Market Harborough thoughts » Market Harborough

Phase Eight coming to Market Harborough!!

Jonny Atom — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:25:52 +0000

The old Golden Wonder building’s restoration is coming along now, the lower floor retail units are taking shape and should be a good addition to the High Street. It appears (from ad boards) that Phase Eight is going to be taking a unit within the development.

This re-inforces my worries about Market Harborough eventually becoming a clone town. There have been rumours of £70,000 per annum rent on these new retail units, I hope for our towns sake that this isn’t true. It will eventually push out the smaller independents as landlords clamour to grab the high rents that multinationals are prepared to pay and this will suck out the eclectic character from our High Street.

I’m not against multinationals, I’m against what they will do to our town. Already the likes of A Casa, Forbidden Apple, Nolans Jewellers, Pendulum Records and Whitemores, have all disappeared, many the result of increasing rents. Small retail independents help make Market Harborough what it is and I for one, don;t wish to see them disappear.

Update:

I’m very late with this news, it appears Phase Eight have been recruiting for a store manager since 18 Oct 2010.

Update 2:

The shop fit is gathering pace now, as the photo shows.

Update 3:

Phase Eight is now open, ready for the Christmas buying period and they’ve kicked off proceedings with an “Up to 50% Off Sale”.

Market Harborough Travel Lodge takes shape

Jonny Atom — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:38:42 +0000

As you can see from the pictures, the old Golden Wonder site, in Market Harborough, is being ripped apart and being readied for the coming of a new Travel Lodge. What does this mean for local hotel The 3 Swans? My own personal feelings on this, are that it won’t affect business too much, as the demographic for The 3 Swans is different to that of a Travel Lodge. It will however affect the Premier Inn Lodge out at the McDonald’s round-about. This could see business significantly drop off.

It is being said that Harborough is turning into a clone town and with the arrival of the Travel Lodge it would appear this is so. However, hopefully the lower floor of the building, which will be restaurants and shop units will attract individual traders and not the multinationals which are sucking the character out of the town.

Update :

Signs have gone up advertising a women’s clothes store, Phase Eight. I’ll do a separate blog for this as it is re-inforcing my worries about Clone Town

Waitrose coming to Market Harborough?

Jonny Atom — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:44:10 +0000

Rumour has it, the old Sanderson Ford car showroom on Springfield Street, will be a new Waitrose store.

“Another supermarket?”, I hear you ask. Well apparently, maybe, if the rumours are to be believed. As I find out more I shall update the post.

I did find THIS article on the Harborough Mail website from the 1st of July, so I am a tad late in my post, but the rumour only became more relevant with Sanderson Ford moving out.

Update :
It’s been reported by Harborough FM that the supermarket giant is NOT in fact taking the Sanderson Ford site.

Supermarket giant quashes rumours its moving to Harborough

So this begs the question, “What IS the site going to be used for?”

Pizza Express in Market Harborough?

Jonny Atom — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:44:57 +0000

I’ve heard this rumour from 4 different sources now and it appears we may well be getting a Pizza Express in Market harborough on the site of the old Peacock Pub. What affect will this have on the other restaurants in town? The likes of Ascoughs Bistro will surely feel the pinch and with Gondola Holdings, the owners of the chain already having a foothold in the town with Zizzi’s, surely this will affect the latter’s takings. Will the likes of The White Lion be squeezed even more? The Union Inn is already reported to have closed it’s doors ’till further notice’, how long before more will go to the wall?

I shall watch with eager anticipation.

One such rumour is at http://liberalengland.blogspot.com

Update : It appears the rumours are true, here’s a job advert in The Caterer Magazine (see it HERE) brought to my attention on Twitter by solarpilchard

Update 2 : Work starts, scaffolding is beginning to go up.

Scaffolding work begins on the new Pizza Express

Update 3 : It’s funny how things transpire and looking back how speculation becomes rumour, becomes reality,as on Saturday last, I sat and had a rather nice pizza in this restaurant.

Market Harborough photographic prints website

Jonny Atom — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:09:08 +0000

Market Harborough in Leicestershire is now home to a brand new website selling stunning photographic prints. The website is www.PixOf.co.uk and features subjects such as the town of Market Harborough, Foxton Locks and local Market Harborough Churches as well as stunning images of sunsets and the Great British countryside.

All prints are available to purchase so if you’re looking for the perfect Christmas present or wedding present, maybe a beautiful shot of the wedding church, pop along to www.PixOf.co.uk and grab an amazing print.

St Marys Road Hotel in Market Harborough

Jonny Atom — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:18:09 +0000

I noticed a little yellow planning application attached to a lamp post near our Studio the other day and decided to investigate on the Planning Online site. The following image is the elevation plans for a 3 storey hotel and restaurant facility on St Marys Road. It is looking like ‘It’s a Gas’ is maybe being turned into the restaurant on these plans.

I’ll be keeping my eye on this to see further developments and if planning is given. It’s a quite ambitious project and will alter the face of St Marys Road quite a lot.

Market Harborough wine warehouse starts build

Jonny Atom — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 07:20:49 +0000

The new wine warehouse, Majestic, on St Mary’s Road in Market Harborough has begun work. The ground has been broken and concrete pilings have been sunk.

But what does this mean for the town of Market Harborough? Well I’m guessing that this was one of the final nails in the coffin of the Threshers franchise, that and Bargain Booze and apart from that no adverse effect will be felt by other stores, maybe the supermarkets, but hey they make enough profit. Hopefully, having a store at that end of St Mary’s Road will help invigorate that area of town.

The only other worry that may arise is that if the under 18 policing policy of Majestic is lapse then there may be a few drunken minors on Symington wreck.

Now the building is finished for Majestic Wines, will they actually move in? I was led to believe that the upper level would be a warehouse for the store but the upstairs are now flats for sale, so what does this mean for majestic? I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.

I’ve recently examined the advertising boards for the flats and on the

artists impression there are shop signs for Majestic, so it does appear to be a wine warehouse.

HDR Photography – Market Harborough

Jonny Atom — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:56:17 +0000

I was out walking to work (yes I have a day job just like Clarke Kent) the other morning and saw how stunning the sunrise was, by the time I’d got back to my house and grabbed my camera (2 mins) the sunrise had changed completely. Nevertheless I took these 3 images. The 4th image is me experimenting near the Grammar School.

Market Harborough UFO

Jonny Atom — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:23:36 +0000

The Harborough Mail this week posted a story about a UFO sighted from Great Bowden and asks the question “Is this a UFO?”. My answer to that would be, “YES” of course it is, because we cannot Identify it and it is flying. Maybe they should have asked, “Is this extraterrestrial?”, but I suppose this is implied by the word UFO as it’s taken on this meaning and lost the Unidentified Flying Object that it was originally used for.

This leads me to wonder when does an object become a UFO and who deems it so? This is an extract from wikipeadia…

Some, such as the USAF, who originally coined the term in 1952, define UFOs as only those objects remaining unidentified after scrutiny by expert investigators, while other definitions call something a UFO from the time it is first reported as being unidentified.

So this odd shaped object in the sky could indeed be called a UFO.

Old Market Harborough

Jonny Atom — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:00:58 +0000

I found this interesting painting of old Market Harborough. It shows the Grammar School and St Dionysius Church with everyday life taking place. I don’t know when this was painted but it’s interesting to see that not much has changed since the horse & cart era.

What particularly interested me was what, at first, looks like a gallows on the left. With closer inspection I guess this was a contraption for moving items from the backs of wagons into a local store and not where criminals met their maker.

I may take a photo from the same angle to compare the 2 scenes. Pop back to have a check.