At the start of May, the City Council’s Planning Committee approved plans for 200 new homes on the site of the former Prison. The Prison was closed in 2013 and sold by the Ministry of Justice to specialist heritage developers City & Country in 2015 as part of a package of prisons, including Shepton Mallett and Portsmouth.

Since then, they have been working up a redevelopment scheme in negotiation with the city planners and carrying out preparatory work such as archaeology. City & Country have a strong track record in restoring heritage buildings, including The General in Bristol. Their development will restore the important listed buildings on site and will replace the more modern additions, particularly along The Quay, with new build.

The archaeological works revealed the walls and keep of the old Gloucester Castle – something we knew was there but hadn’t previously uncovered. Part of the wall will be displayed as a feature on the site.

An important part of the Blackfriars and Quayside area transformation

The development of the Prison site is an important part of the transformation of the Blackfriars and Quayside area, coming on top of the student accommodation being built on the Barbican site, the recladding of Shire Hall and the demolition of the County Council’s Quayside House (next to the Prison) ready for development.

Some people would have liked to see the main block converted to a hotel along the lines of the Malmaison in Oxford. We certainly need more hotel bed spaces in the city centre and we have plans to provide them on other sites. But the room rates in Gloucester are currently much lower than Oxford, making it difficult to get the figures to stack up for a hotel development. Others have asked why it couldn’t be a tourist attraction based on the old castle. If the castle had still been standing, it would be the most amazing attraction, but people wouldn’t pay good money in sufficient numbers to look at a hole in the ground.

It will take a little while for City & Country to satisfy the various conditions of their planning consent and to make sure the scheme works commercially. In the meantime, Jailhouse Tours will continue to run escorted trips around the site. When it does start, the development could take around five years to complete.

When the site was Gloucester Castle, it had Royal residents such as Henry I and Edward II. As a prison it housed more notorious types including Fred West. When it moves on to its next evolution, there will be hundreds of new residents, who will be choosing to be living there rather than being detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure.