Bonkers on Bridlesmith Gate?

I’ve spent years waching the retail comings and goings on Bridlesmith Gate, which has – if you believe the hype – been transformed from tired traditional thoroughfare into a happening fashion destination.
I reckon it’s still somewhere between the two. It is a distinctively upmarket part of Nottingham’s retail map, but it falls short of the originality and stylishness that seeps out of the streets and alleys around London’s Covent Garden.
But credit where credit’s due – by UK regional standards it IS a genuine shopping destination, a name that attracts shoppers to the city in its own right. All the major retail surveys acknowledge that as fact.
Why? Because Bridlemsith Gate has some big, upmarket fashion brands that other regional cities don’t have. These fashion brands, in turn, have signed up to an upmarket environment that conforms to the exclusive, higher price image their brands are based on.
But they don’t half pay for it. In the case of clothing company Jack Wills it will be the small matter of £220,000 a year in rent alone for its new shop on Bridlesmith Gate.
That’s without the fit-out costs, the business rates, heat, light and power bills, staff wages and the advertising and marketing budget.
In other words, it’s handing over a small fortune to be there. And it’s not alone.
I suspect that Jack Wills – along with names like Kurt Geiger, Jigsaw, Ted Baker, and especially Diesel and Sole Trader – may not be best pleased when they hear how much the newest kid on the block is paying.
For a place in front of that same upmarket audience, brothers Stephen and Simon Fisher are handing over just £3,000.
How come? the Fisher’s business, Juice Bros, is operating out of a caravan powered by a diesel generator.
First things first: two young lads taking a bet on a business idea deserve a big pat on the back for their courage, and I hope everyone walking past decides to toast their good health with a smoothie.
But…their bet is tiny compared to the money invested by the big brands.
I can tell you now that those big brands, and Bridlesmith Gate’s landlords and property agents, are hopping mad that while they bet the house on upmarket customers, two brothers are paying around £60 a week for access to the same people.
Conversations I’ve had during the past few days suggest that the fashion brands are, to put it bluntly, wondering which particular planet Nottingham thinks it’s on.
Indeed, some have wondered aloud whether the City Council has suddenly abandoned its ambitious retail strategy for Nottingham, ‘Retail Retold’.
One asked me if I thought the council would be happy if it decided to shut its £200,000-a-year shop and wheel in a £2,000-a-year handcart instead.
I think we know the answer to that.
Which is why allowing someone to plonk a caravan on Bridlesmith Gate is, frankly, bonkers.
The question is how it’s happened. The decision wasn’t taken by the people who look after Nottingham’s retail strategy (though, bizarrely, they didn’t object). It was taken by a different council department which looks after street trading.
They make the point that this is a long-established street trading position. True, but NOT for food or drink. If my recollection is right, all it’s had is a succession of not very impressive handcarts selling bits on the cheap.
The minutes of the meeting when the decision was taken concede the application was contentious, which we now know to be an understatement.
It says no objections were received from Bridlesmith Gate traders. True - but it only told four of them, by letter.
The council’s markets and fairs manager also says it will overcome the problem of a clattery diesel generator by installing an electrical power supply over the next few weeks.
Putting aside how much of the £3,000 revenue will be spent doing this, it misses the point.
A £60-a-week drinks caravan in front of big-buck fashion businesses is not clever, even with a plug. It should be allowed to trade somewhere else.
Bridlesmith Gate is a symbolic part of one of the major pillars of Nottingham’s economy.
This decision suggests that a part of the City Council doesn't fully appreciate that.