On twitter I see from the Vale of White Horse District Council “Work has started on the much anticipated £4 million refurbishment of Abingdon’s main retail area Abbey Shopping Centre. “
There is not a lot to see yet. There is some scaffolding round the back of some shops. There are also barriers stored in one shop, and a McLaren sign in another. McLaren are the chosen contractor.
The finished project is available to view on youtube …
Matthew Barber, leader of the district council said “I would ask that residents bear with us over summer while the work is being carried out, and that they continue to visit the town centre and support our local traders in the meantime.”
er, spot the difference?
New Look ‘Lemon Plaice’ and next door two storey building(s). Removal of ‘some’ of the covered walkway (those made of Concrete).
Is the whole project 4 million or just Phase 1??
Julian – “er, spot the difference?”
My thoughts as well. Some slightly different shop fronts and benches. Is that all? I’d hoped for something a little more impressive (or at least neat and tidy).
I guess Abingdon town centre will always be a bit rubbish.
The empty units will be replaced by two larger shops (bigger than Boots) which should be more attractive to the bigger retail businesses.
I guess that whatever is done and whatever is spent, there will always be people who think that Abingdon is rubbish. I don’t agree with them – I like it!
I came here about 25 years ago, and I chose to stay. If I thought it was rubbish I would have moved!! I have lived in far worse places.
Lets face it….
Abingdon has lost its charm, all the original Abingdonians go on about how lovely it was back in the day but in reality, the whole town dropped off the retail bandwagon YEARS ago and Its gonna take more than a few benches and a couple of bigger units to save it.
Towns have to move with the times but Abingdon hasnt changed in years and now its too late – FAR TOO LATE! Only remedy is to knock down the precinct and start again – not a half arsed tarting up exercise costing £4m
The hope is that some larger retailers will move in… not going to happen im afraid. Rent and rates are WAY too high and the disposable income of people in Abingdon is not enough to sustain the likes of Next, New Look, Wilkinsons, Topman etc….. Probably get a B&M bargains or 99p Stores taking a big unit but thats about it.
People here like things cheap so thats why there are so many cheap shops and thats also why the £1 shop does such great business!
Get over it and take the bus to Oxford – more choice and the bus is nearly cheaper than the cost of parking in Abindgon!
Anyone else notice how much it looks like Didcot?
I think a lot of small market towns have lost their charm to an extent. However, somebody I know who grew up in Abingdon (no longer lives here) was telling me how exciting and modern the new precinct seemed when it was built!
But maybe we have to stop thinking in terms of shopping all the time? What about the river, the sports facilities, the walks, Radley Lakes, the clubs, societies and community organisations?
It seems to me most of the real changes are the rooftops. I am really surprised the plans didn’t include flats or apartments on top!!!!!.
Phase 2 (Demolition of the Charters and building a Supermarket, shame after all the money spent on the Centre and GP Surgery, they (and the Library), will be moved.
(Most likely above Poundshop/CoOp)??!
For the avoidance of dobt, I do not think Abingdon is rubbish. It’s just that damned precinct. I really cannot see a lot of difference bar a bit of tarting up. Knocking the whole awful mess down and starting again was never realistic, albeit highly desirable. I firmly believe that if you build nice places, it’ll attract nice people. I spend probably the most depressing 10 minutes of my life last w/e waiting outside Boots on Saturday morning and clocking the raft of miserable humanity which passed by. I can quite honestly say that I’ve never seem an uglier, more seemingly benefit-dependent collection of total misfits in my whole life. But then perhaps I’m just too grumpy?
millihelen
I agree on your points about the good things Abingdon has to offer (I grew up here and moved back when we had children, partly for those reasons)
This, to my mind, makes it all the worse that the shopping centre is frankly rubbish. There are some good independent shops in town the but the actual precinct is awful. I almost wish they went for some fake “Ye Olde Shoppe” fascias and traded on the “oldest town in England” point.
