Broadgate

From what I heard the island was always littered with drunks and the road busy and difficult to cross (that's from local friends of mine who remember it well) plus it was somewhat awkwardly bodged into the city's urban grid. Plans in the 1960s were to demolish most of the High Street and built two towers on Broadgate that flanked a route through to the Cathedral (the County Court would have been partially demolished). Later plans in the 1980s were to built a 'Lane' linking Broadgate to the Cathedral Quarter. I personally (and many people of mine and younger generations as well) am quite happy that Broadgate is starting to come to life now it is fronted by restaurants. It's been a dead spot for decades. Broadgate island has been gone for almost thirty years now and Cathedral Lanes has finally found its role.

Growing up with Broadgate In the early 1930's Broadgate seemed to be a hive of shoppers bustling about the streets, there was a triangular piece that ran from Hales Street across the base, with the Burges running up one side and Butcher Row and the huge Cathedral on the other side. Both streets came to a point which I believe was Ironmonger Row and then the shops on either side of Broadgate. Around the mid-thirties the council cleared some of the slums and built Trinity Street but still retained the triangular shape, making Owen Owen keep to the shape, this allowed the traffic to flow into Broadgate from the Burges and Trinity Street simple and easy. From Hertford Street traffic flowed alongside the shops down through Cross Cheaping, with access down either Smithford Street or West Orchard to the Market or straight down into the Burges, the shops and buildings with their plaster and beamwork and the humble dwellings gave colour and interest and pleasure to the eye. Along came the war and destruction. By the 1950's we half-hoped, half-dreaded what the new planners had in store for us? The new planners couldn't be doing with triangles, and artistic work - first they built a box, placed it right across lower Broadgate (Owen Owen), said if you want get to the Burges you will have to go round, we want no more of Cross Cheaping and forget rebuilding West Orchard. Then they built two more tall blank-wall box buildings, one the called Broadgate House, the other Hotel Leofric, with a small gateway between leading to the part hidden Precinct. No more of the individual shops, with their colourful frontage and friendly banter. We would have to await what they planned for the other side of Broadgate. They built a circular green garden island to soften the stark blank walls of Broadgate House (didn't last long), they then thought, now we have trapped the smog and pollution in Broadgate we will create a restaurant over the top of Hertford Street, that will please the people, The character and buildings all gone to bricks concrete and stark walls. The fields, flowers and birds I knew of as a boy all went to modern housing, the quiet and peace now shattered by a modern highway of noise that vibrates day and night through the whole village, this as replaced the skylarks, and blackbird songs I once knew, (time to move on. ), Now I listen to the rage and roar of the sea, or it's peaceful murmer and song on the surf, seagulls have replaced the skylark Broadgate now a memory, left to a younger generation.

A good post Kaga. Your quote 'Broadgate now a memory, left to the younger generation' - I wonder what they will turn it into next. Words fail me.

Now they've provided seats for them to congregate during the day!

Flapdoodle, On 455 post you can see Broadgate at its best, no drunks, never ever saw a drunk in Broadgate except after ten, and you could see them everywhere then. On post 448 you can clearly see the dog leg. Even before the war and Owen Owen was built, the trams could come from Hertford Street and keep to the left down the Burges. But the new Owens blocked it all off, making a oval of Broadgate.

Neil. What an evocative picture that is! 12.25 am and not a soul about. Winter time and early 1960s I think as these policeboxes disappeared later on when the double hand-set Pye radios came in. No drunks rolling around on the island!

Thought you might like that one Rosemary!

With reference to the picture in post #478. The Officer is using one of the telephone posts, aka pillar, of which there were 79 of them around the City, along with 58 kiosks or boxes. The following post mentions the PYE units. These were the PYE Pocketfone PF1. One unit was the transmitter and the other a receiver. Introduced from 1964, at first only the receiver was issued to the constable on the beat, while the sergeant carried the transmitter and he would communicate messages/information to those out on the streets. I have a set, see photo. Lower unit, the transmitter, press the button on the side and the antenna would pop-up. Pushed down manually to stow away. Middle unit, the receiver, a small speaker on the top and a simple on/off volume knob on the side. Top unit, receiver, same as the middle one but with the addition of a (now very rare) external loudspeaker, housed in a waterproof rubber shroud which was clipped onto the epaulette of the tunic or overcoat. Used mainly by an officer on a bicycle.

A very busy Upper Precinct / Broadgate here, with the beautiful Cathedral spire dominating the skyline in the background there!

Am I correct in saying that a combined Pye transmitter/receiver unit, based on the same style as this, was issued during the 1970's?

Yes, sometime around 1974/75 I think. They were navy blue in colour and I believe were a different make.

The 'Burndept BE470' replaced the 'PYE PF1'.

Every home should have one!!!