please empty your brain below
Hello to our friends at GCHQ!

TomH | 23.03.23 - 7:34 a.m. | #

Having lived and worked in Cheltenham (for the now Lloyds Bank owned C&G Building Soc) I can report that the Neptune fountain seldom contained any water - and the main man usually sported a traffic cone on his head!
Did you spot the carvings/statues between the boutique shopfronts at Montpellier?

Rob Gullen | 23.03.23 - 7:59 a.m. | #

The gazebos are as ‘permanent’ as gazebos get.

David B | 23.03.23 - 8:00 a.m. | #

The 'No Photography' sign predates smartphones and dashcams, you can't go down some roads on street view, but you do get a nice birds eye view.

Still Anon | 23.03.23 - 8:33 a.m. | #

Used to spend my school holidays in Cheltenham, loved going to St James railway station to see the ex GWR steam locomotives.

Bob | 23.03.23 - 8:41 a.m. | #

In 2007 I was visiting Washington DC and I took the Metro to the Pentagon. Even then in the days before smartphones there was 'No Photography' signs everywhere. I wonder to this day if I'm on their database for having been spotted for leaving the station, walking around for a couple of minutes and then going straight back in!

David | 23.03.23 - 8:50 a.m. | #

So the clock's been partially turned off, because:
"To avoid visitors congregating below the clock, the bubbles and chiming mechanism will be switched off until further notice.

We understand this may cause disappointment but the safety and well-being of our shoppers is paramount to the Regent Arcade and we believe this is a sensible precaution to take."

Words fail me.

Joho | Homepage | 23.03.23 - 9:06 a.m. | #

According to a sign beneath the clock it’s been turned off for “essential maintenance and repair”.

The mall’s website, however, hasn’t been updated since Covid.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 23.03.23 - 9:14 a.m. | #

Racegoers arriving by rail (which many do) are met by a fleet of buses drafted in from around the country to get them to Pittville Park. Many moons ago the Racecourse had its own station with special trains, now the southern terminus of the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway.

There used to be two shopping malls but the one on the north side of the High Street didn't last and is now John Lewis.

There used to be an important distinction between the Promenade and the High Street. When my mother (a native Cheltonian) was at the Ladies College the school had a rule that pupils in uniform could not go down the High Street except in a tram as it was not considered suitable. The Promenade, however, was.

James Bunting | 23.03.23 - 9:35 a.m. | #

Oh I see - turning off the clock was a covid measure.

Joho | Homepage | 23.03.23 - 9:47 a.m. | #

An interesting jaunt, thank you, and it’s pleasant to read such a nicely-phrased account, where …’finally dissipating under the weight of its ambition…’ stands out as particularly chuckle-worthy.

Herbof | 23.03.23 - 9:56 a.m. | #

As a tech journalist, I visited GCHQ -- the old site, in mid-2000. It was quite surreal to get off the train and tell the taxi driver, "GCHQ, please." The taxi driver, of course, didn't bat an eyelid.

Alan BG | 23.03.23 - 10:16 a.m. | #

I'm now confused by yesterday's apparent chronology, though discovering that GCHQ has moved since I last saw it made a bit more sense. In the town centre at 11, failed attempt on racecourse footpath at noon, back in town centre all afternoon then racecourse again at 5?

I've spent many weekends camping at the racecourse for (music) festivals, but never seen it in action for racing.

You get a pretty good view of the whole racecourse from the top of the stile by the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway station.

Andrew S | 23.03.23 - 10:35 a.m. | #

I've been to Cheltenham twice in recent years (since 2019), and once the Neptune statue had water.

The Pitville Pump Room is well worth a visit if you return. You can sample the water, plus there's an interesting interior and a good view out from the top.

Mikey C | 23.03.23 - 10:38 a.m. | #

I'd always assumed that Gustav Holst had immigrated to Britain. I also (wrongly) assumed the same about Delius.

Alan | 23.03.23 - 12:27 p.m. | #

You had me fooled although I went to the same school as Gustav Holst. Don’t know how you did so much in one day. When my father emigrated from Essex to Cheltenham it took eight hours each way in his three wheeler, although it would have been quicker by coach as Cheltenham was a major hub. Surprised you apparently went from Gloucester by bus as Cheltenham still has one of its nine main line railway stations.

Kev | 23.03.23 - 1:00 p.m. | #

Andrew S, GCHQ hasn't so much "moved" as "consolidated from being on two sites on to just one", allowing closure of the site you remember when everyone was moved to the other one.

When living in Cheltenham it was always fun when workers from GCHQ realised that they might have just said too much (i.e. more than nothing) about what they did. Much safer to follow the party line and claim to make cardboard boxes!

miker | 23.03.23 - 1:47 p.m. | #

I rather like Cheltenham as a town, possibly against my better judgement, as the facade of gorgeous Georgian architecture aplenty definitely masks a more reactionary, and in places vaguely sinister, underbelly. But it is indisuptibly beautiful (and relatively inexpensive to live in, in some ways).

I'd definitely do Chelt>Glos by bus. Stagecoach West have lost it completely of late (and, worse for me, have effectively taken over Stagecoach Oxfordshire, who were previously quite excellent), but if their services are anything like how they should be, there are very frequent services (on at least four routes, some of which are or pre-COVID, were, very frequent), and, as has been noted, the surviving National Rail station in Cheltenham is anything but central.

In terms of contrasting atmospheres, Cheltenham/Gloucester is up there with Edinburgh/Glasgow. Although Gloucester sometimes seems quite overwhelmed by despair and hopelessness.

Dominic H | 23.03.23 - 6:06 p.m. | #

You did well to miss the racegoers. The behaviour has to be seen to be believed, and I've been to Millwall away

Herned | 24.03.23 - 10:24 p.m. | #

Kev. I also went to CGS.

James Bunting | 25.03.23 - 9:57 p.m. | #











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