abbey Street. Evidence of their former covering North Warwickshire and forming part existence elsewhere is reflected in the width and of the historic Arden to the west. It has been variety of surviving traditional building frontages. important to the town’s past industrial economy providing sources of stone (including granite), During the later 19th and early 20th century, clay, and particularly coal. The plateau has at the the character of Nuneaton changed dramatically same time acted as a barrier to communication and rapidly from a small semi-rural market town between the town and Birmingham to the to a commercial urban centre. Important civic west. To the north the landscape comprises of and commercial architectural contributions were the lower lying and more open clay plains of made during the interwar years but after the Leicestershire and pastureland of Staffordshire, Second World War the quality and standard of while to the south and east lies the Warwickshire design and construction has been disappointing . Feldon, a landscape region historically of open fields and villages important for grain production. It is principally these features - the surviving elements of its medieval town plan together with The Conservation Area lies at the heart of the the legacy of pre-second world war buildings, town, itself at the centre of a somewhat sprawling the majority of them forming rows along its settlement comprising of large areas of late 19th principal commercial streets, that make up most and early 20th century red brick urban terraces of the special architectural and historic interest of and interwar and later 20th century suburbs. conservation area within the ring road today. Within the ring road the majority of the Beyond the ring road the special character of conservation area comprises of traditional urban the conservation area resides in the parkland streets with continuous frontages. Because of this, landscape of Nuneaton’s Edwardian Riversley and because of its flat topography, there are no Park, with adjacent open green spaces, a series views or vistas of particular note within, into, or 19th century buildings lining its western flank, and out of the area. particularly in a small enclave of historic buildings clustered around the parish church of St Nicholas. Beyond the ring road the landscape of the conservation area is more green and open, as it 9 Location Map

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includes an extensive area of Edwardian parkland market function is however still maintained with and the adjacent playing field of the former King a well-attended outdoor street market held on Edward 6th School to the south east of the town Wednesdays and Saturdays along The Market centre. Place and Queens Road (22). Today the principal functions of the town inside the ring road are commercial (shopping 3.2 ORIGINS AND HISTORIC and leisure), civic, professional, and financial. DEVELOPMENT Nuneaton’s standing as a regional shopping destination has been boosted with the recent Nuneaton is first recorded as Eaton from the development of the Ropewalk shopping centre Anglo Saxon elements ‘ea’ referring to water (the to the west of the town within the ring road and river), and ‘tun’ meaning farmstead. A nucleated outside the conservation area. The town’s historic settlement was probably in existence by the ninth century in the vicinity of St Nicholas Church to 22 the east of the later medieval town. It has been suggested5 that it lay along a principal street - Church Street and Bond End -, with Vicarage Street and Back Street comprising its back lanes6. The Domesday survey of 1086 indicates the settlement had a population of 120-150 people, mostly tenant farmers, and a mill is recorded though not a church.

Moves towards urbanization began soon after the title of Lord of the Manor passed to the 5 E. A. Veasey Nuneaton A History p3 7 Burgage plots represented a form of land ownership evolve 6 The historic pattern is no longer recognisable due to the in the Middle Ages specifically to attract traders to settle in ring road, destruction by enemy action during World War II, new towns. Anyone who acquired a burgage plot escaped agricultural duties by paying an annual rent to the Lord of and commercial redevelopment the Manor. Burgage tenure also afforded its holders the 10 Shortly after obtaining rights from the King to hold markets around1160, the priory set about the radical re-planning and extension of the existing settlement. This comprised principally of laying out the market place on the opposite (west) bank of the River Anker to the Saxon area of occupation and establishing Abbey Street as the main street of the new town. The latter supplanted Church Street and, as its name suggests, it led directly to the Abbey, from where it went on to Atherstone. Along it and around the market place were laid out a very regular series 23 of burgage plots7 each 50 feet wide and around 150 deep, and to their rear, on the north side of French abbey of Fontevrault in or about 1155. the street, ran the long back lane still known as The mother abbey founded Nuneaton Priory, a Burgage Walk marking the northern boundary of Benedictine nunnery whose remains lie in Manor the town and the start of the open fields beyond Court Road half-a-mile to the north west of (24). the town centre (23). It was one of only four in England. From this foundation the developing This 12th century layout thus shifted the focus settlement became known as Nuneaton. As the of the town away from the area around Church abbey’s largest endowment in Britain, the manor’s Street to the new market square lying at the economic exploitation was important and this is confluence of all major through routes. It was a strongly reflected in the Priory’s plan for the new plan that remained remarkably little altered over town. the next eight centuries until the 20th century.

1954 OS Plan showing much of the medieval plan including burgage plots still intact 24

important added freedom selling and buying plots thereby facilitating economic mobility. A charter of 1227 states that burgage plots held from the Prior and Prioress of Nuneaton attracted the same rights and benefits as those held by the Prior of Coventry. 11 And while the late Victorian period saw rapid by the mid-1930s was satisfactory replacement expansion beyond Nuneaton’s medieval extent housing made available, and not until the 1950s from the 1880s along with much intensification that the last of the courts were finally removed. and rebuilding within it, this largely respected the ancient pattern of streets and plots. Coal had been exploited in the Nuneaton area for many centuries previously, for as documentary The economy of Nuneaton had a significant sources record, it was being mined from as early base in agriculture up to the mid 17th century. as the 13th century, though on a very small scale9. While half the recorded working population at It began to increase from the late 16th century this time comprised of trades and craftsman, one with improved methods of extraction, and the third were still engaged in agriculture. During industry may have contributed to the town’s slow the 18th century, though, industrialization was rise in population over the next two centuries. in the ascendancy. With enclosure first of the However the 1851 census records only twenty open fields in 1733 and then the commons in five miners living in the town demonstrating that 1801, there was a consequent need for those its contribution to the local economy was still dispossessed of their rights to the land to earn modest even as late as the mid 19th century. a living by alternative means. By 1851 only five per cent of the recorded workforce still earned The picture changed radically with the coming a living from farming, while nearly half were of the railways and improved mining methods engaged in the town’s principal industry - silk that allowed the discovery and exploitation of ribbon weaving. Other cottage scale industries deeper lying coal measures after 1850. Owing to included hatting (spreading from Atherstone), its strategic location on the national rail network, leather working, and needle production. and to a new direct line to Birmingham in 1862, access to huge new markets was suddenly There are records of silk ribbon weaving in opened up for coal, clay and its derivative Nuneaton from the mid 17th century moving out manufactures - brick and tile. This together with from the main centre of production in Coventry. local entrepreneurship (particularly the lead It had developed to become a sizeable local shown by one Reginald Stanley), and increasing industry by the end of the18th century, but was mechanization, led to the late-Victorian and very much subject to the vagaries of market Edwardian town ‘boom’ of the 1890s and 1900s. forces and went through a number of slumps in the 19th century. The industry finally collapsed With the burgeoning extractive industries and as a result of cheap foreign imports in the 1860s, new brick and tile works and their demand for and much of Nuneaton’s industrial workforce, more and more labour, housing provision for the (along with those in neighbouring Coventry, working classes was a major concern for local Bedworth and Bulkington) consequently suffered government of the day. The imposition of Public much hardship. Between 1861 and 1871 there Health Acts actively prevented private landlords was a fall in population at a time when nationally from building more of the notorious squalid it was growing rapidly. courts at the back of houses fronting Abbey Street. Consequently streets of red brick by-law Despite a rising population up to the mid 19th terrace housing subsequently sprang up around century, the town had not expanded to any the historic centre constructed in the main from great extent physically beyond its late 16th materials locally won and worked, many from the century boundaries until the late 19th century8. brick factories of Reginald Stanley. Many of the poorest workers were housed in appalling cramped and insanitary conditions in Expansion around the historic core was courts behind houses concentrated particularly accompanied by fast moving commercial along Abbey Street. It was not until the later redevelopment within it. By the 1930s the 19th century that the Local Board of Health character of Nuneaton’s historic heart had been (established in the 1848) acquired powers almost completely transformed from a small, sufficient to begin tackling the problem. Only

