Durham Market Place: a new look

[shewhomust]

Something called Durham City Vision Partnership is considering the future of Durham City; the Partnership includes the elected County Council and the elected (but probably soon to be abolished) City Council, but also Durham University, Durham Cathedral Chapter and the shadowy Government entity known as One NorthEast: a sort of superquango, then, bringing together bodies elected to represent the residents with organisations who have an interest in the City's future precisely because they - well, have an interest. Easy to be snide about this, bur pointless: this is how things are done. What makes me nervous, though, is when they bring in the consultants.

The consultants have decided that Durham Market Place needs a new look, and intend to appoint a design team on the basis of a design brief to which the public are invited to contribute by filling in a questionnaire (which can be downloaded from the 2020Vision web site.) This post is my first attempt to tackle that questionnaire, to work out what I think on the subject, and how those thoughts can best be inserted into the yes / no and Please tick one options on the form. So this is me thinking aloud.

Questions 1 to 5 are easy enough: age, gender, occupation, are you a Durham resident? 6 is trickier: Where [sic] you aware of the plans to regenerate the Market Place? Well, I'm aware that I'm filling in a questionnaire, so I know that something's up, but what? The local press latched onto the idea that the proposal was to move the statues (and quote the consultants to the effect that this is an option); the young man who talked me through the exhibition where I picked up the questionnaire said no, this was something the press had dreamed up, that there would be no actual proposals until after the consultation. Which sounds all very fine and democratic, but the questionnaire does say, quite firmly, "Durham Market Place will be getting a new look... a design team will be appointed..." (my emphasis); the consultation does not appear to have the option of deciding that the Market Place is fine as it is, and that money earmarked for this exercise might usefully be spent on - oh, any number of things, but how about starting by creating the riverside walkway that appeared in the original proposals for the Millennium scheme, and clearing the fallen trees off the weir. Is that a yes, or a no?

Question 7, How often do you visit Durham City Centre?, I can do, and 8, What is the reason for you [sic] trip to Durham City today? is easy: assuming it refers to the day I collected the questionnaire, to participate in this consultation exercise (and to do some shopping at the same time, but I could have shopped elsewhere). 9 is about seating - fair enough.

Question 10 is headed Use of space and asks me to rate how satisfied/happy I am with the use of space in the Market Place, on a scale of 1 to 5. There's then a question 10a, which repeats that question in tabular form. I'm not sure what I'm being asked: is the statue of Lord Londonderry too big? is St Nick's church the wrong way round? should we bring back the police box in the middle of the Market Place? should there be more paved pavement, and less cobbled roadway? I'd answer "yes" to that last one; indeed, if it were possible to do away with road access from Silver Street altogether, and bring deliveries up from behind the shops, so that the only road through the Market Place ran from Claypath across the front of Boots and up to Saddler Street, I'd be happy. But I suspect that isn't an option. Certainly the present arrangement means that you emerge from Silver Street into a ring of parked vans and generators serving the stalls of the outdoor market, while the stalls themselves turn their backs to you.

Is that what question 10 is asking? Possibly - 10b and 10c are about the market, while 10d and e are about events. Would you prefer the outdoor market to be removed? Certainly not. Would you prefer outdoor market stall to be made bigger? Which one? All of them? Does this mean, should there be more stalls, or should more space be allocated to the stalls, perhaps?

Would you like to see more events take place in the Market Place? (and If yes, what type of events would you like to see?) My first impulse was to say yes, on the grounds that the Market Place is a bit dead in the evenings, but I think that question comes later. Daytime events, then: the occasional morris side is fun, though the space does become a bit congested. Is this what they have in mind, or are we talking about more selling opportunities? What was that event last summer when they were going to turn the Market Place into a beach - I think there was a sand-pit, which I managed to pass without noticing (I was on my way to the craft fair on the Sands, which raises a whole other set of questions about how the different open spaces in the City work together). But I don't dismiss this sort of event: the Continental markets can be fun, and it would suit me very well to have the Farmers' Market more than once a month - but I know these people also have farms to run, so is it possible?

