Placemaking Areas

BWR2 (Ivo Peters Way, Pinesway, Green Park Station, Homebase)

HISTORICAL OUTLINE

This area, which is divided by the river Avon, formerly consisted of two riverside meadows or hams; the western part of Great King’s Mead in the parish of Walcot on the north side of the river, and Sydenham meadow in the parish of Lyncombe and Widcombe on the south side, the latter bounded between the Lower Road on the south and a stream (Marlbrook) on the west which marked the parish of Twerton. These pasture grounds lay below the flood plain, and were typical of many along the river Avon which flooded during the winter season.

Georgian Development During the late 18th century building boom in Bath, the western part of Kings Mead became the site of the Green Park and Norfolk Crescent developments, with access to Queen Square via Charles Street and Seymour Street. All of these were built on arches above the flood plain except for James Street (a service road) and the lawns and garden grounds in the remaining open spaces, including the study area between Norfolk Buildings and Seymour Street.

Sydenham was not affected by these changes, but like other meadows in the immediate vicinity of Bath, became a popular sports ground during the early 19th century. The Lansdown (Bath) Cricket Club used this field from at least 1817, and from 1852 to 1864 it became the venue for a famous series of Lansdown v. All-England matches (featuring the young W.G.Grace) until the club’s move to its present ground in Combe Park in 1865. Convenient access to the ground from the north side of the river became available after 1836 when James Dredge built the Victoria Suspension Bridge and Victoria Bridge Road in Longmead on the west side of the Twerton boundary stream.

Above: The Sydenham Cricket Ground looking north, from a water-colour by Nicholas ‘Felix’ Wanostrocht, a noted member of the All-England team who played here in the mid 19th century.

Right: The Lansdown and All-England team members (including W.G.Grace) standing outside the Sydenham Ground pavilion in 1863.

The Midland Railway As early as 1846 the Midland Railway had proposed a branch line from Mangotsfield to Bath, but it was not until 1862 that an acceptable proposal was submitted. An initial plan for a line to a terminus station at the rear of Queen’s Parade via lower Victoria Park was considered too obtrusive, and was abandoned in favour of Seymour Street with an approach through Sydenham meadow where the goods area would be sited away from habitation. Since the railway formation had to be built above meadow level on embankments, with a bridge across the Avon to the terminus (on arches), there were also objections on the grounds of an increased risk of floods spreading, but these were overcome and the Bill was passed on 21 July1864.

Construction of the line, planned by J.S.Crossley, Engineer for Midland Railway, was started by Messrs.Eckersley & Bayliss in November 1865. A Bath architect, J.H.Saunders, was chosen to design the frontage of the terminus station, which was built by Charles Humphries of for £9539 and involved the demolition of a row of nine houses on the west side of Seymour Street. The rest of the houses on the opposite side were also eventually demolished, having been damaged during the Bath ‘blitz’, to make way for the Green Park Ring Road. To improve access to the upper city, the Company was also permitted to widen Chapel Row by demolishing John Wood’s St.Mary’s Chapel, together with the opening of New Road in James Street for access to Kingsmead Square and the city centre.

The roof of the station shed, designed by Crossley, was built for £6086 by Messrs.Handyside of Derby (who also built the bridges) and painted ‘vermillion, chocolate and white’. The bridge connecting the station with Sydenham meadow carried four tracks (two Up and two Down lines) and actually consisted of two wrought-iron lattice girder bridges side by side in two spans on a central pier of 10 iron pillars or screw piles to reduce resistance to flood water. On 4 August 1869 the line was opened to passenger traffic, the station being practically complete, together with a motive power depot built on Sydenham Mead, including a stone-built engine shed, turntable, water tower, coaling stage, etc.

The motive power depot in 1938, showing the four engine sheds of the & Dorset and the Midland shed behind, now the site of Homebase and carpark. On the right the goods depot is partly in view, and on the extreme left is the siding leading to the ‘Boat Road’.

An extensive goods depot, filling the rest of the meadow between the motive power depot and the Lower Bristol Road, was also completed in May 1870 by Humphries, with lines to coal yards, stoneyards, cattle pens, timber sidings, loading dock, and a substantial goods shed built on arches. At some early stage a building contractor’s yard was also established on the corner of the Lower Bristol Road and Victoria Bridge Road, although this had no railway connection. The main line approach to Sydenham meadow crossed Victoria Bridge Road by a low bridge where the lowering of the road surface led to periodic flooding.

Public access to the Station and Goods Yard was provided by a railway-pattern single-span iron road bridge over the Avon with approach roads from Seymour Street and the Lower Bristol Road (later Midland Bridge Road). The ironwork for the bridge, completed in late 1870, was supplied by Messrs.Butler and Pitt of Stanningly near Leeds, and carried a single carriageway. Being privately owned by the MR, there were gates at the end of each road, at the Lower Bristol Road and in Green Park Mews, which were closed at 11 pm each night. At the south end of bridge was the main entrance to the goods yard, where there was a weighing machine and a row of six single-storey offices for coal merchants fronting the road. The MR maintained its own collection and delivery service, and at the north end of the bridge (now the site of Sainsbury’s store) stabling was provided for 10 horses, with horse-keeper’s cottage. The drays were kept inside the main vehicle entrance on the north side of the station.

Also on the north side, a cab stand was provided on the arrivals platform so that passengers could remain under cover, and the space between the buffers and the station platform were filled in with earth for an ornamental garden. The cellars beneath the station were leased to Cater’s, grocery and wine merchant in the High Street, and there was similar cellarage under the goods shed. A bonded store warehouse was built at the end of the arrivals platform in 1872, with a crane for lowering goods to the storage cellars under the platforms, carried on narrow gauge wagons. The station master’s accommodation was on the north east corner of the building, where, adjoining the vehicle entrance, a separate fish store was built with a prominent roof ventilator.

