the centre of york is for tourists. I d hazard a guess that the design outlet in york took more than St Stephens Square and the Princes Centre put together?
The designer outlet in York is doing ****, I know people in there who'd pay you six figures(a real six figures, not one of patties) if you could get them out of their lease and move their store to St Stephens.
Really? The better shops always look incredibly busy, if they aren't busy they must be ****e. St Stephens is truly horrible - who the **** dreamt up that idea wants kicking in the knackers - several times. It's massive with **** all in it. **** shops, leaking roof, drafty, Ill thought out for pedestrians. I am pro Hull, but it's rank. All it has done is further disperse shopping across Hull. Whitefriargate now looks like a shanty town and Princess Quay looks like a car boot sale. Saville Street is now redundant almost apart from **** rugby shops and Blowers. The centre planners couldn't have ****ed it up more if they'd tried.
i like St Stephens, however i am glad our centre is like it is (sounds strange i know) but have any of you ever visited Blackburn centre? NOW that is dreadful, The Mall (regional chain of shopping centres basically) opened there an every possible named shop has moved into it, therefore leaving the actual centre to rapidly decline and go into disrepair, it's shocking. All i'm saying is atleast we still have other areas (although not the best) outside of just one shopping centre.
3 shopping centres ? Prospect, Quay and St Stephens. The full impact of St Stephens hasn't been felt yet. But I'd say it's doing an excellent job of killing our City centre.
I'd rather have 3 shopping centres, than just one, thus more choice. It is a common thing in the UK for shops to move to inside locations purely down the weather, if we was in a warmer climate most shops would be outside down little pedestrianised roads with cafes stretching as far as the eye can see. But hey ho it's England we shop inside because the weather is awful 80% of the time. Most city centres are exactly like ours, apart from your tourist destinations e.g London, York...infact even Mancesters city centre is pretty much all in the Arndale
Im in York quite a lot - especially on a Sunday and its usually rammed , not sure if people are spending as it seems disproportionately made up of what i guess are 12 -20 year olds and then lots of oldies .I find shopping in York is a far more interesting experience than Hull , and in spite of its size compared to Hull im still surprised more cash went through the tills in Hull than York ---- but i bet more stayed in York compared to Hull !
Always busy - plus most shops are discount outlets who wouldn't 'fit' into a main stream shopping centre. York has specific branded outlets like Bicester and Cheshire Oaks and other McArthur Glen sites. There strength is that they all offer a discounted branded proposition at a better price than the high street.
The Prospect Centre should be made into an outlet centre, it needs something to distinguish it from the two newer centre's and bring in more choice. St Stephens definitely has design issues, unless it was designed so it could double up as a wind tunnel, but it can hardly be blamed for the demise of Whitefriargate, that was ****ed many years ago. Princess Quay, in addition to being in the wrong place, ****ed up by not having a proper anchor tenant. There's no way a centre that big should be built without a department store in it, it should have had a John Lewis.
I think Princes Quay is ****, the stores which used to be in there, well I aren't surprised they moved out. The floors always seem to be greasy, the exterior isnt exactly glamorous and some of the tenants in there, how can they afford it? Reduce rents I say and fill it up with established brands, and open up the area where BK used to be, as it looks like a murder scene.
Outlet shopping is simply dire. Independants get strangled. Some brands now design and make lower quality stock just for the outlets (Clarks shoes are one). Shopping areas move, as do buying habits. At this time there are no retailers to fill in the vacant sites. Shoppers are becoming less mobile and the trip "down town" is becoming less of a ritual. We experience day tour shopping, where specific malls attract visitors who shop rather than shoppers visiting to buy. Retailers have got to do more, just like football clubs, to attract footfall. Otherwise we will see shops that are simply billboards for the online presence and empty football stadiums, where it is not worth paying to watch live as you can watch online.
My missus works in one of the 'chain' shops in St.Stephen's and she recently told me they're out-performing the York store too. I agree it's not we thought out for pedestrians as they've filled with clutter, but to say it's massive with nothing in it is an understatement. The problem with Hull City Centre is that retailers in this day and age want bright, spacious, airy, modern units with good lighting and high roofs... nowhere in the centre offered that, which is one of the reasons it attracted stores that didnt have a prescence in Hull before. Massively agree about Prospect Centre... it needs to ditch the tacky bees and go for the outlet stores, but it seem Princes Quay are tapping into that market and I've been quite impressed with what they've started to do in there. Bolo have moved into PQ next door to Van Mildert (another addition of the last 18 months), not sure if it was just for the christmas period or not, but Religion had a factory outlet store in Princes Quay when I went in a week bedore xhristmas. There is the new celebriry autograph picture shop thats opened, been told Apple are to open a store in Princes Quay in the next few months too. PQ needs to focus their ground floor on leisure, with the quayside restaurants and fill the resr of the floor with casual pre-night out bars, as its easy walking distance to the old town, with perhaps a mini casino located there too. The fround floor then becomes an evening destination. PQ was doinf badly, but looks to be slowly but surely turning itself around. Fill the eateries up and it'll start to give it a whole new outlook. Agree Whitefriargate was done in years ago, needs a new purpose. Probably why Schuh is set to relocate to St.Stephen's too.