11 is "Use of Lighting (After dark)" How satisfied am I on a scale of 1 to 5, Would you prefer the Market Place to be more brightly lit? No. Would you prefer the Market Place to have more environmentally friendly lighting? Well, duh. Would you prefer to see a different style of street lighting in the Market Place? Well, I don't know. Try me. What had you in mind? And there's a space for further comments.

Question 12 asks me to rate "the shop frontages" on a scale of 1 to 5 - all of them, as a whole, various as they are - and then make specific comments. Is there any point in getting bogged down in this? Personally I prefer the smaller, more individual shops with the smaller, more individual frontages, but their design team can't remove the huge plate-glass windows of the big stores in the Prince Bishops development - and wouldn't want to, since those stores must be what keeps that development afloat (and it's a bit late to ask whether that's a good thing). They can't even ensure that the smaller units are let to coffee shops and jewellers catering to the student population, rather than to the short-term let that was full of red foil hearts last time I went past. They might just be able to persuade the council to liven up the blank windows of the old tourist office, standing empty, as I understand it, so they can put in level access to the Town Hall.

And 13 is about ground covering: it's tempting to say "Turf it over!" but seriously, when you've decided what to do about the space, then decide on the ground covering to match. (Which I suppose means that I'm happy enough with the current paving).

As usual, then, question 14 starts by inviting me to rate my satisfaction / dissatisfaction with the statues on a scale of 1 to 5. "The statues" does not appear to include the miscellaneous birds and beasts who decorate the Market Place above eye level, and which it is indeed easy not to notice. Some of them are much the worse for wear, but they make me smile.

But the specific questions are, 14b, Would you prefer the King of Neptune [sic] statue to be moved elsewhere? It's not so long since the statue of
Neptune was restored and returned to his original position where the City's well once stood, and I like that historical link. But it's true that he is somewhat overshadowed by the larger equestrian statue, and I might be persuaded he should be moved, if someone had a better idea (I've heard it a suggestion that there might be a place for him at the new swimming pool, which is appropriate, at least).

I am trying not to be influenced by the phrasing of 14c Would you prefer the Man on Horse statue to be moved elsewhere? I feel patronised by this phrasing, and simultaneously I feel that if the person who compiled the questionnaire didn't know that the staue represents Lord Londonderry, they need only read the panel on the side. This is probably unfair, and they probably knew perfectly well who it is (although, then again, "the King of Neptune"?) but didn't want to confuse respondents who didn't know, and couldn't cope with long words. Never mind, that's not the point. All right then, would I prefer it to be moved? No. Again, if someone has an idea, why don't they tell us what it is and we'll decide whether we like it. Finally we have 14d and e, should the statues be replaced with something else, and if so, what? Is this the point at which to say, please, not the Fenwick Lawson Saint Cuthbert's Journey: I seem to be the only person in Durham who doesn't like Fenwick Lawson's work, but there it is. On the other hand, if there were any chance of reinstating the Peace Mural...

15 is about vehicular traffic: the less the better, in my view. 16 asks about night-time use of the Market Place, and it certainly is, as I was saying, a bit dead in the evenings, somewhere you scurry through on the way to somewhere else. This may change when the building work in the Town Hall is complete, and it becomes available as a venue once again. What's on offer seems to be more "events", and I don't think that's what I'm talking about: but if there was more on in the buildings around the Market Place, and the sort of seating and lighting that made it a pleasant place to linger on the way to and from those events... And question 17 asks me to rate and comment on the market stalls, and then we're done.

One theme that recurs as I try to put this response together is that the Market Place is neither isolated nor self contained. Thinking about the shop frontages in the Market Place, I was unsure how far into the Prince Bishops development, how far along Saddler Street I should be looking. Or thinking of events I would remember something that could have happened in the Market Place but in fact happened in Millennium Square or on Palace Green (and there's another counter-balance to the Market Place in the little open space in front of BHS). The Market Place itself is comparatively small, and it is inevitable that functions will be divided between the City's open spaces. The challenge for the design team is not to try to concentrate interest in the Market Place, but to encourage a flow of people through the City's open spaces - which reminds me that Fowler's Yard is another of them. And that, I think, brings me back to the consideration that if the money were mine to spend, I'd start by the river.