8 A survey of landholding by the Lord of the 1880s - see E. A. Veasey Nuneaton A History Manor Marmaduke Constable in 1543 shows that pp38-42 the layout and extent of the town at that time 9 VCH Warws iv p165 was not significantly different to that in the early 12 Commercial redevelopment associated with 25 post-war reconstruction and street widening schemes demanded ever larger buildings and rear servicing. These disregarded the intricacy and variety generated by respecting the narrow plot divisions of the medieval plan in building floorplans and elevations. As a result the human scale of significant lengths of street frontages was lost together with the fine grain of the building pattern along Church Street, the south side of Bridge Street and the Market Place, the north side of Newdegate Street, and along parts of Queen Street and Abbey Street. (27) relatively poor, run-down and predominantly residential town centre, to a comparitively The rush to modernize and keep up with retailing prosperous commercial one, complete with fashions in the post-war era was not a new local chain-stores, theatres, hotels, a picture house, phenomenon for the Victorians and Edwardians banks, and public buildings. had done the same. But the nature and scale The twentieth century saw the town attempting of redevelopment fuelled by the prospect of to come to terms with ever increasing levels of car traffic passing through its medieval street 26 layout, and its inherited slum housing. These problems together with the destruction of the eastern third of the town centre in air raids in World War II, and the newly bestowed powers on the local authority planning department, led directly to plans for wholesale redesign of major areas of the town centre in the immediate post- war years. A town master plan by the Borough Council together with a ‘town centre design’ by Frederick Gibberd of 1947 laid the basis for much that 27 followed over the next fifty years. The plans were devised at a time when policy makers and designers generally gave little consideration to the historic environment. As a consequence it rapidly became a casualty of the two main urban drivers of change during the last century - commerce and the car. A western loop road, one of the master plan’s main proposals, would subsequently develop over the following decades into an almost complete town centre ring road beloved by highway engineers from the 1930s to the 70s. This disrupted the intricate medieval 28 pattern of streets, cutting them off from their approach roads and isolating the centre from its surroundings. It left awkward shaped areas of land for use either as surface level car parks, or to house large freestanding buildings in precinct-like spaces. And it reinforced yet further the isolation of the parish church from the rest of the town, which found itself in the early 1950s standing by a large and busy traffic island facing blocks of new local authority flats designed by Gibberd. (26) 13 large financial gains for developers in the 1960s, town liable to flooding and occupied by represented a significant and unwelcome break industrial buildings and gardens to Church Street with the past. The sterility, harshness, lack of properties. From the 1920s it was gradually quality and architectural good manners in many developed mainly for civic and office uses buildings of that period focused public and local including The Council House of 1934. It was the political attention on the value of Nuneaton’s principal subject area of the influential, though surviving older buildings. This eventually resulted only partially implemented, post-war town centre the designation of a town centre conservation design by Frederick Gibberd and RC Moon. area in 1979 and its extension in 1987. The development pattern they adopted was typical of new planning ideas of the time, being Subsequent redevelopment has tended to predominantly one of large free-standing buildings respect the contribution made by later 19th set in precinct like spaces rather than buildings and early 20th century buildings even though enclosing streets. their individual intrinsic architectural value might be modest by national standards (28). The Character Area 3: Riversley Park , construction of the ring road, while damaging George Elliot Gardens, and Coton Road. to townscape in many ways, has nevertheless An area comprising of Edwardian parkland and allowed the pedestrianisation of the centre. adjacent post-war gardens along the river Anker. And although the paving schemes themselves It also includes housing development facing the may now be a little dated in design and use park along the west side of Coton Road - the of materials, the general amenity of shopping main approach road to the town from Coventry streets has undoubtedly greatly improved over and the south the last two decades. In the new century there is strong and still growing public support for the Character Area 4: The Park Fringe preservation and enhancement of the town’s An area along the east side of the river Anker pre-1945 buildings and every indication that in historically liable to flooding and therefore not future this important local heritage will be better much developed before the 20th century. A treated and appreciated than it has been in the large playing field to the former King Edward past. 6th Grammar School provides open green space between Riversley Park and the busy 3.3 INTRODUCTION TO CHARACTER Attleborough Road. Mature trees within and AREAS around the area make an important landscape contribution to the setting of Areas 3&5. The Character areas are sub-areas of the conservation openness of the area also provides a welcome area that are distinguished or defined by various contrast to the dense urban nature of he town attributes or characteristics derived in the main beyond the conservation area though its inherent from past and/or present land uses and their architectural and historic interest is limited. related patterns of ownership. These are reflected to varying degrees in the layout or pattern of the town’s buildings and spaces, and in their individual Character Area 5: The Church, Vicarage appearance and character. and Grammar Schools. A loose grouping of historically related buildings of special architectural The Nuneaton Conservation Area can be divided and historic interest and representing Nuneaton’s into five character areas. (29) These are: oldest and finest buildings.

Character Area 1: The Market Place and Commercial Core; This comprises of the heart of the medieval town covering the present day pedestrianised shopping centre. It contains late Victorian and early 20th century buildings mixed with later 20th century development forming continuous frontages along its principal streets. 10 Effective flood prevention measures protecting Character Area.2: The Civic and this area were only put in place in the late 1970s. Administrative Area; This was formerly Prior to that time the town centre was subject to part of a fringe area to the south of the old frequent heavy flooding 14 3.4 CHARACTER AREA 1: THE Uses MARKET PLACE AND HISTORIC COMMERCIAL CORE The character area covers most of the primary commercial and retail area of the town, while Principal features parts of Abbey Street, Queens Road, and Newdegate Street are secondary retail areas. Principal features of special interest of this area and its All streets are pedestrianised though Coventry characteristics include: Street partially admits vehicles accessing car parks and rear servicing yards to shops along Market • Planned medieval street pattern of five principal Place. A bustling street market operates on routes converging on the market place at the Wednesdays and Saturdays. heart of the town. Historic Development • Very large original rectangular medieval market place later filled with a planned rectangular island The Market Place block of tenements at its centre Nuneaton is located at the meeting of two major • Broad principal streets of irregular width which landscape regions - the Arden, a rolling and at until the later 19th century narrowed markedly one time densely wooded upland region to the where they joined the Market Place. This is still west, and the Feldon, historically a landscape of discernable along Queens Road and Abbey open fields to the south and east. Each produced Street. different goods for exchange with the other – timber and cattle in the case of the Arden, • Some characterful late-Victorian and Edwardian and grain from the Feldon. This required urban buildings including several associated with markets, which may help explain not only why Reginald Stanley one of the town’s most the town was established here in the first place, important political and industrial figures. but also why it continued to endure over a long • Surviving rows of pre-1939 buildings lining period. stretches of the principal streets. The market place was the economic raison • A good small group of late 19th / early 20th d’etre of the 12th century new town plan. It was century bank buildings on prominent corner sites originally a very large rectangular space with its in and around the Market Place long axis orientated east-west covering the area shaded yellow in the Figure (19). It was entered • Good representation of Interwar buildings at each of its four corners - an arrangement throughout the character area many of which typical of continental market places - and from retain original features typical of the period on the middle of its southern side. Each of these their facades. entrances was narrow, both to control traffic and to collect tolls. It is likely that not long after • Examples of early-mid 20th century department it had been laid out, a planned rectangular island stores evolving from successful smaller shops block of tenements was created at its centre to maximise the rent roll for the Abbey. It has since • The clock tower to the old former town hall in largely remained in this form with redevelopment Market Place - an important local landmark over the centuries generally maintaining the historic building lines of the original medieval Location and Topography layout.

