I visited Leeds Dock this afternoon. What a depressing place. I don’t know how long it’s been there but it’s
already showing signs of falling apart.
Compared to what it might have been the Leeds waterfront / river area is
a bit rubbish. It has the distinct look
of a 2000s property boom gone wrong. You
just know they will have talked a lot about 'exciting spaces' and ‘regeneration’ – which many people have
now spotted was short-hand for property speculation / expensive flats. Cheaply built expensive flats by the looks of
it. I think all the cool young people
earning a fortune in ‘digital industries’ are supposed to live in them when not
out jogging to the office, eating sushi, playing ping-pong outside cafes and riding
bikes with no gears to Tesco Metro. But
I think the word ‘faux’ applies to a lot of it – faux public spaces, faux
community, faux cool, faux bleeding edge…For people who have ‘lifestyles’ but
oddly find that they don’t always feel as great as they should.
I don’t know when it was all built but it was clearly quite
recently. But now we see the stains on
the buildings, the cracks, the weeds, the plastic coating peeling off posts and
railings, plants and green algae growing where they’re clearly not supposed to,
rusty bits on vents and fittings and maintenance budgets (if they have them)
presumably not up to the task. Like a
smart City trader after a weekend in the cells it doesn’t look so smart any
more. It looks a bit abandoned
really.
And basically it’s a pile of tower-blocks. I don’t know if anyone estimated how long they’d last when they built them, my guess is that was a question dodged, but I predict that it’ll be less than 20 years
before the first one comes down and the questions start getting asked as to how
they got away with so many shoddy buildings that no-one really wanted or
needed.
I just Googled ‘Leeds Dock’ and it seems it has a website – “Leeds
Dock is a thriving public space featuring the best the city has to offer, from
flexible contemporary workspace to quirky cafés and outdoor dining”.
It doesn’t look like it’s thriving (if it was maybe they
wouldn’t have to insist it was) and I suspect that most of the space is
actually private. Quirky cafes – oh Lord
save us! Look at the News section for a
list of Tweets about how brilliant it seems to be desperately trying to
be.
Am I just being harsh and
cynical? Probably. Are these people really having
a wonderful time? Perhaps so and I should embrace 'independent food' and 'agility workshops 'to improve your run' (for only £12.50!) and waterside yoga and...well, perhaps it's just not for the likes of me...
