Eastgate Street
Eastgate Street is one of Gloucester’s oldest streets, named for the east gate in the city walls. It runs from The Cross, where Northgate, Eastgate, Southgate and Westgate meet, to Barton Street.
Its history goes back to Roman times when the fort at Kingsholm became the town of Glevum. After 1066 the walls were rebuilt and, by the mid-13th century, the east gate was a strong bastion. In the late Middle Ages the gate had porters and tolls and was one of five main gates. It even hosted a prison in 1485 and later served as a correction centre. In 1643 Gloucester was besieged and Royalist mining concentrated on the east gate.
From medieval times until 1275 Eastgate Street was Gloucester’s Jewish quarter. The street appears in records as Eastgate Street from 1473, though different spellings like Ailesgate appear earlier.
The street became a busy commercial route in the early 1500s, helped by the Stroud Valley cloth trade. St. Michael’s Church stood at The Cross and was important to the area; it was likely rebuilt in the 14th century with a tower added in 1465 and is now a Grade II* listed building.
Markets thrived: a barley market near the gate was replaced by a market hall in 1655, and gardeners were allowed to sell produce on the street in 1737. In 1666 Sir Thomas Rich founded a school there, known as the Bluecoat Hospital.
In the 18th century Eastgate Street benefited from Gloucester’s gentry and became a busy hub for pubs and hotels. A market hall was rebuilt in 1786, and the old east gate was demolished in 1778. The railway arrived in 1896, making the street busier, and the Cross area was reorganised.
The 19th century brought banking: the National Provincial Bank (1889) and Lloyds Bank (1898) opened on Eastgate Street, and the Guildhall (1892) was built nearby.
In the 20th century many old buildings were replaced by new shops. Eastgate Market closed, St Michael’s Church was largely demolished in 1956, leaving only the tower. Between 1966 and 1974 the Eastgate Shopping Centre was built, changing much of the street. The Boots store opened in 1980 on the old Co-op site and revealed some medieval remains.
Today only a handful of historic sites survive between The Cross and the gate. On the north side, St. Michael’s Tower houses the Gloucester Civic Trust. A small cluster of listed buildings includes the Guildhall (now a TSB branch and arts venue) and the former National Provincial Bank (now NatWest). The Lloyds building still stands, and No. 17 houses a Body Shop.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:14 (CET).