This character area has a roughly rectangular Queens Road shape orientated east-west and occupies the central third of the area enclosed by the ring Building along Queens Road (formerly Wash road (29). It includes the Market Place and the Lane) was only partial until Wash Brook, which five streets that converge on it – Abbey Street, ran alongside, was culverted in the later 19th Newdegate Street, Queens Road, Bridge Street, century. Before then the street was prone to and Coventry Street. flooding - a problem only relatively recently overcome10.. While a broad street, its entrance 15 Conservation Area Character Areas 29

16 into the Market Place was very narrow until widened in 1909. (30) In the late 19th century it 30 accommodated the then recently built offices of the Nuneaton Urban District Council, formed in 1893, which also incorporated a fire station. This and other Victorian buildings on the south side of the street were nearly all cleared in the 1960s for shopping development. (31) On the north side several Victorian buildings survive comprising plain and modest two-storey houses of c.1860-80 with later shops on the ground floor (32) - typical of much of the street until the interwar period. Indeed the road west of Stratford Street retained a predominantly residential character up until that time. 31 Abbey Street

Abbey Street has been the town’s principal street since the 12th century, its importance signaled by its generous width. From the later 19th century its historic pre-eminence was reinforced by the addition of a small number of impressive civic buildings, most of which were connected with the town’s leading entrepreneur, industrialist and local Liberal politician Reginald Stanley. At the same time, the character and appearance of Abbey Street was rapidly transforming from a predominantly residential to mainly commercial street. Substantial three, and three-and-a-half 32 storey stores with living accommodation on upper floors, replaced earlier two and three- storey Georgian and pre-Georgian houses. Examples of sizable purpose built stores appearing at this time include the present Greenwoods (formerly FR Jones) at 1-3 Abbey Street (33), and John Wilkinson’s haberdashery store (34) at 118 Abbey Street with its faded painted advertisements for men’s suits still visible on the brick façade. The latter faced Wilkinson’s furniture store on the other side of the road at 17 Abbey Street which was replaced in 1903 by the present store whose facade is conspicuously glass fronted up to the second floor (35) (it 33 lies outside the current conservation area). This building was subsequently taken over by the Co- operative Society. The Co-operative Society was a significant presence in the street from the early 20th century and their premises (also currently outside the conservation area) grew rapidly to occupy a large section of the south side of the street eventually extending into Queens Road (9&13).

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Early - mid 20th century photographs of Abbey As the later 20th century progressed, retailing Street (36) show an urban scene of impressive in the street went into decline west of Stratford scale for a modest sized industrial town Street, and it developed a subdued almost attributable to the a small number of substantial deserted character that persists to a degree buildings of the late 19th century. These include today. The lack of activity was a consequence of the ornate former Liberal Club of 1894(7), the the construction of the ring road, which removed Wesleyan Methodist Church (unfortunately its function as a primary through route - although demolished in 1960) with its lofty spire on the pedestrianisation, introduced as a consequence corner of Stratford Street, and the former Gate soon afterwards, has improved the shopping Temperance Hotel also on a prominent corner environment. site (6). All of these were built at the instigation or under the influence of Reginald Stanley who Bridge Street may have been trying to reinforce the status of Abbey Street as the town’s principal street and Up to1960, Bridge Street was a short narrow give it more civic presence at the turn of the last street running over the River Anker, connecting century. Market Place with Church Street. In late 1959 all 18 19th century through to the 1930’s. (37) Most 39 notable historically is The George Elliot Hotel (38) formerly ‘the Bull’ to which Nuneaton’s most famous literary author alluded in her novel Scenes of Clerical Life – there called ‘the Red Lion’. It represents one of the earliest surviving buildings in the town centre.

Newdegate Street

Arguably Newdegate Street suffered even more from the post-war development boom of the 1960s than did Bridge Street. Its northern side between Abbey Gate and Harefield Road was replaced in that decade with the Heron 40 Way Shopping Centre (currently outside the conservation area) while the south side was nearly all redeveloped with commercial office blocks. Newdegate Hotel one of the town centre’s more imposing buildings was lost at this time though it had been partly redeveloped when Harefield Road was created in the early 20th century (39) The latter opened up the north side of what had previously been a small enclosed space known as Newdegate Square which in turn led on to New Bridge Street. These 41 both now form part of Newdegate Street. Stratford Street

Laid out in mid 19th century, the street has been the subject of much rebuilding in the latter part of the last century so that nearly all of its buildings are recent. Its most notable building is the surviving former Liberal Club on the corner with Abbey Street.

Coventry Street

Coventry Street formed the principal southern buildings along its south side were demolished approach and entrance to the south side of for street widening to ease traffic congestion the Market Place. Originally, as with all historic as advocated by the post-war master plan entrances to the Market Place, it was a narrow and Gibberd’s town design of 194711. The street until widening in the late 1920s. Its Market Place and Bridge Street consequently significance historically is indicated by the fact lost their separate identities to become one that the medieval market cross once stood at the longer wide street. The north side of the Bridge junction of the two. Street/ Market Place by contrast escaped major redevelopment and the amalgamation of Late 19th century photographs illustrate that plots and consequently retains a more varied the street still had a predominantly residential series of frontages dating from the early -mid character at that time with houses and gardens flanking the road immediately north of the 11 The scale of the loss is tellingly illustrated by John confluence of the River Anker and Wash Burton in his book Nuneaton Past and Present Brook and its weir (40). The latter, which ran particularly the photographs at the bottom of immediately south of Mill Walk, was culverted by pages 73 and 76. 1926. 19 A few years later houses along its west side 42 were removed, and buildings fronting the Market Place truncated for street widening. Subsequent redevelopment included the George Elliot buildings- a substantial parade of shops with offices above of 1928 which is locally listed (41).

