Whats Happened To Inverness Town Centre?

[Caley Mad In Berks]

I've just spent 3 days in Sneck.  On previous visits to watch matches I've just stayed one night and never gone near the town centre.  This time I did and was sadenned to see so many empty shops and so many charity shops and 'cheap' shops (?1 and 99p stores etc).  I really felt it was run down.  To answer my own question, I assume the advent of the Eastgate mall and other out of town retail parks have taken their toll.  Nevertheless, I was amazed.  Badly in need of regeneration. Views?

[+Gringo]

Couldn't agree more. The out of town retail parks have ruined to Town (City) centre. Parking problems are also a main gripe with the Inverness folk. Certainly changed a lot since I first visited in 1978.

[RichieKass]

Nice to see all those retail units opposite TK maxx/next to the bus station are STILL empty when i was up last weekend. what the **** is going on? okay they arn't ideally lcated but i get the feeling the rent must be sky-high

[Guest TinCanFan]

You can see why a writer in the Courier last year said Inverness was beginning to look like downtown Baghdad.  They are putting trees up Church Street just now but I don't know what good they'll do and they'll probably just become climbing frames for drunks when it's finished.

[+CaleyD]

Inverness is changing, that's for certain, but I remain optimistic that we'll come out the other side in a fairly healthy state.

The Retail Park/s and the expanded Eastgate have removed many of the shops from the main streets in the centre of town, but these will eventually be replaced by cafes, pubs and the more exclusive boutique style shops which have been sorely missing for too long now.  Most stores that are taking premises at Retail Parks are forced to do so as they can't get premises big enough to meet their needs in the centre given the ever increasing population.  The new retail units that have appeared aren't all that expensive coming it at around ?1000/Month for rent and once work is finished in the centre I am sure these will start to fill up.

Personally I don't think they are going far enough with the work they are doing and Church Street, Queensgate and Union Street should all be pedestrianised.  There's parking a plenty between the Eastgate, Multi-Story and Morrisons...it's just people are too lazy to walk even a short distance.  When I was working on the buses you got people who would get on the bus at the post office and off at Morrisons to go collect the car!!!

The traffic at present is a nightmare, but that's as much the fault of the road users as anyone else.  They know that work is going on and they still insist on going through the town instead of finding an alternative route.  The person responsible for having buses going needlessly round in circles needs his head read and why our scaffy carts need to come out to empty bins between 8 and 9 in the morning from the shops is totally baffling.

[+old caley girl]

Agree with above but I come into Inverness by the A82 and it's a nightmare to get to the other side of the city eg Raigmore or the retail park. Wish the council would start the bypass over the river at Torvean. Also other cities have good park and ride systems in place at different sites. Inverness only has one at our stadium sometimes and that is no use to people arriving at my side of the town.

[Charles Bannerman]

Agree totally. At busy times it's desperate getting from the Bught/ canal area to the city (stuff it... TOWN!) centre. Completion of the SDR would help greatly and is an urgent priority as far as I'm concerned.

[Guest eliza]

Totally agree but the problem is that people just don't want to Park and Stride!

I think visitors must have a nightmare trying to negotiate Inverness - I've had to plan journeys into town (city!) since years.

If I can at all, then I take the bus into town.    If I have to take the car, then I either park at Morrisons for the two hours (?15 of shopping and its free), in the Eastgate Centre (?1.40 for 2 hours) or even better bargain - at Farraline Park for 20p for two hours in levels 7, 8 or 9.  When I tell people to park there for 20p for 2 hours, the answer invariably seems to be - cannot be bothered going that far up!!!  There's a lift, for goodness sake, if you cannot take the stairs!

In regard to the shops - I gave up a long time ago - I am one of these unusual females who hates shopping, window shopping, the lot - roll on January and all this mad shopping for Christmas.

[+CaleyD]

Aye...the Muppet Card for the buses is a great money saver  :004:

[Glen Mhor]

I was up in Sneck for the Hearts match two weeks ago and what struck me was how dead and lifeless Queensgate, Academy Street, Union Street and Church Street were. I may be looking back with rose tinted specs but in the 1960s and 1970s there always seemed to be some bustle and vibrancy in these streets - busy shops and businesses with plenty of people about.

I'm well aware of how much shopping activity is now concentrated in the Eastgate Centre but that seems such a soulless and characterless shopping factory. Although there are always plenty of people in it they all seem as if they're shopping and spending cash as some kind of chore.

I look back at old Sneck with a great deal of affection but these days a vsit to the old town centre is an altogether depressing experience. A visit to the Eastgate Centre equally so.

:009:

[RednBlackComeback]

Certainly changed days since the 70s but there was no eastgate centre then so all the shops were in High Street, Academy Street, Church Street and market. I remember as a kid my Saturday treat was a coke and do-ring upstairs in Morrisons in the market, then getting a toy plastic green army truck from the toy shop opposite !! :crazy07:

[RednBlackComeback]

Remember the Wimpy in Church Street........to go there as a kid was like Christmas come early. Did it not have paintings depicting the battle of Culloden on the walls?

Camerons in Church Street......used to hate going in there as it usually meant my mother was going to buy me new school trousers and they'd be 'stabby' !!! :015:

[RednBlackComeback]

Does anyone remember the pet shop in a building, now demolished, nextdoor to where 'The Filling Station' is now?

[Charles Bannerman]

Yes, it was right next door to the Playhouse. Did it not disappear with the Playhouse burned down in 1972?

[Kingsmills]

I used to buy a tortoise from there every spring to replace the one that died while "hibernating" the winter before. I clearly wasn't following the advice from Blue Peter closely enough.

[Glen Mhor]

That pet shop - I forgot all about it. I used to get sent there to buy cat food. McAvoys was the posh furniture shop next door to the Playhouse. Used to have a full-size figure of a kilted redcoat soldier standing at the door - didn't that end up in the Museum ?

:024:

[RednBlackComeback]

Where was the Playhouse?  :symbol_question:

[Alex MacLeod]

Have faith people. Inverness is no different to any other town or city in the country. Perth was once unsure of where it was going...............after seven years of living here I think I now understand it.

[Glen Mhor]

Where was the Playhouse?   :symbol_question:

It stood where the new Eastgate square is now, or a big part of it did. The Playhouse burnt down in 1972 or 1973.

[Charles Bannerman]

Where was the Playhouse?   :symbol_question:

It stood where the new Eastgate square is now, or a big part of it did. The Playhouse burnt down in 1972 or 1973.

72.

[VIVA LAS TOKLEY]

I remember my da parking the car in the old eastgate car park.  I think it was where M&S is now and the Saturday street markets that where on the corner that is Falcon square.

[Guest Jock Watt]

This is/was the Playhouse!

[RednBlackComeback]

Thanks Jock.

I definitely don't remember it... but if it burned down in '72 then I probably wouldn't, seeing as I was born that year!

[SMEE]

How long before, all the nice new granite stone surface throught the old town will become ripped up for acess to pipes etc and be replaced with uneven blobs of tar?

[Guest gerrybrisbane]

Was back in snecky last year for the first time in a few years and was VERY dissapointed in the whole atmosphere of the place.  My missus thought the place was a run down hovel and all I could think of was that Mr G's was probably the same!  I remember the first time I was back after 5 years a mate of mine was sitting in the exact spot I left him in Gunnies on the night of my leaving do after falling behind with his drink, and I came back for a pub lunch!  (but he is a postie!)