The story of 21 Westgate Street – part one

The Gate art space at 21 Westgate Street [Photo: John Steed, 2026]

We have called our art space at 21 Westgate Street, the Gate after the vision Gloucester Contemporary Artists has presented for a major art resource in the city. That ambition remains, and is some way off – in the meantime we have No 21 – from little acorns, mighty oaks…

Clad in 20^th century fake timber-framing, the building facing onto Westgate Street has now revealed its secrets in a comprehensive report, published in 2023, by Rebecca Lane, Senior Architectural Investigator (South West Region) at Historic England.

Our use of No 21 as an art space is the latest page in a long history of the site stretching back two millennia.

Background

Originally No 21 was the western end of a five bay timber-framed, three-story building built by the St Peter’s Abbey in 1476. There was a gated opening, with two shops (and living space above) on either side, leading to a courtyard flanked by two more timber-framed buildings. The larger of these building was built over a twelfth century undercroft. (Architectural terms: Each of the timber-framed buildings is called a range and the space between frames is known as a bay.)

This complex of listed buildings (the range that includes No.21 is listed Grade II) was long thought to be built as a ‘pilgrim inn’ (like the New Inn and The Fountain) to cater for the many pilgrims visiting the shrine of Edward II. However, the 2023 survey has thrown doubt on this. It may not have been built specifically as an inn: it had varied use over the centuries with the rear two buildings used as a large residence, possibly with some commercial functions, and intermittently as an inn. From the mid-17th century onwards the rear ranges were used permanently as an inn, known as the ‘Golden Fleece’. This use continued up until the early 21st century.

The Fleece Hotel had been empty since 2002 and is now owned by Gloucester City Council. It is awaiting redevelopment and, in the meantime, Gloucester Contemporary Artists is leasing No 21 as our first art space in the city.

North elevation of the street-front range, fronting onto Westgate Street, showing the fake timber framing applied to no. 19A in the 1920s, and continued over façade of Nos 21 and 23 in the 1970s. [Photo: John Steed, 2026]

To begin at the beginning…

A focus of commerce on the gateway to Wales

Gloucester is located at an important strategic point on the route between England and south Wales at a crossing point on the River Severn.  The Roman military settlement was laid out just to the east of this crossing point, with the street which became Westgate Street forming the principal route from the city down to the bridge over the river.

The city continued to play an important role in the Anglo-Saxon period as a centre for the kingdom of Mercia. By the early 12th century the development along the principal streets in the city had been formalised by the establishment of long narrow plots, running back from the street.

Westgate Street, often known as Ebridge Street in the medieval period (the name deriving from old English Ea, meaning river, and therefore literally the street leading to the river bridge), continued to act as the main thoroughfare from the city to the river, and was the focus of commercial activity in the medieval settlement.

As well as the plots laid out to the north and south of Westgate Street, it also had a series of prominent buildings in the centre of the thoroughfare. Two of these were the churches of Holy Trinity and St Mary de Grace. As well as the churches there were various commercial properties built into the middle of the street, including the so-called ‘King’s Board’, a small market house for the sale of butter and cheese and ‘le coferye’ which appears to have provided a focus for the sale of wigs (or coifs). These features may have been built as part of a deliberate policy of land exploitation by the Crown or its agents in the 12th century. The meat market may have occupied the space in the street between St Mary de Grace and the High Cross. By the late medieval period sections of the street had apparently become the focus of different trades or services, with the south side of Westgate Street associated with the butchery trade.

The redevelopment of the site by the Abbey in the late fifteenth century

There were already buildings on the site before the Abbey started its redevelopment in 1476. The Abbey appears to have maintained the same basic layout and subdivisions as had previously existed on the site – particularly in the separate commercial use of the street-front to provide shops.

It has been widely thought that the abbey’s rebuilding of the property was in order to provide an inn for the housing of pilgrims who visited Gloucester as part of the cult around the tomb of Edward II. The records cast some doubt on this. However in 1534 the property was described as a ‘magnum hospitium’ (a great inn). At that time No. 21 was leased to a butcher called John Sutton.

The plan of the buildings in the late 15th century is lost. However, it is clear from what does survive that the buildings did not follow a typical urban domestic plan of the period. On the other hand, they do not have definite surviving evidence for some of the features typically associated with urban inns – not least in having no clear evidence for galleries or others means of separate entry into the first-floor accommodation.

The timbers across all three ranges date to the late 1470s and they all came from the same woodland source.

