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Post by werrington on May 19, 2021 17:35:52 GMT
Moving on from the M&S thread I wonder what peoples views are on how it can be resurrected ....Try and keep away from the lazy shit hole type post
Piccadilly is actually becoming a thriving part of it with bars and restaurants appearing but the rest needs to get its act in order
Do away with that 5 towns stuff and invest in it with a bar and restaurant culture and the rest will drop in automatically
Thoughts?
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Post by ashleyscfc on May 19, 2021 17:46:04 GMT
Moving on from the M&S thread I wonder what peoples views are on how it can be resurrected ....Try and keep away from the lazy shit hole type post Piccadilly is actually becoming a thriving part of it with bars and restaurants appearing but the rest needs to get its act in order Do away with that 5 towns stuff and invest in it with a bar and restaurant culture and the rest will drop in automatically Thoughts? Tax warehouses like we tax retail space. Create a transaction tax. Start a new culture like Preston where locally owned and ran businesses spend locally. Demand local councils/university use 90% local companies Encourage the local populous to the same. Get involved in keele/staffs and other organisations to encourage new start up businesses. Give free retail/office/workshop/studio space to new businesses for 12 months with a contract to stay after that period. Use all empty publicly owned buildings immediately. More free local parking. Free Staffordshire bus passes for young people/uni students. Start a new North Staffordshire transport network, with the aim of creating a new local tram network starting with the leg to Leek/Alton Towers. Turning North Staffordshire into the bigger conurbation it should be. Get the local councils working together.
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Post by werrington on May 19, 2021 17:49:02 GMT
Moving on from the M&S thread I wonder what peoples views are on how it can be resurrected ....Try and keep away from the lazy shit hole type post Piccadilly is actually becoming a thriving part of it with bars and restaurants appearing but the rest needs to get its act in order Do away with that 5 towns stuff and invest in it with a bar and restaurant culture and the rest will drop in automatically Thoughts? Tax warehouses like we tax retail space. Create a transaction tax. Start a new culture like Preston where locally owned and ran businesses spend locally. Demand local councils/university use 90% local companies Encourage the local populous to the same. Get involved in keele/staffs and other organisations to encourage new start up businesses. Give free retail/office/workshop/studio space to new businesses for 12 months with a contract to stay after that period. Use all empty publicly owned buildings immediately. More free local parking. Free Staffordshire bus passes for young people/uni students. Start a new North Staffordshire transport network, with the aim of creating a new local tram network starting with the leg to Leek/Alton Towers. Turning North Staffordshire into the bigger conurbation it should be. Get the local councils working together. Some absolutely fantastic ideas there mate The M&S closure could well be the catalyst for the rebirth of Hanley and the council should take heed and grasp it
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Post by cerebralstokie on May 19, 2021 17:57:35 GMT
Moving on from the M&S thread I wonder what peoples views are on how it can be resurrected ....Try and keep away from the lazy shit hole type post Piccadilly is actually becoming a thriving part of it with bars and restaurants appearing but the rest needs to get its act in order Do away with that 5 towns stuff and invest in it with a bar and restaurant culture and the rest will drop in automatically Thoughts? Tax warehouses like we tax retail space. Create a transaction tax. Start a new culture like Preston where locally owned and ran businesses spend locally. Demand local councils/university use 90% local companies Encourage the local populous to the same. Get involved in keele/staffs and other organisations to encourage new start up businesses. Give free retail/office/workshop/studio space to new businesses for 12 months with a contract to stay after that period. Use all empty publicly owned buildings immediately. More free local parking. Free Staffordshire bus passes for young people/uni students. Start a new North Staffordshire transport network, with the aim of creating a new local tram network starting with the leg to Leek/Alton Towers. Turning North Staffordshire into the bigger conurbation it should be. Get the local councils working together. In Arnold Bennett's time, Hanley was referred to as "greedy grasping Hanbridge". It was then and still is the commercial hub of the city. As retail goes more and more on line, the emphasis needs to be on making the most of the existing attractions (Museum/ Victoria Hall/Regent Theatre). With a growing student population on the doorstep Hanley can develop a night time economy (I don't know much about what exists already) and should become the transport hub and with a shuttle bus from Stoke Station. There are several encouraging signs of job creation (e.g recent announcement of moving jobs in the Immigration Service to Stoke). good rail connections with London and Manchester, with imagination and investment Hanley and the greater conurbation could have an upturn in fortunes it could offer alternatives to the Bet 365 on wet nights in the area.
