Southend's Property Boom

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

Cyril behave. Look no else is going to do it up. It's been empty for 6 years now. If it is empty for too much longer it will fall down let alone be demolished. The site will then lie empty for years like the Overton site or Dossetts and then some grotty and I mean grotty, uninspired, architectuarally bereft modern flats will be built. Worth a few orange people walking up the Broadway I'd have thought.
BTW one thing I've noticed on my quest to save the Grand (as well as having a rant at the licensing comittee and a group of objectors at the Civic Centre and writing endles letters either supporting Mick Norcross or castigating the council) is how many awful snobs there are in Leigh. Don't know where they came from. Certainly were't as many 30/40 years ago. Mind you few people wanted to live there before it became "fashionable"

 

[Neil_F]

High Streets are dying everywhere. I saw recently that 12% of national High Street retail units are unoccupied. By coincidence 12% of all retail spending in the UK is now done online.

The situation is symptomatic of much else in British life. A quick google search reveals 5 retail premises available for rent in Victoria Circus, all at £20k per year. An independent shop would be exempt from rates from the first year but there after will have to cough up another £2k per year. Add in utilities at, let's guess, £2k per year. I'm going to assume this is a one man operation so no salary costs, but not a great lifestyle.

So total costs are approximately £25k. If you are selling clothes, let's say average price £30, then that is 1000 sales per year after the VAT is lost. Let's assume they are open 250 days per year given that there are no staff, so that is 4 sales per day just to meet fixed costs.

Another quick Google search tells me that typical fasion gross margins are 4-13%. I'll be generous here and say the margin for an independent designer is 20%. So to meet fixed and variable costs that means 17 sales per trading day. I can't find a good number on sales per customer but fashion is usually seen as a luxury so let's assume a very generous 1 in 5 buy something. That means close to 100 people have to enter the shop each day just to break even. I think that is a struggle in Victoria Circus.

The High Street is full of low margin, high volume chains because only they can afford it.

 

[jassyfa1]

IMHO Southend Council, should had brought some of the unused office blocks in Vic Ave and turned them into the University and accommodation for the students, which in turn would had improved the area as it is an eye sore and it would had been cheaper. There should be free parking which will bring more people into town. lakeside, Bluewater are all free parking and undercover, while Southend High Street is not undercover and has a lot of homeless sitting about, (old ABC cinema). As for the amount of empty shops, give lower rents to independent shops or we will end up with a high street full of charity shops.

 

[The General]

Must admit i very rarely go into town and i literally live moments away. Only go in there for something quickly as mainly go to Lakeside or get stuff online.

 

[OldBlueLady]

Must admit i very rarely go into town and i literally live moments away. Only go in there for something quickly as mainly go to Lakeside or get stuff online.

And this is why High Streets are dying. The whole act of shopping has evolved and High Streets need to re-invent themselves.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Southend High Street is ****hole. Has been for many years now and successive local councils have merely papered over cracks that have been ever widening since the mid seventies. What's made it a whole lot worse these past few years is the fact that you can't stroll down there now at any busy time and fail to notice the complete and utter lack of the use of the English language. While it and the surrounding areas continue to have a large immigrant population that think nothing of spending their last £60.00 on a Sol Cal jacket or the latest pair of Voi jeans then it will continue to be the pig sty it's turned into.

I do ALL my high street shopping in Rayleigh now. It's basically a scaled down version of Southend HS but it's a hell of a lot more tolerable and you can actually overhear conversations in English as you go about your wanderings.

Q red rep for being intolerant & racist :winking:

Must admit I notice this every time I walk up it match day.

If it's not Italian Market people speaking Italian it's Chavs speaking Chav.

I'm assuming that the overwhelming majority of people being described here are EU citizens and, as such, have the automatic right of abode in whatsoever EU country they choose to live in?

Really, complaining about the (perceived)lack of English being spoken in Southend H.S. would be rather like me complaining about all the English,German,Italian,Japanese etc being spoken on Las Ramblas, rather than the native languages of Catalan and Spanish.
That's something, I hope I hardly need to add, that I would never do.
Personally,I've always believed that multiculturalism(and multilingualism) is something to be celebrated and not denigrated.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I'm assuming that the majority of the people being described here are EU citizens and as such have the automatic right of abode jn whatsoever EU country they choose to live in?

