Lowgate and Market Place

This area includes the length of Market Place/Lowgate (excluding the junction of Lowgate with Alfred Gelder Street, where large scale public buildings make it more akin in character to Alfred Gelder Street).

Market Place/Lowgate is a busy traffic route that divides the Old Town. In comparison to High Street and the Lanes this route is a wider thoroughfare, with larger and grander buildings that provide a sense of importance and city scale. The central section of this area retains 3-4 storey historic and new buildings to the back of pavement. This provides a sense of enclosure and interesting streetscape with the variety of building styles and details.

The main gateway to the area from the south is from the Castle Street/Market Place junction. Here, the character of Market Place differs from the central area. As a result of large-scale clearance, re-development and the impact of a major road junction this area has little sense of enclosure, variety or activity (although the frontages to King William House and the Magistrates Court do provide some stretches of active frontage). The vacant site at the corner of Castle Street and Market Place presents a poor image at the gateway that is compounded by the scale of King William House. In contrast Holy Trinity Church (Grade I) built during the 14th and 15th Centuries has a powerful immediate presence and is a landmark skyline building.

The Tower of St Mary's Church (Grade II*) punctuates the closed view at the northern end of Lowgate. St Mary's Churchyard is the one important historic open space along this route.

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