Townscape and Architectural Character

Within the character area buildings form rows with continuous frontages lining both sides of its constituent streets, and are a mix of two, three, and four storey buildings. There are big scale changes apparent between the human scale of traditional pre-war buildings and the larger 42a more alien scale of the majority of post war developments, particularly those along the south side of Bridge Street/ Market Place, and the north side of Newdegate Street. The latter typically have wide frontages that have ignored historic plot divisions originating from the medieval town. Some have strong horizontal elements such as canopies running along their length (for example those along the south side of Bridge Street and continuing into Church Street (27 & 31), and they bear none of the intricate and visually enriching architectural decoration found on traditional pre-war buildings especially late-Victorian and Edwardian facades (42 & 42a). The result, where 43 such buildings predominate or are to be found in numbers, is a rather stark and barren streetscape.

The area, despite being at the heart of the town, has no perceivable centre. Its civic or public spaces, other than its wide streets, are small and not well defined. The junction of Coventry Street and Market Place for example, whilst holding a water feature on the site of the historic market cross and marked by the tower of the former town hall, is sensed merely as a road junction and not as a space distinguishable from the rest of the Market Place. Indeed since the widening of Bridge Street in 1960, it is difficult to appreciate that 44 Market Place is a space distinguishable from the rest of that street and Queens Road.

There is no predominant architectural style within the area. Victorian and Edwardian buildings are often an eclectic mixture of various architectural sources and styles. Materials are mainly brick ,often with some stone dressings to window heads and cills, but ‘black and white’ mock-timber- framing also occasionally appears. They range from relatively plain and ordinary brick frontages (33) to the showy and even eccentric with much 20 ornamentation ( 6, 7, 42 & 42a). The banks in particular often sport lavish architectural 45 ornament in stone or terracottta(43). Inter-war buildings by contrast are typically much more restrained usually adopting a form of ‘stripped- down’ Classicism; whilst post-war buildings generally eschew architectural detailing altogether and are therefore essentially ‘astylar’ or without style.

There are very few buildings earlier than the late- 19th century in the town centre. They include 29-30 Market Place built around the mid-19th century, (44), 3-4 Bridge Street of about the same date (45), and The George Elliot Hotel of the early 19th century (38). One or two others, such as 6 Market Street, pre-date 1850 but have been so radically altered that it is difficult to tell their age.

The most architecturally accomplished buildings in the town are indisputably its banks (10, 11, 42 & 67). They were built at the turn of the last 46 century mostly on corner sites in and around the Market Place, and they are all on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural Interest, 47 Grade 2. Whilst not particularly large buildings they nevertheless impress with their assured designs and excellent craftsmanship. The Bradford and Bingley building, 35 Newdegate Street, is a particularly fine example built in the English ‘Wrenaissance’ style imitating buildings of the late 17th century (11 & 57).

The best concentrations of buildings are to be found on the east side of Newdegate Square continuing into Newdegate Street (46&47), and along the north side of the Bridge Street and sections of Market Place (14&37).

The better quality individual non-statutorily listed buildings include the former Gate Temperance Hotel in Abbey Gate (6), 25 Market Place (59 & 61), 29-30 Market Place & 31 Newdegate Street (44), George Elliot Hotel (formerly the Bull) (38), the former Liberal Club (7), and former Scala Cinema (49) in Abbey Street, and the Art Deco Co-operative Society building in Queens Road (13). east end of the town centre in Bridge Street/ Newdegate Street/ Market Square, and the Also among other buildings particularly worthy Co-operative Society in Abbey Street/Queens of mention for their architectural historic interest Road at the opposite west end (9,13, 35, 57 are two surviving groups of buildings that &64). They illustrate well the 20th century developed into early department stores - the retailing trend for bigger and bigger retail floor former JC Smiths (Debenhams) (50 - 51) at the areas, achieved at that time by buying up adjacent 21 shops and amalgamating their interiors, and attest 48 the success of these two businesses in the first part of the last century, being able to acquire several contiguous buildings and plots. Often amalgamated stores were eventually replaced with a single large building or re-fronted with a new unified street frontage. In these two cases, though, this did not happen and the varied building frontages of constituent late19th and early 20th century buildings have remained, adding to the variety and interest of the street scene.

In parts of Queens Road and along Stratford Street two storey buildings are predominant 49a and many are 20th century and of little or no architectural or historic interest.

All streets have been pedestrianised and their paving and landscaping schemes are now appearing rather dated in design. They comprise Next to this are 26/27 Market Place, mostly of wall-to-wall concrete brick-size paviours part of the old former Town Hall while some of the more recent are of coloured façade of the late 19th century, and clay (53). Street trees have been abundantly again locally listed. The upper floors planted, though many have grown too big for of the elevation, display a mix of their locations and/or have been poorly sited details derived from Classical and directly in front of some of the towns better other sources and they make an building facades (54). significant steetscape contribution, though overlarge street trees partly 50 Although the town straddles the River Anker, obscure them from view (58). The the watercourse is narrow and views of it existings shopfronts to the very within the town centre are limited and generally tall ground floor are poor visually unprepossessing. The remaining third of the former Town Hall frontage is surmounted The Market Place & Bridge Street by a prominent lead and timber clock tower which is an important Bridge Street and Market Place have lost their local landmark and skyline feature individual identities as a result of street widening (59&60). It stands next to 25 Market of the former in 1959/60. The two are therefore Place (48, 59 & 61), a building that considered together here as a single entity. occupies a prominent position terminating northward views along There is a stark contrast along the street Coventry Street. This building is very between north and south side (14 & 27). The conservative in its use of a Queen 51 north side retains continuous and varied rows Anne / early Georgian architectural of traditional three-storey 19th century and style for its inter-war date, and may early 20th c buildings. All are built at a human perhaps be taking its cue from the scale using traditional materials. Most employ a Edwardian late 17th century style familiar architectural vocabulary derived from of architecture displayed at 35 Classicism to ornament facades with elements Newdegate Street (11&57). It also such as eaves cornices and window architraves. complements the more typical for This adds interest to facades when viewed at the period Neo-Georgian Town Hall close quarters. Buildings on the south side by in Coventry Street (12) (see Area 2 contrast are at a much larger scale; over-scaled in below). fact for the street and their historic neighbours opposite. They have ignored the plot divisions of 22 earlier buildings thereby coarsening the ‘grain’ of building development and eradicating all traces 52 of medieval plot boundaries. Elevations lack traditional detailing and architectural ornament and present little or no interest to the eye when viewed from either near or far.

