City setting out its stall
in the market: A street market in Preston. A new scheme aims to use street markets to revitalise key streets in the city centre
Street markets which would revive historic parts of Preston city centre are part of a £2m lottery dream, it can be revealed today.
The plan – today dubbed ‘Old Town Preston’ – would see key streets, such as Cannon Street, Guildhall Street and Glovers Court, revolutionised.
Fresh food would be sold on barrows around Preston’s historic Victorian covered market, with traders at stalls on side streets off Fishergate.
A bid for £2m of cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has been submitted, to go towards restoring buildings in these area to help get shoppers flocking.
The idea is the brainchild of design expert Ben Casey, one of the co-founders of the original National Football Museum.
He is working with council bosses on plans for the area including creating a European-style street market.
He said: “Preston has everything a city has just in smaller numbers, it is a micro-city, but one thing it does not have is somewhere you can have these kind of independent traders.
“I look at the roads around the existing Victorian covered market and I can see how you could create something like Borough Market on the South Bank in London where you have fresh food sold from stalls.
“Then you look down some of the side streets on Fishergate and see how a lot of independent traders are already setting up on places like Cannon Street.
“You easily imagine see street markets winding up and down them.”
Preston Council environment director Mick Lovatt said the council had met with HLF officials this week to discuss its bid and expected to find out whether it had been successful within the next month.
He said the cash will go into a pot made available to carry out improvements to the buildings which could act as a prelude to improvements.
The director said: “We have to look at what is immediately deliverable first and the bid we have in with the HLF relates to improvements to historic buildings.
“There is no-one queuing up with bags of money to pay for these things and the bid into the HLF has to be very specific.
“If we can make improvements to the area targeted for Old Town, the next phase could be to create the market idea which we have spoken to Ben about.”
Council leader Peter Rankin said he was due to meet with Mr Casey in the coming weeks and wanted to work with him to help improve the city centre.
But, he insisted that no changes would be made to the market without consulting existing traders in the city’s indoor and outdoor markets.
Coun Rankin said: “Our plan is to invest in the markets and we are exploring a lot of opportunities out there and we are talking with a lot of people about them.
“The outdoor covered market is an amazing structure and we recognise we have a chance to invest in something unique to Preston, we have to make sure we get it right.”
Plans to glaze in the covered market, which were part of the city’s collapsed £700m Tithebarn plans, have been dropped
Babs Murphy, chief executive of the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, said the creation of a food market around the existing market would need to be “a quality offer.”
The Preston Business Improvement District (BID), which is run by the Chamber, currently operates a three-times-a-year Lancashire Market on Friargate in the city centre.
She said: “If it is something which is quality and unique which can only be found in Lancashire, that is the kind of change we need to look to bring to Preston.
“The Lancashire Market has shown what can be achieved if you get the offer right, and we would work with any initiative to ensure that kind of quality is an integral part of the future of Preston.”
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
There are 20 comments to this article
Page 1 of 2
man looney
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 12:25 PMHopefully this will be a none starter before any money is wasted. The simple facts are consumers are not going to go into Preston town centre until they can get there and park for free close to high class retail accommodation efficiently. That retail needs to be warm in winter cool in summer modern accommodation that protects the consumer from the weather. Market stalls dont do it. Little choice in the wind and rain, no thank you I will continue going to my local farm shop for that, at least it is close by, free parking, dry, good choice and efficient service. They will even carry sacks of spuds to my car.
AdoptedByPreston
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 10:16 AM#19 - That's not fair! You forgot the other assets they own and continuously mismanage - The Guild Hall (empty retail units, scaled back shows), The Old Post Office (left empty, prime location), The IndoorOutdoor Market (leaking roof, barely promoted). The first two should definitely be sold off or long term leased, I can only dream of how fantastic the Guild Hall would be in private hands. I can't be bothered dragging out my favourite Ken Hudson quote but when he was leader of the council he said something along the lines of 'in all my times at the town hall I've always felt that the Guild Hall is like a village hall and now I intend to treat it like that'. Geez.
caretaker
Monday, February 6, 2012 at 09:38 AMOur CITY council cannot run the most important part of OUR city, that major transport link called ............ "The Bus Station" ......... lets get real.
