Family in Exeter High Street, c1977, Exeter

Photograph of a family in Exeter High Street, c1977, Exeter

During the 1970s, the main focus of shopping in Exeter began to move away from the section of High Street between Queen Street and Sidwell Street. This movement was accentuated by the opening of the Guildhall Shopping Centre in 1976 and completed with the relocation of Marks and Spencer to a new building on the corner of Queen Street and High Street in 1981. 

In an attempt to improve the ambience and reinvigorate the area, a partial pedestrianisation scheme was introduced in 1977 to cover the section of High Street between Queen Street and Sidwell Street and also the top part of Bedford Street. All motor vehicles, with the exception of local buses and delivery services, were banned from entering the street, pavements were widened, and seats and flowerbeds were installed. The layout of the scheme has been changed on several occasions over the forty five years since it was first introduced, but this picture shows how it looked when it was originally implemented.

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