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First glimpse of Shrewsbury Riverside plans
Tuesday 5th July 2011, 3:00PM BST.
The plans for the Shrewsbury Riverside Shopping development
This is the first glimpse of what a proposed new £150 million shopping centre in Shrewsbury town centre will look like.
Officials have taken the wraps off their plans which will see the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside shopping centres merged to create one mall including a new department store, up to 60 new shops and restaurants.
As part of the scheme, the Riverside Shopping Centre will be razed and rebuilt with links created into the other two centres which will be refurbished.
Owner of the centres, UK Commercial Property Trust, is being advised by Ignis Real Estate and the Shearer Property Group.
David Rodger, of Ignis, today said he hoped the design, which would involve linking the Frankwell footbridge into the centre, would win the backing of the people of Shrewsbury.
Mr Rodger said the new centre would also include a grid shell roof made of glass which was similar to the one at Cabot Circus in Bristol.
He said the new mall’s working name was New Riverside although a final name had not yet been decided.
“The design was put together by Chapman Taylor architects and it took a long time to crack the design because of the different options we explored,” he said.
“It’s quite spectacular and it makes really good use of the River Severn which isn’t the case at the moment.
“The scheme is naturally ventilated and there is protection from the weather from the grid shell roof.
“The centre is very modern in design and there will be restaurants and different leisure uses on the top levels.”
Mr Rodger said the occupier of the proposed department store had not yet been identified but claimed bosses did have aspirations as to which firm they would like.
He encouraged as many people as possible to attend a public exhibition for the plans which will be held in the Darwin Shopping Centre between July 14 and 16.
If approved, work could start on site by summer 2013 and be completed by autumn 2015.
By Russell Roberts
The Riverside area of Shrewsbury
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Looks a bit like Telford..
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What I love most about the proposed plans is that they are shipping in water to replace the river severn with crystal clear stuff from the red sea…
Where are the barriers going to be to stop said beautiful water being washed away by the river?
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Looks great
But will never happen sadly
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would it not be better to fill the units they have now than built new units to be left empty?
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Very true. Sadly they will tear down one set of concrete boxes that looked ‘ different’ in the 70s to just replace them with some more concrete boxes that look ‘ exciting’ now. I hope for once the council planners will carefully consider the proposal and not just throw up another eyesore just to please developers and moneymen.
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“Shrewsbury has fallen behind in the last few years because the town simply does not offer the size or quality of units required by modern retailers. The catchment is very strong, but trade is leaking elsewhere.”
No modern retailers wants old, small retail units in dull, depressing and dated shopping malls. I can see a number of retailers in the Darwin and Pride hill centres moving to the new one because of this.
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Would be even better if they took the development to the rivers edge and had a road tunnel underneath, Monaco style……
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No! No! No! Please don’t wreck this historical little market town with such a monstrosity. Keep it ‘olde worldy’!
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I’m sorry but is it me or is this just insane!!!
Have the Shropshire Council and whoever else involved in this crazy idea not seen the amount of empty shops there are in the town and in the existing shopping centres? Wouldn’t it be a far cleverer idea to try and get them filled first?
Oh and also develop the North West Relief road with £100 million to make access to the town even easier and then use £50 million to a far more worthwhile cause e.g Investment in local businesses. Oh yeah and FREE PARKING!!!
Unless this is done then the Large Supermarket Chains will always have the advantage and there will be little point in visiting two empty £150 million shopping centres.
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Well how about investing in new facilities and get more people into the town to attract shoppers? At the moment a lot of people go to Telford because there are a lot of shops there that aren’t in Shrewsbury such as Primark, BHS and Debenhams because there isn’t a big enough area for them.
So by attracting more people we will also be attracting more stores to open here.
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I see they will be adding blue dye to the Severn.
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How white is that elephant.
Will look lovely with all those pound shop and discount stores.
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Hideous totally hideous talk about lack of sensitivity to the area- and what will happen to Riverside surgery
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of course the riverside centre is a fantastic building worth keeping and as for the riverside surgery dont get me wrong but where they not planning to over to barker street but that fell though , so if that had happened they would have moved anyway
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Riverside surgery will be going regardless of these plans as they stupidly sold the building leaving themselves with nowhere to go!
