Does anyone know at all what shops are likely to open in Sheffield in the next 2- 3yrs or so (In the new retail quarter)?

Cole Brothers is moving to the new area, that's all I know.

Considering construction work was scheduled to start in early 2005, with phase one complete by 2007, what is the current situation.

With all the reports from current businesses who are based on the proposed site of the new Retail Quarter, stating that Sheffield City Council hasn't even given them a definate date and cannot even give them confirmation that they will be required to relocate!

The Council recently released a statement stating that the new Retail Quarter is definitely going ahead and they remain 100% commited, as do John Lewis.

What's going on?! I really hope that it is simply just a matter of delays with lots of paperwork and planning going on behind the scenes, rather than the project being shelved.

The new Retail Quarter is vital for Sheffield, how can we ever look other cities in the eyes without it!

http://www.sheffield1.com/exhibition/Retail.pdf
http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/index.asp?pgid=3299

Yeah, I remember talking about this in another thread back in March 2003!! Haven't heard anything since.

I posted this link back then

http://www.bdp.co.uk/retail/

you need to click on 'what we do', then 'work in progress' and pick sheffield.


but I can't get it to load. This site was really useful, it had all the plans. Maybe they don't have the contract anymore? or my PC can't handle the site!

I think its CPO problems (acquisition of the land) but it is a delay, not a withdrawal.

Thanks for the link, it seem's my computer can't handle the link either!

I hope someone still has the contract, it would be a huge blow for the regeneration of the city centre if its fallen through. :roll:

The link worked for me - lots of pretty drawings!

I think someone posted in another thread that the project seems to be dead in the water at the moment.

Originally posted by MrHelicopter
The link worked for me - lots of pretty drawings!

Did you read the spiel in the side panel ?

What's all this "Bohemian activity" in Division Street ? ...perhaps an architectural euphemism for gettimg p****ed out of your mind and being sick all over the place :rolleyes:

Yeah the link is working on my home PC, just not my work one!

It seems that BDP are the company who designed th NRQ. Not much point designing it if it doesn't go ahead hey!

Originally posted by Greybeard
Did you read the spiel in the side panel ?

What's all this "Bohemian activity" in Division Street ? ...perhaps an architectural euphemism for gettimg p****ed out of your mind and being sick all over the place :rolleyes:

The best euphemism i've heard in a long time :D

Hmm, well maybe you should spend a bit more time around the Green at other times of day instead of just the inside of bars at night ;)

Mind you, it is a bohemian as Sheffield gets really. It's hardly Soho. :cool:

A small glimmer of hope today that the New Retail Quarter IS going to happen, from a report on the multi-million pound improvement scheme to make Barker’s Pool an even better setting for Sheffield’s Grade II* listed City Hall.

The report frequently refers to the New Retail Quarter and also states that the developers of the New Retail Quarter, Hammerson PLC, will fund the balance for the Barkers Pool improvement scheme with Yorkshire Forward, which in total costs £5.8 million.

Hopefully this is an indication that the New Retail Quarter is simply delayed not shelved :thumbsup:

http://sccplugins.sheffield.gov.uk/press/news/release.asp?akey=2286

Originally posted by MrHelicopter
The link worked for me - lots of pretty drawings!

They seem to have a bit of an obsession with building big steel tents ?

So they are definately starting Barkers pool this weekend??

Originally posted by Sony
So they are definately starting Barkers pool this weekend??

Yep! work has finally started on Barkers Pool, infact all the trees in the square have vanished over the weekend! Seems they're not wasting anytime.

Can't wait till the two new pools with water jets are installed in the square, Barkers Pool should look really cool this time next year:clap:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2004/09/30/barkers_pool_feature.shtml

cool can't wait to see it all finished sheffield, despite what many think is definatly on the up!

Well, let's continue to remember the unofficial city slogan

Sheffield - it'll be nice when it's finished!

I know that this has been discussed in previous threads by others a while ago, but I am curious for an update:

I seem to remember that when Sheffield1 started the New Retail Quarter project, the target date for completion was 2007?
I believe their website (obviously not updated for a while) states that a planning application was due in 2003.

