ACCORDING to Friends of the Earth’s 2018 audit of air pollution in Colchester, the most polluted road in Colchester is Mersea Road, or rather the section of Mersea Road that is closest to St Botolph’s Roundabout (with Lucy Lane and Brook Street second and third).

The audit puts the nitrogen dioxide pollution level at 52.4 micrograms per cubic metre of air (the World Health Organisation limit is 40), a dangerous level of pollution.

Walking up the road from the roundabout, it is possible to taste the pollution, trapped by the wall next to the old abbey site, and the fronts of the homes are blackened and grimy.

Cut off from the town by Southway and the roundabout, the area has a grim feel of something decaying and Dickensian.

It is an area which has been left to decline, a poignant casualty of our car-dependent culture, complete with a petrol station.

Yet it wasn’t always like this.

The area is still brightened somewhat by the Odd One Out, still one of Colchester’s best traditional pubs.

Originally the Mermaid, and situated next door to the current pub, the earliest reference to it is in the 1871 census.

It moved next door in 1937 after a dispute between the licensee and brewing company and the original pub is now flats.

However, the whole street is rich in heritage and was once something of a cultural quarter.

Beyond the wall was once Colchester’s St John’s Abbey, home to 20 choir monks and many lay brothers, servants and guests.

This was reputedly founded by Eudo de Rie, the Norman constable of Colchester Castle and high steward (Dapifer).

Around 13 acres of grounds were enclosed by the original stone precinct wall which fronted onto St John’s Green and then continued up Mersea Road.

Colchester Abbey was a chartered sanctuary which could offer similar protection to fugitives as Westminster Abbey.

One such fugitive was Frances Lord Lovell, one of Richard III’s closest supporters, who plotted rebellion against Tudor King Henry VII from within those walls. In his book, “The Lost Prince: The Survival of Richard of York”, historian David Baldwin raises the theory that the youngest of the two vanished ‘Princes in the Tower’ may have survived as a guest of Colchester Abbey.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, some of the bricks from the abbey were used to build Bourne Mill, while the site was a royalist outpost during the Siege of Colchester.

READ MORE:

Fast forward to more recent times and Mersea Road was once home to a vibrant nightlife, spearheaded by the Gaiety pub and attached music hall, the Sir Colin Campbell Music Hall.

From around 1897-1963 this lively venue and bar was popular with residents.

According to local historian Jess Jephcott in “The Inns, Taverns and Pubs of Colchester”, the famous music hall comedian Little Tich (Harry Relph), best known for his acrobatic ‘Big-Boot Dance’, made his first stage appearance here aged 16 in 1884.

Sadly, the venue is no more and like much of the street is now residential.

However at least the Gaiety escaped the fate of Colchester’s historic first cinema, The Empire. Built in 1911 as The Vaudeville Electric Theatre, it was renamed The Empire in 1926 and saw many Colchestrians lining up to see classic films before its closure in 1959.

The building was demolished in 1971 to make way for the decidedly cycle-unfriendly St Botolph’s roundabout.

Indeed much of the damage to the area was caused by the construction of Southway and the roundabout in the early 1970s which sliced a chunk of Colchester away from the rest and channelled increased traffic up Mersea Road, driving out residents who could afford to escape the rising pollution.

It is hoped that whatever plans are finalised for redeveloping St Botolph’s roundabout, some consideration be given to how to rescue this historic street from the years of neglect it has endured.

Councillor Mark Goacher

Morant Road, Colchester