The Promenade Architecture

A Memory of Cheltenham.

The unique and distinctive property of the Promenade is that its roadway is twice as wide at the top end (Queens Hotel) as it is at the bottom end (High Street), while the buildings double in height from the four stories of the Municipal Offices to the two story insurance office at the top. The reduction in height is by a careful and sophisticated series of architectural gradations involving different heights of pilasters, a varying hierarchy of cornices, introduction of attic stories, raised pavements, etc. The reason for this strange doubling in width and halving in height, was to make the original, single storey spa (which was replaced by the Queens Hotel) appear relatively imposing, yet to make the walk up to it from the High Street (then the only significant street in the town) appear shorter than it was, due to false perspective.