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I trhink this a great idea for Shrewsbury and the surrounding area, i am from Abbey Foregate myself and I see this as our very own Liverpool one shopping centre. The extra jobs that it will bring and the extra revenue for Shropshire businesses will be very welcome
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All of the above points are completely justified; the empty shops, the NWRR and the fact that it’s just not that attractive! the Shrewsbury roof scape is full of buildings with varying roof styles, heights, details, even the new buildings at Roushill add to this with their bird wing roof (see photo above). However, these are just boring, expansive flat roofs. Yeah ok, they have a green element but still…
Have Local Architects and Planning Consultants, whom have a knowledge of the town, been used to put this scheme together?! – I doubt it.
What annoys me is that they’re going to spend £150mill on this project and looking at the backdrop of the visual interpretation, the ugly mock tudor Darwin Centre will remain unchanged/improved? I can see the dormers peeking from behind the glass dome! DOH!
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WOW! They’ve made shrewsbury look like a tropical island… Shame it never will be.
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RUBBISH
The person/people responsible for this fantasy
should be sacked. Never seen such utter tripe, the whole plan lacks any thought for the area. Shropshire Council would do better to look to sorting out the awful traffic problems in the town before signing ut to this maddness.
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Apparently:
Plans will be exhibited 14-16 July on the Upper Mall in the Darwin centre
Read more: http://www.shropshirestar.com/blogs/2011/07/04/blog-shrewsbury-riverside-will-evolve-without-mr-darwin/#ixzz1RFTzzTXj
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I’m shocked at how many negative comments there are…
…Has anyone actually seen the riverside lately? Theres the beautiful back of Wilkinson, An empty wasteland at the Old Telephone Exchange and a pretty run-down Surgery.
Honestly, How much worse could it look? The current Riverside Shopping Centre has no historic value or culture to it at all, It’s just a poor, unappealing area that even Shoe Zone has turned its nose up at now.
Having Debenhams as an anchor store, along with Primark, will bring back the shoppers who choose Telford and Wrexham..They may even use the small independents too!
A quality shopping centre will ultimately bring in bigger names… How about Gap, Republic, Schuh, Lush?
Lets see the rest of the plans before jumping to conclusions about the regeneration. Surely anything is better than what we have now?
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I don’t see how adding more retail space to a town centre that clearly already has a surplus of retail space is the answer.
More apartments, townhouses, hotels, offices even, would be a better use of the land. Not more shops!!
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Well said Matt! Unfortunately a lot of Shrewsbury’s residents are stuck in the mediaeval ages and incapable of positive thought or imagination. The Riverside is a complete eyesore. I welcome plans to regenerate the area. Yes we have some fantastic old buildings and heritage which we should be proud of but that doesn’t mean we can’t have modern arhitecture as well. Consultation is on 16th July so we all have an opportunity to comment then and amend the plans. Yes there are empty shops but that is because we lack key anchor department stores (I’m not counting the tired old Rackhams store) to draw the crowds away from outer retail sites and Telford etc. Debenhams and Primark will bring more shoppers in who will then visit smaller shops as well – this prevents empty shops. And as for the numerous comments saying ‘it will never happen’ what a great mentality let’s all have that attitude and just not apsire to or try and achieve anything.
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Just take a look at wolverhampton and the summer row scheme that didn’t happen, its wrecked the city centre, this will do the same for shrewsbury, the last thing the town needs is 60 extra shops! and it has plenty of restaurants! say No! stop now!
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I am all for the plans to re-develop the shopping centres, riverside resembles what the bull ring looked like before that was raised to the ground and look at it now. I hope that the developers plans include bigger units as the ones in the current centres are far too small to attract the names that we want in shrewsbury that’s why the centres are in their current state. far too often grand plans are always made for shrewsbury but nothing ever comes to fruition. It’s about time we tried to attract more people and this will help us do that. lets hope the tcra support this idea.!!!!!!
