The History: Now a bustling seaside resort town and home to a steam railway, its’ history takes it back to the time of the Saxons. About 13 centuries ago, a Saxon called ‘Peaga’ came to Torbay. He was a religious leader of a small group looking to settle somewhere where he could set up his farm and start up his community. He set up his farm (named ‘ton’) and it is now Paignton, it generated from ‘Peaga’s ton’. In Norman times a manor was built and so Paignton developed. One of the oldest parts of Paignton is around Church and Winner Street. Up until Victorian times Paignton kept on expanding in the town, on the coast and on the quay. In the late 19th century Church Street and Winner Street were not big enough to hold all the incoming traders. So the main part of the town moved into Victoria Street and Palace Avenue Road in the early 20th century.
History of the Railway: By the late 18th century, public transport had been established, omnibuses ran from Dartmouth and Brixham to Torquay.
Continued: Winner Street now boasted pavements, and a water cart helped to lay the summer dust. Although the railway system served between Dartmouth and Torquay from 1848, Paignton had to wait until 1859 before they were put on the map. Some say, while others disagree that the official adoption of the spelling PAIGNTON came about because it was misspelt on one of the platform signs. Railway communication bought growth and had more influence on the development of the town than any other event in its history.
I located the old CBD around the Palace Avenue Gardens. By looking at buildings surrounding this area I found dates on some of the buildings. On the theatre nearby the date read 1890. Also the material used to make the buildings is different to that used in the present CBD, the stone in the old CBD looks a lot like Sandstone whereas the buildings in the present CBD in Victoria Street are made from Limestone. The present CBD is Victoria Street, I found this out by looking at the characteristics of a CBD:
1. Big brand name shops.
2. Pedestrian zone.
3. Tall buildings, rather than wide ones as it is cheaper to build up because the land is expensive.
4. Car park nearby for easy access.
5. Lots of people.
6. Street Furniture.
7. Lack of housing.
8. Near to, frequent Public transport.
Data collection methods:
Several Different types of data were collected all using different methods on 17th of September 2001. I have listed them all in the table below:
Individual Street sections over the page with photos and annotation.