I moved to Sheffield two years ago this October as a student, and having lived on West Street, I've noticed alot of changes in the past year or two

The West One debate seems to have covered many areas, from the "affordable" prices and liveability of apartements to whether the whole development will actually take off.

But...has anyone thought of (not to sound too pretentious) the wider cultural and economic changes that have occured in the surrounding area??

Is it right or fair to have what feels like a tsunami of over-priced fashion shops and furniture stores that hardly cater for the 'native' local general public's (eg the housing estate residents and students) needs, as well as the on-going persecution of traditional pub culture and the present obsession with 'fashion crazed' wine-bars (Scruffy Murphys and the Red Lion RIP).

Of course the Development brings investment which is always good...but are everyone's needs being taken into account?? or is the City-living ideal biase to other peoples cultural tastes??

Please.... post your comments...

Some if good enough will be used in my Dissertation.

Many thanks!

M. Gallie

I think it can only be a good thing for Sheffield.If Sheffied is really wanting to compete with cities like Manchester and Leeds then i think it needs developments like this to help push the city forward and bring investment into the city.
As for the pub culture,if you look around West One and all the other developments on West St there is still a few old world type pubs,The Bath Inn and the Old Red Dear spring to mind,so its not as though every pub is turning into a wine bar.

More worrying is the overall national culture of which this stems from, i.e. binge drinking. The NHS will collapse a generation down the line when it has to handle the first batch of heavy binge drinkers with kidney failures and liver problems, waiting for transplants and other treatments. I read today that binge drinking in females has risen 70% since 1992. As a nation, 18-24 year olds binge drink 40% of times they drink, compared with 9% in France. Our culture now almost exclusively revolves around getting bladdered at the weekend, and I find that quite worrying.

If only this development were of the same quality as the equivalents in Manchester. Most of the new developments in Manchester are high quality, stylish buildings. This is because before Manchester gives planning permission to any developments it insists that the design is top notch and is sympathetic to the environment. OK, they have the luxury of dozens of developers competing for every opportunity so they can pick and choose. But, I wish that our Planning Department had the guts to tell developers to come up with something of architectural merit rather than letting Gleesons (or whoever) slap up whatever they can cheaply get away with and stuff people into. Now in Manchester people wanting to live in the City Centre have a choice of cutting edge apartments ot choose from, and we've got the various bland travesties along West St and around Devonshire Green. As for the shops however, I welcome them there is a real shortage of decent fashion and particularly furniture shops in Sheffield and these, plus a few more like them, might encourage those who currently go to Manchester, Leeds, London etc to spend more of their money in Sheffield.

Originally posted by Mags 23

Is it right or fair to have what feels like a tsunami of over-priced fashion shops and furniture stores

There have been fashion and furniture stores down Division Street, in The Forum etc. before West One was built. Whether they are overpriced or not is a matter on opinion.

<GRUMP>

I don't want Sheffield to ape Leeds and Manchester. I always liked the fact that Sheffield was a bit resistant to such attempts to impose this lifestyle ********.

Cities, and their areas, should develop organically. I don't mind, for example, that Hunter's Bar/Eccleshall Road became a bit chi-chi - it developed itself, rather than 'being developed'. Division Street and Devonshire Green were doing OK, I thought, along a similar path. The West 1 stuff looks like a parody, and the Tesco School of Architecture style doesn't help.

</GRUMP>

Originally posted by Dug
There have been fashion and furniture stores down Division Street, in The Forum etc. before West One was built. Whether they are overpriced or not is a matter on opinion.


If you are going to encourage people with money to live in the city, you need to provide them with the shops they frequent. I am sure many of them wouldn't be seen dead in "T K Maxx" just like someone from the Manor wouldn't be a regular at Prada!

The development of West One is ideal - for the developers!

I don't question its purpose (ie. inner city lifestyle living) but with respect to its location have you been around it at night? Well to put it mildly if thats the kind on living you want, maybe you should move to the Gaza Strip. The constat flurry of folk from the neighbouring estate and from across Europa Way doesn't make for safe night time walks in the park.

