This is an artists impression of the Eastern entrance to Parkway through Marsh Lane once the new anchor store has been constructed.
John Lewis have confirmed that they are the new occupants for the new anchor store within the Parkway Development. Demolition work on the incomplete structure of Victoria Square will commence soon, to enable the new superstore to be constructed in time for the planned opening scheduled for Easter 2012.
This is the site of the original Jack of Newbury buildings (until recently the Marks and Spencers car park). Is Jack turning in his grave, or would the building get his approval?
Phew, for a moment there I thought we were going to get saddled with the normal unimaginative, new brutalism that so many of these faceless "clone-retail" areas are afflicted with.....oh, no, ...hang on...
The thing is that the vast majority of Newburians will love it.
And it serves them bloody well right.
But that does not mean they shouldn't have been given a choice does it? You know, been given several ideas / plans / locations to choose from, once they'd agreed thay wanted a clone-retail area.
Or are you one of those who thinks WBC and the Developers automatically know best? I doubt if they (Newburians) will 'love' it, especially when they see what it means to some of the other areas of the town.
Never confuse acceptance with acquiescence or change with progess. And certainly never confuse silence with agreement.
The good people of Newbury should have been asked if they wanted one of these, then where they wanted it, and then tenders to as many companies as possible for ideas and designs. Who knows? they may just have chosen something not so brutal. But they were never given the chance were they? I wonder why?
Could be a lot worse and with petrol prices going through the roof it will do doubt bring a lot more business to the town as people decide not to drive further afield.
A question on the artist's impression, though. What's going on in the foreground?
But that does not mean they shouldn't have been given a choice does it? You know, been given several ideas / plans / locations to choose from, once they'd agreed thay wanted a clone-retail area.
Or are you one of those who thinks WBC and the Developers automatically know best? I doubt if they (Newburians) will 'love' it, especially when they see what it means to some of the other areas of the town.
Never confuse acceptance with acquiescence or change with progess. And certainly never confuse silence with agreement.
The good people of Newbury should have been asked if they wanted one of these, then where they wanted it, and then tenders to as many companies as possible for ideas and designs. Who knows? they may just have chosen something not so brutal. But they were never given the chance were they? I wonder why?
Threep.
You talk a lot of sense, but equally you shouldn't confuse information with patronism (a word?).
I'm from Bristol and the centre of the city was wiped out in WW2. Several shopping centres were built, and those that love Bristol and buy the old books of photos of Bristol (my 80 year old uncle springs to mind) think that the essence of Bristol is lost. But the younger generations love all the new shopping opportunities. Equally they love to shop on Sundays and if it wasn't for God screwing it up, would love to shop on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday. People like you (and I confess I) are pissing in the wind.
Victory to the new town cafe pizza pavement town planners. I walk my dog through town early on a Sunday morning and see the vomit and food collateral that's left behind. That is who our planners court.
Could be a lot worse and with petrol prices going through the roof it will do doubt bring a lot more business to the town as people decide not to drive further afield.
People who are that prudent, won't be spending their money in town when they go 'browsing'.
And certainly never confuse silence with agreement.
The good people of Newbury should have been asked if they wanted one of these, then where they wanted it, and then tenders to as many companies as possible for ideas and designs. Who knows? they may just have chosen something not so brutal. But they were never given the chance were they? I wonder why?
Ask a thousand people for their views and if you're lucky you'll get 300 different answers ..... the other 700 people won't respond as they can't be ar$ed until it's too late......... Taking on the views of 'interested members of the public' and actually implementing them sometimes means you end up with a building that either looks like it was designed by committee or just satisfies the Nimby brigade.
Taking on the views of 'interested members of the public' and actually implementing them sometimes means you end up with a building that either looks like it was designed by committee or just satisfies the Nimby brigade.
As opposed to the stunning and imaginative pile we've been handed?
Assuming that Jack of Newbury liked the place as it was while he was alive (he died in 1519) he won't have liked much that happened thereafter. He would have hated the end of open sewers and the arrival of piped water in the 19th Century. The idea of electricity, paved road surfaces and not having to wade through mud and horse manure to get around town would have depressed him deeply. I'm sure he was very attached to the lice which would, no doubt, have infected both him and his coat and the ever present risk of bubonic plague, cholera, smallpox and the rest would have made life much more exciting and unpredictable than it is now.
But as the graph here http://bit.ly/fK98yl shows, the rot really set in in about 1892 when, apart from a lull which started in 1910 and continued through WW1, the population rocketed covering the fields surrounding Newbury with houses, factories and so on. The horror, the horror.
From all I've read about him, he'd have been ok with progess but not just change at any price. (Although it seems to have been easy to put one past him on the marriage front).
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