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CREATIVE INDUSTRIES CLUSTER
The creative community has grown rapidly in recent
years with the Blackfriars andWestgate Street
areas having established themselves as a hub for
creative businesses.
These areas are home to a world renowned, bespoke,
designer shirt maker, Gloucestershire Arts and Craft
Centre and Blackfriars Innovation Hub, which provides
subsidised quality workspace for small businesses.
Gloucester has a national reputation for being an
outstanding film and TV filming location. Gloucester
Cathedral and its Cloisters have provided a backdrop
for the Harry Potter films and the BBC’s Shakespeare
season, while the Docks area is a magnet for film
makers.The city has also hosted some cutting edge
arts festivals including JOLT, Crucible and Paint Jam,
and other festivals including Tall Ships and Quays events.
Which? Magazine
has voted Gloucester Cathedral as
the UK’s joint second historic attraction with over
320,000 annual visitors. Its location, adjacent to the
creative hub, supports a growing creative community,
as well as being home to a stonemason training centre,
one of only nine attached to cathedrals in England.
FINANCE & INSURANCE CLUSTER
Gloucester’s financial services sector is thriving.
Specialist insurer Ecclesiastical Insurance Group has
its headquarters within the city centre.
Other leading companies with a strong presence
include Ageas, PRO Insurance Solutions and
JLT Group.
ICT CLUSTER
Gloucestershire supports a growing cluster of
information security, web hosting, CAD/CAM
development, defence communications and security,
ICT infrastructure development and IT content
management businesses.
There are numerous start-up success stories with
many indigenous businesses growing to become market
leaders, such as MessageLabs (Symantec.cloud), which
was sold to Symantec for $700 million.Worldwide ICT
companies see Gloucester as an outstanding location,
including US firm InterCall, which has based its
European Corporate HQ in the city.
It is no surprise then that Gloucester has been rated
as the second most IT literate place in the UK.