Gloucester Artists Network (GANet)
by aaaarrgh
GANet is one of the organisations for painters and sculptors in Gloucester. They hold regular exhibitions throughout the year. During the Summer months they can be found exhibiting in St Nicholas's Church, Westgate Street.
At other times of year GANet inhabit whatever vacant building is available. At my recent visit their exhibitions were taking place in an ex-nightclub on an alleyway off Westgate Street. It was an ideal venue, full of character with decorated period ceilings.
The art on display/on sale at their Christmas show was well above the normal standard of 'Sunday' painters. A real mixture, skillfully ( and sometimes humerously) executed. My favorites were the life-size human dolls (what a shock, at first glance I thought they were real people) and the tiny 'rust paintings' using old iron washers from a disused Welsh shipyard.
Gloucester Street Furniture
by Janani
As you walk through the centre of Gloucester, look carefully at the street furniture and you will see the city's history represented in some interesting and unusual ways.
The steel bollards in the photograph have a tapering base and spiral top, looking much as an early pin would have done during the manufacturing process. Pin making was a major industry for the town from as early as the thirteen hundreds up until Victorian times. Child labour was widely used in this industry, throughout most of its history.
You can also see mosaic panels which represent other trades with an historic link to the city, including: an innkeeper, a bell founder, a draper and tailor, a market trader and an apothecary. Each one consists of a circular illustration of the trade with a short explanation for its location contained within a square border. The patterns in the gaps between the circle and the squares were made by some of the town's present day children.
I had always assumed that the centre of Gloucester was referred to as "The Cross" because the city's four main streets met there as a crossroad. In fact the term refers to a cross that stood at that point during the middle ages and was a popular place for people to meet at that time. Now that the area has been pedestrianised, a new carved stone bench in the form of a cross has been placed in the location of the old one. Its design has been inspired by the River Severn, and by the town's involvement with the railway and aviation industries.
Ladybellegate House
by Myfanwe
This house has been described as the finest town house in Gloucester. The tall facade is constructed of brick with dressings of Cotswold Stone. It was built by Henry Wagstaffe in around 1704. The house interior is said to contain someof the City's most impressive 11th Century plasterwork and has some wonderfully decorated ceilings in other rooms.
Ladybellegate House is not open to the public but can be admired from the outside.
Gloucester
by Janani
I lived in a village just a few miles from here and attended college locally for a few years after leaving school and before moving to London. My parents still live nearby, so I'm often back to visit.
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GA Baker Clockmaker
The Old Crypt Schoolroom
The East Gate
The National Waterways Museum
