Wycombe from A-Z: J is for Jubilee Road (From Bucks Free Press)

Wycombe from A-Z: J is for Jubilee Road

10:41pm Saturday 23rd June 2012 in Your Say By ivor

At one time the western extremity of Wycombe stretched only as far as the end of Desborough Road.

Thanks to the growth of the furniture industry in the late 19th Century new housing was required to provide homes for the townspeople.

The solution was to create the new road of Green Street and build terraced houses on both sides.

To maximise the land usage gardens were kept to a minimum and roads were built parallel to Green Street lined with more houses, these being Upper Green Street on the southern side and Jubilee Road on the northern side.

At one time the terrace was a common sight in Wycombe for example in Baker Street, Westbourne Street and Brook Street however most of them have since been demolished.

While the terrace has been banished from the town centre the area around Green Street and Jubilee Road is still lined with the terraces that were once so common in Wycombe.

The densely packed terraced housing created local communities who lived and worked within a localised areas while still being within walking distance of Wycombe town centre.

To commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 many roads sprang up in the country named Jubilee Road indeed there is a similarly named road a short distance away in Downley.

What a sharp contrast to modern times when very little of a permanent nature was done in modern Wycombe to mark the Diamond Jubilee of our current monarch.

Situated at 8 Jubilee Road is one of the few remaining traditional furniture factory buildings in Wycombe indeed it forms the western end of the Leigh Street Furniture Heritage Conservation Area.

As the population increased the need for places of worship also grew.

A group of worshippers from the Union Baptist Church in Easton Street decided to open a Sunday school to serve the people living in the western side of Wycombe around the newly constructed Green Street area.

In 1939 a church was opened on Oakridge Road at the western end of Jubilee Road indeed that church is still there to this day with regular services taking place.

Over the years many changes have taken place in the local communities of Britain indeed one of the most significant being those associated with multicultural diversity.

Back in 1972 the Muslim community of Wycombe chose No. 34 Jubilee Road as the first building in Wycombe to be used specifically for Islamic prayers and worship.

With an expanding population of the Muslim faith a few years later in 1979 Wycombe's first purpose built Mosque, with a capacity of 1150 (including women) was constructed on the site right next door to the Oakridge Road Baptist Church.

The surrounding buildings may now be over a hundred years old but as time has moved on Jubilee Road has adapted to the changes in modern society and is still at the heart of multi-cultural Wycombe.

Is there any other road in Wycombe that tells the industrial, residential and spiritual history of Wycombe in such a detailed way as Jubilee Road?

What do you think?

*Maybe you would like to suggest other suitable topics for letters of the alphabet? If you have any ideas on what you think the letter 'K' should stand for just leave a comment and let me know.

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