Gonzo666
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 05:18 PMCan I also ask no. 15 (and others - you won't know who you are but at least typing has saved me from wasting my breath) to at least try and use punctuation. Perhaps even a spellchecker. I know these pages are only a ranting space for a poorly written local rag, frequented by low rate rent-an-opinions, but please check before you post. Sometimes these pages make me despair. Also I think continental markets are a waste of time. A load of Polish blokes from Manchester selling overpriced olives from what looks like a police incident tent.
sydney olympic
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 04:58 PM15 Stop shouting!!!
justice4all
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 03:59 PMHAVING HAD LOTS OF EXPERIENCE WORKING ROUND SIMULAR MARKETS ALL OVER EUROPE I CAN SAY THAT NOT ONLY WILL THIS IDEA BRING IN MUCH NEEDED REVENUE TO THE MARKET TRADERS AND THE SURROUNDING SHOPS AND BUISINESES BUT IF PROPERLY MANAGED WILL BREATH SOME LIFE BACK INTO AREAS OF PRESTON LARGELY FORGOTTON ABOUT BY THIS PENNY PINCHING COUNCIL.
Doktorb
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 12:52 PMI have to join in the cynicism in this thread. Money which could have been focused on making the coveredFish market the best in the county were put into the Tithebarn Revolutionary Rebirth of Preston Fund. We all enjoy the Farmers and Continental Markets in Preston, and I hope that they continue year after year if we can afford them. What a shame that the traditional markets were effectively abandoned by a City and County council 'tag team' desperate to follow the dream of glass and chrome megastores. Instead of being obsessed with the Tram Sham Folly and fancy coffee shops, they should have poured money into our history and heritage.
Geodor
Sunday, February 5, 2012 at 11:46 AMI despare with this City Council in Preston. They spend millions of Council Tax payers money bringing in consultants to advise them how to redevelop Preston and then do nothing.So now they decide it would be a good idea to bring in Street Markets.Street Markets when they cannot fill spaces on the existing markets.What a waste of space on the existing markets and more clutter on our streets. Just one final dig at PCC when is the first sod going to be dug to build the new bus station?
Frenchwoody
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 10:23 PMBury and Bolton have thriving markets but they are mainly indoors: it's warmer, cleaner and more convenient. Perhaps we need a new larger market hall like the one in Birmingham. Beside the Council's Tithebarn blight, Preston's market traders are also partly to blame for the decline because they've resisted changes.
sydney olympic
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 06:16 PMCan i also add all this decline of Preston has happened on PCC's watch.............Your council has let your town (city) down by being miopic in its quest for Tithebarn.........They quite honnestly are devoid of any creative ideas what so ever and as the dithering contiues Preston the very thing they are supposed to big up continues in its slow death.Unfortunately we are a city in name but have a council that is certainly not a city in thinking.
xnobber
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 06:01 PMthe 3 golden rules of retailling 1 position 2 position 3 position ive worked the continental markets, the dont want to come to preston. they would if they were outside M&S, but not 150yds of the main drag, on the flag. as for stalls down Cannon st et all, traders wouldnt go there for free. these people who spout all these ideas are clueless. if you want to get preston rocking, pedestrianise fishergatefriargate, and have all these stalls outside the likes of M&S
xnobber
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 05:55 PMthe old covered market,is one of the largest single span roofs in europe.Glass sides or whatever, are not possible on this structure,asthe physics of the structure,could not cope with being enclosed. this was known in the 70s when i worked on the market(when it was full ) it would simply fall down. why 40 years on is this still being talked about???
sydney olympic
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 05:48 PMThere is no reason why Preston cant become THE market town in Lancashire.........Apart from PCC........ Once the dinosaurs of the council have had numerous meetings with focus groups ect ect then more meetings followed by more meetings it will be 2-3 years down the line and the flame will have died and nothing will change but the council will have confirmed their own importance and fiddled while Preston burned.
one more guild
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 04:31 PMThe earlier intention was to glaze the sides of the covered market to improve conditions for customers and traders. Now this scheme proposes to go out into the wind and rain of the open streets. That's hardly an improvement! It may be adequate for an occasional market but I can't see it working as a permanent display. I would be happy to see city centre streets closed to traffic, but if you want more accommodation for stall holders, then you could make better use of the covered market.
realworldman
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at 02:57 PMAt the time the bus station was being designed consideration was given to locating the wholesale fruit & vegatable market on top of it. Hovever, in the same period legislation introduced by the then Labour Government forced retail food traders off the streets, to ensure adequate hygiene and available toilet and hand washing facilities etc. A decision that forced Preston to build an indoor market and end the then 'farmers market' that used to be held on the forecourt of the Public Hall. Preston has not done enough to protect its ancient market rights, designed to ensure Prestonian's had access to fresh food by making it a centre for both wholesale and retail markets, at the same time providing an income for the town from market tolls. So called 'farmers markets, are now being held all over the place, often playing host to 'fake farmers', with little or no regard to hygiene in food handling or facilities for the staff; as well as no income for the town. Markets are being held in village halls etc, that do not pay full rates and are therefore taking business away from shops paying full business rates. This is something that needs a proper and comprehensive review. A city centre no retail rates and no market toll zone would create a boom town bonanza until neighbouring towns followed suit.
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