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I really dont understand why all the moaning you have a well respect company wanting to invest a large sum of money in to Shrewsbury to improve the tired shopping centres we have and bring them up to date with more choice and new retailers to area ( the reason why there are so many units empty as people keep saying are they are not suitable for the modern retailer !! and i wouldnt say that there are loads any way if you take a look at butchers row which was empty begining of the year and is now full )Why on earth would we want to keep the riverside centre as it is it need knocking down and restarting it served its time but is sadly so out off date , We need to move with the times and bring more people back to our fantasic town so please just see some postives to this developement instead of being stuck in the past !
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Confirms that the planners at Shropshire Council need to practice with Lego, this is typical of the Shropsdhire plans , this site will be dated and obsolete before its even completed, have they not learnt from the now crumpling thearte seven that they are utterly useless!!!!!
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Very true, the planners in Shrewsbury have little to no vision as to how this will age. Theatre Severn has recently added huge 1970s style block capital letters to the side of the building to further place it in the decade taste forgot. There are a handful of good architects out there please find them SCC.
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Looks like a modernistic prison complex.
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I hope any new footbridge is as bouncy as the old one!
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Why is it that the finished article is never anything like the plans,ship the whole lot to Telford and leave our Historic town alone.(what’s left of it)
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Drop the Zutphen twinning committee and get on the phone to Milton Keynes/Telford/Leyland etc..
This would never be allowed to happen in Chester or York because they have class..
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A great talking point, but conservationists need not worry because it just won’t happen.
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Hideous?! Hardly; Its vital for the town! The shops we have are awful, the centres are ugly, badly designed and falling apart (the amount of time escalators etc are broken is UNREAL). Shops close constantly and the situation wont improve until its changed. Those saying it looks like Telford are blinded by the thought that the town will become a glorified retail centre (which of course it wont, all of shrewsburys areas of beauty and its traditional buildings are remaining). The design itself is modern and, in my opinion, looks outstanding! The ‘olde worldy’ Shrewsbury can, and should, live hand in hand with modern developments like Theatre Severn and this. The current buildings are gastly (need I mention the current riverside, and that awful monstrosity ‘The Market Hall’). Bring on the building works!
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At last a voice of reason. I agree entirely. As it stands Shrewsbury is dead on it’s feet. It’ll take just a few more years and it will be a ghost town. The people of Shrewsbury should embrace the investment and the opportunities this complex will bring.
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They are failing to realise what the two current problems are in Shrewsbury.
1) Very high, and very unreasonable parking charges which force people to go to Meole retail park and spuermarkets.
2) Half of the shops in the town centre are already empty?
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Just what we need more big corporations that do nothing for the local area except put small local run businesses out of business! Shrewsbury is quickly becoming somewhere I don’t want to live and this will just make it worse! I wonder how much money was spent on just coming up with this idiotic idea!?!
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go away then, because it seems that the majority are welcoming this idea.
Shrewsbury is not a retirement village you know, other people do live here.
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Pete,
I am afriad that the majority from what is written here are not in agreement with what is being done in Shrewsbury, take a trip to York , Chester and many other towns to see how local councils have catered for everyone leaving those towns withits building heritage whilst catering for the young and old,busy centres with shoppers and tourist I am young by the way, I want this town to be vibrant not fall of misrakkes made bu Shropshire and Shrewsbury councils that my children are going to have to live with and pay for in years to come.
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Restaurants. Restaurants and wine bars. Wine bars with restaurants. Wine bars..more wine bars…reataurants..wine bars..cannae get enough wine bars..gotta have wine bars…wine bars..more wine bars….gimme wine bars..WIIIIINE BARRRRSSSSS!!!!
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Calm down Oz! hehe
Anyways, I think it looks good, as long as it is feasible that the shops will be filled.
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The people who speak up against a project like this, are the same people responsible for the stagnation of Shrewsbury.
The people of Shrewsbury care deeply about their town and that can only be commended, but there is clearly a fine line between caring deeply and sounding like small town cranks.
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Erm, or maybe there are those who care for the town and don’t want to see yet more empty shops, especially local businesses?
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That’s a very blinkered view. Go take a long hard look at the current facilities. Boxy, dark, hidden, glum, old fashioned & I could go on. That’s why the shop spaces are empty. Who’d invest in the Shrewsbury arcades as they are today?
Have a look at the Cabot Centre in Bristol. I do not compare Shrewsbury & Bristol; I site only an example of a bright, light, efficient mall.
