Now at the heart of a bustling and busy port city, Bearland House’s west wing was demolished and in its place came a functional two-storey building that housed the first business on the site. Records from the time show that J Trigg, a carpenter and wheelsmith from Mitcheldean set up shop in the 1850s and Trigg’s Carpenters and Joiners were based on the site until 1912. The onset of industry, meant that fires were increasingly common but there was no such thing as a fire service to deal with the problems. The Corporation of Gloucester realised that there was a need to set up a service for the city, rather than rely on the insurance companies who had previously offered the service. With Bearland occupying a prime site between the industrial docks and the centre of the city, plus the river and docks providing an unlimited supply of water, the fire station came into life. The Corporation put the project out to tender and J Nicholls won the bid, with his offer to build the fire station for £2,774 and £85 to demolish and dispose of the previous building. Today, that £2,859 cost would work out in excess of £300,000. A motorised fire engine was purchased, as was a fire boat to work at the docks, and companies at the docks funded more than half a mile of hoses so that the entire docks area could be covered. Control of the fire station was transferred into government hands during the SecondWorldWar and a huge air raid shelter was built behind the station to house the 70 men working on site. After the war, the corporation ran the fire service until it was taken into county control in 1972. However, by 1956 the service was in need of new, more modern facilities and a purpose-built new station was built on Eastern Avenue and the crew of 50 and all their equipment moved out. Therefore, a building constructed at great cost to the Corporation of Gloucester and opened in 1913 was closed and disused by 1956. It had been a fire station for just 43 years. The building lay vacant for nearly 20 years, before
on locking petty criminals up. But that was put into almost complete insignificance by the oncoming of the Industrial Revolution that saw the city transformed forever. Gloucester had always been a port, but the original Gloucester Quay, at the end of Westgate Street – which is now Quay Street – was too small and on too narrow a part of the river to be of industrial use. With industrial Britain needing an inland port, a canal was constructed between the city of Gloucester and Sharpness on the navigable Severn Estuary and in 1827 the Docks burst into life. The streets between the new docklands and the historic Roman centre were now in prime development land. Quay Street, Ladybellegate Street, Longsmith Street and Commercial Road were all constructed between 1830 and 1850. Bearland became the name for the road outside the house.
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