An interesting collection of buildings comprising the former JC Smiths Department store, now Debenhams, occupies the length of built frontage on the north side of the street east of the town bridge. The most notable is a late Victorian red brick and stone building with large-bracketed timber eaves typical of the 1880s commercial architecture (51 & 55). This currently lies outside the conservation area. 53

Further west the George Elliot Hotel together with 3&4 Bridge Street are an important visual presence being among the few early-mid 19th century buildings (parts possibly earlier) to survive in the town. They present a long, three- storey, elegantly proportioned, stucco façade to the street with simple Classical detailing, in the Georgian style (56). This block is handsomely terminated by the architecturally accomplished Bradford and Bingley Building. (57)

Occupying the opposite corner site to Newdegate Street is the locally listed 29-30 54 Market Place & 31Newdegate Street of c. 1860. It is simply designed with a restrained Classical three-storey façade, this time in brick with painted stone dressings. Its rounded corner, articulated brick facades, and boldly projecting cornice ‘turns the corner’ with Newdegate Street in a pleasant manner. (44)

Next to this are 26/27 Market Place, part of the old former Town Hall façade of the late 19th century, and again locally listed. The upper floors of the elevation, display a mix of details derived from Classical and other sources and 55 they make an significant steetscape contribution, though overlarge street trees partly obscure them from view (58). The existings shopfronts to the very tall ground floor are poor visually The remaining third of the former Town Hall frontage is surmounted by a prominent lead and timber clock tower which is an important local landmark and skyline feature (59&60). It stands next to 25 Market Place (48, 59 & 61), a building that occupies a prominent position terminating northward views along Coventry Street. This building is very conservative in its use of a Queen 23 Anne / early Georgian architectural style for its inter-war date, and may perhaps be taking its cue 56 from the Edwardian late 17th century style of architecture displayed at 35 Newdegate Street (11&57). It also complements the more typical for the period Neo-Georgian Town Hall in Coventry Street (12) (see Area 2 below).

Queens Road

Queens Road has always had less civic presence than Abbey Street with a greater preponderance of lesser quality two-storey domestic Victorian buildings (62). Only part of its northern side is currently included in the conservation area and older buildings along it are all of this type. They 57 generally fail to provide a satisfactory sense of enclosure owing to their low height relative to street width particularly where the latter broadens just beyond the Market Place. They have also generally suffered from ill considered and unsympathetic alterations in the past, particularly to upper floor windows. Despite their shortcomings surviving Victorian buildings within the street are valuable historic assets that need to be retained and enhanced by the reinstatement of missing original features and improvements to their shop fronts. The new Royal Bank of Scotland at 11-17 Queens Road provides a good recent example of how the townscape potential of these 58 buildings can be better realised. (28 & 32)

The architectural quality of modern buildings, which are in the majority in the street, is generally indifferent both in terms of design and choice of materials. They have tended to follow national fashionable commercial architectural trends that date quickly and weaken local distinctiveness. Those on the south side of the street and currently outside the conservation area are particularly poor.

Also outside the current boundary on the north side is one of Nuneaton’s most distinctive buildings – the Co-op building of 1927. Though its ground floor has been altered, its striking curved it was clearly the most important street brick Art Deco façade contributes significantly to commercially, and the main thoroughfare of the the interest of the street scene and it is a local town until the opening of the ring road. It is landmark despite its relatively modest size. (13) still a busy primary shopping area between the Market Place and Stratford Street but beyond the Abbey Street latter it has a somewhat lifeless and melancholy

This is a broad street adopting a sweeping northwestward curve. On the basis of its late Victorian and Edwardian commercial architecture, 24 59 61

atmosphere. Its status here is now that of a secondary shopping street whose civic and commercial presence rapidly peters out as the replacement (usually only two storeys high) (63). ring road is approached. They provide a strong sense of enclosure until the ring road is reached. The best buildings in the Groups of predominantly three-storey and street are two associated with Reginald Stanley some two-storey19th and early 20th century - the exuberant and eccentric former Gate commercial buildings continuously line the Temperance Hotel on the corner with Stratford street with the occasional later 20th century Street (6), and the more sober red brick and terracotta former Liberal Club (7). The latter was designed by his architect F J Yates of Birmingham 60 who may also have designed the Hotel.

Among the street’s more notable commercial buildings are the collective façades that make up the present Co-op Department Store (currently outside the conservation area boundary). They stand along the curving alignment of the Abbey Street which gives them prominence in westerly views along the street from the east. They include a conspicuous Edwardian shopfront glazed over two storeys forming part of the three-storey Wilkinson’s furniture store of 1903 (35), Next door to this is the long and somewhat austere two-storey brick frontage of 22 Abbey Street with Classically derived detailing again of c. 1903 which was purposefully built as the Central Stores of the Nuneaton Co-operative Society Ltd (64). Its two-storey height is a little low for its length and satisfactory enclosure of the street but the block is nevertheless of value architecturally for its contribution to the group. This is followed by a three-storey end block of 1928 also for the Co- 25 62 66

63

64

65 67

26 op.(65) in a typical stripped-down Classical style of the inter-war years. 68

Also worthy of mention is the locally listed former Scala Cinema of 1914 (49) notable in the townscape for its Classically derived façade

Shop fronts in the street are generally of poor quality many with plastic advertisement fascias sometimes in strident colours particularly to take- away food outlets that are common here (34 & 66).

The 1980s pedestrianised coloured concrete block paving scheme is now appearing worn and dated, and the injudicious planting of over- 69 large street trees does not help to foster an atmosphere of commercial vitality. They tend to darken the street, obscure building facades, and shorten or block potentially attractive street vistas.

Newdegate Street

The street contains some of the best, along with arguably some of the worst, of Nuneatons buildings. What could have been a most satisfactory and pleasing area of townscape, building on the success of its bank architecture, was marred visually by the incongruous and 70 out of scale 1960s Heron House commercial development on the north side of the street.

Architectural high points include 20 Newdegate Street (former HSBC Bank) (10) again occupying a prominent corner site, 39 (Hawkins) Newdegate Street, another former bank, which terminates views along Abbey Street and Newdegate Street from the west (67), and No. 35 Newdegate Street the Bradford and Bingley - yet again a bank holding a corner site (11 & 57). Barclays Bank –once again on a corner site with Coventry Street Market Place. It is a substantial ornate building in brick and terracotta, and very much in line This is a broad and short street. Views northward with the exuberant commercial architectural are terminated by the north side of the Market fashion of the late 19th century (68). Following Place in the form of the conspicuous and tall on after a narrow gap are the George Elliot three-and-a-half-storey red brick Neo-Georgian Buildings of 1928 - again very typical of their façade of 25 Market Place, and part of the former period, with crisp hard-edged geometric forms town hall building with its distinctive clock tower making Classical references in their overall design (48 & 59). and detailing, much of which survives remarkably intact including terracotta shop front surrounds The east side of the street is strongly and to the ground floor, and original metal windows appropriately enclosed by an almost continuous above (69). run of tall three-storey buildings beginning with 27 The east side is less successfully enclosed as a result of street widening in the inter-war period. 71 This has left side elevations of buildings exposed that were never intended to be seen as part of a principal street frontage. The flat roofed and rendered two-storey elevations running back from 6 Market Place are poor visually both in scale and in their blank rendered facades that lack good quality architectural detailing. Next to it to the south stands another late 1920s commercial block 7-15 Coventry Street again quite well detailed and retaining many original features (70). Its height and scale though, being only two storeys, results in rather weak enclosure of the street. The shopfront to No.9 is included on the Local List. 72

The fountain at the junction of Coventry Street and Market Place is a popular public gathering point and sitting area and is a large feature for the space making for a rather cluttered streetscene. Also, because it is not sited in a well-defined outdoor space such as a public square, it appears to be somewhat arbitrarily sited and relates poorly to surrounding buildings.

Negative Features • Out-of-scale, low quality 1960s and 1970s 73 shopping development • Loss of historic identity as a result of 20th century development • Low quality concrete block paving of pedestrianised streets • Poorly designed modern shop fronts especially in secondary shopping areas along Queens Road and Abbey Street • Inappropriately sited and overlarge street trees • Loss of architectural details (windows etc to upper floors and roof materials)

74 3.5 CHARACTER AREA 2: THE CIVIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE AREA

Principal features

• Post-war redevelopment of a bomb damaged area to the south and east of the town centre comprising mainly of large freestanding buildings of the 1960s • Subject to design proposals by the Modernist architect and town planner Frederick Gibberd 28 who attempted to create an identifiable civic 75 centre for the town. • Neo-Classical Council House designed by architects Peacock and Bewlay of Birmingham and built between 1931 and 1934. (12 & 71) • Good small and concentrated group of late 19th century red brick and stone public buildings including the Congregational (now URC) Chapel in Chapel Street, and the former police station magistrates court, and gaol, at the corner of Chapel Street and Coton Road (72-74).

Location and Topography

This character area forms a bi-lobed east-west area to the south of the town within the ring road from Coventry Road/ Coton Road/Chapel 76 Street in the west to Vicarage Street/Ring Road in the east. It is interrupted at its middle by the incursion of the George Elliott memorial gardens that forms part of Character Area 3 (see below), and is bounded to the south by the ring road and to the north by Mill Walk/Mill Street

The area’s streets are Church Street, part of Coton Road, and Chapel Street

Historic Development

Most of this area was badly damaged by a heavy air raid in May1941, though the prominent and impressive interwar Council House survived. The area subsequently formed the major part of Frederick Gibberd and RC Moon’s ’s town centre design of 1947.This proposed an area of mostly civic and cultural buildings, together with gardens laid out along the River Anker thereby creating a green corridor linking the civic and commercial centre directly with Riversley Park.

77 78

29 As envisaged in the plan (an early adoption of precinct and part highway, the latter diverted fashionable pre-war planning ideas derived from to run around the 1960s post office to serve the French Modernist architect Le Corbusier) adjacent surface level car parks. traditional streets were to be abandoned in favour of discrete buildings with precinct-like Despite these serious shortcomings, the potential spaces flowing around them. These were to be inclusion in the conservation area of the length grouped according to function into two related of the street between Mill Street and Bondgate areas to form a new ‘central area proper’ for would make better sense of the historic street Nuneaton including, in the words of Gibberd, layout. ‘shopping business administrative and cultural uses’. Coton Road/Chapel Street

As with nearly all of such plans, it assumed The length of Coton Road down to the ring road powers over private property rights and roundabout along with Chapel Street is included resources for its implementation that were just in this character area. Up until the late 19th not available to the Local Authority of the time. century it had been largely undeveloped being an Realisation of the Le Corbusian inspired vision area prone to flooding. From that time it became was therefore only very partially achieved and an area for large religious and public buildings there resulted a loose disjointed and generally beginning with the police station, magistrates unsatisfactory townscape comprising a rather court and gaol on a triangular site at the junction incoherent collection of flat roofed buildings of Chapel Street/Coventry Street/Coton Road intermingled with surface level carparks, footpaths (73 & 74). These were followed closely by the and service yards. (This is particularly noticeable Coton Road Congregational Chapel of 1903, in and around Church Street which has lost its which replaced a late 18th century chapel on the identity physically as an important town street.) same site (72). Following the culverting of Wash Only one or two public buildings proposed in Brook south of Mill Walk, the opposite side of the Gibberd plan materialized, though these the street became an obvious site for the large were not located in their intended positions. and impressive Neo-Classical Georgian Town Hall The most noteworthy of them was Gibberds of 1934. (71) In 1993 it was joined by a block of own library building of 1965 (75) now itself Council offices to the south. subject to proposals for demolition. Very few buildings were earmarked for retention; one was Townscape and Architectural Character a prominent Victorian blue brick flour mill (76) by the river (probably on the site of a mill recorded The townscape character of this area comprises in the Domesday survey of 1086), but even predominantly of a relatively loose aggregation this was eventually replaced by an anonymous of large discreet, mostly public buildings of mid- government office block (the present Job Centre) late 20th century date. They stand within a mixed in 1973. Only the George Elliot Memorial setting of landscaped open space, car parks, Gardens abutting this building to the south and streets, rear servicing areas to shops fronting east of the river, which link up with Riversley Park the Market Place and riverside. Running through beyond the ring road, has proved a truly positive them is Mill Walk and Mill Street - part service legacy of the post-wars plans (see character area road and part pedestrian footpath of poor 3 below) (17). general amenity that passes by and over a short, unprepossessing, heavily engineered section of the Church Street River Anker. The latter is traversed by a couple of poor quality concrete and metal pedestrian Church Street together with Bond Gate was bridges of the mid – late 20th century. probably the focus of the Saxon pre-urban settlement, though anything of historic or To the east of this area, around the library and architectural significance above ground was immediately west of the ring road (and continuing obliterated either by enemy bombing or by north beyond the present conservation area subsequent post-war redevelopment. As a boundary), the townscape is very much one in consequence the street now has very limited transition and lacking a coherent identity. heritage significance. It appears as a series of unrelated short street sections - part pedestrian 30 By contrast the most coherent area of townscape 79 is the group of Victorian public buildings at the corner of Chapel Lane and Coton Road, Important or key buildings are the Neo-Classical Council House of 1934 by Peacock and Bewlay , the above mentioned group of Victorian civic buildings comprising the former police station, magistrates court and gaol, and the near -contemporary buttressed and pinnacled ‘free- style’ Gothic Congregational (now URC) chapel in Chapel Street. All of the latter share the late Victorian fashion for brick facades dressed with stone or terracotta detailing. They also add significantly to the skyline interest of Coventry Street where the cupolas and fleches of the 80 chapel and the former police station (Yorkshire Bank) together the clock tower in the Market Place combine to noteworthy townscape effect (77).

Negative Features

• Poor visual amenity of Mill Walk and Mill Street • Lack of coherent townscape along and to the east of Church Street • ‘Temporary’ appearance and poor landscaping of large surface level car-parks 81 • Visually intrusive large traffic roundabout/highway junctions • Poor treatment of River Anker along Mill Walk • Heavy traffic noise from the ring road • Unsightly and sterile rear service yards along Mill Walk and Mill Street

3.6 CHARACTER AREA 3 RIVERSLEY PARK, GEORGE ELLIOT GARDENS, AND COTON ROAD. 82 Principal Features • Edwardian Riversley Park retaining much of its original layout • George Elliot Memorial Gardens linking Riversley Park to the town centre • Art Gallery and Museum • The River Anker experienced as a significant feature through the park • A series of varied 19th century buildings along the west side of Coton Road

31 Location and Topography Coton Road itself had developed as a pleasant broad and gently meandering residential street An irregular linear area of land mostly lying along with wide pavements by the late 19th century. the west side of the river Anker, bounded to the Several buildings along it date from that period west by Coton Road, to the east by Sainsbury’s but there is a small number of others of earlier Supermarket and King Edward VI playing field, to 19th century date. While the houses on the east the south by the railway line, and to the north by side were cleared, those on the west side largely Mill Walk. remain.

