In today's (Leicester) Mercury, the headline procalimed Leicester as a "Boom Town". The Regeneration company was setup in 2001 and results of their proposals are starting to bear fruit with ever more cranes appearing over the horizon...

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=132935&command=displayContent&sourceNode=132702&contentPK=14419298&folderPk=77465

I am sceptical as to how the article arrives at the conclusion regarding the £3 Billion being the highest amount of regeneration in the country, barring London (obviously :P), but it is still pretty decent - taking out the cost of the hospital and schools money that still isn't bad at £2 billion to get the ball rolling...hopefully this amount will continue to rise as the regeneration gains pace.

I think finally things might be looking up for the East Midlands...

Well if Hull, Brighton and even Nottingham can be seen as boom towns then why not Leicester.

I wouldn’t call Hull is a boomtown, to be honest, neither is Leeds.

Nottingham isn't a boomtown anymore but it was in the past years. It might be again in 2007 (with construction of £400 million Broadmarsh, £900 million east side, and the whole Southside thing) so it isn't a boomtown anymore eventhough there are more than 20 Cranes on the Skyline at the moment.

Hull is going through some regeneration but not on the same level as Brighton, Nottingham or even Leicester.

Every city/town has its year in the sun. Sometimes more than one. There will be some survey later on in the year showing that more companies are relocating to Derby than anywhere else (or something along those lines). Next year it will be someone else who is on top. Its just the councils trying to blow their own trumpet.

Thats a stupid comment; Hull is transforming its city centre and waterfront, and Leeds is rivalling Manchester and Birmingham.

Thats a stupid comment; Hull is transforming its city centre and waterfront, and Leeds is rivalling Manchester and Birmingham.

Leeds - if you seriously think Hull is undergoing as much development as cities like Notts, Btn, and Leicester you are even less intelligent than I thought you were, I visit Hull on a regular basis, and I also used to live there so I know what I'm talking about.

Hull is receiving around 1 billion pounds worth of investment, compared with roughly 2 - 3 billion in Brighton (don't know about Notts or Leicester but it's there or there abouts on the same level).

All hull is really building at the moment is a bland out of town style shopping centre - in town next to the station, along with some small to large scale residential developments in and around the old town/river hull.

There are plans in the pipeline to transform the waterfront area but this all relies on building a road tunnel for the main road that seperates the city centre and the marina/waterfront area - which even if it does get unlikely approval from the government will not start until 2015 ish.

Hull isn't a boomtown, and neither is Leeds because there are nothing worthy u/c.

Nottingham reached its peak over the years so it isn't a boomtown anymore (eventhough there are more than 20 Cranes on the Skyline.)

Leicester must be a boomtown but the CBD is too small for a major city.

Yep spot on. The CBD will never rival those of Birmingham or Manchester etc and for that reason the regeneration is concentrating on developing a (space) science/research park clustered around the river and the existing National Space Centre to utilise the skill sets of Leicester Uni, Demontfort Uni & nearby Loughborough Uni. Also the East Midlands Development Agency is encouraging a modicum of developments across the region so I think there's plenty more to come in both Nottingham and Derby.

From what I read on here it seems nearly all Leeds' construction projects are residential flats rather than buildings of specific interest. Is this the case?

Not particularly- there are alot of residential developments, and hotel developments but there are also lots of retail developments (The Light, Trinity Qtr, Harewood Qtr), cultural developments (Leeds Museum, College of Music or whatever its called) and theres also major developments such as St. James' Oncology Wing extension which will create Europe's largest Oncology department. Most of the major developments are mixed use anyway like Clarence Dock 1/3 office, 1/3 retail/leisure, 1/3 office

In today's (Leicester) Mercury, the headline procalimed Leicester as a "Boom Town". The Regeneration company was setup in 2001 and results of their proposals are starting to bear fruit with ever more cranes appearing over the horizon...

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=132935&command=displayContent&sourceNode=132702&contentPK=14419298&folderPk=77465

I am sceptical as to how the article arrives at the conclusion regarding the £3 Billion being the highest amount of regeneration in the country, barring London (obviously :P), but it is still pretty decent - taking out the cost of the hospital and schools money that still isn't bad at £2 billion to get the ball rolling...hopefully this amount will continue to rise as the regeneration gains pace.

I think finally things might be looking up for the East Midlands...

There's 4billion coming into Coventry.

There's 4billion coming into Coventry.

Wow. Is that in the next 1-2 years though or over a longer period? The 3 Billion mentioned in the article is regarding projects that are already underway or due to start shortly. From the article the money being invested in the hospital and schools is due to start later this year or early 2007 as far as I know.

leicester is a big enough city, to justify calling itself a boom-town. Hull is too isolated, and not important to anyone outside of its boundaries. Brighton was once a small town, but as a suburb of london, it has grown in reputation.

