After the Bowstring Bridge: Greening Leicester's Braunstone Gate

Yesterday I went back to a quarter of Leicester that greatly exercised me in 2009. I went back to the area that had then been home to the Bowstring Bridge.

Despite a campaign from local residents, the bridge - a remnant of the old Great Central main line through Leicester - and a neighbouring pub were demolished to make way for a new sports centre for De Montfort University.

It all looked rather bleak, and more land is due to be cleared in the area to make room for housing. I don't know if that will involve the removal of the embankment south of the site of the bridge.

One hopeful thing from the day was that I met some people from the Bede Street Community Garden. They have been granted a short-term lease on an old railway arch or two and are working to green this Braunstone Gate area of Leicester.

More power to them - and I did find that the bridge is remembered in a mural on Braunstone Gate.

Councils, communities and a sense of place

A paper for the Local Government Information Unit by Janet Sillett looks at the elusive but important concept of 'a sense of place'.

She writes:

A place that works could be seen as one where the people who live there have a sense of affinity with it, and one where the past, the present and the future are connected: so that its history is part of what makes it special and the people who have lived there for a long time, but where it welcomes new people and communities, and embraces change. 

People can feel a sense of place about where they live physically, but also to a wider place such as a city or to their local community or even to organisations within it. People have attachments to their home, their neighbourhood and perhaps to their city, town, village and even to their region. 

As places globally become more like each other, preserving a sense of distinctiveness can be important. 

And she goes on to argue that by cultivating such a sense local authorities can facilitate a range of planning-related outcomes:

• encouraging economic vitality
• enhancing wellbeing
• fostering engagement and a sense of belonging
• enabling physical health

The paper is a long read, but I think this is an important subject and worth the time.

Of course, the question is how you reconcile the intangible concept of 'a sense of place' with the daily grind of planning decisions.

In Leicester I feel the council has shown too little concern for sense of place away from the city centre, allowing structures that help define their area - the Bowstring Bridge in Braunstone Gate; the Empire in Newfoundpool - to be razed without a contest.

If everything in the city beyond Richard III is student accommodation and supermarkets, there will be no sense of place at all.

Leicester's Black Boy pub has been saved

Good news from the Leicester Mercury: the planning inspector has upheld the city council's decision to refuse permission for the former Black Boy pub to be demolished.

The developers. says the Mercury, has planning permission to create 25 student flats in a three-storey extension if they retain the facade of the pub. But they claim the scheme is no longer economically viable and wanted permission to remove the pub altogether.

If that means there is a chance of the Black Boy being retained as a separate building and one day having a new use found for it, that can only be good news.

It is also good to see the city council fighting for Leicester's heritage beyond it grand projects in the city centre.

Since I started wandering the city with my camera, heritage campaigners have been defeated over the Bowstring Bridge, the Empire Hotel and a distinctive little group of buildings on the London Road.

I hope the Black Boy will not be the last such battle the council fights and wins.

Victor: Well Leicester

This clear-eyed hymn to life in Britain's 10th city has been a local internet sensation this week.

The Leicester Mercury explains that it was written by Mike Willis five years ago and recorded by his band Victor:

“We were a melting pot of styles and influenced by the great British pop traditions of The Kinks, Madness, New Order and James,” said Mike. 

“But we were a bit rubbish really. We were extraordinarily unambitious but we did have some great nights, playing the Charlotte and other venues – I remember a particularly cracking night at the old Pump and Tap pub in Braunstone Gate in 1996.” 

While never actually splitting up, long periods of inactivity from the 2000s to today – occasionally punctuated by wedding gigs for friends and a Mod covers set – saw the band grow apart.

Braunstone Gate, Leicester, in 1975

Footage of some of the lost houses and shops from this part of the city.

Right at the end you see a poster from the European referendum campaign to prove it really is 1975 and then a glimpse of the recently demolished Bowstring Bridge.

Great Central steam through Leicester in the 1960s

No sound, but there is some lovely footage here. You can even see a couple of trains going over the Bowstring Bridge early on.

