Wycombe from A-Z: E is for Easton Street

These days very few people venture down the High Street and those who do are met with the busy intersection of Queen Victoria Road and Crendon Street where the motor vehicle has priority over the pedestrian.

Despite the junction having a pedestrian crossing it seems that even if someone presses the button to cross the lights don't change instantly indeed they continue to follow their set sequence leaving the pedestrian standing there like a lemon watching the cars whizz by.

Yours truly just doesn't have the time to wait and more often than not I end up like the majority of people by taking my life into my own hands crossing where there is a big enough gap in the traffic.

Those who are brave enough to dare cross the busy road can enjoy the delights of Easton Street.

There are many quaint and historic buildings here indeed I suppose Easton Street could be described as the forgotten half of the High Street.

Maybe if the people could get to it easier it would be busier?

With enough room for four lanes of traffic Easton Street is a wide thoroughfare. Once upon a time, before pedestrianisation, the road in our High Street was this wide.

Its hard to imagine that until the 1960's when the Abbey Way bypass was built all the traffic from London to Oxford and Birmingham was once routed down this street.

In this small street there are no fewer than fifteen listed buildings.

Nowadays a large number of the buildings are home to various solicitors and law firms due to the close proximity of the Wycombe Law Courts at the eastern end of the street.

Roughly in the middle is the magnificent Easton Street long stay multi story car park.

Built in 1972 it is a fine example of 1970's brutalist car park architecture with external brick faced walls rather than the reinforced concrete exterior used by the adventurous planners of the 60's.

Maybe the brick facing was an attempt by the planners of the 70's to put a more human face on the brutalist style of building?

Recently it was reported that this car park was under threat of demolition due to decay but thankfully an investment of £144k for structural work has saved it for future generations to enjoy.

I can't understand why Easton Street multi-storey car park isn't a listed building or at least on the local list of protected buildings. Maybe it should be forward for listing consideration to English Heritage?

Also in Easton Street is the Union Baptist Church, set back from the road it is easily missed when passing by but the architecture of the building is magnificent.

While the walls are original the building was gutted by a fire in 1908.

Well, that concludes my short guided tour of Easton Street. I hope it has met with your satisfaction.

I am really enjoying this new series of blog covering Wycombe from A to Z, maybe I should do an accompanying series of blogs called “walks around Wycombe with Ivor” where I could describe a perambulation of the various roads in town?

What do you think?

*Maybe you would like to suggest other suitable topics for letters of the alphabet? Several suggestions have already been put forward for the letter F but if you have any ideas on what you think F should stand for just leave a comment and let me know.

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