Cheltenham in the 1990s

Early 1990s in Cheltenham were marked by the previous era. In March 1990 the Conservative Party held its Central Council conference in Cheltenham and for two days Cheltenham town centre was subject to the tightest security with no traffic or even pedestrians allowed. Imperial Gardens and the area around the Town Hall were guarded by officers with dogs. The party leadership was discussed, however Mrs. Thatcher denied any rumours of her position as the leader being weakened. Despite her brave face she resigned before the end of the year and John Major became the prime minister.

Cheltenham Conservative Party got into the headlines of national newspapers in 1992, when racist remarks from their own local membership about their prospective candidate for the general election, John Taylor were heard. 1993 saw the introduction of the council tax which replaced the opposed poll tax. The average bill for Cheltenham was £588. In 1994 10,000 people gathered in a march through Cheltenham to show their support for GCHQ employees whose trade unions were banned 10 years ago. The unions were permitted at GCHQ again in 1997, when the Labour Party got in power.

The hot summer of 1990 brought yet another record temperature for Cheltenham – on 3 August 1990 Cheltenham weather station measured the then UK record of 37.1 °C. The Cheltenham record was beaten in 2003. House prices in 1990 doubled since 1980s and three-bedroom modern semi-detached house in Fiddlers Green cost £63,950, while four-bedroom detached house in Prestbury went for as much as £133,950.

The 1990s saw Cheltenham in a rush for modernization. The Beechwood Shopping Centre at the Strand side of Cheltenham High Street was opened in 1991 hoping to boost Cheltenham reputation as a popular shopping destination. In 1996 Cheltenham Borough Council purchased three Spa Shuttles, trains which were to connect the town centre with Montpellier. Operated by Swanbrook, the “Noddy Trains”, as they were nicknamed by the local newspaper, provided free transport in Cheltenham town centre, Pittville and Montpellier. Not for long though, as the running costs soon were too high. The service was withdrawn in 1999 and the trains were sold to a German theme park.

The Promenade got one of its most photographed features in the 1990s. The statue of Minotaur and Hare, which was created by Sophie Ryder in 1995 and acquired by public subscription in 1998, caused much controversy at the time as voices were raised against its suitability for such a prominent location in the town. Initially, only a part of temporary exhibition of Sophie Ryder's art at Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum, the overwhelming public response to the exhibition fuelled the campaign to retain one of Sophie Ryder's sculptures in town.

Other attempts to raise Cheltenham’s profile as the centre for arts and culture included introduction of two new music festivals in the town. Cheltenham International Jazz Festival held at the end of April started in 1996 and it has successfully established itself as one of the UK's most popular jazz festivals, while Cheltenham Folk Festival which takes place in February was first held in 1997.

One of the buildings which disappeared in the 1990s was Lansdown Inn in Gloucester Road only to be replaced by TGI Fridays. The 1960s building of Pate’s Grammar School in Hester’s Way had to be demolished due to concrete cancer and a brand new copper domed building was built in 1996. Cavendish House closed its food hall in 1997, having shut its silver-service restaurant some time before. In 1998 Whitbread brewery moved out and Cheltenham’s 250 years of brewing tradition ended.

One of the biggest surprises of the 1990s brought Cheltenham football team, the Robins. In 1992 the team was relegated from Football Conference. The club was in a bad financial situation with average crowds of only 200-300 and it looked like that the site of Whaddon Road Stadium might become a supermarket. The appointment of a local man and former Cheltenham player Steve Cotterill as a manager during the 1996-97 was the start of a revolution at the club. They won promotion to the Conference in his first season as manager despite not actually winning the Dr. Martens league as the champions Gresley Rovers were unable to meet the required capacity for Conference membership due to their ground. The 1998-99 season saw the club crowned as champions and gained promotion to the Football League. The victory parade on an open-top bus through the town was one of the most memorable events of the 1990s. After two mid-table finishes in Division Three (now League Two) they won via the play-offs and were promoted to Division Two. Steve Cotterill left the club for Stoke City during the summer of 2002.

I n 1999 it was decided that a new purpose built building would be built to accommodate GCHQ staff at single site at Benhall. The buildings at Oakley were demolished and by 2003 the now famous doughnut shaped building was finished. It cost about £330m, making it the largest Private Finance Initiative project ever undertaken. Two-thirds of Britain's intelligence comes from this single building. Its 4,500 staff patrol global cyberspace 24 hours a day to eavesdrop on millions of telephone conversations, emails, faxes and coded messages using 'Echelon', an American system, whic was given to GCHQ in the 1990s, enabling it to tap into any telephone conversation anywhere across the globe.