Leeds, is the opposite of leicester, it is a city that has been given far too much importance, and really is not in the same league in any way as the cities it tries to compete with (manc, liverpool etc)

Leicester has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) indian community in the world, outside of india. Look how famous the china towns in san franscisco, and LA are.. if leicester sold itself well enough, it could be very important. It has a large scale industrial base, and a big enough population to mean things actually happen there. didnt they host an england game once? things like that.

the problem leicester has, is that it is the boring, ugly, poor relation of nottingham, just like leeds is the poor boring, uninteresting relation of manchester and has lived in its shadow for a long time. If instead of competing for first place, leicester promoted itself as the second city of the east midlands it would do much better, its much more important and diverse than derby could ever be, and while competing with nottingham, it looses sight of many of its own strengths.

Leicester is the most cosmopolitan city in this country (maybe even more so than london), if not even europe, or indeed the world. . it has communities from every part of the globe. Not many realise that.

leicester is a big enough city, to justify calling itself a boom-town. Hull is too isolated, and not important to anyone outside of its boundaries. Brighton was once a small town, but as a suburb of london, it has grown in reputation.


Brighton has never been a suburb of London! How outrageous! :P
That would be like saying Nottingham is a suburb of Birmingham. :)

It has also never been a small town, unless you're talking about hundreds of years ago when it was a tiny fishing village.

leicester is a big enough city, to justify calling itself a boom-town. Hull is too isolated, and not important to anyone outside of its boundaries. Brighton was once a small town, but as a suburb of london, it has grown in reputation.

Leeds, is the opposite of leicester, it is a city that has been given far too much importance, and really is not in the same league in any way as the cities it tries to compete with (manc, liverpool etc)

Leicester has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) indian community in the world, outside of india. Look how famous the china towns in san franscisco, and LA are.. if leicester sold itself well enough, it could be very important. It has a large scale industrial base, and a big enough population to mean things actually happen there. didnt they host an england game once? things like that.

the problem leicester has, is that it is the boring, ugly, poor relation of nottingham, just like leeds is the poor boring, uninteresting relation of manchester and has lived in its shadow for a long time. If instead of competing for first place, leicester promoted itself as the second city of the east midlands it would do much better, its much more important and diverse than derby could ever be, and while competing with nottingham, it looses sight of many of its own strengths.

Leicester is the most cosmopolitan city in this country (maybe even more so than london), if not even europe, or indeed the world. . it has communities from every part of the globe. Not many realise that.

I've read a government document (Can't recall what it was!) that stated 275,000+ is considered a "big city".

Wow. Is that in the next 1-2 years though or over a longer period? The 3 Billion mentioned in the article is regarding projects that are already underway or due to start shortly. From the article the money being invested in the hospital and schools is due to start later this year or early 2007 as far as I know.

Not sure - I think the council just got 800 million for the Swanswell Initiative, and there are big projects like Belgrade Plaza, Park Court, Ikea, Friar's Road Apartment blocks, Albert & Victoria buildings apartment blocks. Someone is planning a high-rise block next to the Ramada hotel in the Butts...

Personally, I think while some of these big projects are good (They are mainly up to 17 storeys high, and will make the city centre look much more built up and also bring in more apartments, offices, leisure & desperately needed retail units) I think a lot of cosmetic changes could actually be just as effective. In particular, restoring a sense of place by creating more street frontages and removing the "zoning" that created desolate tracks of city centre filled with nothing but civic buildings. I never understood the point of a nice grass square surrounded by council offices.

No patch of land is safe here, though, it seems - much of the city centre was left as car park after the war, or unusable due to the weird shapes the ringroad cut it into...

Anyway, this is a Leicester thread, and me & the wife tend to go to Leicester for the (Non supermarket) shopping as Coventry's is absolutely rubbish. We can get straight into the centre and park up in something like 25 minutes.

Anyway, this is a Leicester thread, and me & the wife tend to go to Leicester for the (Non supermarket) shopping as Coventry's is absolutely rubbish. We can get straight into the centre and park up in something like 25 minutes.
It really is surprising how fast you can get from Coventry to Leicester, with that lovely stretch of motorway ;) I didn't realise there were so many projects going on in Coventry too.

Leicester has one of the biggest (if not the biggest) indian community in the world, outside of india. Look how famous the china towns in san franscisco, and LA are.. if leicester sold itself well enough, it could be very important. It has a large scale industrial base, and a big enough population to mean things actually happen there. didnt they host an england game once? things like that.

the problem leicester has, is that it is the boring, ugly, poor relation of nottingham, just like leeds is the poor boring, uninteresting relation of manchester and has lived in its shadow for a long time. If instead of competing for first place, leicester promoted itself as the second city of the east midlands it would do much better, its much more important and diverse than derby could ever be, and while competing with nottingham, it looses sight of many of its own strengths.

Leicester is the most cosmopolitan city in this country (maybe even more so than london), if not even europe, or indeed the world. . it has communities from every part of the globe. Not many realise that.

Boring? Ugly? Poor relation!?!? Cheeky bugger! To be honest nearly all the midland cities (east/west) exc Lincoln are ugly, all concreted over and any last remaining bits of charm mercilessly smothered in grey. I think the boring tag sticks because no-one really knows much about Leicester...until they attend the festivals - summer sundae, mela, carnival, diwali, etc (which are all huge events) or visit the city's indian restaurants. Yes there was an England friendly played, last year Brazil entertained Jamaica in a friendly and this year Jamaica are entertaining Ghana.

