Edgar Street Grid
Encyclopedia
The Edgar Street Grid is a major regeneration project taking place in Hereford
city centre. Stanhope has recently been named as the main contractor. Costing almost £1 billion, it will be the biggest redevelopment project in the 1,000 year plus history of Hereford
, and is intended to restore the city's reputation as a key shopping and business destination in the region. Work is expected to start in 2010 and take up to 15 years to complete all phases, providing some 1,500 new jobs as well as 600 on construction work. Traffic problems in Newmarket Street/Blueschool Street, which will become a pedestrian friendly boulevard, will be eased by a new link road running through the site from Edgar Street to a junction with Commercial Road near the railway station.
at the end of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal
, which is currently undergoing restoration.
Another fundamental question is whether Hereford should even be attempting to develop a brand new commercial enterprise, rather than redeveloping the old city. Partly this is because of the clash of character (Hereford is a medieval walled city, and the Edgar Street Grid lies outside the city walls), but it is also because Herefordshire has a small population - hence why the city retracted commercially after the Georgian era. The Edgar Street Grid therefore depends upon attracting customers from neighbouring counties, but with Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol within about forty miles of the county boundary, it is questionable how well Hereford could compete.
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
city centre. Stanhope has recently been named as the main contractor. Costing almost £1 billion, it will be the biggest redevelopment project in the 1,000 year plus history of Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
, and is intended to restore the city's reputation as a key shopping and business destination in the region. Work is expected to start in 2010 and take up to 15 years to complete all phases, providing some 1,500 new jobs as well as 600 on construction work. Traffic problems in Newmarket Street/Blueschool Street, which will become a pedestrian friendly boulevard, will be eased by a new link road running through the site from Edgar Street to a junction with Commercial Road near the railway station.
Zones
The project creates three distinct but interlinked zones - the Retail/Leisure Quarter, on the council-owned 12.5 acres (50,585.8 m²) old livestock market; the Civic Quarter, to contain a mix of public buildings, private offices, shops and restaurants; and the new Blackfriars Urban Village, where around 1,000 new homes will be built. A centerpiece to the regeneration will be a new canal basinCanal basin
A canal basin is an expanse of waterway alongside or at the end of a canal, and wider than the canal, constructed to allow boats to moor or unload cargo without impeding the progress of other traffic, and to allow room for turning, thus serving as a winding hole...
at the end of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal
Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal
The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal is a canal in the west of England, which ran from Hereford, the county town of Herefordshire to Gloucester the county town of Gloucestershire, where it linked to the River Severn...
, which is currently undergoing restoration.
Controversy
The ESG project is facing a number of concerns, a key one being how comfortably the new development will sit alongside the old city centre. Many have reservations that the two 'centres' will not be linked sufficiently, and High Town, the historical focal point of the city, will become virtually deserted, with the present problem of the high proportion of closed and charity shops in the city centre exacerbated. With the Left Bank Village, a recent commercial development in Bridge Street, suffering partly because of the distance from High Town, there are concerns that a similar fate could befall High Town itself, should another commercial centre open.Another fundamental question is whether Hereford should even be attempting to develop a brand new commercial enterprise, rather than redeveloping the old city. Partly this is because of the clash of character (Hereford is a medieval walled city, and the Edgar Street Grid lies outside the city walls), but it is also because Herefordshire has a small population - hence why the city retracted commercially after the Georgian era. The Edgar Street Grid therefore depends upon attracting customers from neighbouring counties, but with Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol within about forty miles of the county boundary, it is questionable how well Hereford could compete.