The Glassworks

Amazed that they won’t be open for Christmas peak time and to open in the doom and gloom months that follow seems like it’s going to fail.

 

Like I said, I’ve no idea what the fit out timeline is so don’t know for certain.

 

TGI Friday’s is due to open on Wednesday 16th November.

 

Boom battle bar or the unit supposed to be the bar has been a long time in the waiting. I think it’s the one unit that’s been with the solicitors the longest by far without any Formal announcement. Also is marshmallow blends still going ahead does anyone know? I spoke to the lady a while ago now and she was saying it was being fitted out but that was months ago now.

 

Now confirmed to be opening in February 2023. Fit out has started on site.

 

I suspect it’s not a priority, or it’s taking longer than expected to agree all terms. If it’s being operated by a local franchisee then it might be that they don’t have the capacity to fit it out until next year. They’ve been opening quite a few new sites recently. That’s the one that’s never been officially announced, so I guess time will tell.

Everything is taking longer after covid. Buying houses, building new cars, so it’s not out of the ordinary for these projects to be delayed too. TGI Friday’s have cancelled any new openings next year due to the market, so I guess we’re lucky that ours was already signed before they made that decision.

The leasing for The Glassworks has switched to another company now so maybe we’ll see some new announcements in the new year.

Urban Burgers looks like it’s pretty close to opening too - I’d expect that to be ready in the next couple of weeks.

 

Went to Cineworld for the first time last weekend, brilliant venue. Living in the town centre it's fairly easy for me but we try and use town as much as we can, we've been to Meadowhall once since Christmas 2019. The towns folk need to now use the facilities on offer.

Feel they have made a big mistake with the library, I'm a member due to recent degree study so I have used the new one but it doesn't need to be over 4 floors and have a rooftop area that's barely used. This would have made a nice restaurant/bar, it's in a prime position and could have had the floors split into different venues. Lack of rooftop bars across the square is disappointing - feel they've missed a trick there.

 

Big waste the square over Christmas, ideal opportunity for a weekend Christmas Market.

Pity.

 

Think Leeds didn't have one due to cost issues, BMBC probably couldn't afford one too.

 

They say speculate to accumulate. But hold on they are spending it all on the civic and council offices i believe.

 

Open

 

Didn't they fundraise the money specifically for the Civic? why would they spend that money on a weekend Christmas market?

 

Another Brexit bonus - they had a tie in with a German town/city - stall holders came over - obviously the sunny uplands of Brexit didn’t anticipate the visa import/export nightmare for things like that, so not happening anymore.
Wakefield had a Christmas Fayre though in the new tile yard north development next to the Hepworth - was packed both weekends - but local ie British owned stalls selling Christmas stuff- as opposed to the Leeds one which seemed to basically be a giant **** up with not much retail as I recall.

 

I'm talking more about a weekend one, they did an international food one a couple of years ago and it was busy. Seems they've slipped up with this one.

There's still a Christmas Market at Leeds isn't there?

 

They've sent their workers to work from home so that they can suffer even more with the cost of living.

 

Not really sure why. They charge people to rent out the stalls and it's not a small amount either.

We should have an autumn fair with rides. I'm sure we used to have that when I was a kid, and after that a Christmas market like Sheffield have

 

Sounds like an Ian Nairn idea

 

I think the appeal of Christmas markets might be starting to wain. Sheffield's was dead yesterday (albeit it was raining), and having spent most of last week in Manchester on a course, parts of theirs was quite quiet despite the City itself being rammed. I overheard one stall holder telling a customer that she'd barely made anything all season.

 

Did you overhear someone say that at Sheffield or Manchester?

 

Manchester. It was someone who had two stalls. One near the Arndale centre, and one in Piccadilly Gardens. The one beneath the Arndale was doing a good trade, but Piccadilly Gardens had been reasonably quiet. I'll be honest, I don't remember what they were selling, but the stalls in Piccadilly Gardens were generally food. It might have been cheese.