Derby FutureScape

The new music and performance venue to replace the Assembly Rooms is now not going ahead. The Assembly Rooms before it shut down due to fire Now the Council is run by the Conservatives, they have decided that the better option is to refurbish the existing building. Going to cost about £20 million. What a farce. Over 3 years since the Assembly Rooms was closed due to the fire and now it appears we are back to square one. By all accounts the Assembly Rooms was given a wide berth by promoters who thought the sound and acoustics was poor, the venue capacity neither big or small and the layout not great for putting on a commercial show. Are all of these concerns going to be addressed in any refurbishment work? I have to admit there are some aspects to the architecture of the building that I like but ultimately the building fails in two key respects. Firstly, as a venue for performance acts, it is just crap, for the reasons mentioned earlier. And secondly, it fails enclose the ...

Concept plans have been revealed showing a new music and performance venue to replace the Assembly Rooms. Although not a full planning application yet, the Council looks serious in putting a plan together and have already got £8.6 million of funding from the D2N2 to help pay for it. The entire project will likely cost over £44 million and will see the existing Assembly Rooms and car park demolished with the new venue to have the capability to host music concerts, sports events, comedy, theatrical performances, conferences and exhibitions and be available for use by both amateur and professional groups. The Council are looking to find an operator to run the new venue so they can have input into the design of the new venue. The proposals come 3 years after the venue closed following a fire. While I am up for Derby getting a new venue, and the Assembly Rooms venue seems particularly unloved, I have my doubts at the location and the constraints of the site. For me, North ...

While reports of the death of the High Street may be a little premature, British High Streets are certainly under threat. Last years Portas Review, was at least recognition that something needs to change. One of the 28 recommendations was that all new out of town development should stop. This simple step may go some way to stop the rot but what is really needed is for new "in-town" development, and Portas identifies a number of ideas to try and bring back some vitality. St Peters Street is Derby’s classic high street and like many other high streets across the country, it is suffering. It is however, an immensely important street for the City - acting as the ribbon connecting the various shopping areas and its health is vital if the city centre is to operate as an effective whole.   St. Peters Street - Derby's classic 'high street'   The "Westfield Effect" (where retailers flee one part of the city to inhabit a new shiny shopping centre...

The long awaited announcement of the governments preferred routes for High Speed Rail 2 north of Birmingham came with few surprises.    North of Birmingham the line will split (the so called Y network) with one route serving Manchester and the North West, with the other travelling through the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and to Leeds. Derby and Nottingham would be served by a parkway station at Toton Sidings, roughly equidistant between the centres of the two cities. While I appreciate that it will be good for Derby in that the city won’t be completely ignored by the new  High Speed Rail network; I am still a little disappointed. I just can't get excited about a station at Toton. At first glance it seems the ultimate compromise, not favouring one city over the other. But even by the governments own economic impact assessments a station at Toton will not generate as much benefits as a station in either of the two city centres. A fear a political d...

There has been a bit of a media babble recently regarding the artist Joseph Wright and the legacy of his work to the people of Derby. A succession of articles in the Derby Evening Telegraph has certainly helped raise the profile of the artist locally and also to put on the agenda the question of how Derby should capitalise on his legacy. Joseph Wright of Derby - The Orrery - his most famous painting, but are we making the most of his legacy? While his works now sit in a 'refurbished' (or should we say 'tarted up'?) Derby Museum and Art Gallery, there is apparently much more to the collection that has been rarely seen by the public, and the current home is surely not befitting the legacy that the Derby Museums trust (aka Derby City Council) is responsible for maintaining. One of the most recent articles in the Telegraph caught my eye. It was about Kevin Ellis of who owns most of the Grade 2 listed but demolished Burnaston House (demolished to make way for Toyo...

The Becket Well area has long been neglected and is truly an eyesore. Even before Debenhams deserted it for the gleaming new Westfield, the area was blighted by a poor environment and a lack of coordinated vision. Plans for redevelopment have come and gone, nothing more than promises unfulfilled.  The opening of Westfield has changed the fabric of the city centre. A fact which needs to be both acknowledged and understood. The Council’s vision for the regeneration of Becket Well was retail led, but with the core retail area now shifting to the east of the city, there would seem little opportunity for this type of development. Anyone want an old department store? But the area is still important to Derby city centre. Victoria Street is still a major route through the city and while not now in the main retail core, Becket Well remains on the retail fringes and a stones throw from the major retail shopping thoroughfare of St. Peters Street. Retail should still play a part in ...