Demolition of Bowstring Bridge and Pump & Tap may have been pointless

Earlier this week the Leicester Mercury reported that government spending cuts may lead to the cancellation of De Montfort University's planned new sports centre.

The paper quoted the university's vice-chancellor,  Professor Dominic Shellard, as saying:

"Money for the sports centre has been set aside and, of course, we have every expectation that it will go ahead as planned.

"However, in the current economic landscape and with the comprehensive spending review on the horizon, it would be disingenuous to suggest that we don't have a duty to look very hard at every penny we spend."

This turn of events is of interest because the construction of this sports centre was used to justify the demolition of the Bowstring Bridge and the Pump & Tap pub. It can only strengthen the impression that the university and Leicester City Council acted with unnecessary haste.

Memorial to Leicester's Bowstring Bridge to be unveiled on 25 September

The Leicester Mercury reports that a plaque remembering the Bowstring Bridge is soon to be unveiled:

Leicester Civic Society has created the plaque to mark the Bowstring Bridge, in Braunstone Gate, Leicester, which was demolished in December.

It will be unveiled at the Bowstring Bar, in Braunstone Gate, on Saturday, September 25, by John Husain, former licensee of the neighbouring Pump and Tap pub, which shut on November 24 and was demolished.

The Bowstring Bar changed its name from Banter as another memorial when it reopened after refurbishment.

The vice-chancellor of De Montfort University, which owns the land once occupied by the bridge and the Pump and Tap pub recently told the Mercury that plans for a sports centre will be submitted within the next few months.

The Bowstring Bridge lives

You may remember - how could you forget? - my coverage of the unsuccessful campaign to prevent the city council and De Montfort University demolishing Leicester's Bowstring Bridge.

Today I had lunch in branch of Pizza Express in King Street, Leicester. And look at the painting they have on the wall.

Across the road the City Council's offices, housed in two speculative blocks it bought in the 1970s, are in a bad way.

As I looked out during my meal, I hoped they would shudder and collapse. going the same way as the bridge.

It did not happen, but one day...

Leicester City Council used Ripa powers to monitor Bowstring Bridge protests

Regular readers will be familiar with the ultimately unsuccessful campaign fought last year to save Leicester's Bowstring Bridge and the neighbouring Pump and Tap pub.

Today's Leicester Mercury reports:

Leicester City Council used controversial snooping laws to monitor the under-siege Bowstring Bridge site, the Mercury can reveal.

The authority said it applied to use a swivel and zoom function on an on-site CCTV camera to gather evidence after a council officer raised concerns over demolition workers' safety.

It was one of at least 22 covert investigations, or monitoring operations authorised by the authority in the past 12 months under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) – introduced in 2000 to oversee councils' use of surveillance.

The council said it used the powers at the Bowstring Bridge, in the city's West End, because of the risk of trespass, criminal damage and public disorder at the site.

The Ripa was introduced to fight terrorism, but thanks to a series of extension to it introduced by Labour home secretaries we now see it being used against neighbourhood conservation campaigners.

It is also hard to believe the council is being honest. I am sure they were worried about delays to the demolition project and the costs that might result. I can even believe that they might have been worried about the danger to people protesting where heavy plant was being used.

But to argue that they needed to use these surveillance powers because of the threat of public disorder stretches credulity too far.

Finally, note from the Mercury report that these powers were resorted to by Adrian Russell, the council's "director of environmental services" - that is a paid official, not an elected councillor.

I am sure Mr Russell is good at his job - no doubt he started in charge of the paper clips at Worksop Rural District and worked his way up. But to have such powers at the call of someone in his position is a democratic outrage.

After the Pump and Tap, Leicester

I went back to Braunstone Gate in Leicester on Saturday. The Bowstring Bridge has gone, though the bar next to where it used to stand has been renamed to remember it. The latest news is that Leicester Civic Society is appealing for funds to put up a plaque too.

The photograph shows the site of the popular Pump and Tap pub that was demolished at the same time as part of the plan to clear the area so that De Monfort University can build a new swimming pool.

