A trail of two cities

Editor: I did a writing skills course at DMU’s Leicester Centre for Journalism recently (hope it shows!) and one of the course members was Anthony Matters. He wrote this feature article during one of the workshops and its great to be able to reproduce it on Citizens Eye. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks. JC

A trail of two cities

I’m not a big fan of multi-storey car parks; in fact I actively avoid them.  So when a friend said to me ‘You must try this new multi-storey car park’, as well as thinking he was a bit odd, I was also intrigued.

The car park in question is part of the new Highcross development in Leicester city centre.  A £350m scheme, the debut for internationally acclaimed Foreign Office Architects.  This car park has been, for many people, their first taste of this new part of town.

As I drive into the car park, I’m surprised by the pleasant-ness of it all.  Nice bright lighting, the ramps are actually wide enough to get even a decent sized car around without too much fear of scraping. Pull into a parking space and you will see the most wonderful thing – a beautiful, big, red painted band of space between each parking space.  A good start.

Heading across the glass footbridge, to the main John Lewis building, things continue to impress.  Granite flooring, lots of stainless steel and glass.  Some people might describe it as ‘bling’ – which it is.  But it’s more than just surface decoration – the whole thing looks really well put together.

Walking through this new part of town is like being in a different city.  With John Lewis, Yo Sushi and a whole host of other shops you would expect to find in London, Manchester or Birmingham, it really is a dramatic improvement on the ‘old’ city centre.

As the Highcross website states: ‘Highcross offers an awe-inspiring mix of fashionable stores, stylish restaurants and true city centre living that has reinvented Leicester and changed the perception of the city.’ For once is the hyperbole justified?

Stepping out of this brave new world and into the old High Street,however, is a bit like being dropped from a shiny new alien spaceship onto the planet Crud.  It’s also quite disorientating.  I’ve just been walking around this fantastic new city centre, which apparently is Leicester.  Then I suddenly step out on to the High Street, which is also Leicester.  The old Leicester.

It’s a five minute walk down the street until I arrive at the clock tower, in essence the original and historic centre of the city.  Walking down the pedestrianised Gallowtree Gate, it’s still fairly busy, but what a lot of empty shops.  It’s as if, rather than re-inventing the city centre, Highcross has simply moved it over to the left a bit.

Oliver Judge, of Judge Opticians on the High Street, has his own view on this shift in emphasis for the city centre:  “It’s only natural, regenerating one part of a city will always shift focus away from the other.  If anything, things have moved back towards the historical centre of the city.  It’s been great for us, we’ve been on the edge of town since 1970 – now we’re right in the thick of it.”

I’m now heading down Halford Street, towards the ‘Cultural Quarter’.  This sounds great.  I’m picturing in my mind creative, bohemian types drinking coffee at pavement cafes, maybe a French looking lady smoking a Gauloises, with hustle and bustle as the creative and cultural heart of a city goes about its day.

When I get to what is described as the centre I’m a little bit perplexed.  I’m stood in front of the Curve, an impressive, sweeping glass fronted building, designed by another international ‘big hitter’, Rafael Vinoly.  The only thing is, it’s a Thursday afternoon and I’m the only one here;  well, that is apart from the team of girls eagerly waiting to serve the creative cognoscenti of Leicester their coffee.  Where are they?

As the oneleicester website states: ‘Curve was borne out of the vision and commitment of Leicester City Council … to develop a cultural quarter that would drive regeneration of the St George’s area and would contribute to the revitalisation and renaissance of Leicester’s city centre. At the heart of the council’s plans was a new performing arts centre.’

The Curve opened in late 2008.  It is indeed a beautiful building, at a truly dramatic scale that could well be capable of being the catalyst for local regeneration.  As I stand here, almost a year since it opened, something fundamental occurs to me; regeneration is not simply about nice new buildings and fancy street lighting.  It is about the people who will use it, what could be described as the social regeneration.  A city is not regenerated until it has people in it, using it as part of their daily lives.

In this new Cultural Quarter, there are clearly other projects going on.  I know there is a plan to create a local eco-system based around creativity and business.  The Cultural Quarter Business Association website states: ‘We are at the forefront of developing the Cultural Quarter as a place to do business and our aim is to influence the economic prosperity of the area.’

At the moment, however, it feels a bit like an empty vessel, with lots of unfulfilled potential just waiting to be tapped into.

As I head back across town towards Highcross and the beautiful car park, I mull over the conundrum facing this city.  The Highcross has been an instant success, exceeding visitor numbers and spending predictions from the word go.  Why is this?  Is it simply that as a culture our favorite past time is shopping?  Or do we just love John Lewis?

The vision for the Cultural Quarter is fundamentally good.  The thing is, at the moment there are not many reasons for people to go to that part of the city.  Hopefully as more of the ongoing projects come to fruition, this vision will gradually spring into life.

As for the ‘old city centre’ things are not quite as clear.  As we turn the corner of the economic downturn and people start spending money again, perhaps our consumer-led lifestyle will breathe some life back into it?

On my way out of the car park, I can’t help but feel good.  Leicester has managed to build something of real quality, at long last.  And there are no tiny dents on the side of my car.

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www.heterarchy.co.uk

15 Knighton Lane
Leicester LE2 8BH
Tel:+44(0)116 283 2342
Fax: +44(0)116 283 9147

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