Today's long awaited launch of plans to transform the enterprise zone around Temple Meads – branded the 'Temple Quarter' - was heralded on the front page of the Post and on the Enterprise Partnership's pages. Both highlighted the half-promise of an Arena.
The
big event was on Plot 3 – except for now it's to be known as
'Creative Common'. (Don't run away with any ideas that this is in
any way a common, though. Bristol doesn't do commons). A (only
slightly leaky) Big Top provided the venue.
First
in were 200 invited businesses, to get a progress report on the
Enterprise Zone's development and opportunies. The literature
suggests they were subjected to a tidal wave of hype; I can't help
wondering whether hard-headed businessmen are really vulnerable to
this sort of thing, and if they are, what makes their judgement
so much better than the rest of us can manage.
Then
it was time for us plebs. We were treated instead to a sparky free
display of entertaining skills much better suited to the venue. All
credit to them, and the kids especially loved it. I gather that
the Big Top is going to stay there through the summer, and maybe come
back next season too.
But
for us, there was little about what's going to happen in this key
part of our city; just a few display boards mostly filled with
artists' impressions of THE VISION. Those pictures were indeed
visionary in much the same way as a dream is: they don't really hold
together in the light of day, and raise many more questions than they
answer.
One
thing was clear, though. The display pictures, like the media hype
beforehand, include NOTHING about the council's or the
Enterprise Partnership's promise of a modern transport interchange
– in fact the only indication of any 'onward' transport for
arriving passengers was a BRT stop in the Friary. Here's one of the
pics; make of it what you will.
It was mere chance, but immediately afterwards, a steam train
pulled in to Temple Meads – headed by a locomotive that drew the
crowds at the 1951 Festival of Britain - extending the general
feeling of unreality
Then
it was time to get the bus home.
No
circuses here. Business as usual for the forseeable future.
6 comments:
As was pointed out by one of the Evening Post's commentariat, Bristol has for many years had an excess of empty business premises. To this I would add that the clowns in the big top now want to relax planning permission to build yet more of the same; what bloody madness
Yes, they seem to be of the 'Build it and They will Come" belief system. Maybe the Creative Common should have been called 'Field of Dreams'.
If you look left off centre above the colourful umbrellas in the photo of the stoical bus queue you will see the rusty post of an original cast-iron tram pole.
Although visible outside the big top Osbourne and his business leaders would not have seen the irony of this relic!
I wondered what that post was. Presumably the trams were single-deckers, then?
It occurred to me, seeing that they're now talking about taking the BRT into the Friary (instead of that absurd notion of a 'Temple Meads' stop at the corner of Redcliffe Way and Victoria Street),that no-one's explaining how they get out again. Easy enough for a tram - it just goes the opposite way. But a bendy-bus? How does it find its way back onto Temple Way?
Looks a bit short for electric post, true.
Maybe gas lamp or signals. Design consistent with tram posts of 1900's.
~How about a mystery pole contest?!!
The trams tight turning circle or reversing ability is lost on the bendy buses and BRT.
The only thing creative about that lot is their accounting.
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