Victoria Centre Extension Nottingham

Victoria Centre development Plans have been announced to expand the Victoria Centre in Nottingham from 980,000 square feet to 1.4 million square feet. The extension will take place to the north of the existing centre over the existing car park and will be within the area bounded by York St, Woodborough Rd and Huntingdon St. The new extension will include the following:  A 200,000 square foot department store at the very north of the extension. This could be occupied by Marks and Spencer, Debenhams or Selfridges although the latter is less likely A food court in the middle of the extension A cinema 50 new shops A new bus station which comes onto Mansfield road It is planned to complete this extension by the autumn of 2015.  It is hoped that planning permission will be granted later in 2011 with work starting initially with the demolition of York House in 2012.  (Currently opposite our offices).  After the extension the Victoria Centre will be one of the largest 10 shopping centres in the UK.

Broadmarsh Centre Extension Nottingham

The Broadmarsh Centre extension At virtually the same time as the Victoria Centre extension (see above) the owners of the Westfield Broadmarsh centre to the south of Nottingham City Centre have announced plans to extend the size of the shopping centre 400,000 square feet to 1.1 million square feet. This project will start in 2012 and be completed by 2015. The Centre will then include a Marks & Spencer and Debenhams.  There have been a number of previous plans to extend the Broadmarsh which have not proceeded. However the owners feel that the time is now ripe and believe that the economy will improve over the next 4 years therefore making the project viable.  These are the important points;  The Broadmarsh car park and bus station will be demolished and moved to an area south of Cliff Road    Buildings to the west of Carrington Street and north of Canal Street will be cleared        The site will have a major department store which could be either Debenhams or Marks & Spencer There will be a new pedestrian route from Loxley House (now occupied by the City Council) to Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery There will be a new tram stop by the new centre There will be a square (called Harrington square) north of the junction of Carrington Street and Canal Street There will be a pedestrian access route between the railway station and Lister Gate up to the Market Square Colin Street itself will be closed and redeveloped Canal Street will be closed to traffic which will go on the relief road south of the railway station It has been announced that Hollister and Colt will open in the first phase It is suggested that Harvey Nicholls will have a store

Victoria Centre Expansion and Broadmarsh Expansion

It is intriguing that plans for both centres have been announced very much at the same time and to be completed in the same year 2015. Nottingham has always been a prime retail city which has “punched above its weight”. Unfortunately in recent years both Centres have suffered from a lack of investment and to that extent these plans are long overdue. Neither centre at present is distinguished architecturally both having been completed in a brutalist concrete style. It is certainly hoped these extensions will be better designed because a crucial selling point of any city these days is its architectural design.  The other interesting issue raised is competition between the centres. Together they will be a massive presence in the city of 2.5 million square feet. To survive and be profitable they clearly need to draw in a large number of shoppers from outside the city. Between themselves there is likely to be a substantial amount of competition which can only be good. Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and Harvey Nicholls have all committed themselves to the Broadmarsh extension. The Victoria Centre extension will have just 1 department store (it already has two within the existing centre – House of Fraser and John Lewis). The centre has announced that it is in talks with 2 or 3 retailers and it is believed that those talks are at an advanced stage.  Selfridges have been spoken of with regard to both centres. However Selfridges does seem uninterested in expanding. The Victoria centre does have the advantage of existing stores. It is already more of an established centre with its size of over 900,000 square feet as opposed to the Broadmarsh’s 400,000 square feet. Will the Broadmarsh have a problem filling its development? Both centres will depend on an overall expansion of the UK’s economy.

