Flashback: Opinion – Why I Am Pessimistic for Guildford

Published on: 7 Apr, 2025
Updated on: 7 Apr, 2025

Flashback looks at Dragon NEWS stories of a decade ago.

Ten years ago the Dragon’s editor explained why he feared for Guildford’s future. Were his fears well-founded?

First published on The Guildford Dragon NEWS on April 9, 2015.

By Martin Giles

The other day I introduced a stranger to Guildford. I showed her along an ancient pedestrian route from Buryfields, down Porridge Pot Alley, over the River Wey, with its ducks and boats, on past the theatre and the old town mill, up Mill Lane by Guildford’s oldest building, the Saxon tower of St Mary’s, into Quarry Street and then, round the corner into the High Street with its granite setts and varied shop frontages.

Further up the hill, the gleaming town clock stretched out from the Guildhall over the lively street and the farmers’ market. To the west, the grassy hillside fields beyond The Mount provided their beautiful backdrop.

The town looked at its best: natural settings and interesting historic buildings surrounding the social and commercial activity that make our successful town. The stranger’s eyes gleamed: “It’s wonderful,” she said, “there’s so much to see.” I could tell that she couldn’t wait to explore further so, other than advising that the Castle Grounds were worth a visit when she had time, I left her to it.

The spring sun had played a major part in showing off the town, but it only highlighted the beauty it still has at its core, a beauty many of us appreciate but, if you are like me, too often take for granted.

As I thought of the challenges our town and borough are facing any feel good factor, any residual warmth from the sunshine soon dissipated. I worry that the future is not looking good for our town.

My fear is based on a concern that what some want is maximum, or at least significant, growth: quantity not quality, success measured in financial turnover, rather than civic health.

Putting to one side the furore over the number of houses that should be built in the borough over the next 15 years, let us consider what is afoot in the town centre.

The emerging steel frame of a new Waitrose for Guildford. Viewed from York Road.

The steel frame of a new Waitrose has already been erected. As a facility, it will be a welcome addition to the town but it could have been an architectural asset too. Instead, it will be a nondescript contemporary design that would fit unnoticeably into Woking or Farnborough. As Julian Lyon, of the Guildford Society, asked of an artist’s impression, “Is it good, is it bad, or is it just okay because it’s Waitrose?”

Artist’s impression of how the planned Waitrose store may look from The Bars.

Of course the area on the north side of North Street, much vandalised by planners in the 1960s and 70s, is overdue redevelopment. Considering its proximity to some of the most valuable commercial real estate outside London it is surprising it has not happened already.

But what will we get? Will the buildings display stylistic congruity with the High Street? I doubt it, most architects seem to despise what they call “pastiche” and what the rest of us might call traditional. They thumb their noses at lessons learned by valued architects like Norman Shaw, well represented in parts of the town, who knew how to imply incremental development and mix traditional English style with state-of-the-art building techniques.

Will their architectural merit cause people to come and see them, regardless of the retail offering, as some do with our High Street? I doubt it.

Will the scale of the buildings be compatible with a county town? I fear not. Those financing the scheme will be looking to squeeze every last pound of profit out, so the higher the rise the greater the retail floor space.

Ask yourself this, what buildings built within the last 50 years do you think will still be standing and cherished in 100 years’ time?

Then there is the railway station. The Solum proposal seems to have caused practically everyone who has looked at it to throw their hands up in horror.

How could this have happened? Even the council seems to have sensed the strength of feeling, not always their strong suit, and told the developers to go away and think again.

But as is normal at the beginning of any such project, Solum was briefed by the council’s planning department, so just what advice were they given? What attention was paid to the public consultation? I attended a couple of sessions. The proposal that has emerged has nothing in common with views I heard expressed by local residents.

Once again the motivation behind the scheme seems to be purely commercial. Nothing in the design, I am advised, would do anything to improve the operation of the railway.

An artist’s impression on how Guildford railway station will look if current plans are passed.

So what will happen next? Will Solum get the message? Or, having offered something terrible, will it simply come back with something a bit less terrible; 10 floors, say, instead of 15. I fear so.

Then there is the existing problem of traffic congestion. There are times when it seems almost quicker to get from London to Paris on a train than across Guildford in a car. But despite all the complaints, all the hot air, all the traffic surveys, we seem no nearer a solution perhaps because there is not one.

Guildford is a gap town, we can’t widen the roads through the town without damaging it further and we can’t build a new ring road without destroying areas of outstanding natural beauty. It is a real problem.

But while the problem exists is it really a good idea to build thousands more houses in the borough, each with 1.5* cars? Surely not, but that is what some are proposing.

So is the town condemned? Is its future as bleak as I fear? Perhaps not, I certainly hope it isn’t.

On Easter Sunday I cycled over to Farnham with my wife. We normally end up in Lion & Lamb Yard, a renovated coaching inn yard. To me, it is the kind of development that suits an older Surrey town. It is easy on the eye, uses traditional materials but appears to be commercially successful too.

Lion & Lamb Yard, Farnham – shows what can be done. Further on is a discretely sized Waitrose.

When you follow it through to the end Waitrose appears, unimposing, in a style which could be better but at least does not jar.

There is, I understand, a North Street redevelopment committee. I don’t think that their deliberations are made public. Shame. Anyway, they could do a lot worse than visit Lion & Lamb Yard for a bit of inspiration.

We should not be ashamed of looking to the past when building for the future, it is exactly what many of our best architects have successfully done throughout the ages.

GBC Map showing North Street development area in more detail (within blue outline)

The North Street site is big and it has huge potential. Let us hope my pessimism is misplaced and that the potential will be realised in a way that will be truly appreciated for many years to come, that the railway station will become a public building of quality, a suitable gateway, for our historic county town, let’s hope that people with imagination tackle effectively our traffic problems and that central government stops any pressure for relentless growth.

I still yearn for all these things to happen but I fear they will not, the evidence, my experience, the commercial and political pressures all say they won’t. I really hope I am wrong.

*The average number of cars per household according to the 2011 census.