As for the build quality, well make up your own minds. Having seen another Gleeson build (Royal Plaza, West St.) I can only say that in the years to come it is going to look either very out of date and worn, unless its injected with more cash to keep it looking fresh. I don't know why, but the Victoria Halls student accomodation block opposite West One looks so much better! (albeit a much smaller place, but I thought that what exclusivity was about?) West One is just a huge place with the primary aim of making vast amounts of money for its developers. Ask the residents of Riverside Exchange, how they feel now some years on after moving there.

Anyway, who has noticed the demolition of the Infogrames building on Wellington Street (directly next to their Devonshire Cat Pub / Unite Student Accomodation..... watch this space!)

1Man&HisBMW

My mate was one of the first to move to Riverside Exchange and he still loves it!

The few problems that they have had have been sorted out promptly and well.

Originally posted by Chalky
My mate was one of the first to move to Riverside Exchange and he still loves it!

The few problems that they have had have been sorted out promptly and well.

Oh right did they sort out the problems of having no decent shops locally? That was one of the biggest complaints, yet all the gits there own cars!

1Man&HisBMW

The West Street developments are not a patch on Deans gate devolopment in Manchester and as someone mentioned the Manc devolopment has style.
The Deansgate Des Res have buffer alleys on the outside of the flat so the owner can walk outside his flat and sit in the buffer area and chill out in the sun as all the windows are weather proof as they automatically close if the wind gets over 30 MPH or it rains.
It also cuts off any outside noise from noisey night clubbers but the asking price is around 400K.
The city centre devolopments in Sheffield are a good idea but if i paid 100k plus to live in West Street then i would worry if in 10 years time i would get my money back if i sold it and if i could sell it.
With the look of them in comparison to Deansgate there quite ugly and could be the next Kelvin flats in years to come.
The noise on West Street is immense at night right up to the wee small hours and at 4.00am you get Westways pub (Rat & Parrott) crashing all the bottles into the skip outside just before the bin men arive at 4.30 full flashing lights and a noise to match.
Personally i'd spend my 100k with a countryside view.

[i]

Anyway, who has noticed the demolition of the Infogrames building on Wellington Street (directly next to their Devonshire Cat Pub / Unite Student Accomodation..... watch this space!)

1Man&HisBMW [/B]

560 students are gonna be there next September.

Dammit!

500 students! :o That will make something in the region of a total of 1400 students living in that square (Unite, Victoria Halls, and the new one...) Hmm, anybody want to open a greasy kebab shop there :)

1Man&HisBMW

I'm doing my dissertation on the West One and Riverside developments, so everybody's comments are interesting to me. What do people living in these developments actually think of them?? Have they lived up to the hype? Or are they overpriced and too exlcusive? What are the best and worst things about living there?

Hi M. Gallie! Sounds like you've got some really interesting ideas on the West One development, and a good choice of relevant study for a dissertation, I'd like to add. I have a lot of knowledge of the project, as I sat on the council who gave the project the green light. It was a long drawn out process but I believe that we are really starting to see the benefits a project like this can deliver. The city centre was in great need of redevelopment and this mammoth project is like a catalyst which has some fabulous knock on effects. I loved my job, and believe i'd still be doing it, but I was descriminated against because of my sexuality, and I was not allowed to take time off to undergo a sex change operation. I still have a great deal of information i'd be happy to share, perhaps we could meet for a drink and discuss the matter.

What annoys me is the way people who frequent the bars and clubs act. I was walking my dogs down there at seven in the height of summer ( so it was light ) and a whole hoard of drunken woman came out of one of them and started harrasing me. They didn't speak with local accents ( maybe they were students ) and they were very rude.
This happens all the time and I don't know if you've noticed but none of them have any bleedin' manners.
I don't like West Street at all now. Mind you it was only a dump before wasn't it?? I don't like this trendy expensive flats image either. None of the local people can afford them.
Also if people can't behave themselves when they go out drinking, I swear the next person who jwalks infront of my mum's car is gonna get a machete in their head!!:evil: :D

Originally posted by alchresearch
If you are going to encourage people with money to live in the city, you need to provide them with the shops they frequent. I am sure many of them wouldn't be seen dead in "T K Maxx" just like someone from the Manor wouldn't be a regular at Prada!