I like what has happened with Newbury, which has changed a lot in the 8 years since I worked there. In that time Abingdon has made lots of plans but hasn’t really done anything, and this Abbey Shopping Centre Vision isn’t much of a change at all.
I think it is a big opportunity missed, I like living here and would have loved to see some real change (other than building flats……!)
The scheme seems to be like the muzak – repetitive and dull.
Millihelen is right: there are some excellent independent shops – but the precinct does them no favours. To be different costs money and in the present climate there’s not much chance of that. £4M doesn’t buy much these days in building and development terms – and whether we like it or not, no one is going to splash out the £40M or £50M that a re-design would cost.
Does anyone know what the Old Gaol redevelopment is costing? I imagine it will be rather more than £4M. The Blade in Reading was close to (maybe more than) £50M; the Forbury development opposite the Blade was £46M.
That sort of money would need a huge hike in council tax charges or a huge investment from private investors, who would be looking for significant commercial returns rather than local independent retail outlets.
If the Precinct is for shopping outlets, it will not change much on the current allocated budget.
in the past people had to shop in their vicinity – the idea of travelling ten miles away – let along 40 or 50 to shop would seem like a crazy dream. then personal transport ( other than a horse) happened.
. eventually in this country we will need to be honest and ask wether every area needs shops of it’s own other than for the necessities.
Phase one is under way,it will not be changed. All comments come ten years to late.Lets hope the finished article is better than what we have at present, can it be any worse?
The demolition of the Charter area and reported relocation of the library,Doctors surgery ect on any available roof top, seems to be down right vandalism.
If you want to attract people into Abingdon, as well as the shops, you need to sort out its traffic problem, the bad reputation of which has spread far and wide.
Where to start on all these comments…?
I whole-heartedly agree with Helen that Abingdon is a lovely town to live in and has much to commend it. Of course there are a few things that could and should be improved but these are greatly outweighed by tge good things.
I’m delighted that Scottish Widows are spending money on tge precinct. Like everyone I have twenty ideas for things I’d do differently, but frankly I’m not sticking £4m of my money so overall i’m just happy someone else is prepared to. The plans seem to be an improvement on today with a more open design and a better roof-line, but to be honest the big change is by increasing the floor space of the precinct by about 40% which will mean two large new stores (river island, H&T, next or similar) will be the big change.
The pound shop picture is really misleading as these have been due to swip only offering short term lets. Once tge revamp is finished this will not be the case, and I think more retailers will find the precinct attractive.
Well done Scottish widows – after 20 odd years of no investment I’m delighted to finally see some investment in the centre of our town, and hopefully a reduction in the 85% of Abigdon residents retail spending which currently ‘leaks’ into other towns.
Who actually gets the benefit of the £4,000,000 (FOUR MILLION POUNDS)? Sadly NOT local people or shoppers!
Watching the video I was thinking along the lines of “spot the difference” and now see that this is a recurring theme.
Having spent £4,000,000 it will be very hard to get any real improvement for another 40 years – oh dear!
Time to think it out again
Depends what you think the benefits are I guess mjb. Being able to do your clothes shopping in Abingdon without having to drive to Oxford, didcot or Bicester would be good for a start.
They are spending £4m more than I am and like Iain, I see this as a really positive thing for the town which will hopefully bring more footfall to the independent shops and eliminate the one part of the town centre which is a dated embarrassment.
What I would like to see on this blog is for everyone to contribute some low cost ideas to improve the Town Centre i.e. let’s have a bit of positivity. So, here’s one for starters…….why doesn’t Hedges Butchers have some nice signage over the archway leading to their shop front. I’m convinced no-one actually knows we have a Butchers in Abingdon.
I also really like the idea of those historic Brown signs which they should stick on the A34. They have them for Didcot railway Museum abd I would argue that we have far more history than that
Good suggestions nick.
The one I’m always surprised at is that given a large proportion of the townspeople work outside Abingdon that we don’t have a late night opening once a week. Tescos always seems to have plenty if people around in tge evening so why not the town centre? Traders could open late one morning to avoid increased staff costs.
