Lincoln Central Market
Lincoln Central Market disgusting, shabby and drab.
The couple of excellent stalls, spice stall, wholefood stall, have gone.
Well done Steve the fruit and veg stall guy for speaking out.
More traders need to speak out, they do so privately but fear to speak publicly.
The City Council jobsworth is talking nonsense.
‘The council prides itself on having a great relationship our traders’, if this is a great relationship, I hate to think what a bad relationship looks like.
I have yet to speak with a single trader who is happy with the way the Central Market is run.
If the Council unaware traders not happy, why did they order the banner be taken down at the fruit and veg stall?
No rent increase. Considering the atrocious state of Central Market, the near zero footfall, the traders should be seeing a rent decrease.
I have never seen anything in the bus station promoting the market. I have seen promoting Greggs.
But in its present dire state, there would be little point in promoting the market as it would be counterproductive and show Lincoln in a bad light.
Lincoln is a market town in the middle of an agricultural county, and yet lacks a market.
Nor does Lincoln have a farmers market in the town centre, not if class one stall, two if lucky, maybe half a dozen stalls if very very lucky, as a farmers market.
The one and only stall has relocated to beside the River Witham, but no one knows, no information in the High Street, no information at its current location of the relocation.
People looking for the farmers market in the High Street assume it has finally collapsed.
On a Friday, one stall representing the farmers market, plus a cake and bread stall and a fruit and vegetable stall.
On a Saturday the fruit and vegetable stall and Curry Jacks a curry stall.
York has a market and a street food market.
Chichester a small market town and yet has a thriving market and farmers market.
Guildford has a thriving Friday and Saturday weekly market with three excellent fruit and vegetable stalls that if in Lincoln would stretch the length of Sincil Street, once a month a farmers market that if in Lincoln would stretch from St Mary’s Street up through The Stonebow.
Mercado Municipal en Puerto de la Cruz en Tenerife, ground floor little shops, including an excellent little bookshop, first floor fruit and vegetable stalls, a deli cum wine stall, a deli cum little restaurant, a fishmonger. On a Saturday, many stalls selling everything, the fishmonger serving cooked seafood with champagne, the delis also serving up food.
Lincoln Central Market needs gutting, most of the traders kicked out, then revamped with the emphasis on quality independent traders.
Look to Trinity Market in Hull Old Town. Light and airy, quality food stalls, indie specialty coffee, craft beer, bench seats to sit either inside or out. Then contrast with the disgrace that is Lincoln Central Market.
One of the ironies, at a time when we should be moving to eliminate plastic, when Tesco is looking to close its fresh produce, when we should be supporting markets, local shops, zero waste stores like Hisbe, Lincoln instead of moving ahead by supporting its local markets, is doing its best to kill them.
Trashing of Sincil Street has not helped.
Sincil Street was once a busy street of thriving indie businesses. Now look at it. Most of the businesses destroyed, buildings destroyed, new build with large plate glass windows, large size units, neither matches the Victorian street scene nor of suitable size for the small family businesses that have been kicked out, let alone afford the rent.
Moving in, rubbish chains that find in every ghastly shopping centre up and down the country.
I have yet to meet a single person who is happy with the trashing of Sincil Street.
Look to North Laine in Brighton, three long streets, each one longer than Sincil Street, side streets, similar street scene, except it is busy, full of indie businesses not a chain in sight and very rare to see empty shops, and if empty do not remain empty for long.
Instead of building on Sincil Street and highlighting it was different to the High Street, it was trashed.
How it could be. The Central Market used for start ups, as they grow, expand into an empty shop in Sincil Street.
Lincoln lacks a wholefood store. If Gaia Wholefoods was still in Central Market, and successful, it could have relocated to Sincil Street. Not possible as pulled out due to lack of footfall, and even were it still there and successful, no longer anywhere in Sincil Street to relocate to.
That is how shortsighted Lincoln City Council, not only killing existing local businesses, but killing off the growth potential of any future new businesses.
The difference between Hull Old Town and Brighton where they value their cultural heritage and Lincoln, is a lack of vision, useless jobsworths who are clueless on what constitutes good town centre planning, clueless on how local economies function, on the need to recycle money within a local economy, lack of support for local businesses, but only too happy to fall over backwards to facilitate greedy developers and corporate chains.
It is quirky indie businesses, markets, that make a town, give a sense of place.
The City Council in cahoots with the Co-op have done an excellent job destroying Sincil Street, Cornhill and the Central Market.
Lincoln would make an excellent case study in bad planning.
It is not only Sincil Street, Cornhill and Central Market, ugly tower blocks ruining a historic skyline, accomodation for students, temporary residents at best, homeless living on the streets.
Lincoln Co-op a disaster as a retailer, but by historic accident owns large parts of the town centre, and abuse their position to destroy local businesses.
Sincil Street, the frontage of the buildings should have been restored to Victoran frontage, no garish signs.
Central Market the foodie area cf Trinity Market Hull Old Town.
Sincil Street a mix of retail, bakeries, little restaurants, boutiques, bookshops, music shops, coffee shops cf North Laine Brighton.
I have no problem coffee shops, but these have to be high quality indie coffee shops for example Coffee Aroma, Madame Waffle, Base Camp, no chains.
No corporate chains.
Corporate chains destroy towns, lead to sense of isolation, sameness, drain money out of the local economy, then go bust or a head office spreadsheet exercise leads to store closure, leading to boarded-up shops never to be filled, desolation.
This has happened to too many town centres, Aldershot the classic example, stores pulling out weekly, the few remaining waiting for lease to expire, the main street shop after shop down the street boarded-up, junkies and losers lost on the streets.
In Lincoln it is not only the market area the Council has trashed.
Up until the late 1960s early 1970s, Brayford Pool was lined with mills and warehouses. These could have been renovated. Ground floor indie businesses, workshops, indie coffee shops, first floor studio and office space, top floors flats and apartments. A pleasant urban park leading off the High Street, accessed down the side of Stokes on High Bridge.
Instead what do we have, a desolate wasteland, an ugly urban eyesore.
Yet another example of City Hall jobsworths completely clueless on what constitutes good town centre planning.
