Lower Briggate and The Calls.

[rhinomatt]

I have found out that 'Desire Bar' (Religion) is staying Queer/gay Friendly.

[rhinomatt]

Since the last post, Desire has shut again, Mission has split into Mission and Mission2, Queens Court has had a revamp, Xibit and Viaduct now do food, Fibre does lovely Pizzas during the daytime and Pride happened with over 17,000 people hitting the streets (making it the largest city centre event.)

On another note:
Pink News (http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-14244.html) reports that Liverpool is to have its gay area pedestrianised to encourage expantion and investment to the gay village there and hopefully become the size of Leeds, or even Manchester...
This is something we should attempt to do somehow, they close the calls and lower briggate down for pride, why not make it a permanent thing, the transport still runs smooth...

Leeds Pride 2009 brought around 5million pounds of investment to the city... not bad for a days work!

[God's Own City]

personally i'd like to see a big programme of full/part pedestrianisation in the city. Full pedestrianisation would remove all traffic, while part would remove road markings, pave over the roads and set a maximum speed limit of 10mph.

E.g. in Peterborough City Centre

this could include

The Headrow
Lower Briggate
Call Lane
Headingley (assuming bypass built from URC to Shaw Lane)

[Leeds No.1]

Originally Posted by God's Own City

personally i'd like to see a big programme of full/part pedestrianisation in the city. Full pedestrianisation would remove all traffic, while part would remove road markings, pave over the roads and set a maximum speed limit of 10mph.

E.g. in Peterborough City Centre

this could include

The Headrow
Lower Briggate
Call Lane
Headingley (assuming bypass built from URC to Shaw Lane)

Call Lane could happen if a southbound bus lane is provided on Lower Briggate. I don't think Lower Briggate could be pedestrianised realistically. The Headrow may be part pedestrianised (with Eastgate), but if it is it is a long way off.

Headingley is interesting because Tbus provides a part-pedestrianisation opportunity. If Tbus goes along the high street and through the centre of Headingley (as opposed to round the back), the centre could be pedestrianised except for Tbus with the relief road taking all the general traffic.

[rhinomatt]

The Calls has its own wikipidia page!?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calls

[rhinomatt]

Manchester to have more of its Gay Village pedestrianised... (along with Liverpool as mentioned earlier). http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2009/11/09...in-manchester/

There must be a way Leeds can improve this area of the City, Its so close to the main Shopping district that it would be nice to see a family friendly gay area with cafe-bars, restaurants and one hell of a night-life. Perhaps the opportunity to have a sculpture in the middle that can be seen all the way down from the top of briggate.

[Leeds No.1]

I'm certainly in favour or sculptures at important junctions.

I don't think The Calls will be pedestrianised as it is on the loop- unless the loop is redirected to run across Crown Point Bridge and along Great Wilson Street. I'm not sure it is pedestrianisation that is needed to improve the area- this is the answer in many cases but not sure about this one. It certainly needs to all be better integrated with the retail core though. Lower Briggate feels like a world away from the main part of Briggate.

[di Livio]

I'd like to see more shared spaces in Leeds. Alas, we have to wait until every other major city in Britain have shared spaces coming out of their ears before it happens here. No, I'm sorry but it's true.

[wiggleyleeds]

Lower briggate is the gay area.. there is nothing gay about the calls unless you include the large german sausage served at 42 the calls.

[Leeds No.1]

How well would shared spaces work in Leeds? I think they could only work in small areas, and are really better suited to smaller cities and towns where there are narrow streets and lower levels of traffic. Shared space could probably work on streets like Greek Street, but imagine trying to implement shared space on The Headrow or Boar Lane- it would be a nightmare.

[rhinomatt]

Originally Posted by Leeds No.1

I'm certainly in favour or sculptures at important junctions.

I don't think The Calls will be pedestrianised as it is on the loop- unless the loop is redirected to run across Crown Point Bridge and along Great Wilson Street. I'm not sure it is pedestrianisation that is needed to improve the area- this is the answer in many cases but not sure about this one. It certainly needs to all be better integrated with the retail core though. Lower Briggate feels like a world away from the main part of Briggate.

I agree with you about it needs to be more integrated but at the same time I want it to remain a unique part of the city. The Council should invest in the area and encourage more cultural bars, shops, and cafes. Although Heatons Court is a private road.

[Leeds No.1]

I think for anything like that to happen it would require transport alterations in that not much can be done to the area now because of the City Loop, but also the necessary access to the PTB. The same problem strangles New York Street and the Exchange Quarter.

This is why I propose re-routing the City Centre Loop to reflect the south-expanding City Centre, although I have no ideas on how to keep access to the Public Transport Box if attempts are made to try and reduce traffic around The Calls and Lower Briggate.

Perhaps traffic can't be removed but the carriageway can be narrowed with pavements made wider- I think this is especially true of Lower Briggate.

[aviator]

I just found these renders on the architecture2b website for the Warehouse Hill site in the Calls:

[Leeds No.1]

I've not seen the second render before.

I thought this proposal received alot of criticism, particularly from the Civic Trust? I personally think it's fine and some elements of the design echo Granary Wharf.

[di Livio]

Good find. It's a slight improvement on the previous '60s multi-storey car park design, but it's still rather underwhelming for what should be an important site.

[Mikeyp]

i hope they don't build it I park there.....

[rich-leeds]

I've seen worse. It does at least nod to the waterfront on the side nearest to Aire Bar with some active use, but the riverside walkway on the Leeds Bridge side is far too narrow and enclosed against what looks like an enclosed basement car park. I'm sure they can do better than that. I guess it's a challenging site, although they're not being very imaginative with the very obvious way they've designed around the flood levels.

[Mikeyp]

I think that site deserves a lot better......... certainly something more striking :-)

[oyster]

What's with that duplicated man in the first photo? A guy on a canal boat wearing a shirt and formal trousers. Surely he's not commuting to work on a barge?

[Suburban Knight]

Originally Posted by oyster

What's with that duplicated man in the first photo? A guy on a canal boat wearing a shirt and formal trousers. Surely he's not commuting to work on a barge?

Perhaps he's coming from a new park & sail facility at Woodlesford?