Wednesday 2 September 2009

End of Spinning II

Not that I wish to get on my local heritage-type high horse, but the whole street is a disgrace. Ten years ago it was full of fashionable shops aimed at late teens-early twenties and it was building up a reputation for itself as a 'trendy' area (whatever you or I feel about that). Now, take away the Duke and the art gallery/installation place and it's a shit-hole. There are even trees growing out of the buildings!

Blame the recession all you want, but it's been going down thw pan for many a year - presumably a result of ludicrously high rent and subsequent city councils' policy of pouring investment into one particular area to the detriment of the rest. Look at the bottom of Pilgrim Street. Ignore the upmarket clothes shop and the two Italian bars/restaurants; the rest is a mess, particularly the opposite side of the road. Look at Grainger Street, the main route into the city for tourists (and anyone else) coming into the city: most of it, at least until you approach the Monument, is an eyesore, full of rundown shops - and it's been heading this way for years, well into the Labour ('City of Culture') Council's reign.

Having said that, I'd long given up on Spin. Their orders were late too often. Easier (and cheaper) to go with Amazon, even if your product arrives a day or two later than you'd get it in the shops. Unless you're TK and you blag a freebie...

3 comments:

  1. If you double click the picture you'll see a new clothes shop - The End Hunting Co. - which opened this week on the former Spin site. There's also a new offbeat clothes/cards and accessories shop on the opposite corner to the Duke. Maybe this recession thingy is ending.

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  2. I'll believe it when the street is thriving. Isn't the other music shop closing?

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  3. Oh these uber-Grumpmeisters! I like a little urban squalor; I love to wallow in crumbling stucco walls and backstreet filth. Life is not Ikea!
    CJ.

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