With poor inadequate arcades the superstores will stay away = so do ‘punters’ = so does the cash = local business suffer and blame it all on the cost of parking. The cost of parking, PLEASE, get real.
Shrewsbury is a beautiful place & I don’t mind paying the parking costs as I enjoy a mooch around the town centre, the Quarry and so on, delightful. However I’m off to Telford or beyond to spend any significant amount of money because of the range and the convenience! Give Shrewsbury a decent light, bright centre with the big names & more people will visit. Thereby, the small unique family trader too will enjoy the extra trade.
Shrewsbury. Stop moaning silly moans. Man-up & embrace progress
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Oh for goodness sake, I do embrace progress. I just don’t see why it has to take the form of more unnecessary shops! Yes the Riverside does need demolishing, but it should be replaced with a mixed-use scheme including apartments, offices, etc, not yet another shopping mall.
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If you can David, please explain to us all how Shrewsbury town centre will benefit from turning current shopping square-metres in to offices & housing! I would rather see it as green space than offices & housing! Offices need business & housing needs a reason & currently Shrewsbury town centre has neither of these in any great quantity & that’s why it’s on its last legs!
People who move into the very heart of the city or town may do so out of convenience for work, or convenience to the shops and probably because they enjoy the ‘vibe’, the heartbeat of the place, the night time society, again, all sadly lacking in the centre of Shrewsbury.
There is not enough commerce in the town to support the building of new houses. Build a few offices too then! No, that will not work. You’ll not get a one to one new home owner – new office user. After a few years you’ll have empty and derelict housing & office space and an opportunity missed, Oh, & Shrewsbury has no ‘vibe’ at the moment either.
Work it out David, what draws people (& people = £’s) is somewhere exciting to shop. Somewhere where the big names are all under one glass roof, somewhere to meet & eat, somewhere that’ll make me want to go & spend my ‘hard earned’ & somewhere open late at night ……………………… well you will not recognise Shrewsbury from that description.
I think Shrewsbury is a beautiful town and any development today must be sympathetic and respectful to the heart, spirit & history of Shrewsbury. However the development is needed now otherwise the decline of Shrewsbury will continue. Then you’ll have more empty shops (& probably Tumbleweed) to shake your fist at!
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Have you not read any articles David? It IS mixed-use with apartments, offices and a mall!
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What most people seem to have forgotten is that the Darwin & Riverside etc have been sold to another company that builds shopping centres and they have not bought it to just keep it as it is. This is a similar story with Bullring and the same comments came up, will they fill it etc and yes they did. Shropshire Council will not be paying for it as it is not there’s, so no problem there. The big reason no major shops have moved into the old centre’s in because they are old and the centre’s have been up for sale for many years, who would want to invest in the old centre and take on a long lease ? I for one would not, but if this is built then we will come to Shrewsbury and open one of our restaurants in it, if the roof is like Cabot Circus in Bristol then it will be quite stunning. This is all good news for Shrewsbury !
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I want to know whats gonna happen to the Salopian Pub…??
Is Olly going to expand? If so then I’ll be happy.
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Just about anything would be better than the current view along Smithfield road. However I do wonder when architects will learn that the more fashionable something looks today the more dated it will look in ten or fifteen years time. If you don’t believe me take a walk around Telford.
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Sometimes, it all feels a little bit ‘Tubbs – Edward – New Road’ around here.
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Don’t understand all the negativity. I moved to Shrewsbury from cities which are great shopping opportunities because of Shrewsbury’s history and charm, but it is dying and cannot compete unless it evolves. I have seen big businesses come and, more importantly, go over the years, and lost jobs because of it. I’ve seen areas improved and devolve. The areas they propose to tear down are ugly and unhistorical (as long as they don’t damage the building McDonalds is housed in, which they won’t be able to due to historical orders, at a guess). The Council have failed the town for decades due to keeping large businesses out and we must evolve so everyone can enjoy our beautiful, historical, yet adaptive town. If it doesn’t happen now with care, it’ll just happen further down the road with haste. We should encourage businesses, jobs, investment, entertainment, stability and life to maintain Shrewsbury for generations. If we don’t adapt we die.
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