Vibrant town
This section recognises the importance of a vibrant and safe town centre providing culture, music, bars and restaurants that underpin the town’s economy particularly at weekends and evenings. Within this is not just economic benefit but the ability to enhance the quality of life for the home communities by fulfilling a town’s promise of entertainment, distraction and shared celebration.
Introducing Attractors
Social and cultural attractors are a major catalyst for positive change and offer important opportunities to drive more visits into town centres. Positioning these attractors strategically to energise key routes by stimulating footfall is critical.
European style food halls have become increasingly popular throughout the UK and beyond. They can be powerful agents of regeneration, reviving the fortunes of cherished heritage assets, as seen in Altrincham and closer to home in Inverness to name but a few.
The masterplan has identified a number of potential locations within the town centre that could support a food hall.
External Markets and a structured calendar of events are also recommended. Their introduction will be assisted by the improvements proposed as part of the Masterplan to both the existing public realm and the new streets and spaces, providing an attractive backdrop, encouraging footfall and supporting the increased residential community.
Potential Food Hall and Community Hub locations
A Town Centre for Everyone
It is important that the town centre is attractive to all groups within society and that there is a sense of belonging and ownership.
The town centre lacks facilities for young people and the opportunity for people to gather and experience services which can support mental health and well-being.
Existing buildings within the town centre that have the potential to provide a variety of community spaces have been identified.
Improving the Evening and Weekend Economy
It is critical that the town centre has a rich variety of uses together with expanding and improving the early evening, late evening and weekend offers. Hamilton has a relatively healthy evening offer, thanks to the presence of a number of (primarily local and independent) bars and restaurants throughout the town centre and a number of leisure and entertainment venues.
The masterplan proposes the expansion of the existing offer through the creation of clusters of activity that reinforce and support the idea of evening ‘circuits’ that include current businesses and hopefully grow a more vibrant and sustainable night-time economy.
The proposed redevelopment of gap sites and introduction of significant residential upper levels this will transform the look and feel of the streets for the better, providing a more welcoming and safer environment at night.
Former Santander Building: Potential new cafe / bar at the Top Cross
Potential Food Hall and Community Hub locations
Public Art and Lighting
Street art and mural trails have become a large part of recent urban regeneration projects, bringing colour to town centres and attracting significant numbers of visitors in many cases. Existing buildings within the town centre provide immediate visible canvasses for intervention.
The development of a creative lighting strategy complete with a programme of permanent and temporary installations that would meaningfully embed visual and performing arts into the centre of the town, creating activity, vibrancy and vitality is proposed.
Former M&S building: Potential mural location
Meanwhile Uses
Transformation takes time and not all proposals will be delivered in the short term.
There are opportunities to enliven existing underused spaces within the town centre to create immediate vibrancy and impact in the short term.
Castle Street:
The large open space between Castle Street and ASDA is an obvious setting for temporary events and could help to establish this as an active space for the community long term.
New Cross Shopping Centre:
Temporary activation of the cleared site with the introduction of a new public route, greenspace and children's play.
Bairds Building:
Should a condition survey demonstrate that it cannot be retained then the cleared site could be enlivened with an F&B / Leisure offer and a new mural to the adjacent exposed tenement gable.