Certainly there was more recent talk, after largely unexplained delays, that the John Lewis anchor store would be open in 2007 and the scheme as a whole was to be completed in 2009.

I then read somewhere that the delayed planning application would be lodged in June 2005.

Just a few weeks ago I was reading an article in The Star which casualy mentioned that the NRQ was due for completion in 2011....Can you spot the trend?

I am pretty confident that as yet a detailed planning application still hasn't been lodged with the City Council, and consequently a single brick hasn't been laid.

Does anyone out there know what the hold up is? The centre of Sheffield needs this development a.s.a.p if it is to even begin to close the gap with other towns. There is a danger that if it doesn't get built until 2011 the new buildings/streets (which were designed by BDP Architects a couple of years ago) will look dated before they've opened.

Its all talk at the moment and I have heard rather discouraging things, some people in the know say it may never happen, which is a real shame cos it would help the city no end. The answer to your question is, no one knows!

Ive heard that the various coloured spray paints on the pavements around the city centre are for the various utilities associated with the NRQ, so the groundwork has already started, and that the reason its taking so long is the land is owned by a large number of interested parties and things like CPO (compulsary purchase orders) can take some time to complete. Also the firestation needs to be re-located, which again takes time.

Despite this, the date does seem to keep creeping back so you do have to wonder.

Any ideas what they are building next to the devonshire cat?

the delay is caused by relocating the firestation.

I believe all the land concerned is owned by cole brothers, now john lewis.

Also the grosvenor house hotel will be going too - but they have been saying that for near on 20 years now!

I'm afraid that you're wrong on all counts there, well apart from the Grosvenor :D

Ther eis loads of useful info in this thread (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15212&highlight=hammerson)

Originally posted by the fonz
Ive heard that the various coloured spray paints on the pavements around the city centre are for the various utilities associated with the NRQ, so the groundwork has already started, and that the reason its taking so long is the land is owned by a large number of interested parties and things like CPO (compulsary purchase orders) can take some time to complete. Also the firestation needs to be re-located, which again takes time.


Yes, thanks for this. But as I undersatnd it, moving the fire station was always an essential element of the project, as were utility diversions including the massive National Grid transmission cable running under Cambridge Street - which I guess will alone cost millions to move. Given that these things always had to happen and would have been factored into the construction programme, why has the project deadline slipped so much without explaination?

I think the older thread, which Tony has included a link to, speculates as to the real reasons - land ownership issues and petty political infighting - but alas this is all just speculation. Where land exchange deals are being negotiated there has to be a degree of confidentiality, which is why we Joe Public are left so in the dark.

But the enormity of the tradgedy if this scheme was to never happen, or to be watered down to an everyday shopping arcade, can not be understated. Of all the redevelopment plans under S1's remit for the city centre, this was in my opinion (along with the E-Campus) the most important one. Even though I can't stand shopping, and don't understand how on earth the words "shopping" and "leisure" can be combined into the same phrase, I can still blatently see how for the majority of our materialistic society it is an essential part of urban living and I can also understand how other people can even form their opinion of a city based on the quality and quantity of its shops. Exiled here in Newcastle it is also so obvious to me how Sheffield lags behind other cities in 'retail offer' more so than any of the other many issues it lags behind in. The NRQ, like the E-Campus, would have brought more jobs which make them more important projects tham say the Peace Gardens and the Station Gateway (vital improvements though they are), which are just tarting up excercises.

If seroius work doesn't get underway on the NRQ soon then the chance to inject further EU Objective 1 cash into the project will have gone forever (South Yorkshire's Ob 1 status expiring soon) - the funding was always going to have to come from the private sector (Hammersons, John Lewis, etc) but a bit of well targeted EU money can surely be sought to asist the enabling works?

People on the aforementioned thread point to the near completion of landscaping works in Barkers Pool as a sign that work on the NRQ has begun, but to my understanding the Barkers Pool public realm improvement/City Hall refurb project is quite separate from the NRQ, but just happens to be adjacent to it.

