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Here at Newry.ie we are amazed at the reaction from members of the public following our Newry 2020 Vision article where we aimed to help start a healthy debate on Newry's future.
One contributor sent us a fantastic analysis of what they would like to see happening and we publish it here below.
It follows on from our own musings and indeed expands on many of our ideas.
Here is part one of an extremely well thought out article in full. One of the most outstanding thoughts is "What about encouraging actual ‘workshops’ and galleries on Hill Street. Why are the craftspeople and artisans out in WIN Industrial estate ‘away out there’? Who is encouraging them to showcase their work and their businesses directly to the public on our City’s main ‘High Street’?"
The author wishes to remain anonymous!
Again we would love to hear even more thoughts from you all so feel free to contact us by email to news@newry.ie
Our original article can be found here
Anyone can have ideas - Putting forward ideas takes no effort - To be able to ‘think outside the box’ is a gift - However - It takes a lot of ‘vision’, money and sheer hard work and determination to ‘realise’ ideas!
MONAGHAN STREET
The ‘entrance’ to the City from the south west.. ie: from the Camlough Rd roundabout up ‘into’ the City towards Bellinnis, and over the Bridge towards Margaret Square????
This street is no ‘introduction’ to the City. I see this as a tree lined Avenue leading up to an impressive and much wider bridge(s) over the Canal and River. The Bridges would become a ‘feature’ with new ‘taller’? and more ornate ironwork and stonework, this leads us into the City’s Margaret Square.
The bars cafes and restaurants on Monaghan Street should be given more street frontage so that they can ‘build’/ ‘extend’ onto the street either through glass conservatory type areas to have your meal or simply just more pavement space to put out tables and chairs.
Money should be made available so that shop frontages could be ‘architecturally styled’ to suit the premises and to ‘blend in with’ the overall architectural theme? (does this exist?) of the street. This is a very sunny street, its also quite open and airy (as opposed to Hill St).. perhaps you should ‘play up ‘ this ambience.
HILL STREET (from the City Hall right down to the Market)
The ‘High Street’ of the City...left to die while everyone went ‘indoors’ to the Buttercrane and the Quays. Needs to have a purpose, a marketing strategy. Currently full of Charity shops and Discount stores ....OK... if this is working for them, they have identified that you don’t have to have big, large fronted, plate glass, chrome and tiles department type stores to be successful. Hill Street should go ‘bijou’..... quaint, traditional, quirky, ‘olde worlde’.
Architecturally, shop frontages should never have been ‘allowed’ to change to ‘modern’ designs. If you look up from street level in Hill Street there are some fabulous window shapes, cornices and other stonework that should be re-applied at street level with doors and entrances to match. No point in trying to make an effort with street lighting if ‘Ethel Austin and Au Natural’ were ‘allowed’ to provide a street frontage, their signs, windows and doors as they did. Where is Hill Streets architectural PLAN?
Type of shops to consider......antique and curio , bookshops, art and craft material supplies, textile and haberdashery stores, (where in Newry can you find dressmaking material?) individual stores /small(er) stores should be encouraged eg: Bedeck for Bed Linen. Decorative household and Gift stores etc. What about encouraging actual ‘workshops’ and galleries on Hill Street. Why are the craftspeople and artisans out in WIN Industrial estate ‘away out there’? Who is encouraging them to showcase their work and their businesses directly to the public on our City’s main ‘High Street’? What financial incentives are being offered to them?
Why don’t we have a LARGE Tourist office on Hill Street or maybe somewhere near the Bus Centre. A Tourist centre with a Café/restaurant a la F. E McWilliam Gallery at Banbridge. A Tourist Centre that sells everything from pens and keyrings with City Hall on them to local arts and crafts, crystal and china etc. a la Kilkenny Design Centre in Dublin. I think the one shop that ‘works’ in Hill street at the moment, is the new sweetie shop down near Carlins... what about a development for them into handmade chocolates?
Hill Street also needs a large and more central newsagents/internet café/ IT Centre for public use.
The Cafes and Restaurants on and just off Hill Street, have really made an effort, again like Monaghan Street they too should be given more pavement space to extend their eating areas either through glass conservatory type designs or just more open pavement space with awnings etc. Marcus Square is ripe for re-development as a ‘proper’ City Square.
The old ‘Woolies’ building/Ethel Austin failure, could be used to provide the ‘anchor’ /hub plan for this ‘ High Street’..... a possibility.... it has to be family orientated....... here we go... it has to have the downstairs frontage extended out into the square with a large (again!) glass conservatory type extension (beautiful glass roof?) This area will become a foyer /restaurant/ café/ a meeting place... a place where events can be launched (why should all the Citys events be launched/showcased in either the Buttercrane or Quays?) Directly behind this area in the ‘Woolies’ building, should be a large childrens entertainment arena , pool tables . soft ball play areas, maybe even a small cinema? This would be a place where children could play while the mums and dads eat or shop? Upstairs in the building there should be a lovely restaurant looking out onto Hill Street.
