Grieve's Stairs

Shown on Ordnance Survey Second Edition of 1898. Connected Bedford Street to Lower Bedford Street. Named after Grieve's Ironmongery (HER 7855). During the 1800s the town began to sprawl up the banks towards the higher ground in an attempt to escape the overcrowded riverside. Roads could not be built up the steep gradient and so a series of stairs connected the riverside with the high town. Dwellings, public houses, shops and workshops clustered around these stairs which Hutchinson (1776) described as busy, narrow, dirty alleys.