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As we trawled the last of the bargains in Woolworths the other day I took the time to gaze at the shocking empty lump that will serve as a reminder that the big name shops are not 'here to save our high streets'. How long we have JJB for I don't know but it now fills half the space once occupied by a beautiful Victorian building. I'm all for new buildings and replacing old with new when necessary, but please let it be as good if not better than what went before.
The woollies 'building' has left us with another problem to rectify, because once again 'forward planning' has failed to provide capacity. Now I appreciate that at the time this mess was allowed through the planning process, many felt that Woolworths would save our high street, in much the same many feel the same about Asda. Did it provide the 'healthy competition' that popular capitalists would have you believe? I don't think so, although it remained, to me and my family, as a pretty good and useful shop for the town.
My problem is for a shop with such a deep plan it has very little frontage and I would be interested to know who on earth would take on a space like this? Admittedly it would perhaps be viable if the side were opened creating a number of bays, although this would be madness opening out onto what is essentially a side street (Priory Street). It was done with the last woollies, but filled by 'big names' and optimising a twin frontage (one in Worthington Street), this being said there is a still a huge amount of wasted space behind New Look, Savers and Ladbrokes. When we talk about the 'sustainability' of high streets and town centres I really can't see how the big players, requiring vast spaces are in any way 'sustainable' These spaces are just not in scale with the town (classic 60's and 70's mentality), other examples in the town are: the space underneath the Inland Revenue (Centurion House?); Tesco Home and Ware on Pencester; the MFI thing and the space above the Charlton centre. Too big to use as one space, yet too rigid or lacking in light to split into smaller yet useful units. Much of the time an 'indoor market' approach is the only choice and we already have one of those!
So what becomes of the twin turreted lump that stands on a site where a delightful facade once stood? What makes it even worse is round the back, so poorly detailed that the green streaks of rain water stain the rendered walls held together by random pieces of galvanised metal.
What were they thinking?
