On 14 May 1825, the foundation stone for Pittville Pump Room was laid. 
The original plan for its surroundings included, across the forecourt, a flight of steps between two plinths at the head of a wide and grand promenade leading down to the lake below. This flight of steps appeared on prints and early photographs of the Pump Room.
The steps continued to frame the views between the Pump Room and the lake for seventy years until the new owners of the park, the borough council, decided that Pittville needed a bandstand. Someone had the bright idea that it would be best sited directly in front of the Pump Room, and so the steps were removed, and foundations laid for the bandstand.
After two years, it was decided that this was not such a good idea, and in 1900 the bandstand was relocated in its current position. However the flight of steps was not restored. The remaining foundations were grassed over, but fortunately the two plinths survived, serving as a sad reminder of what had been there before.
Much later The Friends of Pittville (FoP) was set up (in 2006) to support the borough council in a large bid for Heritage Lottery funding. The purpose of the bid being to refurbish and restore Pittville’s publicly owned original historic structures and to develop systems for maintaining the green environment.
The main heritage structure that had been in the park originally but that had actually ‘disappeared’ was the flight of steps. We had the pictorial evidence, but needed to know if the foundations were still there, so in 2017 FoP undertook a time-team style excavation, this was supervised by Gloucestershire Archaeology https://glosarch.org.uk/ and https://friendsofpittville.org.uk/1714-2/. The foundations were in an extremely poor state but there was good evidence for the number and size of the original steps. At that point in time it was decided to include their restoration in Friends of Pittville’s ‘Masterplan’ for improvements in this part of the Pittville Estate.
Plans were drawn up by landscape architect Toby Goodman; planning and listed building consent was obtained; and fundraising began. However the entire process was seriously delayed by the global Covid pandemic, when other priorities assumed greater importance.
During this period, the projected costs rose and we were challenged to raise correspondingly more funding. Eventually, a very generous grant (of £40,000) was obtained from the Enovert Community Trust, https://www.enovert.co.uk/enovert-community-trust/ and, with additional money from Friends of Pittville, mostly raised by running the race weeks car parking at Albemarle Gate, and from Cheltenham Borough Council, we could at last proceed.
It had originally been planned to restore the steps as a project to celebrate the Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, but the delays in timings meant that it was instead designed to be completed as a celebration of the coronation of Charles III in 2023.
Work was finally commenced in September 2023 by Snape Contracting Services, Eventually the steps were completed in time for the opening ceremony on 20th November 2023.
The event was well attended, despite the persistent drizzle, and the official ‘ribbon cutting’ was conducted by Edward Gillespie, His Majesty’s representative in Gloucestershire.
You can see a pictorial narration of the journey from initial investigations to project completion by visiting the Galleries menu.