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Post by questionable on May 19, 2021 18:19:49 GMT
The road infrastructures need sorting out before anything else, once that’s sorted the whole place needs bulldozing. Very, very rarely do I step foot in the place, far easier to jump a train to Manchester/Birmingham even London.
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Post by Clem Fandango on May 19, 2021 19:26:45 GMT
The problem with city centres is given how consumer and business behaviours have changed over the last probably 20 years if you were to design a new city today you wouldn’t have one.
It’s a real issue for legacy city centres and with stoke on trent not only do we have a city centre issue we have town centres within the city limits and another sizeable town centre very close by.
A city centre of the future really needs to be focused on a much smaller hospitality / entertainment sector and that’s pretty much it. Large scale retail within the city centre is long gone.
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Post by Deleted on May 19, 2021 19:36:50 GMT
Hanley has always baffled me. A bizarre one way system makes driving there un-inviting, it isn't a pretty place but neither are most UK cities. Doesn't help having no train system and parking and general access is poor. City centres will struggle in general with retail parks but I hear you Clem Fandango in the sense that you simply wouldn't want city centres these days. The cafe/restaurant culture more the way forward than shops for me. Why go shopping when you can press a button horrible though it sounds. I don't want to drive around looking to park, carry shopping etc and then wait in traffic to actually get in or out of Hanley.
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Post by NassauDave on May 19, 2021 22:17:02 GMT
Sadly Hanley has become a first class tip.
Without major investment it is pretty much done.
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Post by maninasuitcase on May 19, 2021 23:40:03 GMT
Hanley has to be one of the most awkward city centres to get to, and i should know, as i visit many throughout the country in my job.
Poor public highways, no rail service, extortionate parking and a complete lack of investment have turned it into a zombie ghost town.
How long will the old east west precinct be a derelict hole in the ground for an imaginary indoor arena?
What will replace the meigh street multi story carpark and old sunwin building or will it also remain a derelict hole?
If the council has plans, and there have been many, including several pie in the sky ones, then it needs to start thinking outside of the box, as any mooted new retail areas are pointless if big retail brands are leaving.
As mentioned maybe we need something like a new quarter development, something akin to the picadilly area.
It needs to attract families and friends, not dust heads and fighting piss heads.
Over to you Stoke council.....
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 1:48:06 GMT
Sadly Hanley has become a first class tip. Without major investment it is pretty much done. To be fair it has been for a long time. Is the idea of major investment money well spent though? I would say housing, flats etc in the City centre rather than retail makes more sense. The old parades of shops near tearing down
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Post by mickeythemaestro on May 20, 2021 9:01:27 GMT
Moving on from the M&S thread I wonder what peoples views are on how it can be resurrected ....Try and keep away from the lazy shit hole type post Piccadilly is actually becoming a thriving part of it with bars and restaurants appearing but the rest needs to get its act in order Do away with that 5 towns stuff and invest in it with a bar and restaurant culture and the rest will drop in automatically Thoughts? Tax warehouses like we tax retail space. Create a transaction tax. Start a new culture like Preston where locally owned and ran businesses spend locally. Demand local councils/university use 90% local companies Encourage the local populous to the same. Get involved in keele/staffs and other organisations to encourage new start up businesses. Give free retail/office/workshop/studio space to new businesses for 12 months with a contract to stay after that period. Use all empty publicly owned buildings immediately. More free local parking. Free Staffordshire bus passes for young people/uni students. Start a new North Staffordshire transport network, with the aim of creating a new local tram network starting with the leg to Leek/Alton Towers. Turning North Staffordshire into the bigger conurbation it should be. Get the local councils working together. Some cracking ideas there. You evidently seem to have more vision than anyone currently in a position to affect this. What the council need to do is instruct and pay what is necessary to get a visionary planning tsar in to masterplan an entire refit. Together with sweeping compulsory purchase powers across the town centre and refurbish/re-build the lot. It can be done. 30 years ago most of Manchester City centre and the outer city areas were a total shit hole. They certainly aren't anymore and a lot of credit for that goes to a chap called Howard Bernstein. Plenty of rumours about him being a bit dodgy but when you look how the place has transformed I really couldn't give two hoots. He got the job done. Stoke need someone similar.
