Meadowhall Was Going To Be A Prison?

[schloosh 10]

Yeah cos instead of spending millions on a state of the art shopping centre they decided to build a prison and then renovate it....

durrrr... some people believe anything...

[sezemeseeds 10]

I used to work at one of the factory units next to meadowhall, think is kingfield now. anyway, when they started building meds the builder men had offices next to us and we saw the plans for meds. It was never actually considered being a prison. always a shopping centre, and on those first plans was a hotel built on to the centre. but no hotel was built, then the factory units were going to go an hotel built there. our firm moved out before meds opened but the building was practically finished.

[omnicans 10]

hmmm...maybe it is designed as some kind of holding centre - so could be converted into a prison at short notice - for example in event of widespread civil disorder.....tinfoil hat time i think...!!

[BobG 10]

Medowhell is a prison if you think it isnt, then just go and have a look about

 

I hear ya Cactus Jack!!

 

Slightly off topic I know, but does anyone else get sick of the fact that all shopping centres are the same? I went to the Bullring in Birmingham when it re-opened because I was visiting family down there - when people asked me what it was like I could only reply that it was just the same shops as the other shopping centre next door, just in a different order.

[Fingers 10]

If the site where Meadowhall was built was ever considered as a site for a prison (and I don't know if it was) the considerations should have lasted about ten seconds. A prison near a motorway and other major roads, a residential area and numerous industrial premises (including some derelict ones)? That's not the sort of location where new prisons tend to be built. They tend to be built out in the sticks so if anyone manages to escape it's harder to make a getaway.

 

Apart from being the wrong sort of location anyway the site was too big for a prison and if half of it had been used for a prison that would have made finding a use for the rest very difficult. The idea was/would have been an absolute non-starter and if anyone was paid to give it consideration they should have been locked up for fraud.

 

Besides, around the time Meadowhall was being planned the coal industry was being dismantled. The likes of Orgreave, Manvers and South Kirkby would have been higher up any shortlist.

[Haydn1971 10]

Meadowhall Was Going To Be A Prison ???

 

Bit late for an April Fool ????

 

What Do You Think ???

 

At £250M I'd think the developer Paul Sykes couldn't let it fail. A prison ! very much an urban myth !

[redrobbo 10]

yes its true meadowhall was going to be a prison as a second option,reason is one saturday me and my mate was sat in a pub in beighton and these suits and this woman came in for lunch and they got talking to us regarding the old steelworks site at tinsley as it was called then and told us its to become a big shopping mall etc,And they was the designers who designed and if that did not take off in the days when sheff was booming in shops in city centre then there brief was to design it as a max secruity prison.Due to sheffield being then the largest 3 or 4th city in uk and not having a prison.if you can remember way back then they was to have a tivoli gardens set up on the attercliffe as well and it was to lead into the new meadowhall.But yep the second option was if meadowhall did not bring in the shoppers it was to be converted to a prison and if you look at it then there is all the hallmarks of a prison design.

 

Oh I believe it's absolutely true because I happened to be in a pub in err, Birley, yes Birley of all places, when these suits and a woman came into the bar and started talking to me and my mate. Over a lovely lunch, orange linguine with chicken and rocket salad if I recall correctly, they not only told me and my mate that Meadowhall was to be designed as a maximum security prison, but that as soon as it was finished, the first prisoner was to be Myra Hindley. You can believe me, because I have it on the good authority of these three complete strangers.

[MollyMonster 10]

Talking of prisons, Wakefield is slap bang next to the main train station and Doncatraz is spitting distance from the town centre, so if Meadowhall was intended as a prison the location is not all that bad.

[Lewis 10]

Along the lines of:

 

well, its full of shoplifters, car thieves and pickpockets, is grossly overcrowded, the food's awful and men do all in their power to avoid ending up there....

Not all the foods is awful, although hugely expensive.

[Fingers 10]

Talking of prisons, Wakefield is slap bang next to the main train station and Doncatraz is spitting distance from the town centre, so if Meadowhall was intended as a prison the location is not all that bad.

 

I think it's more accurate to say that the main train station in Wakefield was built next to the prison as the prison was built in 1594. Doncatraz is near the centre of Doncaster but the prison is on an island between the canal and the River Don.

[riot187tns 10]

You wouldn't think Yorkshire Forward (or whoever it was) would give out grants to build a new student bar for Hallam University, but that's what ended up happening.

 

Maybe there was a similar arrangement in place if Meadowhall did fail?

 

Nah, it would be far FAR too big for a Student bar, mate.

[goldenfleece 11]

Ah meadowhell......what a fascinating glimpse of 'life'......

I always thought it was a REDICULOUS idea, and have never changed my mind....its BLAND, BLAND, BLAND, with the architectural appeal of a 60's block of Council flats in Liverpool!!!