The only good piece of news I've seen in the last couple of years was the signing of a contract by John Lewis Partnership to move to new premises. As they are anchor tenant for the scheme this was essential. Does this not cast doubt on those who say "people in the know say it might never happen"?

There will be a lot of "subject to" clauses in that contract.

I totally agree with you on the need for the NRQ, but I for one still feel gloomy about it happening.

One glimmer is that an order has been placed to move some of those services from Cambridge Street at a cost of around £3m.

Slow, but keep them crossed. I suspect that a VERY watered down version of the NRQ is what might happen eventually, but to put dates on it would be wild speculation.

I also heard Kingdom were being a bit stubborn.

Are my dreams of a Sheffield version of The Bullring slowly fading then ?

Originally posted by nick2
Are my dreams of a Sheffield version of The Bullring slowly fading then ?

Well here's the irony.
In about 2002/2003 I took a taxi from Birmingham International station. The brummie cab driver was talking about all the road works in central Birmingham to do with the construction of the New Bullring and Selfridges etc. He was excited to explain that the plans were to have a state of the art central shopping area "like Sheffield". I explained that I originated from that fair city and that surely he was refering to Meadowhall, albeit that I would hardly say that Meadowhall is state of the art. But the taxi driver said "no, Sheffield city centre". I chuckled to myself quietly and politely nodded - thinking this guy obviously was thinking of somewhere else.

Later it occured to me that he must have read some article in his local rag and got a little confused. He probably did mean Sheffield centre - the NRQ, but failed to realise that this was not built yet, even though it won a major award for the plans.

So, it appears that the Bullring was designed along the lines of Sheffield's proposed NRQ, but because of all the delays to the latter project, the Birmingham scheme ended up being conceived, designed and built, faster than Sheffield could divert a single electricity cable!

That's just so typical of the pace of change in Sheffield. Take the Supertram for example. No point in recounting the whole saga on this thread, but basically the scheme in one form or another had been mooted since the seventies, then became a seroius proposition in the eighties. The intention was then to at least get the system operating in time for the World Student Games in 1991, but it was actually years later when the system eventually opened. Even then, to secure funding from the Tory government, major critical compromises had been made to the scheme - the need for it to be privately operated after two years (hampering chances of it integrating with bus routes/timetables), routes cut back to a bare minimum, etc. During all this time Manchester managed to think of the idea after Sheffield and still get a system built before us. They've now even had time to extensively extend there Metrolink system.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting Sheffield develops at an unsustainable pace for the sake of it, or throws up new buildings and infrastructure at the same rate as Shanghai, in fact the slow pace of change and conservative attitude can be refreshingly different from other British 'clone' cities. Living in Newcastle, if I want to see at first hand how the late Victorians/Edwardians lived, I can choose to go to Beamish open air museum (10 mins down the A1) or visit my home town of Sheffield and wander freely around!

Don't forget the inner ring road......that's taken at least 25 years to deliver.
SHEFFIELD..............LIGHT YEARS BEHIND.

Originally posted by SheffBloke
Don't forget the inner ring road......that's taken at least 25 years to deliver.
SHEFFIELD..............LIGHT YEARS BEHIND.

Yeah - I would argue longer than 25 years.

Originally there was a scheme back in the 70's (or was it even the 60's) called the Civic Circle. This was to be like a high speed city centre loop road (on a tighter radius than the later inner relief/ring road), of which Arundle Gate / Eyre Street was a part. This was effectively the precursor to the inner ring road. But alas, in typical Sheffield style, it was NEVER finished.

So you ended up with this crazy situation of the dual carriageway of Arundle Gate (before its 90's downgrading) effectively splitting the city cntre into two for pedestrians, without being part of a completed traffic ring to benefit the motorist either! - I learnt all this from the Star (it happened before my time), so forgive me if there are thousands of inaccuracies here.