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Post by Rednwhitenblue on May 20, 2021 9:35:46 GMT
The problem with city centres is given how consumer and business behaviours have changed over the last probably 20 years if you were to design a new city today you wouldn’t have one. It’s a real issue for legacy city centres and with stoke on trent not only do we have a city centre issue we have town centres within the city limits and another sizeable town centre very close by. A city centre of the future really needs to be focused on a much smaller hospitality / entertainment sector and that’s pretty much it. Large scale retail within the city centre is long gone. The days of driving into towns, parking close to the town centre, lugging shopping around and then driving out again are on their way out and planners/transport planners need to acknowledge and recognise this. Town centres will need to be a combination of residential/experience type environments, not places for shopping/work. It will also make places much more inviting generally and work to reduce environmental pollution. Other towns have already started doing this, pedestrianising streets and found that new bars/restaurants have 100% occupancy rates, jobs are created and new businesses come along.
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Post by potterinleeds on May 20, 2021 9:58:15 GMT
Sadly, many of the comments about S-o-T on here can equally be applied to Stafford. My mum and dad have lived out on the north edge of the town for the last 50 years, and it breaks my heart to see the state of the northern part of the town centre at present - the majority of the shops empty, and presenting a semi-derelict appearance. In addition to the problems caused everywhere by economic downturns / COVID / on-line retail, the town has been cursed by bad planning for years - an ugly pedestrianisation of the centre, unsympathetic buildings erected (the McDonalds next to the High House springs to mind, not because it's a McDonalds but because its a really shit building next to the largest surviving timber-framed townhouse in England), closing the Shire Hall Gallery (small county towns need that kind of thing to draw people in) and the recent opening of a new retail centre at the south end of the town which caused M & S to vacate their town centre shop - and given their current closure problems, I wonder how much longer even some new M & S stores are going to last.
It's such as shame, as on the fringes of the town centre, some really good things are happening. The refurbishment of Victoria Park has been excellent, and on a sunny day, both parts of the park are filled with hundreds of people, including plenty of families. Church Lane and Mill Street are still attractive, the College is expanding, the nature reserves at Doxey marshes can be walked to from the town centre. But it'll take a cleverer man than me to work out how to revitalise the shopping areas. I try to be an optimistic individual, and some great ideas have been set out above, but you do wonder if some of Staffordshire's town / city centres will ever fully recover.
