PROMOTING high architectural and planning standards

Welcome

Introduction to Cheltenham Civic Society

Cheltenham Civic Society is a voluntary organisation that was specifically set up to care for Cheltenham. We have more than 300 members and a history of nearly 70 years of promoting high design standards, protecting our built environment and educating on the town’s heritage.

In this website you will find a wealth of information ranging from news of our current activities to accounts of some of our many achievements, archives of our minutes and newsletters, and records of commemorative plaques and civic awards.

Please explore, learn and enjoy!

Blue and Green Plaques maps

The Civic Society’s Plaques Officer, Mike Rigby, has created two online Google maps featuring all of the Society’s blue and green plaques that respectively celebrate many of Cheltenham’s most notable people plus places and historic events. We think these maps will provide a great resource for anyone wishing to plan interesting and educational walks to discover and learn more about the history of the town.

Click Blue Plaques Map to visit all of the blue plaques – from Bomber Harris to Rolling Stone, Brian Jones!

Click Green Plaques Map to see what events and places are celebrated by all of our green plaques.

Click on the next link to hear Mike Rigby talk about the maps in an interview on BBC Radio Gloucestershire on Thursday 9th February. The interview took place at 4.30pm, so you will need to scroll quickly through from the beginning to 2 hours 20 minutes onto the programme.

The explanatory text and images for each plaque on these maps may need some further refinement, so please email Mike on blueplaques@cheltcivicsoc.org if you spot any glitches that need correction. For further information about our plaques, please also visit our Commemorative Plaques page.

Save the date of our AGM

The Civic Society’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) witll be held on Wednesday 26th April 2023 at 7.30pm – we will confirm the venue shortly.

The AGM’s agenda will include Trustee elections, receipt of the annual statement of accounts and the Chair’s annual report. After that formal business, we usually hold an open forum to discuss any issues that members wish to raise.

Our latest news

Report Cheltenham ‘Grot spots’ here

The Society’s Successful Streets Group has created an easy way to report problems to us online.

Tell us about the problems you spot on our streets – anything from general ‘grot spots’ to roads, pavements, infills, abandoned signs, bins, empty shop fronts, etc. Please add a photo to make the problem easier to identify.

We’ll then put the issue in front of Cheltenham Borough Council or Gloucestershire County Council (whichever is relevant) and regularly follow up their progress with sorting the problems out.

Successful Streets Group

Fed up with getting nowhere with its previous attempts to draw attention to the poor condition of the public realm in our High Street, the Civic Society’s Successful Streets Group (SSG) has been upping the ante.