Uses The landscaped wedge of George Elliot gardens to the north of the park and the ring road The area comprises of nearly all parkland along (Vicarage Street) was planned as part of the the RiverAnker, with housing on the western Borough master plan and Gibberd’s town periphery to the west side of Coton Road. centre design of 1947. It serves essentially as an extension to Riversley Park bringing it virtually Historic Development into the heart of the town and was arguably the most valuable legacy of post-war planning (80). It Until the late 19th most of this area comprised of is a pity that the tall government office block that undeveloped land liable to flooding. In the middle replaced the Victorian mill obscures views of the of the first decade of 20th century Alderman gardens from Mill Walk. If the site had remained Edward Melly of Griff Collieries gave some 15 undeveloped they would have truly brought the acres of land west of the river to Nuneaton park into the town, and the amenity potential of Urban District Council. The donation was the riverside could have been fully exploited. gratefully received, creating the opportunity to meet a need, long acknowledged by civic leaders Townscape and Architectural Character of the day, to provide a park that would improve the health and well-being of the industrial town’s This is an area of well-treed, landscaped, parkland population particularly its working class. through which runs the river Anker. Unlike in the town centre area the river here plays a The Council opened the park in 1907 and it prominent role in the landscape included a bandstand, and facilities for boating on the River Anker. In 1917 an art gallery and The park comprises a series of formal and museum (78) was added to the northern end, informal spaces articulated and adorned by trees followed shortly by a granite cross Memorial and shrubs and linked by an intricate network of to those who fell in the war of 1914-18 (79). footpaths (81). The park has been further added-to and altered The formal gardens with traditional planting beds over the years; significant changes included the are laid out at the north end immediately to the addition of a Garden of Memory opened in south of the art gallery and museum building, the mid1950s replacing a bowling green at its which is placed on the garden’s central axis. Also northern end and the loss of its main entrance on this axis and terminating it to the south is the when Coton Road was widened in c. 1971. granite cross Memorial of 1914-18 (79). Nevertheless despite later changes the park has retained the essentials of its Edwardian design with its structure of planting beds in formal areas, 83 of winding walks among trees along the riverside, of broader open spaces for games and casual activity, and the bandstand facilitating the mixing of different social classes on Sunday outings. Forming the western boundary to the park were rows or terraces of substantial Victorian housing fronting the east side of Coton Road. These were all cleared to provide a dual carriageway in the early 1970s and, as a result, the park now extends up to the roadside along this side of the road.

32 The Art Gallery and Museum is a cuboidal building in red brick with Classical detailing in stone that has Mannerist touches such as large scale changes in its windows that echo French Neo-Classicism of the late 18th century (78). It forms a focal point and meeting place for the park. The park extends across to the east side of the river where there are two bowling greens accessed by footbridges. The nearby pond is a former reservoir once serving the demolished Union Wool and Leather Company works, and belongs to Sainsbury’s supermarket. Trees and water are in abundance creating a very attractive and relaxing environment close to the busy commercial centre of the town (82). To the west trees help to screen the busy traffic laden Coton Road from the body of the park, though Riversley House, an office block of the 1970s and its associated car park, are discordant elements. The railway embankment provides strong 84 green enclosure to the park along its southeast boundary whilst the King Edward VI playing fields (see Area 4 below) act as an important buffer 85 zone between the park and the built-up areas east of the heavily trafficked Attleborough Road. Enclosure is less satisfactory on the western flank with flat roofed buildings standing close to the park boundary separated from the footpath by a steel palisade fence.

Coton Road

This is now a wide pedestrian-hostile dual carriageway road where the car dominates the environment. The central reservation and Coton Road kerbs are railed with unsightly metal barriers • 18 – 22 Coton Road towards the ring road which restricts pedestrian • Riversley House access and movement. Trees to Riversley Park • Car dominated environment along Ring Road and mostly enclose the east side whilst on the west, Coton Road the existing conservation area boundary has • Car parking areas been drawn to include a series of good quality, mostly detached, 19th century houses (83). At its northern end adjacent to the Ring Road at

the Coton Road roundabout junction is a short, 3.7 CHARACTER AREA 4: THE PARK much altered, late 19th century terrace with FRINGE some unsightly inserted modern shop fronts, 18-

22 Coton Road. Principal Features Negative Features • Large open green space of King Edward VI playing field with many mature trees of landscape • The ring road severing surface level links importance around its perimeter. • Adverse changes to Park features such as river • Attractive tree lined footpath known locally bridges and yje loss of the main entrance from 33 as ‘ Lover’s Walk’ linking Attleborough Road to cladding and pitched roofs above, fronted by Riversley Park (84). an extensive car park. The latter is accessed off • Dempster Court designed by Frederick Gibberd the ring road. The building presents a long blank again with important trees in landscaped areas elevation to the footpath linking Riversley Park (26). with Attleborough Road but is otherwise quite well tucked away amongst trees and shrubs and Location and Topography does not intrude. A roughly rectangular block of flat land bounded Beyond Sainsburys to the east, overlooking by the ring-road to the northwest, Riversley Park Church Street and the large ring road to the southwest, Church Road and Attleborough roundabout, are the apartment blocks of Road to the north east, and the railway Dempster Court. These are typically austere embankment to the southeast. post-war brick and render L-shaped three storey Uses flats with shallow pitched roofs. They form part of Gibberds vision for Nuneaton which included This is an area of mixed use comprising a large the library he designed over a decade facing supermarket and associated car park, playing them on the north side of the traffic island. The fields and housing. flats were clearly of a form height and orientation intended to form satisfactory visual enclosure to Historic Development the large space occupied by the roundabout, and The area was liable to flooding before 20th in this they have largely succeeded. They are of century improvements and there was therefore interest primarily as examples of the work of a little built development here before the last major architectural figure and urban designer of century. It comprised of a large Victorian textile the mid 20th century factory belonging to the Union Wool and Leather To the south of these is the large former King Company on the site of Sainsburys Supermarket, Edward VI School playing field, bounded to the a large school playing field belonging to King north east by Attleborough Road and to the Edward 6th School, and short row houses south east by an embankment to the railway together with small hotel along the west side of line. It is included in the area for its amenity Attleborough Road of the late19th century. The value as a sizeable area of open green space factory was built in 1864, and was demolished in providing an attractive tree lined approach to the 1970s. Riversley Park. The path known as Lovers Walk In 1908 Nuneaton Urban District Council (marred in part by the rear service side of the purchased a strip of land that had formed part supermarket) has an open aspect southwards of the school playing field to create an entrance offering middle distance towards the railway and promenade to the recently opened Riversley embankment and the southern end of the Park. Park from Attleborough Road. The trees around its perimeter, including those Following bombing of Church Street in 1941, along the path, make an important amenity Frederick Gibberd planned blocks of local contribution to the conservation area. The playing authority housing opposite St Nicolas Church field also serves to distance Riversley Park from as part of his town centre design of 1947. This the noise and traffic along Attleborough Road scheme of 76 flats, which is known as Dempster to the west. At its eastern corner along the west Court, had been constructed by January 1952 side of Attleborough Road is the small row of (26). houses and hotel previously mentioned. They are generally unremarkable with little to distinguish Townscape and Architectural Character them from other housing of the same date outside the conservation area except for the This character area possesses limited inherent prominent corner turret to the hotel (85). townscape and architectural interest. Its value resides largely in its open green spaces that act as a green buffer between Riversley Park and Attleborough Road, together with the mature 12 E. A. Veasey p3 and Paterson and Rowney 1985. trees that such spaces allow. Sainsburys supermarket is a large single-storey building of brick with ‘black and white’ panel 34 Historic Development 86 Although a church was not mentioned in the Domesday Book, and no archaeological evidence of a pre-Norman building has been found, it has been suggested that a church existed on the site of the present building providing the focus for the pre-urban settlement of Eaton12.