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Post by mtrstudent on May 20, 2021 15:31:34 GMT
The problem with city centres is given how consumer and business behaviours have changed over the last probably 20 years if you were to design a new city today you wouldn’t have one. It’s a real issue for legacy city centres and with stoke on trent not only do we have a city centre issue we have town centres within the city limits and another sizeable town centre very close by. A city centre of the future really needs to be focused on a much smaller hospitality / entertainment sector and that’s pretty much it. Large scale retail within the city centre is long gone. The days of driving into towns, parking close to the town centre, lugging shopping around and then driving out again are on their way out and planners/transport planners need to acknowledge and recognise this. Town centres will need to be a combination of residential/experience type environments, not places for shopping/work. It will also make places much more inviting generally and work to reduce environmental pollution. Other towns have already started doing this, pedestrianising streets and found that new bars/restaurants have 100% occupancy rates, jobs are created and new businesses come along. Every time I go back to Hanley it breaks my heart. Used to love catching the bus to Festival Park for films or Quasar then walking up Etruria to look in some of the local skate shops, HMV etc. I spent quite a lot of time in York and Reading and they were doing alright - good access without cars and pedestrianised bits seem key. But those have tourism or London on the doorstep so I worry the same thing wouldn't work out in Stoke. The worst bit is all the money meant that my favourite shitty bar/club thing in Reading got done up. The floor isn't sticky any more, the weird "dungeon" dancefloor is gone, the back looks like a fucking Hawaii tiki bar and BOGOF £5.50 cocktails have been replaced with fancy things I've never heard of for a tenner. Ffs.
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Post by mickeythemaestro on May 20, 2021 15:39:34 GMT
Sadly, many of the comments about S-o-T on here can equally be applied to Stafford. My mum and dad have lived out on the north edge of the town for the last 50 years, and it breaks my heart to see the state of the northern part of the town centre at present - the majority of the shops empty, and presenting a semi-derelict appearance. In addition to the problems caused everywhere by economic downturns / COVID / on-line retail, the town has been cursed by bad planning for years - an ugly pedestrianisation of the centre, unsympathetic buildings erected (the McDonalds next to the High House springs to mind, not because it's a McDonalds but because its a really shit building next to the largest surviving timber-framed townhouse in England), closing the Shire Hall Gallery (small county towns need that kind of thing to draw people in) and the recent opening of a new retail centre at the south end of the town which caused M & S to vacate their town centre shop - and given their current closure problems, I wonder how much longer even some new M & S stores are going to last. It's such as shame, as on the fringes of the town centre, some really good things are happening. The refurbishment of Victoria Park has been excellent, and on a sunny day, both parts of the park are filled with hundreds of people, including plenty of families. Church Lane and Mill Street are still attractive, the College is expanding, the nature reserves at Doxey marshes can be walked to from the town centre. But it'll take a cleverer man than me to work out how to revitalise the shopping areas. I try to be an optimistic individual, and some great ideas have been set out above, but you do wonder if some of Staffordshire's town / city centres will ever fully recover. Aye. It's not just up Hanley duck. It's a problem all over the country.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 15:45:01 GMT
I hope none of you are trying to keep the wolf from the door so to speak by discussing the pedestrianisation of Stoke City centre
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Post by questionable on May 20, 2021 15:56:09 GMT
