Abbey Holme is a group of apartment blocks on Overton Road. Until 1973, it was the site of an important Gothic Revival house, Westholme, designed by the architect John Middleton in 1866.
Westholme was built to be Middleton’s own family home, so little expense was spared on building and furnishing the house. The best local, national and continental craftsmen were employed on the stonework, plasterwork and carved panelling. Tiled fireplace surrounds were said to be by Morris and Burne-Jones. At demolition, parts of the building were salvaged by the Bowes Museum and Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum.
The plan to demolish was opposed by residents and The Victorian Society, and there was widespread concern about the loss of a major work of domestic architecture. We now see that the loss of the house is regrettable, but, in 1973, the event also contributed to raising wider awareness of threats to the town’s heritage.
That year also saw the publication of the Cheltenham Study, a planning and transportation study commissioned by Cheltenham Borough Council, focused mainly on the central area of Cheltenham but set in the wider context of borough-wide proposals. The report examined town-centre planning/urban design and how to handle traffic, access and movement in Cheltenham during a period when many UK towns were reassessing car-dominated layouts.
The publication of the report caused widespread concern in the town and resulted in the formation of The Cheltenham Spa Campaign. The Campaign’s declared aims were to preserve Cheltenham’s Regency character and spa-town heritage, to oppose traffic-dominated redevelopment, especially plans that threatened historic areas and pedestrian amenity, and to provide a counterproposal to planners by showing how growth and traffic management could be achieved without damaging Cheltenham’s architectural heritage.
The campaign’s views did influence later planning policy in Cheltenham, encouraging more emphasis on conservation areas and controlled traffic management rather than sweeping roadbuilding. They felt that it was important that citizens should see themselves as custodians of the town’s character rather than being passive onlookers.
The campaign was, in fact, part of a wider conservation movement in British towns, aligning with campaigns elsewhere against wholesale redevelopment, much of it influenced by the Buchanan Report of 1963, Traffic in Towns.
As always, the campaign stressed the importance of our Regency heritage, but its selective list of lost heritage – The Pattern of Destruction – listed many lost and threatened Victorian buildings too. The acknowledgement that Cheltenham was also a Victorian town again reflected national trends and led to the subsequent listing of a wider range of buildings.