THE GUILDFORD SOCIETY
Guildford Historic Streets
Guildford High Street is often seen on TV News where it is used as an icon for South East England. It is widely used to represent the town and county in tourist material.
Figure 1 Guildford High Street - Photos by
Doug Scott
The High Street is unique. John Aylward’s
gilded clock, projecting out from the Guildhall, is
silhouetted against the sky, while the granite
setts lead the eye down the steep street, over
the river Wey, to the soft green of the Mount.
The granite setts were laid by Henry Peak in
1864, funded by a public subscription. Today
the responsibility for the highways and therefore
the High Street lies with Surrey (SCC)
Council
Recently, the setts have begun to suffer from a
lack of proper maintenance. Utility companies
dig up the road to lay pipes and cables, but
do not properly re-instate the setts.
Sometimes the repairs leave gaps; the setts
then work loose and become a trip hazard.
Even worse, contractors throw away the granite setts and fill the holes with unsightly tarmac.
Recently there has been some good news.
Guildford Borough Council (GBC) and Surrey
County Council are jointly funding a project to
reinstate some of the worst areas of the High
Street.
Initially the work is aimed at reacquiring the
skills needed to lay setts and to establish
accurate costings, so that the cost of the work
can be estimated accurately.
This work continued over Christmas. We will
be monitoring this work more closely in future
months.
Figure 2 Setts replaced with tarmac
While we are overjoyed that GBC and SCC are
jointly funding a maintenance project in the High
Street, it is a quick fix for today. In time the Utility
companies will dig up the road again and before
long we will be back where we started. We need
a long term solution to the problem.
At the same time that the setts are being fixed,
SCC is replacing broken paving slabs on
pavements with tarmac. The tarmac is unsightly,
but it is cheap and removes a trip hazard. But, in
the absence of planning guidelines it cannot be
said to be wrong.
Streetscape Manuals.
There is a need for planning guidelines that set
policies and standards for Guildford’s historic
streets. Planners call this a Streetscape Manual.
English Heritage advises that a Streetscape
Figure 3 Paving replaced with Tarmac manual should be included in the Guildford Development Framework (GDF). The GDF already includes Character Assessments for Rural, Urban Fringe, Urban, Town Centre and Conservation Areas. These Assessments describe the features that give an area its essential character and which need to be conserved and incorporated into new developments.
Other historic towns such as Chichester and Winchester have already developed Streetscape Manuals to define the character of their historic streets. Guildford has not developed one, largely because responsibility is split between GBC and SCC. To be accepted and usable, a Streetscape must be agreed and adopted by both Councils.
Getting the Councils to agree to develop a Streetscape Manual together is going to take a lot of lobbying . English Heritage recommends that we start by carrying out a Placecheck. This asks three basic questions:
1) What do you like about this place
2) What do you dislike about this place
3) What needs to be improved
Robin Stannard and Doug Scott from the Design & Heritage Group have started work with Cllr Roy Hogben, the GBC Design & Heritage Champion , on recording a Placecheck. It will be used to seek the involvement of the Town Centre Management Group, the Business Forum and our elected representatives to encourage GBC and SCC to jointly develop and adopt a Guildford Streetscape Manual and thus define and protect the character of Guildford’s Historic Streets.
June 2009