The whole of the building should be well architecturally designed maybe with a Victorian feel even the childrens play area could resemble a street scene from Newry in years gone by (but pleeeezze no, yellow painted breize block walls!!) The outside area of the large ‘conservatory’ entrance could be designed in such a way to have an outdoor stage or arena, so that other daytime evening events, concerts etc could be held outdoors.
Newry doesn’t seem to be very good at promoting or marketing events . Downpatrick and Armagh seem to be ahead of us in this. We should use current large successful events like Newry Feis to develop MORE events around these ‘festivals’ and ‘tag’ them onto National events Eg; why doesn’t Newry Feis be ‘tagged onto’ to St. Patricks day? ie Develop further what we already have. Another idea, if you’re going to have a Canal Bath Day Race, - connect it to a 3/7 day ‘Maritime’ festival, with a lot of events connected to the City’s waterways If you are going to have ‘Newry City Marathon’ why not tag this onto a Newry City Health and Fitness weekend? ...ie’ make use of what we have and tell all local Community groups well in advance of your ideas so that they can put forward their input in time. Advertise , advertise.. hype it up.. do what you can to get the people out there and enjoying themselves. Be very diverse in what you offer, from street entertainment, right through To Opera and Concerts... the lot! Build on Newrys traditions of Stage and Theatre, Education (schools) and Maritime and Trading History.
Newry City Market at the other end of Hill Street has SO much potential.
When there was a ‘cry’ about this (again), a number of years ago I wrote to the Council through my local councillor, at that time , suggesting ideas. In return I received what I felt was a rather BLAND ‘thank you very much’ letter and then a list of things that they the Council felt that they had done and were doing. I don’t think they have taken any of my suggestions on board, except about local street signage , which seems to have improved a wee bit. But again they Council are not using the Market arena. They still haven’t got ‘an anchor’ as I suggested - you need something at that part of Hill Street to draw the people towards it. Whether it’s a new restaurant bar/café, or local arts and crafts stalls, or a farmers/continental type market on a more regular basis. Lets face it too, while we want to encourage a more ‘continental’ feel, we also need to think of our weather, which dominates every aspect of our lives.
Enclosing the Market completely (again with glass) will keep it more warm and inviting to go to. (a la St. Georges Market in Belfast)
PARKS, LANDSCAPING AND GREEN GRASS AREAS.
It goes without saying that landscaping and providing ‘green’ areas and more walkways and parkland is vital to the overall ambience of the City. SOOO much could be done in and around the Hill Street areas and the area of the Canal and River. We are not using the Canal and River to ‘connect’ both ‘sides’ of Newry we rather see it as a ‘division’ a bit of a no-mans land area. ALL the bridges and walkways across the Canal and river should be widened and make each one more ‘ornate’ /unique than the other. We can no long sail up the Canal from the Albert Basin, but we should encourage a more Maritime/Waterway feel by encouraging Barge Houseboats and restaurants to be moored on the Canal.
CAR PARKING
I haven’t a clue as to how to address this one! Other than we DO need to get into the City quickly and easily... a few suggestions. Some of the old warehouses/ buildings on Merchants Quay could be converted into large multi storeys. I’m thinking of some of the unused stores near TX Maxx, the ones that back onto Merchants Quay? Or perhaps some of the buildings further on up the Quay towards Sugar Island, maybe these could be converted into Multi storey Car Parks. Again this should be done architecturally sympathetically so that the Merchants Quay area should look like olde worlde shops/trading houses/warehouse (as it once was). There should also be good connectivity to the Hill Street area with maybe further walkways /bridges to connect the Car Parks to the City Centre ‘High street’, that is Hill Street. The Car Parks to the back of Hill street behind the Cathedral all need to re-designed possibly with an upper floor area (but not multi storey)
........and THE BIG IDEA......
The road/ ‘dual carriageway’, from ‘the Bank’ in Trevor Hill, right through to Abbey Yard or even the bridge heading over to the Quays, should all be tunnelled!. Yes, get the big drills out and put all the cars down through a tunnel, so that those who want to access the Warrenpoint Road/Docks and/or the Dublin Road areas can do it quickly. By doing this you free up all of the land onto top ie: the areas from the Cathedral Car parks right back to ‘that wall’ where the North street flats used to be. You can have access roads to the Car parks and High street area as they are now and you can landscape and put City parkland in there as well.
So there you have it ... a few ideas for Newry City of the future. This has cost me and you absolutely nothing.... just a couple of hours of my brain time! Enjoy the read, and hopefully some of Newrys entrepreneurs will ‘catch the vision’!!
