| Ipswich Town Centre 09:45 - Jul 4 with 8647 views | 3_5_2 |
I avoid shopping like the plague but yesterday I found myself in Ipswich ton centre.
What has happened to it?
It looks cheap and nasty and full of very dodgy looking people |  |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 09:32 - Jul 6 with 722 views | Timefliesbyintheblue |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 08:37 - Jul 6 by itfcjoe |
I don't know what some people expect - you go away to places that have small little high streets and are nice because they are tourist traps.
If people went to the town centres of our away days in L1 they would be in for a shock - small towns have poor high streets now. Ipswich has enough nicer areas, and shops in there that you can have a nice day in the town. Enough decent pubs and restaurants, a few independent shops, enough chain ones.
Is it a destination for shopping, clearly not - but I had to grab a few bits at weekend for my boy starting school, plus birthday presents for family and easily had it covered there. |
Itfcjoe, that is a very good point you make about comparisons with some of the towns visited while supporting 'Town'.
Ipswich stands up to most of these very well. Indeed I have just been to a card shop in The Walk and with the water fountains going and the stalls out, i have seen a lot worse. It is a pity though that owners of the empty shops (someone owns these buildings!) are not made to keep them clean and presentable. This is where i think the local authority could improve. |  | | |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 12:10 - Jul 6 with 669 views | Lord_Lucan |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 09:32 - Jul 6 by Timefliesbyintheblue |
Itfcjoe, that is a very good point you make about comparisons with some of the towns visited while supporting 'Town'.
Ipswich stands up to most of these very well. Indeed I have just been to a card shop in The Walk and with the water fountains going and the stalls out, i have seen a lot worse. It is a pity though that owners of the empty shops (someone owns these buildings!) are not made to keep them clean and presentable. This is where i think the local authority could improve. |
The local authority is clueless.
If they had any vision they would have turned the town centre on it's axis.
Rather than waste the money they did on the new green bus and red bus stations they could have turned the rear of Woolworths and Co-op into a major dual bus hub (and included the stupid buses that stop at Crown House and Cardinal Park)
They could then have twisted the town centre to run from Cornhill / Tavern Street to head towards the waterfront. [Post edited 6 Jul 2021 14:48]
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 14:23 - Jul 6 with 623 views | Melford |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 12:53 - Jul 4 by The_Major |
As looking back to 1996 is in vogue at the moment, at that point the the town centre would have had the Co op, Woolworths, BHS, C & A, Debenhams, Littlewoods and M & S. All, apart from the last one have gone.
There's been an idea for some time to basically switch the axis of the main shopping area to north-south from east-west, to link in with the waterfront, but last time I looked, House of Fraser wasn't building a new store in Lower Brook Street.
However Carr Street seems to have been left to fester, and the Woolworths building is probably the biggest eyesore in town. Certainly once you get past where those older heads may recall the entrance to the Carr Precinct, it does have a sort of abandoned feel.
Also, it doesn't help we lost the independent department stores. Those same older heads will recall Corders and Footmans, both bought out by Debenhams, and going further back there was Frasers on the corner of Princes and Museum Streets.
Ipswich isn't alone in that - Colchester had Keddies, Lowestoft and Yarmouth had Palmers, Norwich had Bonds (although they still have Jarrolds). Not sure what the answer is, but considering it's the county town and the biggest centre of population between Norwich and London, there's a lot of potential that needs to be tapped. [Post edited 4 Jul 2021 13:37]
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1996. Big old HMV and Virgin Megastore, Andy's Records and Rex Records too. Living in Melford with only little old Compact Music in Sudbury to get my music from, used to save my wages up for a month from my Sunday job and come in on matchday a couple of hours early to go record shopping |  |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 14:45 - Jul 6 with 613 views | Dubtractor |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 08:37 - Jul 6 by itfcjoe |
I don't know what some people expect - you go away to places that have small little high streets and are nice because they are tourist traps.
If people went to the town centres of our away days in L1 they would be in for a shock - small towns have poor high streets now. Ipswich has enough nicer areas, and shops in there that you can have a nice day in the town. Enough decent pubs and restaurants, a few independent shops, enough chain ones.
Is it a destination for shopping, clearly not - but I had to grab a few bits at weekend for my boy starting school, plus birthday presents for family and easily had it covered there. |
We had a wander round Gillingham before our game there in 2019.
To say it supports your point would be an understatement. |  |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 15:03 - Jul 6 with 595 views | itfcjoe |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 14:45 - Jul 6 by Dubtractor |
We had a wander round Gillingham before our game there in 2019.
To say it supports your point would be an understatement. |
And Gillingham has a population of over 100k, it's not much different in size to ipswich |  |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 15:25 - Jul 6 with 572 views | 3_5_2 |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 20:36 - Jul 5 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
‘Man who avoids shops in favour of online shocked that shopping districts are run down’ |
Good point, well presented
At least PR will get a lick of paint and be full !! | |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 15:39 - Jul 6 with 568 views | jontysnut |
Too big to be a nice quaint little town with indy shops and too small to be a shopping or entertainment destination. Radical town planning might be to relocate town centre towards waterfront and make current centre more mixed residential. [Post edited 6 Jul 2021 15:40]
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 15:54 - Jul 6 with 552 views | BlueBlueBluex2 |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 20:36 - Jul 5 by C_HealyIsAPleasure |
‘Man who avoids shops in favour of online shocked that shopping districts are run down’ |
City Centres need to diversify a lot more and then where they have all been caught napping.
Pavement cafe's, street entertainments, markets, these are all the things that should be prevalent in towns.
Ely for example, free parking, regular food markets and the like draw in the crowds. | | | |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 16:07 - Jul 6 with 532 views | C_HealyIsAPleasure |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 15:54 - Jul 6 by BlueBlueBluex2 |
City Centres need to diversify a lot more and then where they have all been caught napping.
Pavement cafe's, street entertainments, markets, these are all the things that should be prevalent in towns.
Ely for example, free parking, regular food markets and the like draw in the crowds. |
Ely has less than 1/6 of the population of Ipswich though so hardly a like for like comparison
And anyway, Ipswich does actually do those things you list - or at least it did prior to lockdown. Street food stalls had been a fixture for some time on Queen Street, same for markets around Cornhill and Giles Statue, and parking offers on certain days etc
That’s not to say that more can’t be done, particularly on parking costs which I think is a valid points, but I tend to agree with those that think that the problems are more a reflection of the wider environment and that Ipswich doesn’t compare that badly to similar places. Indeed I think most of those criticising Ipswich are doing so through a lens of comparing to either larger cities or much smaller, market towns - as you’ve done here |  |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 16:34 - Jul 6 with 511 views | ghostofescobar |
I assume Mintz & Davis, Everybodies Hobbies and Mick McNeil’s are still going strong? |  |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 16:38 - Jul 6 with 504 views | hype313 |
| Ipswich Town Centre on 09:32 - Jul 6 by Timefliesbyintheblue |
Itfcjoe, that is a very good point you make about comparisons with some of the towns visited while supporting 'Town'.
Ipswich stands up to most of these very well. Indeed I have just been to a card shop in The Walk and with the water fountains going and the stalls out, i have seen a lot worse. It is a pity though that owners of the empty shops (someone owns these buildings!) are not made to keep them clean and presentable. This is where i think the local authority could improve. |
The Botanist going into the old Post Office building should help entice others looking to move in within the vicinity. |  |
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| Ipswich Town Centre on 17:14 - Jul 6 with 491 views | jontysnut |
Lots of interesting points about town planning but nothing about the dodgy people! | | | |
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