City in Gloucestershire, England
Gloucester
A Roman city, a Hogwarts corridor and the birthplace of Britain's first jet fighter: Gloucester has been quietly making history for nearly 2,000 years.
Key information
- County
- Gloucestershire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 132,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Gloucester Cathedral, the Docks, Gloucester Rugby, the Gloster Meteor jet, the Tailor of Gloucester
- What locals are called
- Gloucestrians
- Famous people
- Robert Raikes, George Whitefield, Ivor Gurney, Beatrix Potter (as inspiration)
- Football clubs
- Gloucester City AFC
About Gloucester
The city that Hogwarts borrowed
Walk through the cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral and you may get a jolt of recognition. Their ceilings were used as the Hogwarts corridors in the early Harry Potter films, and the stone fan vaulting is the real thing: some of the earliest fan vaulting anywhere, begun in the 14th century and completed in the early 15th, around 1412. The cathedral is also the resting place of Edward II, murdered at Berkeley Castle in 1327. His tomb made the abbey wealthy, as pilgrims flocked to it, and that money helped pay for the extraordinary building you see today. It is also a musical landmark. The Three Choirs Festival, rotating between Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford, is among the oldest music festivals in the world. Ivor Gurney was born in Gloucester, and Herbert Howells, born in nearby Lydney, studied at the cathedral.
Glevum: a Roman city on the Severn
Gloucester began as a Roman fortress and became a colonia for retired legionaries around AD 97, named Colonia Nervia Glevensium. The Romans picked the spot where the River Severn could be crossed, and that crossing shaped everything afterwards. The Roman street plan still lurks beneath the modern centre. Gloucester's four main streets, Northgate, Southgate, Eastgate and Westgate, meet at the Cross and follow the lines of the Roman layout. The Roman gates themselves stood farther out along those streets. In 1085 William the Conqueror held his Christmas court here and, the story goes, decided on the great survey that became Domesday Book. Few English cities can claim such a pivotal moment in the nation's record-keeping.
A port 30 miles from the sea
Gloucester is a seaport with no coast. The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal, opened in 1827, let ships avoid the tricky tidal Severn and sail right into the heart of the city. Victorian grain warehouses lined the basin to receive cargoes from across the world. Today those brick warehouses are restaurants, flats, shops and museums, with the Gloucester Quays outlet alongside. Tall ships still visit, and the Mariners' Church and the National Waterways Museum keep the maritime story alive. The docks also did something clever for pop culture: they have doubled for Victorian London, Liverpool and beyond in countless TV dramas and films.
Lamprey pie, Sunday school and a very small tailor
Gloucester has a rather peculiar royal tradition. The city has long presented the monarch with a lamprey pie, an eel-like fish once caught in the Severn, a custom said to go back to Henry I. It has been revived for coronations and jubilees, including for Queen Elizabeth II. It is also where Sunday schools took off. In 1780 the newspaper owner Robert Raikes started teaching poor children to read on Sundays, an idea that spread across Britain and the world. His statue stands in Gloucester Park. And in 1901 Beatrix Potter heard a local tale about a tailor who left a coat unfinished and found it completed overnight. She wrote it up as The Tailor of Gloucester. The message 'no more twist', left beside the unfinished buttonhole, became the slogan of the little shop in College Court that now celebrates the book. The city's name is pronounced 'Gloster', and locals will tell you that 'Glow-sester' marks you out as a visitor.
Jets, cherries and the roar of the Shed
In the 20th century Gloucester went high-tech. The Gloster Aircraft Company built the Meteor, Britain's first operational jet fighter, which first flew in 1943 and entered RAF service in 1944. The same firm built the Gloster E.28/39, the nation's first jet-powered aircraft, based on Frank Whittle's engine, which flew in 1941. On the ground the city's passion is rugby. Gloucester Rugby, known as the Cherry and Whites, play at Kingsholm, where the famously noisy terrace called the Shed is among the best-known standing areas in English club rugby. The club dates back to 1873. Football fans have Gloucester City AFC, while cricket lovers have the county's Gloucestershire players on a regular touring schedule at nearby grounds.
Famous Gloucestrians and a taste of the place
George Whitefield, the evangelist who preached to enormous crowds in Britain and colonial America, was born in Gloucester in 1714 at the Bell Inn. Ivor Gurney, poet and composer, was born here in 1890 and wrote some of the most moving verse and songs of the First World War. Food-wise, Gloucester gives its name to a famous cheese. Single Gloucester and Double Gloucester are traditionally made from the milk of Gloucester cattle, and Double Gloucester is the cheese rolled down the hill in the county's best-known annual chase. Gloucester Old Spot pigs, an orchard-fed breed from the surrounding Vale, add the bacon. The city has also seen drama: in 1643 the Siege of Gloucester held off Charles I's army for weeks. The Parliamentarian resistance of a small town is credited with helping turn the course of the Civil War.