Author Topic: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!  (Read 5890 times)

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Sorastro

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Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« on: May 01, 2022, 02:04:39 PM »
Over the past few weeks there has been much debate about the state of Chesterfield town and it's centre. I believe I kicked it off a few weeks back with a letter in the D.T. about how Chesterfield had "had it's day". This was countered by a D.T. reporters opinion and a business owner in the towns opinion about how "vibrant" it was and I'd got it all wrong and subsequent letters, for and against,on the subject.

Since the start of the year my bank of 50 plus years rode off into the sunset, M&S are moving, the rear of Burlington house on Burlington street STILL looks like a bombs site, the building on Knifesmithgate {known as the Vic veranda} that building is owned {apparently} by a company in London {who probably don't even know where Chesterfield is} and now Eyres have gone bang leaving a big empty property just like Elder way, that apparently is still only half full, and the old Council offices on Saltergate, the market is a joke and to top it all the car parking charges have recently gone up.

The only NEW building I can see is the Northern gateway building on the donut island, I'll give it five years and it will be a fast food outlet.
The new multi storey car park opposite looks like a psychedelic cheese grater, it's a carbuncle .

As I put in my D.T. letter virtually everything I need I can get by going to Clay Cross and it's free parking, I find less and less reasons to visit Chesterfield. 
I am not a pessimist, I just help them out when they're busy.

smithy266

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2022, 08:16:09 AM »
It is just so easy and quick to buy online these days....but you cannot beat wandering around the shops, it is a much more social way to shop...The out-of-town developments don't help though....car parking charges....etc.

Old Cruser

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2022, 01:25:42 PM »
I'm wondering what Clay Cross will be like after all the alterations have been completed?

Chesterfield is a let down now for us!

The old lady with the wonky middle finger

Sorastro

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2022, 11:46:30 AM »
According to what appears in the D.T. it looks like the town centre will eventually end up being just up market flats and yuppy bars and the businesses of Chesterfield will end up on the periphery.

Every time someone mentions a large empty building in town there's talk of flats.
I am not a pessimist, I just help them out when they're busy.

wollygobble

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2022, 11:44:27 AM »
Booming town or doss hole?  A bit of both.  I think the town as a whole IS booming as far as business is concerned, but the former shopping centre has taken a double hit.  Having expanded southwards across Markham Road in the boom years (crucially with free parking), it has now been hit by internet shopping.  Shrinkage is inevitable, but because both shops and shoppers want to be where the free parking is, it's shrinking from the north (Co-op, Victoria Centre, Knifesmithgate and now Eyres and M&S). 

Free parking is key.  Markham Road is the new town centre.  Yet still the council persists with its famed Northern Gateway, with its row of empty units forever proclaiming "coming soon" eateries.  It will soon be a gateway to nowhere.

Old Cruser

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2022, 01:54:52 PM »
There's not much for us in the town centre these days so we rarely go
The old lady with the wonky middle finger

Chesterfield 4eva

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2022, 07:45:03 PM »
There is much worse places than chesterfield. At least you have shops that you can walk to. I was born in chesterfield but moved when I was 13 with my family. The seaside town where we are now minus my dad it has absolutely nothing in the way of shops. It's everything you want you are on busses to travel to places then you spend most of your money on bus fares, give me chesterfield any day over some stupid seaside town

Sorastro

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2022, 12:02:53 PM »
With my posts bemoaning Chesterfield it sounds like I've got it in for Chesterfield, maybe I have, but other towns of roughly the same size are also as bad so Chesterfield is not alone in urban decline I was just using Chesterfield as a {good} example.

People may ask {as I'm Chesterfield born and bred} why do I seemingly berate it so, it's simple, I say as I find, just because I was born here does not mean I have a moral obligation to support it. Whenever I go to town nowadays nothing seems to change, new shops do open yes, but then usually within a couple of months they are shut again. I happened to be on Packers row yesterday stood outside what used to be Greenwoods tailors, Packers row is what 250 yards long? and at the moment there are 3 empty shops on it, and that's just one small street in the town. The market, to say it was a Friday as usual was a joke, possibly 8 to 10 stalls max most of them selling tat.
 Not only are there empty shops all over town but just think of the empty business premises above them. 
So if you then take away the charity shops, the betting shops and pound shops and you'll be left with next to nothing.
 I read in the D.T. that Chesterfield Council are trumpeting all this new business that's {supposed} to be coming to Chesterfield, all I can say is, if true, they want to hurry up.
I am not a pessimist, I just help them out when they're busy.

