Tim Garratt's Blog

A new craze is starting – and there are some big names supporting the initiative.

Pop up shops are springing up. With news this week that Elton John and David Furness are selling off their collective wardrobes from a pop-up shop in Covent Garden. The money raised from the shop will be going to Elton’s Aids Foundation.

Of course this is not new to Nottingham – we have been having our own pop-up shop for the last few months. Wayne Hemingway of Red or Dead fame was instrumental in bringing the concept to Nottingham. I think it’s a great idea.

But I cannot help but wonder if it could be extended further. According to research undertaken there have been 25,090 shops closed in the UK between January and September of this year – a staggering 10% of the total shops on our high streets. There have been some proposals to stop these ‘tooth gaps’ appearing. And with no immediate sign of the end of the recession in sight perhaps this is something we need to revisit? Empty property does nothing for anyone. In the current Rating regime landlords are paying significant sums out whilst their property remains non-income producing. Streets look run-down very quickly. Buildings start to deteriorate as maintenance gets put to the back of the queue. Heating systems off means a damp and dank shop appears fairly quickly. It’s not easy to recover from this!

And so perhaps we do need to think about getting people to set up shop in some of our vacant premises – just for a short time.

The kiosk idea is great – it showcases local talent – and gives people a chance. And it doesn’t only work in a kiosk format – why not have a more ‘permanent’ home?

I have had the pleasure of hearing Wayne speak several times and his business story is that he started effectively on a market stall – we need to remember these roots. Not everyone will survive or make the next ‘Red or Dead’ – but our retailing will not look quite so run down, buildings will be ‘cuddled’ and shopping can be fun – with the kiosk shops offering unique products.

And perhaps some of the space can be used for amateur Art sales, or perhaps for musicians starting out? Or for ‘meeting spaces’ with coffee and cakes at low prices.

Now, I wonder if I should buy some of those Elton glasses – or would that make me look like silly? John Lyle doesn’t look silly though…he looks cool?

I have just read the Nottingham Economic Report published by Nottingham City Council and it makes positive reading. The headlines are:

Over £1 billion of Government investment in Nottingham
GVA (Gross Value Added) of £11.6 billion for Greater Nottingham
A higher than average number of jobs are in Knowledge Intensive Industries
Higher than average skills
One of the country’s Top 20 locations for A-level results
A competitively priced business location
Over three quarters of a million people in the Travel-to-Work Area
A retail spend of £1.7 billion
A highly accessible area with excellent communications.
Nottingham has surpassed all its targets for improving public transport in the last two years.

I was asked a couple of months ago to speak on Radio Nottingham about ‘green shoots’ – and at the time I thought the call on the market generally was a bit premature (I still do!). But what I did say was that there are some really compelling reasons to come to Nottingham – as evidenced by the list above. But specifically that our costs of locating you business here are considerably lower than major UK competing Cities. Comparable costs (all inclusive) are Birmingham £47.50, Leeds £43.50 & Bristol £39.50. Nottingham is at £30 per square foot.

This price differential does not mean a difference in quality. In fact the report also highlights some fantastic buildings in Nottingham – No.1 Nottingham Science Park has won numerous awards and is managed by my firm. It is as good as any product in these competing cities. We have great buildings here.

But my other point goes beyond the facts and figures. I think Nottingham has nice people – I suggested this on the Radio. We are welcoming and friendly. And perhaps that is something we should promote more of. New York did it after the catastrophe of 9/11 – they suddenly realised that their visitors were not an irritant, but ‘friends’ and so adjusted their attitude. We are a friendly lot in Nottingham (where else would someone say ‘ay-up-me-duck’?)- but we could do even better. My mate John Lyle and I did think that we should start a ‘helpful’ campaign in the town – so when you are asked for help – you go out of your way to help people and talk to them. Our reputation will grow even more. It might not help the statistics in the short term, but how about us being voted The Most Friendly City in the World ?

One of the ideas seen in the USA on our tour was how volunteers helped run places (The Getty Museum in LA has 600!). We should think about this too – people who know and love the city – and can point you in the right direction or just give you information. But whilst that idea runs in the background we can all do our bit by being friendly to others – starting tomorrow!

Nottingham – The Friendliest City in the World. Probably.

I guess we are all recovering from our trip. There has been some good press today in the NEP:

Nottingham evening Post article

We still have the report to write – for presentation to the Greater Nottingham Partnership and also the Sheriff’s commission.

I saw an article on the rather excellent TED channel (ted.com) by Daniel Liebskind – he uses 17 words to inspire his architecture. I have in mind that we too may have a list of words. Whilst this has not been finalised there are some obvious ones:

Benefactor
Iconic
Authentic
Unique

As the list develops I will post it here.

You can see some of the details of the trip on John Lyles excellent blog – and you might even find some of my pictures…

John Lyles blog

TG