GILESGATE is one of the oldest and longest streets in Durham. It is built along the top of a ridge and can be divided into two parts, upper Gilesgate and lower Gilesgate.

Upper Gilesgate is known locally as Gilesgate bank, and was featured in last week's Durham Memories.

Lower Gilesgate is perhaps not so well known, as it is often mistakenly thought to be part of Claypath.

Even locals who know the area well have been known to make this mistake. In fact, Tinklers Lane marks the point at which Gilesgate becomes Claypath. Confusingly, the new Claypath medical centre is actually in lower Gilesgate.

Upper and lower Gilesgate formed a continuous street that, for centuries, provided a dramatic entrance to the city from the east.

Unfortunately, this effect was destroyed in the late-1960s when the A690 dual carriageway was built.

The A690 bypasses upper Gilesgate on its northern flank, along the course of an old railway. The new road intersects with Gilesgate at a roundabout that completely severed the link between upper and lower Gilesgate.

The A690 then bypasses lower Gilesgate on its southern flank, and from here on, it is called Leazes Road. Many prominent buildings and a whole section of Gilesgate were removed to make way for this roundabout. The only two buildings to survive were Bede College and a former railway station that is now a hotel.

Fortunately, both were set well back from the street and avoided demolition. They are both accessible from the roundabout.

Station Lane, once a narrow street leading to Gilesgate station from the foot of Gilesgate Bank, is now little more than a sliproad to the roundabout.

Bede College, on the opposite side of Gilesgate, stood on a similar lane called Pelaw Leazes Lane or Bede Bank, and part of this lane is now the A690 Leazes Road.

Among the buildings destroyed to make way for the roundabout were two pubs, a shop called Porters Stores, a drill hall, and several houses and tenements.

Perhaps the best known of the lost buildings was the drill hall, a headquarters for the 8th regiment of the Durham Light Infantry. It was built in 1902 on the site of a soapworks established by the Co-operative Society in 1874.

When the drill hall was demolished in about 1966, the Durham Light Infantry crest was saved from the building and incorporated into the Territorial Army centre.

The centre is set back from Gilesgate roundabout, roughly behind the point where the drill hall stood.

Next door to the drill hall stood the Durham Ox pub, while a little further down, in the direction of Claypath, stood Moody's Buildings, where my mother was born. They were accessible from an enclosed passageway.

On the same side of Gilesgate, but further up the bank, was Station Lane, and near its entrance was Porters Stores. An area called Porters Close was mentioned in tithe records of the 17th Century, but this general store took its name from the Porter family, which established the business there in the 1860s.

In the 1960s, before the building was demolished, it had become the home of Cowies motorcycle shop.

A grocery shop called Johnson and Cosgrove stood on the opposite side of Station Lane from Porters. No doubt there was some rivalry between the two stores.

A couple of doors up the bank from the grocers stood the Volunteer Arms.

Named after Army volunteers, it was also demolished to make way for the roundabout.

All of the buildings I have mentioned were on the north side of Gilesgate.

The most prominent building to be demolished on the south side of Gilesgate was Lowe's Marble Works, which stood close to Bede College.

The Volunteer Arms Hotel in about 1935 We will remember some of these buildings in greater detail in a future Durham Memories.

It is sad to think that this whole area, which was once the site of so much activity, is now little more than a roundabout.

The history of Durham features prominently in my new book, called North-East England: Places, History, People and Legends, published by Business Education Publishers of Sunderland. It is available from all good bookshops.

Published: 02/05/2003

If you have any memories of Durham City, Chester-le-Street, Derwentside or the Durham coast, including old photos or stories of people and places you would like to share with readers of The Northern Echo, write to David Simpson, Durham Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF or email David.Simpson@nne.co.uk. All photos will be returned.