The problem with city centres is given how consumer and business behaviours have changed over the last probably 20 years if you were to design a new city today you wouldn’t have one. It’s a real issue for legacy city centres and with stoke on trent not only do we have a city centre issue we have town centres within the city limits and another sizeable town centre very close by. A city centre of the future really needs to be focused on a much smaller hospitality / entertainment sector and that’s pretty much it. Large scale retail within the city centre is long gone. The days of driving into towns, parking close to the town centre, lugging shopping around and then driving out again are on their way out and planners/transport planners need to acknowledge and recognise this. Town centres will need to be a combination of residential/experience type environments, not places for shopping/work. It will also make places much more inviting generally and work to reduce environmental pollution. Other towns have already started doing this, pedestrianising streets and found that new bars/restaurants have 100% occupancy rates, jobs are created and new businesses come along. I’d prioritise on small local traders, cafes, restaurants, bars AND make it feel safe and rid the place of the scum. For me little niche type shops and some alternative foods, Greek, Cuban the list is not that hard to put together but in truth we’ll probably employ some idiot to redevelop things who has never visited the place who’ll put together some drawings of nice block paving and a family with a dog and a push chair when in truth it’ll never happen
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Post by lordb on May 20, 2021 16:14:12 GMT
One of the fundamental issues with the city centre/Hanley is that it's in the wrong place
if you could knock every single thing in SoT down &n start again you simply wouldn't have the City Centre on a wet windy hill that's a pain the arse to get to
Newcastle & Stoke should have merged 150 years ago & that should have been developed as the centre
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Post by crapslinger on May 20, 2021 16:20:54 GMT
The days of driving into towns, parking close to the town centre, lugging shopping around and then driving out again are on their way out and planners/transport planners need to acknowledge and recognise this. Town centres will need to be a combination of residential/experience type environments, not places for shopping/work. It will also make places much more inviting generally and work to reduce environmental pollution. Other towns have already started doing this, pedestrianising streets and found that new bars/restaurants have 100% occupancy rates, jobs are created and new businesses come along. I’d prioritise on small local traders, cafes, restaurants, bars AND make it feel safe and rid the place of the scum. For me little niche type shops and some alternative foods, Greek, Cuban the list is not that hard to put together but in truth we’ll probably employ some idiot to redevelop things who has never visited the place who’ll put together some drawings of nice block paving and a family with a dog and a push chair when in truth it’ll never happen They need to rid the place of the scum that has taken over the place first and foremost, moving the Job Centre to Upper Huntbach Street was a major fcuk up it needs relocating back to where it was by the old unity house site keep them out of the centre itself, lock up the beggars and enforce a zero tolerance policy on the dregs that frequent the place.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 16:29:37 GMT
One of the fundamental issues with the city centre/Hanley is that it's in the wrong place if you could knock every single thing in SoT down &n start again you simply wouldn't have the City Centre on a wet windy hill that's a pain the arse to get to Newcastle & Stoke should have merged 150 years ago & that should have been developed as the centre yep, a child with a crayon who had been on the Haribo fizzy family bags would have done a better job of planning the city to be fair. Newcastle as you say makes sense and Stoke town centre is an eyesore to give Hanley a good run.
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Post by iancransonsknees on May 20, 2021 16:36:06 GMT
One of the fundamental issues with the city centre/Hanley is that it's in the wrong place if you could knock every single thing in SoT down &n start again you simply wouldn't have the City Centre on a wet windy hill that's a pain the arse to get to Newcastle & Stoke should have merged 150 years ago & that should have been developed as the centre yep, a child with a crayon who had been on the Haribo fizzy family bags would have done a better job of planning the city to be fair. Newcastle as you say makes sense and Stoke town centre is an eyesore to give Hanley a good run. This is a great read for anyone on this thread. www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://webapps.stoke.gov.uk/uploadedfiles/20111031_FINAL%2520Stoke%2520ReportV7_compressed4.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjW3OPb2NjwAhVDEWMBHda_AuYQFjAAegQIAxAC&usg=AOvVaw3WZh5JEtYE2LK89aFGne58Personally I'd leave Hanley to its own devices and invest in the other towns. It's had millions poured into it and still makes a post-fertiliser explosion Beirut look more attractive. Shopping as a past time is dead, each town needs support to develop its own specific identity and reason for visiting.
