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Old Town Street and New George Street

What are we doing?

This key shopping area is getting a massive makeover to make it look nicer and create places for people to enjoy.

The dated eighties landscaping has now gone and in its place will be:

  • better links between Drake Circus and The Barcode
  • islands of greenery
  • new play area with stepping-stones through the gardens, bringing a touch of the moors into the city centre
  • places to sit and rest
  • a small performance area
  • new trees planting
  • ornamental ‘rain garden’ planting
  • sustainable urban drainage.

What will it look like?

Why are we doing this?

The old landscaping looked tired and dated. We want to revive our city centre, to make it a more attractive place for people to linger, catch up with friends as well as go shopping. 

What's happening with the works?

Work has restarted with new contractors, Morgan Sindall, who are undertaking enabling works ahead of the main landscaping phase. This involves work beneath the surface of the street, including deep drainage and connections for the rainwater and drainage systems as part of the rain garden and sustainable urban drainage system as well as other service connections and relocations.

The project has faced a number of challenges. Digging beneath into a city centre that was hastily rebuilt after the war has meant the project has stopped and started a number of times. Voids, Blitz rubble, filled-in cellars, the odd tram line, not to mention the maze of gas and water and cables has slowed the scheme down.

The excavations for drainage and rain gardens in front of the House of Fraser are complete and the holes in the ground are ready for containers to hold rain water to feed the plants above.

More hoarding is now up in the middle section of New George Street to enable contractors to start this phase and make up some lost time, tackling all three phases of work simultaneously.