There's nought wrong with TK Max, lol - why pay £25 for a T-Shirt, when you can get exactly the same one, a year or season later for a tenner? :)

Originally posted by Hodge
There's nought wrong with TK Max, lol - why pay £25 for a T-Shirt, when you can get exactly the same one, a year or season later for a tenner? :)

Agreed - but a lot of the West One shops aren't about common sense. They sell fashionable things to people who wouldn't buy anything else. Which is fine by me because TK Maxx and TJ Hughes have got to get their seconds from somewhere! My only complaint at the cheaper shops is that they're unpleasant to use - TK Maxx was a brand-new refit a few years ago but it's a deeply unpleasant shop. They could have made the place much better for no extra money.

I've not been in any of the West One flats yet, but I have been to a friend's place in Royal Plaza (friend with rather more money than me :rolleyes: ). I found the place deeply claustrophobic. Had I the money for one I'd still live in one of the ex-council flats in Netherthorpe.

I agree that going to Tk Maxx is an unpleasant shopping experience but I also find going to shops on West Street unpleasant too. I quite often feel self-conscious going in some of these shops as if you look like you don't often shop there the staff seem reluctant to be helpful. Maybe I am just paranoid!

i'm new to this site and am not sure if threads go 'dead' but thought i'd add something to this as West One is very much a topic worthy of debate - i think West One is a good thing - i have only browsed at the comments at this thread as i'm at work but if we can get people living in the cities then it can only help regenerate them and prove sustainable in the long term to the benefit of a healthier environment and cities with vitality - the view that West One (and other similar developments) is only for the affluent is wrong - developers have a statutory duty to provide 'affordable' (or social housing) as part of such developements as much as 40% in some cases.
i'm a chartered town planner by the way.
erm with a funky mullet - long live the mullet!

Ok yeah in a way this kind of development is good for the city its promotes re-urbanisation and enhances city centre facilities such as shops, clubs and bars which are all dipped in 'culture'. And let us not forget the city government has pushed through the planning process with these developments even though the development ids private money and so city residents needent worry that they are being left out of some kind of plan. Culture is important in two ways it is i) aspirational in that people already living in the city can see this lifestyle around them and yearn it which lifts expectations and aspirations to crave this lifestyle and status. Secondly culture is ii) magnetic in that it has the effect of pulling more investment into the city from economic and leisure companies. It is the latter which gives the development a positive edge for the city.
However the fact remains that even though these developments are positive they are elitist... Mathew Paris' book where he goes back to Newcastle after leaving in the declining early 80s and see's the culture and cosmetic improvements but then goes back to the estate he was brought up on and it is worse than before. So it important to see that even though they are positive it is in discursive ways for the majority of people. xr

i produced a project last year for uni regarding the effect of west one had on devonshire green in terms of its urban design if its relevant let me know and i could forward you a copy to read my comments!

well, now for actually someone who lives in west one-
firstly i think there is a silly stereotype going on here. im a student and my boyfriend does not have a high paid job at all. we dont have a bmw or mg or any car at all for that matter.
We live in one of the smallest flats here and as for getting things sorted out the developers have been helpful.

In fact i believe it is cheaper to live here then the student accomodation i livd in before, simply because i do not have to pay travel because of the location.

One thing i will say is, the estate agents that sell these flats were not exactly forthcoming in helping us with moving here and quite possibly i believe this is because of our age and how we look.
Just get your facts right before you start criticising.

Hi Magicjem I am also doing a project on the effects of West One and it would be hugely helpful if I could have a look at the information/report you produced as I'm struggling at the moment
xx

Hi Magicjem I am also doing a project on the effects of West One and it would be hugely helpful if I could have a look at the information/report you produced as I'm struggling at the moment
xx

I think you might be a bit late. This thread started 4 years ago.

There have been fashion and furniture stores down Division Street, in The Forum etc. before West One was built. Whether they are overpriced or not is a matter on opinion.

If anything, on West Street especially, the number of shops has decreased.