It is clear from the documentary evidence that the general layout of these buildings reflected the earlier arrangement of the site. This is not just seen in the retention of the stone undercroft on the eastern side of the plot, but also in the continuation of the commercial use of the street-frontage. The separate use of this range as shops was indicated in early documents and was evidently maintained after the reconstruction in the late 15th century. The position of the gateway through from Westgate Street to the courtyard behind also appears to have remained in broadly the same location.

Rebecca Lane writes in her report that the use of the ground floor of any street-front property as commercial premises was a common arrangement to generate an additional income from the site by exploiting the most valuable commercial space. The commercial potential of the street-front range at the Fleece was obviously high, as it faced onto the market place and, throughout the medieval period and later, formed part of the main ‘butchery’ serving the town.

The Dissolution and ownership passes to the Cathedral

The Dissolution saw little change to the pattern of property ownership as the abbey’s lands passed on to the Dean and Chapter of the newly created cathedral.

In 1548, the tenant of the building was Richard Pate who was an important figure in Gloucester at the time, serving as an MP and who endowed a charitable trust, which still operates today and funds Pate’s Grammar School in Cheltenham.

In the 16th century the units within the street-front range appear to have been particularly in use by butchers.

The Golden Fleece

In 1617, No. 21 was sublet to a tailor called Anthony Tremere.

From 1664 until 1672 the Cathedral accounts refer to the tenancy as the‘Vellus aureum (the Golden Fleece). This is the first mention of the tenement having this name.

The Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral sold most of the buildings in 1799. No. 21 was sold to butcher, Benjamin Watts.

A nineteenth century makeover

Originally the building facing the street would have been doubled-jettied meaning that the first floor would have projected over the street and the second floor projected still further. In the early 19th century, in an attempt to modernise the look of the ancient building, it was given a flat brick front elevation. You can get an idea of how it looked originally from the early sixteenth buildings now known as The Folk further down Westgate Street.

Drawing by GCA artist and Resident Artist at The Folk, Chris Hardman, of The Folk, Westgate Street as it looks today. [Image copyright: Chris Hardman]

Drawing by GCA artist and Resident Artist at The Folk, Chris Hardman, reconstructing how the building we know today as The Folk, Westgate Street may have looked when it was first built in the early sixteenth century. [Image copyright: Chris Hardman]

Nineteenth century and No 23 is rebuilt

Around 1850 No 23 was purchased by the Norwich Union Fire Insurance company, to create a home for their new fire engine and its associated brigade. As part of the 1850 reconstruction of No. 23 it seems that the party wall between the two properties was completely replaced in brick. This saw the total removal of the original framing along right-hand (western side) of No 21.

In 1887 No. 21 is labelled as a restaurant, with a door at the rear connecting to the west range behind.

The Rich family ownership and faking it in the twentieth century

In 1908 the licence on the premises was taken over by Mr Samuel Rich and by 1914 he had acquired ownership. The Rich family were to own the Fleece until it closed in around 2001. After being empty for around 10 years, it was purchased by the South West Regional Development Agency in 2011, later passing to Gloucester City Council.

In 1919 an application was submitted for alterations to the street-front range of the hotel including a new shopfront to No. 19A, in a 17th-century style, with timber-framing style cladding on the front, and small-pane casement windows to both the first and second floors.

Alterations to the gateway to the Fleece Hotel and the shopfront of 19A Westgate Street by architect A. W. Probyn, 1919. [Image credit: Gloucestershire Archives]

Undated (probably 1930s) photograph looking west along Westgate Street, showing the entrance to the Fleece Hotel and Nos 19A and 21. [Original image source: not identified]

The changes made in 1919 to 19A can be seen in a 1930s photograph of Westgate Street. No. 21 had a relatively plain brick façade at that time.

In 1972 the owners of the Fleece purchased the adjacent property, No. 23, which was heavily reconstructed to incorporate it into the hotel and the fake timber-framing cladding was extended from 19A to cover Nos 21 and 23 to give it the look it has today.

Plan of the three main ranges, showing the ground-floor plan as reconstructed from surviving evidence. [Image cedit: Butler Hegarty Architects.]

The Gate - a not-for-profit enterprise run by artists for artists

The Gate is an exciting, flexible and affordable place for art - a great place to get your work seen (and sold). The Gate is available for weekly hire by artists and craftspeople.

The Gate at 21 Westgate Street, Gloucester is a space with possibilities of use beyond the display of finished artworks (gallery) including storytelling, music, poetry, artist residencies and workshops. You can contact GCA about your ideas on contact@gloucestercontemporaryartists.art

https://www.gloucestercontemporaryartists.art/the-gate-artspace

To be continued…

NEXT TIME we take a closer look inside 21 Westgate Street