Arkwright Street Regeneration

[Michael Booth 7,364]

Nottingham City Council is due to regenerate Arkwright Street. In my youth, Arkwright Street was always busy and alive and had a special atmosphere as you walked along looking in the shops. If you wanted anything you'd always find it in Arkwright Street. Will the regeneration recreate those times? We'll have to see.

http://www.nottinghampost.com/future/story-26096746-detail/story.html

[catfan 14,793]

Never in a million years. Small shops no longer viable these days, they cannot compete with the big boys. Sky high business rates are no help either.

More council houses will be demolished than replaced with this idea.

Look all over the city & you will see empty shops everywhere.

The bygone days of Arky St have gone never to return.

Trust this loony labour council to waste £18 million on a futile scheme, mind you it is election year & to some people hair brained schemes like this sound good.

[Annesleyred1865 137]

My memories mainly were Selecta Disc and chasing or being chased by visiting supporters lol

[poohbear 1,360]

Post No.2 said it all...Agree 100%

[loppylugs 8,429]

I'm afraid you are right Catfan. We've talked about Pete's Electronics on arkwright street on other threads. A Great little hi-fi store but that was in the 60s. I doubt he could compete against the big boys these days. I'm sure that would be true of many more small stores. Seems like folks only shop on price anymore, not friendliness and great service.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

With the iternet these day's no small shop could compete, electronics furniture you name it, it's cheaper and can be delivered within a couple of days for a small extra charge.

The corner shop is dead and long gone.

Small shops should have been planned into the new estates before even demolition of the slums were planned.

[TBI 2,351]

Until I was twenty I lived just round the corner from Arky. There was hardly a day I didn't walk some part of it.

Along both sides of it's length, there was something of the order of a couple of hundred small shops including restaurants, half a dozen pubs, two churches, two factories, several banks, a petrol station, several small garages and car sales, interspersed with some residential property. A real diversity and one that was always teeming with folk, many of whom you would know. It was indeed a very vibrant thoroughfare.

That vibrancy also came from the attitudes, values and beliefs of the Medders community back then. Folk these days have a completely different view of life.

Very sadly, that atmosphere could never be re-created in a million years.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

I wonder why no one seems to trust Nottingham City Council.

[TBI 2,351]

Because they're P-wordians!

[Robbie 39]

Just a point of interest, in a sketch called Nottingham and the Mining Countryside, written in probably about 1929, D.H.Lawrence described English towns as a great scrabble of ugly pettiness over the face of the land. and he continues by saying the English are town birds through and through yet they don't know how to build a city, how to think of one, or how to live one............but as citizens of splendid cities they are more ignominious than rabbits.

[TBI 2,351]

Quite profound for an Eastwood fella!

[Michael Booth 7,364]

When I started this topic I asked the question, 'Will the regeneration recreate those times? We'll have to see.' After reading your replies I can see that this will never happen. We'd like it to happen but, like you all state, life has changed so much since the old days of Arkwright Street. By the way, some great posts on this topic.

[catfan 14,793]

One thing I remember Michael was driving a No 43 bus from OMS to TB via Arky, 8 minutes outbound & 10 mins inbound, we flew down Arky !

[TBI 2,351]

I remember waiting at the stop for a 43 once, in the pouring rain, when it just whizzed by without stopping. Was that you catfan?

[barclaycon 569]

I too think that Arkwright Street as we knew it has gone forever.

The idiots that plan Nottingham have seen to that.

There's no possibility of a 'community' being nutured when they just level everything so that it looks like a bombsite - with shiny new trams wandering through a wasteland.

I don't dispute that Arkwright Street was in need of regeneration, with its decaying Victorian buildings and that fact that it was no longer a through route after they built Broadmarsh, but the local planners don't know anything beyond shopping centres and one-way schemes. They have no concept of 'community' or places of leisure (parks, squares etc.) In their minds everything is an earner and if big construction concerns will pay for it, so much the better. Though these are the last companies to rely on to create pleasant places for people. Car is king in most of Nottingham, but if you try and park anywhere its going to cost you a fortune.

As I've said before, a trip into town now is an un-rewarding, expensive experience and for the most part, unnecessary.

I've got great memories of going to the Boat or the Union and then walking back down Arkwright Street late at night to get a kebab or an Indian. It felt totally safe and exhilarating to be in a big city with lots going on.

