WITH a planning application submitted for Brewery Court for a four screen cinema, student accommodation, restaurants and cafes, shops, a multi purpose arts facility and refurbished public realm,  the controversial plans to build up to 2,500 homes in Chesterton and the re-design of the Market Place,  the Standard looks back to the changing face of Cirencester in May 1964.

That year saw the demolition of  properties in Dyer Street and work on the next phase in the continually accelerating process of adapting an ancient town to modern needs - a £160,000 project for new shops, flats and offices.

As it says in the Standard of May 1,  1964  "Redevelopment…..a big word.  An even bigger word in Cirencester these days than in many other towns with similar problems.  For here in the traditional Capital of the Cotswolds the process of rejuvenation described by one town planning expert as ‘civic surgery’ is already well advanced.

All old towns have their problems in adapting themselves to the twentieth century. Cirencester is older than most and antiquity has brought with it a fair share of difficulties."