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Post by questionable on May 20, 2021 16:50:03 GMT
Have to disagree to a certain extent, shopping when comfortable and relaxing is worth getting out for, for example when we visit Birmingham we can mix our day really well as we’ll call into the larger department stores such as Selfridges and look for something a little different then stop for a pint and a light lunch, more shopping then sit down around six for a nice meal in nice surroundings/people you can’t do that on line, yes peoples shopping habits have changed but after the last 12 months I’m sick to death of stopping in, if I wanted a dog bed as I’ve just purchased I’d pop on Amazon. Stoke on Trent will never be appealing as there’s no drive from above and I doubt very much investment would be forthcoming Just to add I recall before the first lockdown we went to Manchester and went into Browns absolutely amazed to see a load of lads from Smallthorne I thought I’d walked into Scrimmies, £8 return on a train absolutely no brainer to get out of stoke for a good day out, Stoke station is rammed on Saturdays with ppl getting out for the day
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Post by foghornsgleghorn on May 20, 2021 17:03:54 GMT
Moving on from the M&S thread I wonder what peoples views are on how it can be resurrected ....Try and keep away from the lazy shit hole type post Piccadilly is actually becoming a thriving part of it with bars and restaurants appearing but the rest needs to get its act in order Do away with that 5 towns stuff and invest in it with a bar and restaurant culture and the rest will drop in automatically Thoughts? Tax warehouses like we tax retail space. Create a transaction tax. Start a new culture like Preston where locally owned and ran businesses spend locally. Demand local councils/university use 90% local companies Encourage the local populous to the same. Get involved in keele/staffs and other organisations to encourage new start up businesses. Give free retail/office/workshop/studio space to new businesses for 12 months with a contract to stay after that period. Use all empty publicly owned buildings immediately. More free local parking. Free Staffordshire bus passes for young people/uni students. Start a new North Staffordshire transport network, with the aim of creating a new local tram network starting with the leg to Leek/Alton Towers. Turning North Staffordshire into the bigger conurbation it should be. Get the local councils working together. Lots of good ideas so apologies for picking up with a negative - forget the tram/rail link to Alton Towers-it would cost a fortune , the route via Leekbrook is a long way round , the station at Alton would be well away from the entrance at the bottom of a big hill, Towers are happy to keep getting the parking money, the residents of the Churnet Valley don't want it, it would only be used 6/7 months a year and sit idle for the rest, the Churnet Valley Railway trains would get in the way, most people can get there more easily by car , and realistically who is going to drive a long distance only to park their car in Stoke to get on a train or tram which still doesn't get you to the theme park?
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Post by PotterLog on May 20, 2021 17:19:14 GMT
I hope none of you are trying to keep the wolf from the door so to speak by discussing the pedestrianisation of Stoke City centre It'll help people in wheeeeeelchairs
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Post by teenagefanclub on May 20, 2021 17:44:21 GMT
I'm going to say it (awaits the vitriol)....
Hanley should be left as a business quarter and try to attract call centers etc to be based their and build on that footfall to open cafes, bars and restaurants etc.
The town that I think will boom in the next 10 years is Burslem. With the new housing developments on its outskirts I think the town will start to attract new shops, bars etc. It has retained most of its old buildings and has some character to it.
#invest in burslem property now.
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Post by cerebralstokie on May 20, 2021 20:42:53 GMT
One of the fundamental issues with the city centre/Hanley is that it's in the wrong place if you could knock every single thing in SoT down &n start again you simply wouldn't have the City Centre on a wet windy hill that's a pain the arse to get to Newcastle & Stoke should have merged 150 years ago & that should have been developed as the centre I think the whole N.Staffs conurbation has been held back, planning wise, by the existence of two competing local authorities. It goes back to the 1840's when the railway company wanting to connect London with Manchester wanted to build the line through Newcastle and the powers that be rejected it, so the main line was built through Crewe instead. The area should speak with one voice.
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 20:47:21 GMT
Monorail
Worked for North Haverbrook Brockway and Ogdenville
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Post by thehartshillbadger on May 20, 2021 20:50:44 GMT
Monorail Worked for North Haverbrook Brockway and Ogdenville If that’s not an Alan Partridge quote it sure is a good impersonation😉
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Post by cerebralstokie on May 20, 2021 21:02:23 GMT
The German city of Wuppertal is a linear industrial city a bit like Stoke. They have a wonderful overhead railway, the Schweberbahn linking the various parts of the city. It has become a tourist attraction in itself "Einmal in leben durch Wuppertal schweben" (once in a life time you have to go on the Schweberbahn).
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2021 21:08:28 GMT
The German city of Wuppertal is a linear industrial city a bit like Stoke. They have a wonderful overhead railway, the Schweberbahn linking the various parts of the city. It has become a tourist attraction in itself "Einmal in leben durch Wuppertal schweben" (once in a life time you have to go on the Schweberbahn). I stayed in Wuppertal the night before Ireland played England in Stuttgart at the Euros in 88. Complete blur though .
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