<![CDATA[A ROOM FULLOF BUTTERFLIES - Butterfly Blog]]>Wed, 27 Nov 2024 12:39:01 +0000Weebly<![CDATA[What is happening to Nottingham's shopping centres?]]>Mon, 23 Sep 2013 13:03:57 GMThttp://www.roomfullofbutterflies.com/butterfly-blog/what-is-happening-to-nottinghams-shopping-centresBy Nottingham Post


Monday, September 23, 2013

THERE is something Dickensian about Nottingham's shops now. Depending on where you sit in the debate about their future it is either the best of times, or the worst of times.

It has, of course, been the toughest of times for quite a while. Here we are in one of the top ten shopping destinations in this sceptred isle, and we let the boom of a lifetime pass by without getting either of our two weary old shopping centres dragged into the 21st century.

Nottingham's "achievement" really was quite outstanding. In an era when money all over the world was being rammed down the throats of some genuinely daft property developments, we got nowhere with something sane.

Time is a great healer, and a couple of experts I was chatting to last week made me think that we were somewhere between the great escape and a golden opportunity.

Matthew Hopkinson is a director of a firm called the Local Data Company, which ranks city centres by the number of empty shops.

The figures he has produced have been a poke in the eye for Nottingham's swelling retail pride, prompting an official backlash driven partly by a belief that – whether it was guns, booze or shops – Nottingham was getting a raw deal from cynical people in London. Only Hopkinson isn't from London. While that's where the Local Data Company is based, this particular statistician is a Leicestershire bloke who actually knows Nottingham quite well.

When I spoke to him at a conference in Nottingham last week he made a number of telling observations about our city.

We've worried for a while now that Derby and Leicester had got one over on us, with shiny new shopping centres which made Nottingham look like a dim-witted dinosaur.

Not so, says Hopkinson. Trading at Leicester's swanky John Lewis is at a level that suggests it wouldn't open a store in a location at this level again. And Westfield Derby appears to have done a lot for Westfield but not a lot for the rest of Derby, which is struggling with precisely the same kind of vacancy rates that have vexed Nottingham (we'll come back to that).

Hopkinson wasn't issuing an eagerly-accepted soundbite. His point was that Nottingham has the luxury of being able to learn from what had happened to its immediate neighbours.

This is their peak and they're struggling, he said. Nottingham clearly isn't at its peak because it's still waiting for major retail redevelopment to happen. Hence, there is still an opportunity for it to be the best of times.

At which point, we'll take a rain check from the chat with Matt and move on to a conversation with Bill Grimsey, who shared the stage with Mr Hopkinson at Re:Fest 2013 in Lenton, a national conference about urban regeneration.

For those of you who haven't been paying attention Mr Grimsey is the former shops chain boss whose "Alternative Future for the High Street" did what the Government and your local council wouldn't: it told a few home truths.

Town centre retailing as we used to know it, and (allegedly) love it, is dead, Grimsey says. Throwing money at a pretence that it can be revived is cynical or ignorant politicking (delete as applicable). If you genuinely want to give high streets and town centres a chance you will produce long-term plans with alternative uses for all those redundant shops units. You'll have a serious pop at Government, too, for its grotesque cynicism over business rates, a public sector tax-on-shops that has stayed ludicrously high when the market's own business rents have been falling.

But the last thing you'll do, says Grimsey, is bolt a barrel-load of new retail space on to the Victoria Centre (which is what its owners want to do). To do so when Broadmarsh is dead and some city streets dotted with vacant units would deliver to Nottingham the worst of times (or the same fate as Derby).

Would it? Well, let's finish off that conversation with Matthew Hopkinson. As he put it to me, major retailers look for locations where they'll be alongside other major retailers, even those they compete with.

And that usually means a shopping mall. Why? There'll be purpose-built service yards where lorries can deliver their goods, plentiful parking for shoppers (and not a traffic warden in sight).

If we want the best of times rather than the worst of times, perhaps it would be far, far better for us to accept that.

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Courtesy of NUMBER8GLASS Blog
This week I'm looking at another maker whose work is really impressive. Artist Faye Baines, of Creative Mum At Home. I bought a hand-painted card from Faye and was so impressed with the quality and creativity of her work that I asked her to say a few words about what inspires her.

"As the name suggests I'm a mum at home being creative – I've dabbled with my artwork for several years in between full time jobs before my family and latterly in evenings and any spare hours whilst being a mum. However my youngest is off to school in September and it's rather exciting and slightly daunting that I find myself almost a full time artist!

My work has evolved over the years from textiles pieces to a new love of watercolours. I've always loved colour and pattern and I think this shows in my work. Recently I've begun to focus more on flowers and plants and have found the summer colours and shapes very inspiring. I'm looking forward to seeing how my work changes with the autumn shades and tones.

My cards feature a wide range of images from cupcakes to beach scenes. The idea to make them all individually hand painted began because I've always loved the idea that people can send a little piece of original artwork for their greetings to make it a tiny bit more special. Once my cards started selling and my confidence increased I started creating small paintings and have been delighted and slightly amazed to find that these have been popular too!

As much as I'd love a little studio to fill with sketches, magazine cuttings, bits of fabric, paper and creative chaos I enjoy working at my desk in our hallway at home surrounded by the family books, toys, coats and shoes and I have the added bonus of a fantastic view from the window over Nottingham suburbia."

You can follow Faye's work on Facebook, Creative Mum at Home.


]]><![CDATA[July 29th, 2013]]>Mon, 29 Jul 2013 13:26:46 GMThttp://www.roomfullofbutterflies.com/butterfly-blog/july-29th-2013Café Homemade opens outlet in Sherwood


Award-winning café bistro, Homemade, has opened a new site in Sherwood, Nottingham.

The new café is based towards the rear of A Room Full of Butterflies  gift shop on Mansfield Road, and will be serving breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, Monday to Saturday.

Homemade Café Sherwood will run alongside the original Homemade Café on Pelham Street in the Hockley area of Nottingham city centre, which was established in 2005. Last year, the venue was named regional winner and national runner-up in the ‘Best Cheap Eats’ category as part of the Observer Food Monthly Awards for the second time.

Owner Jasmin Barlow-Wilkinson says expansion was never really part of the plan: “To be honest, I was always content with the café in Hockley and the outside catering part of the business, but when Andy Welch from A Room Full of Butterflies suggested the idea, my mind went in to overdrive.

“I love the fact this collaboration has created a space for people to browse Andy’s unique selection of gifts, homewares and art, and, at the same time, pop in to see us for a drink, a wedge of cake or even a meal. With the studio of textile designer Tori Murphy just above us and plans to extend the art gallery space to exhibit a wider artistic range, it is turning into a real creative hub in Sherwood.

Jasmin believes that the recession has increased demand for Homemade’s feel-good, hearty, home-cooked food.

Plans for the new Sherwood venue include a mums’ club, birthday parties and possibly some creative social groups.

Dishes to eat in or takeaway at Homemade Sherwood include cakes and sweet treats, as well as a selection of boozy and non-alcoholic milkshakes. Savoury options include sandwiches (such as the New York Triple Decker and Foxy’s Fish Finger Sandwich), cheese and meat platters and homemade burgers.

]]><![CDATA[Hot hot hot..]]>Fri, 12 Jul 2013 12:53:12 GMThttp://www.roomfullofbutterflies.com/butterfly-blog/hot-hot-hot<![CDATA[July 08th, 2013]]>Mon, 08 Jul 2013 11:27:34 GMThttp://www.roomfullofbutterflies.com/butterfly-blog/july-08th-2013Our new gallery upstairs is finally open......
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