Your help pls Bradford/Shipley

buryman
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Re: Your help pls Bradford/Shipley

Post by buryman »

I remember Swan Arcade very well, a wonderful building which symbolised Bradford's premier position in the wool trade. Arndaleised in the early 60s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Arcade,_Bradford
Vorpal
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Re: Your help pls Bradford/Shipley

Post by Vorpal »

arnsider wrote:The same sort of development has blighted other large UK towns.
Architecture and cheap finishes have got progressively worse and sixties developments now showing their age are being abandoned for brand new ones.
This has happened in Bristol with broadmead being neglected in favour of Cabot Circus.
I looked for a cafe in Kirkgate, Bradford and was pretty dismayed at how it was showing its age.
I took a stroll from my hotel on Bridge Street over to the Broadway center and sure enough, the pavement was lifted here and there and men were doing remedials to the block paviors. They just cannot get this block paving right and in every large town and UK city, cobbles have been riven up in favour of these crappy, fired earth offerings.
My old neighbour in Bristol was a Building services Engineer on Cabot Circus and he reckoned it was cheap and nasty.
Historically, Cityscapes were owner occupied, but now everywhere is owned by developers who just want a quick buck and to then move on.
That's why the chav population is forever Brain washed and groomed into weekend shopping.

Not just large ones. Braintree (pop. ~150,000) and Halstead (pop. ~12,000) in Essex are both market towns, but have lost shops, and shoppers to the Braintree Freeport outlet mall (on the edge of town, and easily accessible from the A120). In Braintree, the town is large enough that most of the shops that moved out have been replaced with a combination of small, independent shops and charity shops. But Halstead had some empty shop fronts, even before the COVID downturn.

Some other towns nearby might have suffered, as well, but they had shops or centres that were unique enough to continue to thrive. Coggeshall, for example, has a combination of antique shops and small independent shops. It might have struggled, but two National Trust sites, and a couple of decent restaurants also continue to attract people.

Braintree District Council recognised the problem and planned some development in the Brintree centre. Although I responded to planning proposals, asking for better cycling routes and additional (good) cycle parking, I moved away, and have no idea what happened with it.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
arnsider
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Location: Carnforth, Lancashire

Re: Your help pls Bradford/Shipley

Post by arnsider »

A bit off topic, but out of town Malls like the Trafford center and Meadow Hall are in huge trouble as the value of the asset is being decimated by Covid 19 and the more creeping downturn in retailing. I for one won't be at all sorry. We have lost huge amounts of manufacturing industry while other european countries have retained theirs. Our appetite for junk has rendered us the debt capital of europe.
My old Geography teacher used to tell us that we must export or die! What, worthless bonds and I O U's?
Carlton green
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Joined: 22 Jun 2019, 12:27pm

Re: Your help pls Bradford/Shipley

Post by Carlton green »

arnsider wrote: 26 Jun 2020, 12:48pm A bit off topic, but out of town Malls like the Trafford center and Meadow Hall are in huge trouble as the value of the asset is being decimated by Covid 19 and the more creeping downturn in retailing. I for one won't be at all sorry.

We have lost huge amounts of manufacturing industry while other european countries have retained theirs. Our appetite for junk has rendered us the debt capital of europe.

My old Geography teacher used to tell us that we must export or die! What, worthless bonds and I O U's?
I came across this thread by chance.

I won’t be at all sorry either about out of Town Malls hitting trouble.

The complete stupidity and folly of letting our manufacturing industries waste away is hard to express; your Geography Teacher was right and the future isn’t looking good.
arnsider wrote: 25 Jun 2020, 7:39am Historically, Cityscapes were owner occupied, but now everywhere is owned by developers who just want a quick buck and to then move on.
That's why the chav population is forever Brain washed and groomed into weekend shopping.
That just about sums things up. They’re certainly not social changes for the better.

Interestingly Bradford was once a thriving area, as atoz writes, but somehow it’s all slipped away over the decades.
Don’t fret, it’s OK to: ride a simple old bike; ride slowly, walk, rest and admire the view; ride off-road; ride in your raincoat; ride by yourself; ride in the dark; and ride one hundred yards or one hundred miles. Your bike and your choices to suit you.
thirdcrank
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Re: Your help pls Bradford/Shipley

Post by thirdcrank »

The days when Chancellors resigned if details of their Budget were leaked before their speech in the HoC are long gone. As part of the whirlwind of spin before this next Budget, it's been revealed that £zillions will be sprayed around the city regions and a big dollop will be heading to W Yorks. Among all the speculation in the local media, this scheme has been bandied about as an example of possibilities. That may be because the local BBC has some library footage of a cyclist on a psychopath. Here's a report in a local rag which doesn't mention cycling - so we may just get a few hundred yards of a new tramway.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/ ... ng-3430396

Or with the current emphasis on recycling, it may not be new money at all
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