The former Children’s Air Ambulance shop has pages from the Financial Times in the window. This could well be a sign that something is happening inside.
Several businesses have been using that premises since Braggs closed in 2002. Braggs began trading in 1912. (This picture is cut from one I found on eBay from May 16th 1994, by John Lawrence. Somebody in Latvia is selling old press photographs from the Oxford Mail, mostly of Abingdon Town F.C. This one was of the museum but does show Braggs.)
If it becomes a greengrocer, fish shop or butcher then this would be progress. Another barber’s shop, coffee shop or charity shop would not be. I’m not getting my hopes up !
I get your sentiment here but would any of these shops get enough custom to survive? Hedges butchers and Added Ingredients have both closed recently and nearly all of the burchers, greengrocers and fish merchants in Abingdon, Oxford and the surrounding towns have also all closed because the business isn’t viable.
The reason we have so many hairdressers, restaurants and coffee shops is because they’re services that can not be provided online or in a supermarket.
Added Ingredients did not close due to lack of custom. There were other reasons.
There were other reasons, you’re right,
I would genuinely love Abingdon to have a thriving varied town centre,
But no one has filled the gap in the market, no one replaced Added Ingredients, Patisserie Pascal, Hedges, The Gift Centre, Prices, Outdoor Traders, Abingdon Sports, Badgers, Sandman, Modern Music and the countless other shops Abingdon has had over the years, there’s not a market for them any more.
I (sadly) agree.
For the items that you would have previously got in one of those shops people now go online, visit a big supermarket/retail park or head into Oxford.
IF the charter was redeveloped and a big name restaurant/bar/shop came in that might help things…..
I disagree. There is a market for all of these things; and the internet/supermarket argument is convenient, but false.
There has been an active “drive away” from the ease of use of the high-street (pun intended) by council after council.
Given the right conditions a high-street is able to thrive (as evidenced by numerous successful high-streets across the land). Abingdon is not offering those right conditions.
unfortunately there are certain shop types that will not work in the modern world as nice as it would be. abingdon had a greengrocer, and a butcher, they left for a reason.
Daniel – I would be really interested to know where the successful high streets you mention are?Everywhere I know has a similar story to ours and I have sat in on numerous webinars where the same story is told. If we have some good examples to quote we can find out how they got there and press the powers that be to follow a similar route.
I have two examples – but neither has an A-road with buses running through the centre: Stamford in Lincolnshire, and Malmesbury in Wiltshire. But I think that Abingdon’s experience is much more common.
South Abingdon shops at Reynolds Way have been dying. The take away shop, the papershop with post office and now the bookmakers shop have all gone. The area looks run down now.
Introduce free, on street parking…and you’ll save Abingdon. It’s that simple.
Where would you allow such parking, Daniel? Would you propose a time limit? If so, how long? If not, would there be additional traffic difficulties?
There are already “bays” on Stert street, use those.
I would make all of Queen Street car park free.
Half on/off the pavement along Bath street (town end).
Outside FatFace and then all along Both east and west St Helens streets.
Move the busses from outside HSBC and put 2-3 bays there.
All along the old police station on Bridge street.
Of course, keep as is round the war memorial.
Move the taxi rank from outside Hodsons, and put 4-5 bays there.
Yes, I would propose a time limit. 9-5 only. Max 30 mins? An hour?
At the moment we have a dying town AND traffic difficulties.
The worst that would happen is we would have a thriving town…and still traffic difficulties.
i know which I’d prefer.
From personal experience, the main reason this is done is to give tradespeople working inside some privacy.
The powers that be (whoever THAT really is) aren’t interested in following that agenda.
Power is the agenda. And anything that mitigates that is lower down the list. Better to remain in power and have a failing town, rather than try anything contrary that may be good for the town – but not so good for keeping power.
To be fair, they may have even different agendas to that? Who knows.
My agenda – in this instance, would be to have a thriving high Street. And, if that truely were my agenda, I’d do what I could to make it happen.
However…that’s not the agenda of those “powers that be”. And so….30 years later, after the same old, same old…we are where we are.
Perhaps it’s not working? Just a thought…but what do I know…if only I had a C grade in Town Planning, perhaps I could charge extortionate consultant rates to get it wrong….rather than get it wrong for free 🤷♂️
But, that said….here’s a couple of examples of a thriving high Street….
Summertown.
Didcot.
Buford.
That’s three for starters.
If I recall correctly….there is “the internet” in Summertown. Yet its high-street thrives. I thought the internet killed the high-street 🤔
There is also a supermarket in Summertown. But I thought supermarkets killed the high-street 🤔
I even heard that the internet is now in Didcot as well! 😱
Curious, isn’t it….
There are numerous other examples I know of…but let’s not have any inconvenient truths get in the way of that agenda…
Anyway, don’t take my word for it for free….perhaps pay thousands and thousands of pounds of tax payers money to a consultant? They’ll definitely tell you what you want to hear…all without any recourse…of course.
I think the places you name as successful also have the right demographics for a thriving high street. Students, London commuters, tourists, respectively. Abingdon doesn’t have a high proportion of any of these. Abingdon, to me it seems, is full of people and families who are struggling with the steady rise in cost of living more than other towns in Oxfordshire and high street retail is suffering as a result. High Street retail needs disposable income, and I don’t think many of us have that in bundles.
that is a fair point.
However, I still think that onstreet parking would revolutionise/rejuvenate the Abingdon ‘high-street’. But I guess we’ll never know…
Abingdon struggling more than others?
Not sure there’s any evidence of that being the case. It is a largely affluent market town by average England standards.
The town is closer than Didcot etc to be convenient to get to Oxford and doesn’t have the draw of many surrounding villages. All of which has, and continues to affect footfall in town.
The new developments should help though…both as they will increase the town’s population and will bring higher than average earners in.