I love our fair city, but on Sunday after a meander around the Marina and a healthy lunch at Cafe Wilson on the marina, I wandered into the City Centre. It's ages since I've wandered around. I have to say it's hugely depressing. Boarded up shops, empty shops, closing down last chance for a bargain shops. In general mostly what's left was just ****. You're well catered for if you want something for a quid, pawn something or cash convert, fast food or a mobile phone. It's bleak, I'm not sure how it stacks up with other cities and the percentage of boarded up shops, because it didn't look great. I only hope that the planned Siemens factory brings in some serious revenue, as frankly Hull needs it to give retailers some confidence that disposable income will stay in the city. At present 45 minutes to Leeds or 80 minutes to Manchester looks a far better proposition. Princess Quay looks good with the slightly better food offerings on the lower deck, the cinema on top deck, the rest of the shops have gone distinctly downhill, probably the St Stephens factor. Which is bizarre in itself, an enclosed shopping 'street' that leaks when it rains! Bonkers!
I heard the Prinny Quay Game has closed, that won't help the appearance of the place as you walk in. They have plans to redo Whitefriargate and restore it to its former glories but not sure how that will work given that half the shops are closed. I think it was suggested that they would strip back the shops down there to their original facades. Online stores and big supermarkets like Tescos selling everything are killing city centres, not to mention the ubiquitous coffee shops everywhere. I never will buy into the coffee culture unless they slash the prices, not paying a couple of quid for a cup of coffee that probably costs 5p to make.
To be honest I thought it was utter ****e. My brother lives in Hull and always bigs it up and says the city center is better than Leicester, but I was completely disappointed I thought there was **** all about. I was looking for a new hat at the time and couldn't find one shop in the enter city that sells alpine stars/monster energy etc clothing. Guess it depends what kind of stuff you're after for which cities suit you but like I say there's was next to nothing that took my fancy in hull apart from some Le Shark trainers and a Lonsdale tank top Plenty of decent women though which is in stark contrast to the portrayal most people have!
Not sure about the women Bob but you are right about the shops, tend to get most things online nowadays myself, probably a bad thing but there you go.
There's been a fair few amount of lookers about the odd few times I've ventured into the center. Guess as soon as they opened their mouths it spoilt them a bit as they were completely chavtastic, but a gag or a decent pair of ear muffs would soon sort that problem out. Those 2 items are an essential with 90% of women anyway
Aye, sad that, I suppose Gamestation has closed too. People get their games online nowadays as it tends to be cheaper, I admit I do it. Guess I'm part of the problem.
They closed hundreds across the country the other day when they went into admin. There's still the one in St. Stephens which is convenient but the other one always had a lot more stuff in.
Hull accents not too bad it's scouse ones that kill me, like that Jeniffer Ellison, she's a loverly looking lass but as soon as she opens her gob your ears start to bleed
Agree with that, it's tiny that one in St Stephens, probably lower running costs or more footfall there or whatever the business bods call it
I like a scouse accent on a bird, think it sounds filthy as ****, specially when they start talking dirty
Bob , You plastic. No boy from Ull would dare to utter a bad word about the ****tiest place on earth if La Shark and Lonsdale were readily available. My mate works in Kabul and came back with a pair of Lonsdale jog pants, over the moon he was. FACT.
Knew the la shark/Lonsdale reference would reel you in! What about Giorgio tops? Or Lee Cooper jeans?
If they've only got one shop now they might try increasing the range in the smaller one even if it means reducing the shelf space of each game. Of course they're going to have a lot of free space anyway since the likes of Electronic Arts won't give them games to sell any more.
I think if you walk down Whitefriargate and King Edward St, then yes, it's depressing due to closed down shops/pawn shops, but that is all due to the recession. Princes Quay should reduce it's retail offering to 1 deck, IMO and become more of a leisure place. As you've mentioned Vue on the top deck, which has the best picture quality in Europe and the restaurants on the bottom deck (which is still being added to - apparently Wagamama is opening in there too), which leaves the 2 decks inbetween, if they picked the more quality retailers and let the others go out onto the high street, it would leave a full deck to be turned into bars, bowling, gym etc... similar model to The Quay in Newcastle and kinda like The Printworks in Manchester. Jameson St has improved with it almost being full-let now. An upmarket 'oriental restaurant' is opening in the former TJ Hughes building over 2 floors, with open space cooking infront of you and VIP booths. Men's clothing offering has also got much better in the last couple of years; CULT, Niche, a second PREM Menswear, Size?, Bronx and Van Mildert have all opened bringing new brands to the city such as Vivienne Westwood and Pretty Green, to join the likes of Brookes and Bolo that were already here. The main problem is that people move in circles, it's the same as drinking circles on a night out... people talk about the marina, then Bev Rd, then Prinny Ave, then Newland Ave, Old Town etc, etc.... shopping moves in circles just the same.
Dazzar, I know you always paint Hull in a positive light, and recession aside I was massively disappointed. I think it will take years for the Centre in Hull to recover. It could do with a bit of Mary Portas lovin'. I agree with the drinking in circles, not so much shopping in circles. There's an increase in out of town developments, which Hull hasn't really suffered to badly with. The only other move slightly out of centre is St Stephens, which is a strange old place, massive, filled with not a lot. CULT is only any good good if you want to buy something 'Superdry' *cough* *hideous* *cough*, Bolo it would appear is struggling as the shop has reduced in size. There is, in my opinion very little incentive for disposable income to stay in the city, other than as you say dining and nights out. The rest is pretty poor unless you want a nice watch, Ian Blowers is probably one of the best independents in the country.
I live and work in HU1, so I see its changes day by day. Yes, there are many shops boarded up across the City centre. Unfortunately, this is a nationwide problem, and one that has hit Hull especially hard (don't these things always seem to?). I have, however, heard in separate reports that Doncaster has the highest percentage of empty shop units in the UK, and then the same thing about Dewsbury. I think St Stephens has taken a lot away from the Whitefriargate side of town. Some of the empties can be accounted for here, but it's just a reflection of the sad state of the British economy at the moment I think. I quite like our City centre. I think it looks better now that St Stephens and the new interchange is there (Bob, I'm guessing you'd never visited 7 or 8 years ago when the old bus station was there, and the derelict offices in front of the train station?), it's tidied a dreadful eyesore up quite nicely. It is a shame that when people from other towns come here and step out of the interchange, the first things they see are massive empty shop units where TJ Hughes & Argos used to be. I don't know what you do about it, but it's not good. But, from living here all my life, I can tell you that the last 6 or so years have seen drastic improvement in the City centre. It's just that the recession has stalled things somewhat, and in fact pulled it back a bit with the shop situation. The 90s, I recall, were a particularly sad time for HU1. It had been left to rot. Things are better, on the whole.
Am I the only one who thinks St Stephens is massively overrated? People talk about it like it's gods gift to man. The only decent thing in there is Nandos.