The existing parish church of St Nicholas is large and its earliest parts date from the mid 14th century with major 15th century alterations including the raising of the roof with the addition of a clerestory. The building, particularly the chancel, was heavily restored in the mid 19th 87 century by the architect Ewan Christian (86).

3.8 CHARACTER AREA 5: THE CHURCH, VICARAGE, AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

Principal Features

• Church and churchyard of St Nicholas • Former King Edward VI School • Old Grammar School • Former Vicarage • Mature trees and green spaces associated with the church 88 Location and Topography

This is a small area around the Church that 89 includes its former vicarage and associated former Old Grammar School and its replacement, the King Edward VI College. It is located to the south east of the town beyond the ring road and the large Church Street traffic Island, and is bounded by Church Street the ring road and part of King Edward Street

Uses

Ecclesiastical, office and educational 35 The building stands within a sizable churchyard The vicarage is a 17th century brick building with and close by is a big 17th century vicarage a front of five shaped gables largely hidden from indicating wealth and importance of the parish view behind a tall boundary brick walls along the in the medieval and post medieval periods (87). ring road, the latter acting as a physical barrier to Also closely associated with the Church is the pedestrian access from the town. former Grammar school of 1716, a small building with a tower that was virtually rebuilt after having The former grammar school which stands a little been badly damaged by bombing in 1941 (88). apart from the other buildings of the group is by Clapton Rolfe - an Arts and Crafts architect from The church was apparently left deliberately Oxford. Its design shows the influences of the isolated by Gibberd ‘to be a dominant element’ major Victorian architects of the High Victorian on his loop road later to be the ring road so that period - Street and Butterfield in its Gothic motifs ‘the scale of the group would not be destroyed and of Norman Shaw in the tile-hanging (89)13 by large scale development’ and to allow ‘greater Extensive 20th century additions have been made freedom’ in the planning of his housing scheme affecting the immediate setting of the former opposite. school including the crescent shaped addition in On the other side of the church from the Old ‘modern’ style by Essex, Goodman and Suggitt of School stands its replacement the former King Birmingham14 Edward VI Grammar School of 1880, now the King Edward VI College Negative Features

Townscape and Architectural Character • Busy ring road and traffic island cutting the area off from the town centre This church-related group stands divorced from • Poor setting to the character area to the north the town and is to a large extent dominated by and west owing to the poor townscape within the ring road and the large Church Street traffic the ring road island (described by the famous architectural • Erosion of the historic and amenity value of St historian Nicholas Pevsner as a ‘wretched Nicholas churchyard. roundabout’) when approaching from the town centre. They are individual free standing buildings set within sizeable grounds containing many mature trees of townscape value that provide a complimentary green setting and welcome relief to the dense urban area within the ring road. The traffic island destroys any sense of continuity of Church Street as a street to either side of the ring road.

The tower of the church seen among trees is still a prominent feature of the local area in views from Church Street within the ring road despite recent large scale construction of the Law Courts nearby. The churchyard, its boundary walls, surviving monuments, and particularly mature trees make an important contribution to the amenity of Attleborough road within the conservation area, though its historic value and character has been steadily eroded over the last forty years

13 Pevsner p366 14 Ibid

36 PART 2 : FUTURE CARE

6.0 MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS

6.1 Introduction 6.2 Suggested Conservation area boundary changes (91) An important aspect of the conservation area appraisal is to provide the basis for proposals for The following boundary changes are suggested:- the future care and development of the heritage value of the town whilst giving due consideration Boundary Revision 1 To include western to the constraints acting upon it and the section of frontages to Abbey Street and Queens resources likely to be available. The proposals Road should ‘take the form of a mid-long term strategy setting objectives for addressing the issues and Reason : To include traditional building frontages recommendations for action arising from the of the late 19th and early 20th centuries including appraisal and identifying any further or more the Co-operative Society buildings. detailed work needed for their implementation’. Boundary Revision 2 Extension to include In setting these objectives, which are largely the north side of Newdegate Street. focused on physical improvements to the urban fabric, the Council is keenly aware that non- Reason :To include the historic street plan and physical factors are of equal importance for particularly the currently excluded sections of the sustaining a high quality historic environment in original medieval market square. the future. In particular, the Council is committed through its planning and economic development Boundary Revision 3 Extension to include policies and initiatives, to supporting a healthy parts Church Street. local economy and a prosperous and participative local community that will underpin the physical Reason To include part of the historic street plan conservation objectives set out below. These and to include Debenhams buildings east of the wider matters are to be addressed in policies to river and the former Conservative Club be contained in the forthcoming planning Local Development Framework.

Work on the production of the Local 6.3 Management Proposals Development Framework is currently in progress. It is intended that both the appraisal Following on from the above, the draft proposals and management proposals contained in this below have been formulated for the purposes of document will inform the core strategy and later public consultation as part of this conservation SPD policies for the LDF. Public consultation on area appraisal process:- these proposals will be in accordance with the statement of community involvement so as to 1. Where opportunities and resources arise, meet the requirements of the LDF and ensure to seek to promote the sympathetic they carry the appropriate weight in future redevelopment of sites and areas identified in planning decisions. the detailed appraisal as detracting from the character or appearance of the area.

2. Develop area-specific development control based planning policies aimed at preserving and enhancing character and appearance of the conservation area.

These might include policies that;

• require all development proposals to

37 positively enhance the character and appearance of the conservation area rather than merely preserve it • preserve and reinforce the various characteristics of the character areas identified in Section 5 of this appraisal • place a strong presumption in favour of retention of all buildings identified in this appraisal as making a positive contribution to the conservation area (90). • In proposals to alter these building there should be a strong presumption in favour of retention of original features and materials. Efforts should be made to reinstate important period details particularly windows where they have been lost. • promote greater street activity in Abbey Street and Newdegate Street

These would need to be linked to the LDF via policies and guidance in the local development document to carry any weight in planning decisions.

3. Review tree planting within shopping streets with a view to possible removal of certain examples that appear too large or which are poorly sited in relation to buildings.

4. Review the design and materials used in the paving of pedestrianised streets throughout the town centre with a view to establishing a planned and coordinated programme of repaving in line with English Heritage guidance ‘Streets For All’

5. Pursue more rigorously enforcement action against unauthorized development withion the conservation area particularly in relation to the removal and alteration of original period features especially windows to upper floors and changes of roof materials.

38 The Contribution of Individual Buildings to the Special Interest of the Conservation Area 90 91