Planning Mistake

To me, this building is a result of one of the worst planning decisions ever made by Cheltenham Borough Council. This awful looking development in the Lower High Street is not suited to the Regency style of the town and just brings down the whole of the lower end of town, which suffers enough from a negative image. In 1967 all of the buildings on the North side of the High Street, between Henrietta Street and Bennington Street, were demolished. Those that were destroyed included the Fleece Hotel, the original arched entrance to the Brewery and, worst of all, the Richard Pates Boys Grammar School. The school had stood on the site since the 1500's and the more recent Tudor Gothic style building, dating from 1889, was lost forever. The schools frontage featured castellated roof lines, gargoyles, stone carved windows and steep gables. All of this history and fine architecture was replaced with a white, style-less block (now grey, stained and outdated). Efforts have been made to try to improve this section of town, like the limiting of traffic to buses only and the widening of pavements, but I think the best bet would be to send this structure the same way as the Grammar School et al and start all over again.