Recession, the internet and the future

At the moment we are still experiencing the aftermath of the UK’s worst post war recession but it does seem likely that there will be some economic expansion in the years up to 2015. If there is no such recovery both centres could be in difficulty.  A further issue for both centres and shopping generally is the effect of the internet. Our own view is; The internet only displaces bricks and mortar shopping in certain areas eg books, CD’s, films etc. In large areas such as clothing, furniture, etc it is likely to have less effect. There is however clearly a need to link shopping into other leisure activities such as the cinema and restaurants / café’s. The owners of the Victoria centre have clearly seen this including a cinema and food court in the extension. Shopping is a major British activity (Napoleon called us a nation of shopkeepers but it is more likely that we are a nation of shoppers). In a largely secular society shopping (and football) appears to be the main religion. There is little doubt that these two developments together with the Eon development (see below) should have a positive effect on the Nottingham economy. Where there could be a problem is in other shopping streets. The most successful shopping streets in Nottingham are those which lie between the two centres eg Clumber Street, Bridlesmith Gate and Wheeler Gate. Other streets for instance Friar Lane, Angel Row and particularly Hockley could well experience the sorts of problems that the streets in Derby have experienced due to the opening of the Westfield centre there.   We have raised the question above as to whether Nottingham can support the two expanding centres. A report by Experian suggests that it could. Experian suggests that the amount of money spent on shopping on Nottingham will expand by £700 Million to £2.4 Billion by 2018. It suggests that some of that money will come from shoppers who currently go to Derby, some from Leicester and Loughborough and some who shop at Meadowhall and in Birmingham. More of a problem for Nottingham may be that some of the growth will come from local centres such as Arnold, Sherwood and Beeston.   Tesco at the Eastside, Nottingham The site will include, if planning consent is granted, a Tesco store. Tesco would like to build a supermarket of approximately 100,000 square feet in size. In December 2010 Tesco submitted an application to Nottingham City Council for a huge mixed use development on the east side site. Tesco plans to build a store of 122,000 square feet. There will be a community centre and a 6 storey, 25,000 square foot office block built on the site.   This application has aroused opposition. A campaign group has been organised against it and there are objections on the grounds of threats to local shops, increase in traffic, lack of consultation and lack of need for another Tesco.  The Nottingham City Council are known not to be happy about this application. Apart from the issues raised above they feel that it may detract from the major shopping developments in the Nottingham city centre eg the Victoria Centre and the Broadmarsh Centre.   Eon building  A 105,000 square foot 9 storey building is being built next to the Guildhall on the corner of Burton and North Church street in the city centre. The building will be completed in October 2012. This will clearly be a substantial building which will do much to regenerate the northern part of the city centre. This is on the same block as the Firestation and Central Police Station both are which likely to be redeveloped in future years. The aim is to turn this part of the City into a business quarter.  East side development, Nottingham The east side city development is one of the largest regeneration schemes of its kind in the UK. When completed it is hoped to provide high quality office space for 15,000 workers and create 5000 new jobs. It will include 1.3 million square feet of residential property and 200,000 square feet of leisure and retail space. It is bounded by London Road, Nottingham on the west side (direct route from Trent Bridge, Nottingham to Nottingham City Centre) and by Manvers Street, Nottingham on the east side.   Victoria Leisure Centre, Nottingham This centre is in Sneinton market place and is part of the east side and North of the East Side Development (see above). The old centre is being replaced with a new swimming pool. It will have a separate teaching pool, and a children’s fun area. It will also have a new café, fitness suite and health suite. The existing clock tower is being kept but the rest of the building has been demolished. It opens in 2012.   Sneinton Square, Nottingham This is the space adjacent to the Victoria Leisure Centre (see above). A new square is being created which will be completed in December 2011.  All these projects the rebuilding of the Victoria Leisure Centre, Sneinton square and the Nottingham East Side Development are an imaginative attempt to regenerate deprived parts in Nottingham. These areas all border the comparatively deprived areas of St Anns and Sneinton. Odeon cinema site, Nottingham  This is the proposed development of the former Odeon cinema site on Angel Row, Nottingham. It was originally to be converted into offices but now there is a proposal to create post graduate student housing. This application is controversial because of its height. It would overshadow Bromley House Library which is next to it and which was built in 1822. Whilst recognizing the need to protect the past (which is not always respected in Nottingham) we seriously wonder how far the prohibition on tall buildings in Nottingham makes sense. As a country we have limited amounts of space and the Green Belt should if at all possible be protected.

Nottingham City Centre - Recent Developments

In our previous section we comment on developments that are coming to Nottingham city centre. In this section we comment on recent developments.   Nottingham Contemporary  This is Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery which opened in 2010. It has events and exhibitions in the main devoted to contemporary art. It is a building in a contemporary style and is we feel an exciting design. The interior is especially impressive and it has a café.  Nottingham Contemporary is on Weekday Cross just by Fletcher Gate which is on the route of Nottingham’s first Tramline (NET.1 Line). Trinity Square Development, Nottingham This development is on Milton Street opposite the Victoria Centre. It is the first substantial shopping development in Nottingham for 30 years and has had an unhappy start. The quality of the architecture has been criticised both by the developer Monk and by the leader of the Nottingham City Council Jon Collins. At this point two years after completion it is not fully let. It does have major names such as TK Maxx, PC World and Waitrose but still has empty retail space.  It is hard to know why it has failed so far. It is probably a development at the wrong time, eg a severe recession.

Population of Nottingham

After the growth of shopping in the city which will result from the expansion of the two centres, Nottingham will be it is predicted, the 6th in the Country in retail terms. The question must be asked as to how a small City can be so highly ranked. We suggest that there are the following reasons;  1) Most importantly Nottingham is not that small when the total urban area is taken into account. If you add together the populations of all areas that join onto Nottingham for instance West Bridgford, Gedling, Arnold, Beeston and Long Eaton amongst others the population is substantial. It is frequently forgotten that the continuous urban area stretches as far into Derbyshire as Ripley. Wikipedia provides a list of 28 of the largest urban areas in the UK as defined by the Office for National Statistics in the 2001 census. On that list Nottingham is 8th with a population of just over 666,000 (the areas above are Tyneside at 6th, Liverpool at 7th, Sheffield and Bristol below Nottingham at 9th and 10th respectively).   2) Nottingham is a very central city. The smaller cities of Leicester and Derby are close to it. Indeed the Derby urban area is only separated by a few fields in a gap between Draycott and Borrowash. Nottingham is also linked by some fairly good roads to these cities eg the M1, A52 and A46 down to Leicester although elsewhere on the site we do argue that Nottingham definitely needs better transport links.