Off Topic Hull City Centre Public Realm Strategy

We can see the problem, why can’t the people in positions of responsibility see the same problems? The solution is not to build more retail outlets when they can’t fill the ones that are currently empty.

I barely go shopping these days, don’t have the time and it’s not something I’m particularly keen on anyway. The solution should have been to focus retail and eateries all around Princes Quay, Whitefriargate, all linked with the new footbridge over Castle Street to the Fruit Market. A lot of these projects have been in the pipeline for a long time, so why someone didn’t have that vision I find really quite baffling. I’m sure in 15 years time we’ll be having the same discussion about St Stephens facing the same issues as Princes Quay.

 

You’re right it isn’t that simple, unfortunately made worse by poor decisions. St Stephens has only made the problem worse. For all it’s negatives Princes Quay could have been made fit for purpose, everything decent within the City is very conveniently within easy reach from Princes Quay.

 

Princes Quay was fantastic at first. It seemed innovative, it got big names combined with independents, and the top floor was brilliantly done. I was in there for the first time in four or five years this weekend and it was desolate. St Stephens is my least favourite major retail centre in any city in the UK. A long, uninspiring corridor with no distinguishable features. It has some decent names but shopping in there is such a joyless experience. Walking through The Mall in Luton after our game there last month, you couldn't help but wish Hull had gone more down that route. And that's Luton!

I'd love for that circular route from Whitefriargate, Market Place, the whole of the Fruit Market and back down Princes Dock Street to take off in a way similar to The Lanes in Brighton or something like that. We're some way from that right now, but those areas are Hull at its best and certain areas there seem to be heading in the right direction. I was really impressed with Trinity Market, but it's so detached from everything it's very easy to miss.

 

Has the lettering been chopped off? It might have been better to sell it to someone who values it and used the money to demolish the bridge.

 

High street retailers demanding bigger and more regular shaped footplates for their stores was a big driver behind many new shopping precincts over the last 20 years - I don't know that was the case in Hull, but it wouldn't surprise me. It's unfortunate that those same high street retailers are subsequently the ones getting ****ed over by the superior offerings of internet shopping.

 

Superior None tax paying offerings

 

That's early ibthought next spring ?

 

Speaking to a business acquaintance in Nottingham today. They're bricking whats happening to their business in Notts City Centre. In the last few months, MAC, Bobbi Brown, Urban Decay, Karen Miller, Coast, Jack Wills, Yorkshire Linen, Rococo Chocolates and Debenhams have all closed in the centre with French Connection closing in January. I don't shop in Hull very often, but I suspect these well known brands might not even have landed in Hull.

 

I think it's just most City and Town centres now like this .
The big cities fair better with larger populations and visitors !

 

I wonder how things are going in Norwich?

 

It's a utopia, of course.

 

They’ll be announcing excessive demands for retail outlets and pushing ahead for more.

 

I was approached about this... I laughed at the proposed budget... pure fantasy. I told them the GE (ground engineering) alone was over 2.5 billion...
It’s PR stunt nothing more

 

There week job in China...