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Meadowhall


DaveJC

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Is this the direction that retailing was travelling in without any of us realising it? An almost total industrial decline handed the possibility of a huge retail park to whoever had the will and the funds to build one on a plate. Everything under one roof, plenty of free parking and public transport links, it couldn’t fail could it?

As it stands Sheffield City Centre is taking on a residential and educational mantle, retail units, pubs and eateries will have to satisfy the needs and requirements of it’s population and educational facilities, fine by me, the City Centre has a new useful life and for the shoppers, get yourselves down to Meadowhall, you know that it makes sense.
 

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Meadowhell wasn't universally approved by SCC when it was being planned. Many Councillors feared ( with some justification) that it would be the beginning of the end of the City Centre. The internet and the disastrous affects on retail by Covid 19 seems to have largely justified their fears....although at the time neither existed!!!

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As soon as I read ‘Meadowhell’ I knew that I was on a hiding to nothing. I thought that I was being positive about SCC, as Hallam University and student/staff accommodation take over none required office space, closely tracked by service outlets that suit it’s new beginning, obviously not. 
Well you can’t suit everyone.😎

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I'd agree with lysandernovo. Whilst at the time of planning Meadowhall, the steel and related industries were in steep decline and Hadfields was one of those, where Meadowhall was eventually built, so to SCC and the developers it probably looked like a good re-use of brownfield sites and re-purposing the area.

Shortly after Meadowhall was built, as a man it was a great place to call in for what I wanted, thanks to the free parking and I bumped into many people I knew.

However, my wife and family are not fond of it and she says she and many of her friends prefer being out in the open in the town centre, going to the department stores and independent shops there. A saturday afternoon trip has therefore been our modus operandi for many years, in spite of expensive parking and fumes from buses and taxis in the centre. Whether this will reduce in the future now that John Lewis is going, remains to be seen, however the investment moving to the Moor may encourage more to return. Also, women I know say they prefer to 'shop' and try something on, feel the fabrics and see other items 'in the flesh' as it were, rather than buying online and then having to return them if unsuitable. But this seems a way of life for many younger shoppers, the payback being increased pollution from the increasingly burgeoning delivery vans.

With the benefit of hindsight, I would say Meadowhall should have been incorporated into the centre of Sheffield, so keeping the shoppers in the centre and maintaining the footfall necessary for stores to thrive. I have been to Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham and many other cities where certain streets and pedestrian areas have been roofed over, creating a good mix of outdoor shopping and indoor for when the weather is bad - this is the ideal compromise.

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