In June 1874 the S&D Joint Railway was connected with the Midland branch, and a new timber engine shed was built for their own locomotives on the north side of the Midland shed. This stood at a lower level, with a steep gradient up to the main line, and was therefore subject to occasional river flooding. From here also was a riverside branch siding known as the ‘Boat Road’ which led to a covered wharf beneath the railway bridge for river carriage. The MR ran a feeder service with a fleet of at least five boats to Bradford on Avon and Trowbridge on the K&A canal, mainly carrying paper, rags, flock and rubber, until May 1912. The Boat Road was also extended northward to another covered wharf belonging to the Midland Saw Mills (later joined by the Victoria Saw Mills) who occupied the area on the north side of the Motive Power Depot. In 1898 a further connection was made to Stothert & Pitt’s Victoria Engineering Works which was set up on the remaining open corner of the meadow on the north-west.

View northward from the motive power depot c.1934, showing in the background Stothert & Pitt’s Victoria Works on the left and the Victoria Saw Mills (Oscar Windebank & Son) on the right.

By the turn of the century it was agreed that the Midland Road Bridge was of insufficient width and carrying capacity, and becoming dangerous. In 1903, a Light Railway Order was granted for Bath Electric Tramways to run a route from Kingsmead Square to the Lower Bristol Road via the Midland Bridge, and the tramways company agreed to pay two-thirds of the cost of the present steel lattice girder bridge as a replacement. Although the route was now designated a public thoroughfare, tram-cars never used the bridge, as they were not allowed to run down Westgate Street as the tramway company had planned. Nevertheless, rails were laid on the bridge itself to avoid disturbing the new road surface if the line should eventually be required. A flight of steps was also provided to the towpath below where public toilets (now demolished) were installed against the bridge abutments. Messrs.Handyside won the contract to build the bridge, which opened to public traffic on 12 December 1905. The former bridge was purchased from the contractors by the City Council and moved downstream to provide access between the Destructor Works and the Scavenger’s Yard, where it still stands.

When all the Midland river bridges were strengthened in 1933 to take heavier locomotives, Green Park was the only one not rebuilt with steel girders. Its renewal would have caused too much chaos to traffic, and since it was only traversed at low speeds, it was merely strengthened by welding all the joints and replacing the 10 cast-iron columns with concrete piers. Although the goods depot received some damage during the Bath ‘blitz’, it was able to play a prominent role in the preparation for the invasion of Europe.

As part of the Beeching plan, the line was eventually closed to passengers on 7 March 1966 and the track lifted in the following year. In 1971 the station building was Grade II listed, and on 1 December 1982 Sainsbury’s supermarket was opened by Princess Margaret. The upstream bridge was retained to take vehicular traffic into the supermarket car park, whilst the downstream bridge was removed and replaced with a new footbridge with plastic balustrade and roof. On the opposite side, the motive power depot became the site of Homebase and its carpark, with a new road system, Pine’s Way and Ivor Peters Road, laid out in the goods depot area. The saw mills and Stothert &Pitt’s Engineering works were later progressively removed, the area being used for the enlargement of the Homebase car park. The building contractor’s yard on the south-west corner had already been acquired in the 1950s by Stothert and Pitt for their works canteen (now the site of Sainsbury’s petrol station) and Longmead Gospel Hall (now a restaurant) removed from its original site in Longmead Street on the west side of Victoria Bridge Road.

MAP REGRESSION

1. From Harcourt Masters’ Plan of the City of Bath, 1795.

Shown here are the recently-built developments at the western end of Great King’s Mead, with Sydenham on the opposite side of the river. Although Norfolk Buildings (here called Lower River Street) was eventually completed, the road connection back to Seymour Street was never built.

2. From Cotterell & Spackman’s MS plans (sheets 20 and 30), 1852-1853.

This plan, a composite of two of the sheets produced for the Corporation of the water supply system in Bath, shows few alterations on the north side of the river, but a group of villas already appears on the south-east side of Sydenham. Other changes include a yard and sheds in the extreme south-east corner belonging to the Midland Timber Yard and Cabinet Works, later extended to the river and separated from the rest of the meadow. A turnpike house is shown on the Lower Bristol Road, with the new road leading to Dredge’s Victoria Bridge. The parish boundary stream on the west side of the meadow is still visible, but straightened into an open drain.

The firm of Cotterell & Spackman of Bath were also the land-valuers for building of the Midland Railway which occupied the meadow 13 years later.

3. From the OS 1:500 maps of Bath (sheets XIV.5.7/8/12/13), surveyed 1885.

Although the Midland Railway appears here more or less in its complete form, an open space still remains on the north-west side of the meadow, including the ground on the west side between the parish boundary and Victoria Bridge Road, the boundary stream having been culverted by this time.

4. From the OS 1:2,500 map of Bath (surveyed 1902), sheet XIV.5.

This edition (published in 1904) shows the open space on the north-west corner of Sydenham filled in by premises of the Victoria Saw Mills and Stothert & Pitt’s Victoria Engineering Works. Many of the early buildings have also been enlarged.

5. From the OS 1:2,500 map of Bath (1936 edition), sheet XIV.5.

The Midland Railway in its most complete form, showing the new Midland Bridge and various alterations to the engine shed sidings following the improvements to the line in the early 1930s. Current outlines of the study area are shown in red on the 1930 edition below.