De Montfort University said it had to demolish the pub so that work could begin as soon as possible. But there is no sign of any work yet.

Last orders at the Pump and Tap

Today's Leicester Mercury reports on the last night of business at the Pump and Tap yesterday.

The pub is being demolished, along with the Bowstring Bridge, to make way for a new swimming pool for De Montfort University.

Jonathan Glancey on the Bowstring Bridge

Although I am in Edinburgh, the support of the excellent Jonathan Glancey for my current favourite Leicestershire lost cause has not escaped me:

The fight is on — perhaps too late — to save what the city council hasn’t managed to demolish of the Bowstring Bridge at the junction of Leicester’s Western Boulevard and Braunston (sic) Gate. You would have to be deeply thick to even think of wrecking this special stretch of late Victorian engineering.

Or a member of Leicester's ruling Labour group.

Last hope gone for Leicester's Bowstring Bridge

From this evening's Leicester Mercury:

A last-ditch effort to save Leicester's historic Bowstring Bridge from demolition has failed.

Campaigners' final hopes of preventing the destruction of the bridge in the West End were dashed yesterday when their latest appeal to have the Victorian landmark listed was turned down.

The application was rejected by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which upheld an earlier decision by English Heritage.

It was ruled that the bridge was not of sufficient architectural or historical interest.

I don't blame them: I blame Leicester City Council.

Protester comes down from Bowstring Bridge

Today's Leicester Mercury reports:

A woman braved freezing temperatures and spent 12 hours chained to Leicester’s Bowstring Bridge in an effort to save it from demolition.

The protester, who identified herself as a mother and grandmother called Karen, was escorted from the bridge by police at 6pm.

Members of the public who had gathered at the site, in Duns Lane in Leicester’s West End, cheered her as she was led away.

The Mercury story goes on to say:

Leicester Civic Society last month asked the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to review English Heritage’s refusal to list the bridge.

Stuart Bailey, of the civic society, accused the council of “arrogance” for allowing demolition to continue while the Government was considering the case.

Woman chains herself to Leicester's Bowstring Bridge

The Leicester Mercury reports:

A protester chained herself to Leicester's Bowstring Bridge this morning in a last ditch effort to save it from demolition.

The woman, who called herself Karen, breached the razor wired security cordon around the Duns Lane bridge, in Leicester's West End, at 6am.

She said she had wrapped herself in chains and attached herself to a girder on the bridge, which about 40ft above the road.

Speaking down from her position, she said she had taken the extreme step because she believed demolition was about to begin today.

And the BBC News Leicestershire pages have a video of her.

More on the closure of the Pump and Tap

A reader on the impending closure of the Pump and Tap pub in Leicester:

Just thought I’d let you know the bridge & pub latest. John Husain of the Pump & Tap has been given his marching orders by DMU [De Montfort University] – he’s to be out by the 27th of November, and the pub will close for good a few days before on the 22nd.

John has only just been told this, and broke the news to us and his employees last night. Within the terms of his lease he (and indeed everyone else) expected a minimum of three months notice, but DMU have decided to throw him out at the end of his term on the 27th. Correct in law, but wrong in spirit – his staff will be without jobs (and with little warning) over Christmas, and the P&Ts Christmas day festivities, which the place is famous for in the area, won’t be going ahead.

It’s very sad, and DMU could have gone about it in a far better way. Everyone involved is surprised the period of notice is so short, but it doesn’t look like there’s anything we can do about it. I have a feeling the demolition of the pub will begin very shortly after the 27th.

Pump and Tap to close next month

The Leicester Mercury reports that the Pump and Tap, the popular pub next to Leicester's Bowstring Bridge, is to close next month ahead of likely demolition to make way for a new swimming pool for De Montfort University.

Leicester's Bowstring Bridge: The protest song

Demolition work begins on Bowstring Bridge

The demolition of Leicester's Bowstring Bridge was due to begin today. My sources tell me that it has been festooned with razor wire in an attempt to thwart protesters.

Andrew Walton has some pictures of what demonstrations there were today.