Poor-relation may be true - but I think as this current spate of regeneration shows this is no longer always the case...recent history since WW2 has seen many changes to both cities but arguably moreso to Leicester with the mass influx of immigrants. The next few decades hold much promise for the fortunes of Leicester.

Leicester is one of the most multi-cultural places in the UK, which doesn't just mean having a large Indian community but also many many other groups. This is one it's main strengths - without the "non-white" community the city/suburbs would be nowhere near as big and hence regeneration would most likely not even be talked about.

I don't think promoting Leicester as the second-city of the east mids would have any benefits - there's only 4 cities in the east mids (inc Lincoln) and comparitivly they are all quite small. Leicester's strength lies in its location and the diversity of its population. If the council bothered to utilise these assets properly Leicester would be a much better place.

Promoting ANY city as a "second city" is not on .. it will just upset people and serves no useful purpose other than advertizing to all that the "first city" has a leading edge.


BG

....

Promoting ANY city as a "second city" is not on .. it will just upset people and serves no useful purpose other than advertizing to all that the "first city" has a leading edge.


BG
I agree. Leicester should promote itself as the East Midlands leading city That would wake up our council.

I agree. Leicester should promote itself as the East Midlands leading city That would wake up our council.

I thought they want to make Nottingham's boundaries bigger etc? Seem pretty alert to me!

I thought they want to make Nottingham's boundaries bigger etc? Seem pretty alert to me!
I’m not saying our councils fallen dormant but if they wanted to make Nottingham 'one of europes best' according to them.. they would essentially measure up. Focus on Skyscrapers,ect.

but Nottingham is progressing really fast. Commercial U/C include The Pod, East Side, Trinity Square,ect.

From what I read on here it seems nearly all Leeds' construction projects are residential flats rather than buildings of specific interest. Is this the case?

What do you mean by specific interest?
Fly-by-night cultural symbols like Urbis or the NCPopMusic?

Leeds has two major retail developments in the works, designed by Enric Miralles, and Terry Farrell.



http://www.leeds-cityscape.co.uk/Trinity%20Quarter%203.jpg



http://www.eastgateleeds.co.uk/images/collaboration_large.jpg



Not to mention redevlopments of the West end and Quarry Hill



http://www.dlgarchitects.com/images/project/project_0022_01.jpg



http://www.leeds-cityscape.co.uk/WellingtonPlace.jpg



Oh yeah, and these guys...


http://www.skyscrapernews.com/images/pics/1004CriterionPlaceresidentialtower_pic1.jpg



http://www.leedsconstructionlink.co.uk/News_files/Lumiere.jpg



http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a178/apm22/2%20June%202006/P1010012.jpg


Boomtown, apparently!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/sax0vtr/Stuff/skyleeds.jpg

Di Livio those renders look prettyyyy good! What the hell are those red tubes? Walkways?...Yes I meant buildings like Urbis etc etc, buildings that have some variety of "specialness" attached to them for example Selfridges in Birmingham. Flats are being built in every town in the city at the minute - but of course there are a few schemes that stand out and they are the ones that are interesting. Pretty soon the glass and steel building will become (has become?) like the standard beige box of the PC world...nothing special...Saying that Leicester is lacking these as well!!

I think they're just random graphical thigns seeing as the roof will be glass with wooden panels in some places- ie not red stuff. Unless the glass is tinted red- but not that bright red so I don't really think its there for any reason in terms of how it will be built.

Acouple of computer generated, imaginary towers don’t make it a boomtown.

How are they imaginary- they're all under construction or going to start soon; anyway if you say that it makes every UK city look quite dead in terms of development.

I’m not saying our councils fallen dormant but if they wanted to make Nottingham 'one of europes best' according to them.. they would essentially measure up. Focus on Skyscrapers,ect.

but Nottingham is progressing really fast. Commercial U/C include The Pod, East Side, Trinity Square,ect.



fuk off is it

unemployment rose by 19.4 percent last year(evening post today)

those developments arnt anyhting compared to leeds, leeds is slow by its comparison at the moment and its still way ahead of notting

Leeds has huge schemes proposed although not that many under construction. Only a few really big schemes u/c but it shows that it will boost up alot making the gap between Leeds and Nottingham significant. Anyone who compares the two are just weird- its like comparing Birmingham to London or Doncaster to Sheffield.

what's this significant gap you’re talking about? if you havent noticed every city has something major proposed. It is all about whats there or under construction really..

Yeah but most places have more than one major proposal. Other cities only have one or two.

Hey we're not starting a nottingham v leeds now are we?!?

nobody is starting anything.

phew!

What exactly is ‘boom’ down there anyway?

When buildings are demolished followed by big shiny new ones in their place. On a large scale.

Leicester ... Boom Town ?

Well, maybe now is the time :):):) (See Leicester thread) :D