This is the state of the town centre on a rainy Wednesday at the end of 2010
(Press on image for a bigger pdf version. Not a brilliant map and not to scale but it serves this yearly purpose.)
Key:
Red is a vacant shop premises that was occupied at the start of the year.
Yellow means a change of business.
Green is a shop that was vacant at the start of the year which is now occupied.
Change in 2007 (10 red, 6 green, 5 yellow) – Net Loss 4
Change in 2008 (13 red, 10 green, 8 yellow) – Net Loss 3
Change in 2009 (6 red, 9 green, 6 yellow) – Net Gain 3
Change in 2010 (5 red, 8 green, 6 yellow) – Net Gain 3
Abingdon now has a brewery and a tearoom – two things that have been missing for a few years. The van is from Loose Cannon Brewery and is outside the window of Rosie’s Tearoom.
We may have lacked a tearoom but we’ve got a glut of coffee shops. The latest propaganda sheet from the ruling Lib Dems talks about ‘Abingdon’s cafe culture’! I nearly dropped my Earl Grey laughing. Which planet, dear readers, which planet?