To get it going we could combine with some market square events to get people to try coming in during an evening.
I think the refurbishment will make a positive difference. I have no way of knowing whether they are ‘worth’ £4m but I doubt Scottish Widows would be investing that sort of money unless they were reasonably confident that it would bring in additional and substantial rent.
Without being all starry eyed about it we also shouldn’t forget how much things have improved in the town centre in the last decade or so.
Stert Street, Market Place and The Square all look much better, and it is noticeable how Stert Street has changed from being full of empty units to being full.
Ten years ago events in the Market Place happened rarely and the town centre was devoid of people by noon. Now there is now something happening most weekends and the cafes are busy well into the afternoon.
There is much that still needs to be done, but a lot has already happened.
Don’t know how much the Old Gaol will cost, Didn’t th VOWHDC sell it for £3 million+?.
1 bedroom Ground Floor apartment/Flats for Sale there currently £247,000 Leasehold..!!!!!
Like Iain and Nick I feel positve about the changes happening in the precinct (like they said, it’s private money so why not) and about Abingdon in general. And being on maternity leave I spend a fair amount of time knocking around the town and the precinct. We have a happy life here, lovely neighbours, friends, the parks, library and things to do for the children, as well as everyday shopping needs, regular events in the market square and nice independent shops. For clothes shopping I’d usually go elsewhere but I don’t really expect that of a market town.
I moved here reluctantly from Milton Keynes one year ago and I think Abingdon is absolutely awful!!!!!! Yes it has a lovely river and church but nothing more! The traffic is dreadful. Some mornings it can take nearly an hour to get out of the place, probably because thats what the whole town is trying to do. Whoever thought of putting all the services ie tesco, hospital, mcdonalds and the exit to the A34 on one road out must have been crazy and have now created a nightmare. The shopping area is really poor. Poor Costa has to deal with the whole town looking for somewhere to go. What a shame. Abingdon needs services because it takes quite a while to go elsewhere. Whitney appears to have received all the council money where services are concerned but it is a 30 mile round trip there and Oxford either isn´t that accessible. You dont even get your rubbish collected more than once a fortnight!!!!! Poor poor Abingdon.
I would like to know if the shops units are owned by a company in London and they are the ones to decide who rents the units and what to charge in the way of rent then why arent they also footing the bill for the 4 million pound transformation?
It seems strange that the council tax is being pumped into the wider paths, free car parks, new look, etc yet the financial reinbursement is going into the london owners not the abingdon council. Maybe Abingdon council should purchase these before investing in them and then charge better rates for the shops we actually want in Abingdon to encourage business.
Then maybe we could reduce the empty and duplicate shops that scare away our shoppers like the town of charity shops that Didcot use to be known for.
Just read a couple of the previous comments and I could disagree more with the comment:
‘lovely neighbours, friends, parks, library and things to do for the children, as well as everyday shopping needs, regular events in the market square and nice independent shops.’
This has to be someome commenting on somewhere else because it isnt the Abingdon I live in. I have 3 kids, there was nothing when I was a kid and nothing to do here now ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!! The cinema and bowling application was denied years ago. The park at boxhill has a slide for a child of 3-7 but only a child of over 7 can climb up it because nobody thought to fit a ladder instead they opted for a climbing rope.
Kids hang around shops which has been an ongoing issue for years. Schools in abingdon are only deemed statisfactory.
The library is in keeping with the rest of Abingdon – below average and finally my biggest beef with Abingdon – investing a ridiculous amount of money in a change to the one way system that only made things worse and recobbling the centre only to have to pull it up again a year later because someone forgot to install electrics for the christmas lights
Abingdon couldnt sort a drunken session in a brewery which is ironic as abingdon use to have its own brewery and had the closest proximity of pubs in the UK.
This is my first time visit at here and i am genuinely happy to read everthing
at one place.