Description
Bideford has long suffered from flooding from exceptional tides in the Torridge. The Bideford quay streetscape project resulted from just one phase of a large-scale flood protection scheme by the Environment Agency. New harbour walls were constructed in the river, together with secondary flood walls behind a newly enlarged quayside area. The works prompted Devon County Council, as highway authority, and Torridge District, as planning authority, to reconfigure the 400 metres of waterfront promenade, and represented a critical opportunity to transform the function and public image of Bideford's waterfront.
Bideford quay forms part of the A386, connecting the A39 and the neighbouring towns of Appledore and Westward Ho! to the 24-arched medieval bridge over the Torridge. Although relieved of through traffic by the A39 bridge downstream, the quay continues to carry significant volumes of local traffic, over 13,000 vehicles over a 12-hour period, including significant numbers of lorries and bicycles. Some 190 buses stop or start from the quayside every day. The shops, hotels, pubs and clubs fronting the inland side of the quay are the natural focus for tourists during the day and for revellers at night. The street before the works was an incoherent jumble of highway measures, informal parking and dilapidated street furniture mixed in with a collection of randomly planted trees of varying ages and species set in poorly designed tree pits.
The regeneration scheme has restored a more formal boulevard character to the quay, whilst retaining the interaction of port activities, tourism, trade, parking and passing traffic in a flexible and unfussy harmony. The carriageway has been narrowed, new pedestrian crossings and raised tables installed, and a generous public promenade under elegant new street lighting created. A new building houses various port-related and public facilities, and the project incorporates an unusual arts element devised to provide particular delight and intrigue for children. Work began in late 2002 and was complete in early 2005.
