What can be done about much-loved Chapel Walk in Sheffield?
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The ginnel, which dates back to the middle ages, has a different feel to the wide open spaces of Fargate and used to be a bustling back alley.
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Hide AdBut due to a shift of retail to The Moor, the rise of online shopping and months of scaffolding - which made it a forbidding and gloomy tunnel - its fortunes have fallen faster than many places.
Then the pandemic hit.
But people still love Chapel Walk and hope it can one day be successful again.
Jules Gray, of Hop Hideout based in Kommune food hall, considered it when moving her shop from Abbeydale Road.
But the rent and rates were too high.
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Hide AdShe said: “It’s been half empty for a long time. People don’t realise the cost of setting up, the ongoing costs, plus there are the potential costs of Brexit on goods and services. But it could be an amazing, thriving independent, creative street.”
Sheffield Business Improvement District lists 16 businesses in Chapel Walk, from Paperchase at one end to Dr Marten’s at the other.
But attracting new tenants is tricky.
On David Walsh’s LinkedIn page, Matt Vause, marketeer at TC Harrison Group, said: “Pop a cover over it and make it an 'independents arcade' - fill it with Sheffield Makers and create a unique creative space for small boutique retailers.”
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Hide AdSteve Robinson had a suggestion for landlords: “A possible 50 per cent reduction in rent for the first year to encourage business, plus 10 per cent rise year-on-year for the next four years increasing to the £12,000 annually. Everyone wins with small sacrifices.”
Mural artist Sarah Yates, aka Faunagraphic, said: “I think it should be business rates free and affordable rents for start ups. I tried to set up such a business and ended up leaving the city because it was impossible.
"Usually the creatives are the soul, although at the bottom end of earnings at first. They shouldn’t be left at the edge when they bring the excitement, that’s what gives the city vibrancy.”