[Braddy 160]

What happened to Alfreton road with the regeneration? it's still a dump coming into Nottingham, but they are going to put new slabs down on Derby road or something between the church and canning circus. But will it look good?

[poohbear 1,360]

Small shop decline started many years ago for many reasons...not always price.

Monthly wages direct to the bank instead of weekly cash...so the start of bulk buying with credit cards from the big boys...markets and small shops were still cash only.

The ownership of fridges and freezers the start of bulk frozen food buying..once again the near monopoly of the big boys.

The ownership of the motor car coupled with the huge free supermarket car parks....easier more convenient bulk buying.

And nowadays the internet too....they stood no chance...

And look at all the other jobs gone the way of the small shopkeeper..the staff,the window cleaners,van deliveries,shop fixtures and fittings,sales reps,pubs on the high street closing with lack of footfall....the list goes on.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

We have at least six "corner shops" within ten minuets walk of our house.

[TBI 2,351]

We have a 'corner' shop about 200 yards away, newsagent/mini-mart with highish prices. It's open quite long hours and and is usually very busy at most times.

Location, customer demand or USP can make some small retailers very successful. But as poohbear said, most small shop days are long gone. Many still trading only exist on a wing and a prayer.

[mercurydancer 1,104]

It still amazes me why Arkwright Street was demolished to the extent it was.

It was an obvious route to Trent Bridge and West Brigdeford, walkable and pleasant.

Now that the essential infrastructure of the streets has been destroyed, it is not possible for the city to extend down to the Trent along that way.

It was shortsightedness in the extreme and one of the great tragedies of the city planning of the 1980s.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

#18

It's not the shops that have gone in our area but the pubs

Eight(within 10 minuets walk) have gone over the last few years

[alisoncc 379]

Pity the city fathers had so little imagination when they demolished the Meadows. Arkwright Street could have been a Champs Elysee of Nottingham, joining Slab Square to Trent Bridge and the Embankment. A wide tree-lined avenue that could have become the entertainment, art and cultural centre for the MIdlands. Instead they chose to do away with it entirely. I some how doubt that anything they could come up with will redress their previous stupidity.

My memories of the Embankment were of a beautiful area, that should now be central to Nottingham's future. A North or South Bank tourist mecca, instead it's just a chunk of parkland generally ignored except for the occasional fairground event.

[poohbear 1,360]

My memories of the Embankment were of a beautiful area, that should now be central to Nottingham's future. A North or South Bank tourist mecca, instead it's just a chunk of parkland generally ignored except for the occasional fairground event.

I've always thought the above...even a permanent funfair like at the coast.Not everyones cup of tea...but a crowd puller...the attraction of the Trent is very underused. A fast tram service would connect with the centre within minutes.

[TBI 2,351]

I completely disagree. Why should a nice open green space have to have further 'amenity' such as fun-fairs etc or cater for tourists from somewhere else. It's not ignored, it's used for it's purpose, recreation. Have you seen the playing fields at the weekends? Sometimes as many as half a dozen junior football games going on at once. Been down there in the summer, especially the school holidays, the pool and playing area is packed with kids. Walkers, dog owners, joggers, cyclists enjoy the Embankment all-year round and I see plenty of folk about. There's a 20mph speed limit, for safety, but many exceed that as it is, more cars running backwards and forwards, parking up the verges is not a good idea.

We're bemoaning the demise of Arkwright St. The Embankment has been like it is since I was a kid. I hope at least that stays the same, I actually enjoy that area very much.

[don walker 122]

the moronic nottm city council always balls things up when it comes to so called regeneration of an area of nottm. The list is endless, The raping the old meadows , dury hill, etc etc the list is long. The next monumental balls up I recon will be the embankment, some mindless moron in the council house will wake up one morning and shout eureka and that will be the end of the rec, no matter what the Nottingham public think !! .With a little bit of whit and ingenuity good old Arkwright street could have been encompass sympathetically within the new meadows giving the city a cracking old worldy entrance to the city center and the railway station, The council morons could have used the money that they spent on pulling down Arky to restored the old buildings , but these buggers can,t see beyond their fat cigars. they could have done that to Dury HILL !!, What a tourist attraction Arky and Dury would have made !!!!!!.