Really, complaining about the (perceived)lack of English being spoken in Southend H.S. would be rather like me complaining about all the English,German,Italian etc being spoken on Las Ramblas, rather than the native languages of Catalan and Spanish.That's something, I hope I hardly need to add, that I would never do.
Personally,I've always believed that multi-culturalism(and multi-lingualism) is something to be celebrated and not denigrated.

It's a fair point: complain too much about EU freedom of movement and we'll end up getting Barna back.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

It's a fair point: complain too much about EU freedom of movement and we'll end up getting Barna back.

Ha! I'LL back for the weekend as it is! (Already booked for our promotion party against Morecambe in April too)!:smile:

 

[hockleyeast1964]

I'm assuming that the overwhelming majority of people being described here are EU citizens and, as such, have the automatic right of abode in whatsoever EU country they choose to live in?

Really, complaining about the (perceived)lack of English being spoken in Southend H.S. would be rather like me complaining about all the English,German,Italian,Japanese etc being spoken on Las Ramblas, rather than the native languages of Catalan and Spanish.
That's something, I hope I hardly need to add, that I would never do.
Personally,I've always believed that multiculturalism(and multilingualism) is something to be celebrated and not denigrated.

I think it's great to feel scared walking down southend high street making sure your wallet is in your pocket as you walk past the romanian sitting on the floor peddling the big issue...multiculturalism lets embrace it...zzzzzzzzzz

 

[Firestorm]

I think it's great to feel scared walking down southend high street making sure your wallet is in your pockest as you walk past the romanian sitting on the floor peddling the big issue...multiculturalism lets embrace it...zzzzzzzzzz

Perhaps its just me, but groups of p******d men scare me more than big issue sellers.

 

[hockleyeast1964]

Perhaps its just me, but groups of p******d men scare me more than big issue sellers.

So you are not in the spread on saturday then:smile:

 

[Napster]

I liked this story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/28/totnes-costa-coffee-high-street

As you say all major town high streets are horribly generic now, I haven't set foot in Southend High Street during the day for years now other than the odd visit for a sight test or contact lense check and I only live a couple of miles away. It's just not a pleasant place to be.

During my walk last year I passed through a lot small coastal towns and the smaller high streets packed with independent retailers were so much nicer. Can't see major towns ever getting that back now.

I was in Brighton yesterday,and I was impressed. It could have been tacky and run-down, like other seaside resorts of its ilk (Morecambe, Blackpool, Southend) but it was clean, and had some decent restaurants and shops. The pier was excellent as well. Hastings isn't too bad either.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

I said I'd keep Exiles posted about the Grand so here goes. No work started yet. They have discovered some more subsidence and the situation is with the Insurers. Mick Norcross publically stating he will not pull out. Mick Norcross has pulled out of Towie and will not allow filming in the Sugarhut as it was getting bitchy and "lowering the tone" of the Sugarhut. He will no longer appear in it. He's negotiating with 2 production companies to film the renovation and a new show like Towie to be called "the Grand". Saturday night the Grand was graffitied with green paint on the shuttering covering the windows. Basically it said "Jog on you Towie fakes. Your (sic)not wanted here and **** off you Towie *****". Charming. Never dull in Leigh.

 

[Mad Cyril]

I said I'd keep Exiles posted about the Grand so here goes. No work started yet. They have discovered some more subsidence and the situation is with the Insurers. Mick Norcross publically stating he will not pull out. Mick Norcross has pulled out of Towie and will not allow filming in the Sugarhut as it was getting bitchy and "lowering the tone" of the Sugarhut. He will no longer appear in it. He's negotiating with 2 production companies to film the renovation and a new show like Towie to be called "the Grand". Saturday night the Grand was graffitied with green paint on the shuttering covering the windows. Basically it said "Jog on you Towie fakes. Your (sic)not wanted here and **** off you Towie *****". Charming. Never dull in Leigh.

I have to say I agree.

The place is tacky enough without a Sugar Hut franchise opening.

 

[C'mon you Shrimpers]

Mad Cyril, behave. What's your alternative. Exactly. I read some old trout saying it should be done up like it was. Unfortunately she hasn't got the millions to do it up. I think this country increasingly lives in a fantasy world.

 

[Mad Cyril]

It would make a great mosque or synagogue.