In 1969, Worcester City Council produced and adopted its first conservation area, namely The Historic City. Since that date, Worcester has adopted a further 18 conservation areas, covering large parts of the city.
The Historic City Conservation Area covers a large area of the city centre and beyond, from the railway arches adjacent to Foregate Street Station in the north, City Walls Road to the east, Croft Road to the west and Portland Walk to the south.
A review of the Historic City Conservation Area was undertaken in circa 2011 and again in 2023 by the council’s Conservation Areas. The aim was to break down the area into smaller sub-areas and to produce further conservation appraisals for each.
In 2024, due to staffing pressures at the city council, Worcester Civic Society (WCS), decided to explore whether it could assist in drafting appraisals for sub areas within the city centre. It was agreed that the first area to look at would be the area comprising the as far west as the Hive and Angel Place and Moreton Place to the south, and north to the arches at Foregate Street. See attached map.
To that end, in the summer of 2024, members of WCS’s Planning Committee, together with a very keen group of volunteer members commenced the project.
All members assembled on three separate occasions with clipboards and a set of criteria addressing key issues within the area, ranging from paving, cycling provision, biodiversity, building types and materials, and the general “well-being” of the area.
In September 2024 we decided to give priority, at the reporting stage, to two smaller areas where we realised that change was imminent and we could most usefully have an influence on improvements in the Conservation Area: at Angel Place and The Arches. Because of the immediacy of the changes at The Scala we produced a final report on Angel Place in March 2025. This has been submitted to all City Councillors, the hope being that the document will be adopted and act as a development brief for any future development of this area.
The civic society wish to continue this project by undertaking a second appraisal for the newly “opened-up” Railway Arches running west from Foregate Street Station to Croft Road next to the river. It is hoped this exercise will be begin later this year, and again, will require the help of volunteers.
Watch this space for further updates and requests for volunteering!
Appraisal No.1 – Angel Place
Click here to download the full report (still in draft) of the City Centre Conservation Area Appraisal