The road we now call the inner relief road started out with the buildiung of the dual carriageways at Upper Hannover Street / St. Mary's Gate to the west decades ago, as SheffBloke alludes to. The phase under construction right now (northern section - Sheaf Quays to Shalesmoor) which will be finnished in about 2 years time? will still not complete the road in my opinion. This is because there will still be a 'weak link' slow section between Granville Square and Park Sq via the front of Midland Station. The council in the late 90's had planned to dig a giant tunnel under Park Hill to take through traffic behind the station. But whilst other cities seem to be able to build tunnels, Sheffield said they could not get the necessary funding and so the scheme was shelved.

Therefore I am saying that we will end up with an Inner HORESHOE Road after MORE than 25 YEARS of waiting!!!

I came to Sheffield from France, about 6 years ago. I was born here, but my parents moved to France when i was two so I only remember the Sheffield from the year 2000.
In 5 years it has improved dramatically. But when my mum comes here a couple of times a year, she keeps telling me that Sheffield is a very "local" city..
I hate to admit it but she is right. Having seen quite a few other british cities, sheffield feels very small and very "uninternational".... Its changing, but it'll take at least a decade to have a decent city centre, and even longer for decent jobs in the city.
Apparently Sheffielders aren't overly qualified and most graduates have to leave the city as they cant get a decent job..

Originally posted by Sony
I came to Sheffield from France, about 6 years ago. I was born here, but my parents moved to France when i was two so I only remember the Sheffield from the year 2000.
In 5 years it has improved dramatically. But when my mum comes here a couple of times a year, she keeps telling me that Sheffield is a very "local" city..
I hate to admit it but she is right. Having seen quite a few other british cities, sheffield feels very small and very "uninternational".... Its changing, but it'll take at least a decade to have a decent city centre, and even longer for decent jobs in the city.
Apparently Sheffielders aren't overly qualified and most graduates have to leave the city as they cant get a decent job..
Something that bears what you write out - just look at employment sites like Jobserve or CWJobs (Computer Weekly jobs). Did a search typing in Sheffield on CWJobs - got 95 results. Typed in Leeds and got 388 results. Also for all jobs on Jobserve - typed in Sheffield - 174 results, and for Leeds - 733 results.

Originally posted by Sony
Apparently Sheffielders aren't overly qualified and most graduates have to leave the city as they cant get a decent job..

Sheffield has the highest percentage of graduates who study in the city carry on to live here.

So how can you say that?

yeah i also heard that, so sheffield can't be that bad can it? This forum is now just for people who like to moan moan moan whatever happens. Always moaning about the council not showin enough imagination but if anything does show imagination eg the new 31 storey St Pauls tower then people moan again- "what do we need that for?" bla bla bla. No wonder we don't have a decent council- you lot of moaners are enough to make anyone give up hope.

Originally posted by qazitory
Sheffield has the highest percentage of graduates who study in the city carry on to live here.

I am one, my wife is one :)

Having worked away from Sheffield for 10yrs after college (still having a home here though) and for the last 15yrs run 5 businesses in Sheffield this thread has been fascinating.

We searched all over for premises for our latest venture, particularly in the town centre. We just could not see any one area being able to support our business. Now it maybe that this business is not suited to a town centre but we came to the conclusion that the centre is in such a state of flux with no one body responsible, for delivering an agreed upon plan.

I know that people will point out the various agencies operating in the area but it still seems very disjointed and to have very little power. Notwithstanding the associated politics the last body with any vision and power that achieved anything was the SDC in the 80's and 90's.

I don't know what the future holds but I know many of my coursemates, and myself intend to stay in Sheffield if possible.

Bit of news people on the NRQ. If any of you have this weeks telegraph then there's an article near the back about Hammerson's acquisition this week of lancock house on the corner of pinstone street and cross burgess street. It cost them £2.1m and they are apparently going to retain it as a gateway building to the new quarter. So at least they are still attempting to get the thing built!

and Hammerson are starting to dig exploratory bore holes inbetween the Lions Liar and John Lewis, this surely must be a step in the right direction.