Alsatian

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2022, 01:21:11 PM »
Sorastro wrote : So if you then take away the charity shops, the betting shops and pound shops and you'll be left with next to nothing

Then take away the coffee shops and fast food outlets you will be left with nothing.

My wife and I went into town a couple of weeks ago (first time since Covid) and we couldn't believe how much it had changed - and not for the better (in our opinion).
Fertility Is Hereditary, Chances Are If Your Parents Didn't Have Children Neither Will You

Old Cruser

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2022, 12:08:19 PM »
With my posts bemoaning Chesterfield it sounds like I've got it in for Chesterfield, maybe I have, but other towns of roughly the same size are also as bad so Chesterfield is not alone in urban decline I was just using Chesterfield as a {good} example.

People may ask {as I'm Chesterfield born and bred} why do I seemingly berate it so, it's simple, I say as I find, just because I was born here does not mean I have a moral obligation to support it. Whenever I go to town nowadays nothing seems to change, new shops do open yes, but then usually within a couple of months they are shut again. I happened to be on Packers row yesterday stood outside what used to be Greenwoods tailors, Packers row is what 250 yards long? and at the moment there are 3 empty shops on it, and that's just one small street in the town. The market, to say it was a Friday as usual was a joke, possibly 8 to 10 stalls max most of them selling tat.
 Not only are there empty shops all over town but just think of the empty business premises above them. 
So if you then take away the charity shops, the betting shops and pound shops and you'll be left with next to nothing.
 I read in the D.T. that Chesterfield Council are trumpeting all this new business that's {supposed} to be coming to Chesterfield, all I can say is, if true, they want to hurry up.

There's more than you who bemoan the Town Centre Sorastro. The fact is it doesn't offer a variety of shops. people will just use the internet or go further afield unless the council brings in businesses which are useful and what people want.

A few years ago for example we had a choice of shops which sold school uniforms. M&S probably still do but I don't go into Primark so unsure if they do - are there others?
The Market was booming over the weekends. I used to love to wander around there on Saturdays. I used to buy some of my clothes from off the stalls.
Curtain and clothing material could be bought and one stall provided making curtains to order -

The list is endless!
The old lady with the wonky middle finger

Sorastro

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2022, 12:59:45 PM »
Been to town this morning and noticed the old Greenwoods gents outfitters shop on Packers row has now re opened, as a gents outfitting shop!!!

Also the old T K Maxx shop on Vicar lane has re opened, or is re opening, wonder how long they will last. 
The market still selling the same old tat.
I am not a pessimist, I just help them out when they're busy.

Umpire

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2022, 06:55:16 PM »
Do you mean TJ Hughes not TK Max? It has reopened under One beyond.

Sorastro

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #12 on: July 15, 2022, 08:10:14 PM »
Do you mean TJ Hughes not TK Max? It has reopened under One beyond.

You are correct, my mistake. My wife is always pulling me up for getting shop names wrong.
I am not a pessimist, I just help them out when they're busy.

Rheged

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #13 on: July 15, 2022, 11:57:04 PM »
In the words of Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi'........
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
It's OK if you don't like me.
Not everyone has good taste!

Rheged

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Re: Chesterfield.. booming town or doss hole!
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2022, 12:13:34 AM »
It is just so easy and quick to buy online these days....but you cannot beat wandering around the shops, it is a much more social way to shop...The out-of-town developments don't help though....car parking charges....etc.

I have, over the last couple of hours, spent just short of £180 without leaving my armchair.  A parka, workshop manual, socket tool, car parts x5, all of which would probably available in our historic but ghostly town centre.  Proof, if any were needed, of the power of the internet. (And no car parking fees!!)
It's OK if you don't like me.
Not everyone has good taste!

 

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