Town centre improvements

It all comes down to cost, I'm not sure but wasn't the budget cut from around £180 to £50 million by....guess who?

 

Yeah it was ******.

Its a huge building.

Ground floor bar. Function room. Fully fitted catering kitchen and 5 bedroom living space on top.

 

Fair question.
If you walk around Barnsley and raise your eyes to the first floor and above you’ll see some wonderful buildings. Late 19th and early 20 century mostly. They are being neglected, presumably because they are not seen as important to the future of the Town, in a terrible way. The worst examples are Eldon Street, Regent Street, Wellington Street and Market Hill but to be honest it’s pretty dreadful all over town.
It might be the fact that I don’t live in town any more that make it a bit more obvious - at least to me. That coupled with the fact that many towns and cities have seen their built heritage as not only part of their future, but a major attractor.

 

Yes. Potential was there. And you wouldnt need to be doing anything OTT.

 

Well known lad from town has it (SR) and has been 'doing it up' over the last couple of years. He's hoping to open before Christmas (dependant on restrictions).

 

Needs to be.

I hate to think how much theyve spent.

Saying that if the police left all the hydroponics you get a few quid back

 

Its looks absolutely brilliant, they should have been hung for letting all that ***** get built in the 60s. The cinema looks good on a night with the leds lit, the bridge will finish it off nicely.

 

They need to break up the backside of the cinema as that expanse of cladding does look monolithic. Hopefully they have realised that themselves and will address it over the duration of the project.

Other than that, I belive they are doing a good job of it.

Great to see the town finally moving into this century.

The mix of retail and leisure within seconds of the interchange is great and once the bridge and square are complete it will look nice.

Just needs the people of Barnsley to stop dropping litter and chewing gum and take some pride in the place to help make it a destination worth visiting over and over again.

 

Have you seen the cladding on an evening? Will look completely different once the bridge is there as well. The bus station needs toning down with a repaint though, shocking looking building.

They're developing the opposite side of the railway line next, the old YEB site.

 

It helps with litter if

a - the council doesnt cover half the bins in the town centre with black bags and hazard tape for a week after the latest lockdown and
b - empty them more often especially in the areas towards the edge of the town centre.

 

You wouldn't be able to take a photo of it one night would you? I've only seen it through the day

 

The whole scheme is due to open in 10 months. The council claim September, but I believe Sports Direct plan to open the new store in July so would expect a bit of a phased opening. It’s extremely unlikely that all the units will be filled upon opening. The cinema will probably be the last to open as internal fitting hasn’t started yet and that will take a while. The bridge is due for completion in November/ December 21.

The arcade next to JD will have shops on the right side and small kiosk type units on the left, with an additional entrance to the markets. The shop units already taken on the left side are USC/Sports Direct, Flannels (subject to legals), and Next. These are all underneath the car park and on two levels. Prior to USC there’s a gap that provides access to the back of the Alhambra and onto Lambra Road. TX Maxx are taking the unit that’s fully glazed facing the public square, next to the entrance to the markets and Market Kitchen.

The brick and stone cladding used along Cheapside is really nice. The cladding used on the cinema and all along the back facing Harborough Hill road is awful. The ‘honey’ colour just doesn’t work with the scale on that side of the building. There’s no other colour to break up that side and cinema buildings are boxy by nature. It’s telling that no CGI’s were released from that view. I feared after reviewing the plans that it would look awful - and it does. It looks cheap and it’s such a shame when that’s that’s the most exposed element of the building. However, it’s still an improvement on what was there before. A living wall or a better lighting strategy could’ve helped, but I would’ve either continued the brick cladding all the way around, or used two different colours to break it up a bit. The car park cladding is quite nice, but it’s still a bit much. However, the car park is 1.5 storeys higher than initially planned due to footprint of the car park being made smaller.

The small window on the railway side underneath the car park is part of the Next store. It looks tiny and pointless too. They could’ve glazed the whole side where the Next store sits under the car park.

The bowling and restaurant building looks much better as it uses more stone and brick cladding than the cinema block. The bridge will be in the same stone as this building so should help to break up the other side a little.

The whole area will look much better than it did before once all the public realm work is finished and the hoardings are removed. Tenant signage will help to break up some of the cladding too. However, this development has been a long time coming and, given these buildings will stand for years to come, it’s such a shame they’ve made a huge mistake with style and colour of the cladding - especially on the back of the development.

 

Depends how fast I'm driving up Harborough Hills next time I'm walking the dog I will do.

 

Thanks a lot. I don't get to the town centre very often these days especially not at night so I've only really seen it a few times.

One thing that looks a lot better than I expected is the market kitchen balcony with the sun shade things on it and lights. Very classy for Barnsley is that.

 

True, but i manage to never drop litter regardless.

I have pockets, or quite often a carrier bag that I can use. Or I hold onto it until I find a bin.

 

Yes the pub at the top of Dog Lane was the Three Travellers. My grandparents ran it back in the 50s (mebbe into the 60s). And yes I just about remember the old library being in the Civic before the new old one opened on Shambles Street.

 

I heard they were Polish. Took the police ages to remove all the weed plants in there. They’d got a right old jungle growing in there

 

You and me both mate. I lose count of the number of people who just drop litter anywhere. Just no need to do that, just put it in your pocket until you see a bin, or take it home