My missus works in one of the 'chain' shops in St.Stephen's and she recently told me they're out-performing the York store too. I agree it's not we thought out for pedestrians as they've filled with clutter, but to say it's massive with nothing in it is an understatement. The problem with Hull City Centre is that retailers in this day and age want bright, spacious, airy, modern units with good lighting and high roofs... nowhere in the centre offered that, which is one of the reasons it attracted stores that didnt have a prescence in Hull before. Massively agree about Prospect Centre... it needs to ditch the tacky bees and go for the outlet stores, but it seem Princes Quay are tapping into that market and I've been quite impressed with what they've started to do in there. Bolo have moved into PQ next door to Van Mildert (another addition of the last 18 months), not sure if it was just for the christmas period or not, but Religion had a factory outlet store in Princes Quay when I went in a week bedore xhristmas. There is the new celebriry autograph picture shop thats opened, been told Apple are to open a store in Princes Quay in the next few months too. PQ needs to focus their ground floor on leisure, with the quayside restaurants and fill the resr of the floor with casual pre-night out bars, as its easy walking distance to the old town, with perhaps a mini casino located there too. The fround floor then becomes an evening destination. PQ was doinf badly, but looks to be slowly but surely turning itself around. Fill the eateries up and it'll start to give it a whole new outlook. Agree Whitefriargate was done in years ago, needs a new purpose. Probably why Schuh is set to relocate to St.Stephen's too.
I still feel that a big mistake at Princes Quay was putting the cinema on the top floor, the ad hoc market that was there from the the start seemed ok to me so it occurred to me that the very same market, or something like it, could be situated on the upper floor of the Prospect Centre, which, as far as I know, is not in use most of the year until Father Christmas makes a visit for a couple of weeks. I don't think the upper floor of the Prospect Centre has been used for anything since all the food outlets and the such were gone, but someone may put me right on that assumption.
Princess Quay used to be anchored by Allders. The reality is John Lewis etc don't see Hull as an attractive proposition. St Stephens has stretched trade right across the city. It's the worst shopping centre of modern construction I have ever been in. Princess Quay is in a prime location, precisely where focus on delivering quality retail should have centred. Right near museums/old town/marina. It's completely unique and reflects partly the heritage of Hull by been located over the Quay. We now have 3 terrible shopping centres, rather than one outstanding one and one poor one. My money by and large gets spent in Manchester - Hull and retail are light years behind. The ideas on the radio were excellent for the Hockney gallery and cruise terminal - desperately need to make those happen. I would guess that there are more boarded up or empty shops in Hull than any other city this size. Which begs the question - Was St Stephens necessary? They would have been better off developing Princess Quay and focused on filling the empty shops.
I beg to differ glenn, Manchester has always had a better profile than Hull, dating back to when I remember the Busby Babes. Hull has suffered disproportionately over many years from many other metropolitan areas, we have, in short been kicked in the kna**ers by various governments. Even such things as rail services get short shrift, Manchester has 2 stations, then there is the proximity of Liverpool and the such, Hull have Leeds, York and Doncaster. I'm not decrying those venues but its an uphill struggle for Hull. And I have to say, not knowing your location in East Yorkshire, that you would rather spend your money in Manchester, with all the associated costs of getting there, than rather spend it in Hull City Centre. Reminds of those people who say about the euro pint in Benidorm on sale but fail to mention its cost them about £300 to get there.
But rather than put right our existing shopping centres, we build another. It would have been much better creating a focused centre around the Marina - which is unique for Yorkshire. Use that as a USP (Unique Selling Point). But instead we build a bland centre miles from our traditional shopping centre. It hasn't done the centre any favours really, as many new outlets that have opened adversely more will have shut.
I don't know - but it's highly likely that, in order to build the new bus station/'interchange', the finance had to be anchored by a commercial development. Factor in the fact that Hull City Council don't seem to be able to differentiate between their brains and their arseholes and......Bingo! Another wrong decision.
The "Brains & Arseholes" comment is classic Stan, and so true. The council in Hull are totally inept, but don't seem to get changed (voted out)
