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Keel Crossing [opened 18.10.25] - compendium thread

100%agree



citybythesea said:
It’s the opportunity cost. Once housing is placed on a site it landlocked for housing indefinitely thus preventing future growth. The sheepfolds are adjacent to the city centre so should have leisure retail and office opportunities. Also the central part of Sunderland has been identified as needing jobs. When you put housing on it, this opportunity is lost.
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100% agree but that sites been empty for years and needs sorting, may help the stables thrive once completed and aid this end of city once bridge done. Lots of area near sunniside, old Sunderland, holmeside etc to redevelop too so not like it's the last patch of land adjoining city centre.
 

tunstallhill said:
i'll not disagree with any of that.

but if they have agreed to give us £x to build this bridge, unfortunately i don't think SCC are in a position to say 'no! we need double that! the people of sunderland demand an iconic architectural marvel, not just a simple foot bridge'

i'd love it if they did, but i think the reality would be that we'd never get a bridge of any description.
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True -but we always get fobbed off with mediocrity whether it's in the build and/or the maintenance of the build and that build soon falls to bits.
I think they see us (Sunderland) coming and say 'its only them offer them the minimum' - we take it and then you get what you can pay for.
We need to pay a bit more and build more durable structures and in the long run we'll save money.

Off the top of my head I can think of (built/bodged in my life time) the following

Town Centre Bus Station - health hazard
Civic Centre falling to bits
Glass Centre - ditto
Northern Spire - shocking paint job (which was discovered before hand-over)
Railway Station - cheap and chatty upgrades, new replacement is underwhelming after what was first envisaged
Crowtree Leisure Centre - demolished before it fell down
New Swimming Pool - roof leaking badly(?)
Stadium of Light and the infrastructure around it
Seaburn Leisure Centre - demolished not viable?
Seaburn fountain - nobody else would touch it...
 
Teed said:
No, other than match days, the Town bridge is deserted, and If they make the Town free of traffic, which I feel they will eventually, there won't be any need on a match day ether, but, If people are so lazy they can't walk a couple of hundred yards to the Town bridge, then by all means, build the footbridge, only they'll have to reinforce it, to take the weight of the lard arse that cross. ;)
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I must be unlucky whenever I am crossing the Wear Bridge it's like a car-park in both directions - that roundabout near St Marys must be used by hundreds of cars every hour
 
Weremuthe said:
True -but we always get fobbed off with mediocrity whether it's in the build and/or the maintenance of the build and that build soon falls to bits.
I think they see us (Sunderland) coming and say 'its only them offer them the minimum' - we take it and then you get what you can pay for.
We need to pay a bit more and build more durable structures and in the long run we'll save money.

Off the top of my head I can think of (built/bodged in my life time) the following

Town Centre Bus Station - health hazard
Civic Centre falling to bits
Glass Centre - ditto
Northern Spire - shocking paint job (which was discovered before hand-over)
Railway Station - cheap and chatty upgrades, new replacement is underwhelming after what was first envisaged
Crowtree Leisure Centre - demolished before it fell down
New Swimming Pool - roof leaking badly(?)
Stadium of Light and the infrastructure around it
Seaburn Leisure Centre - demolished not viable?
Seaburn fountain - nobody else would touch it...
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Most of those are/were very good

You’re just a moaner
 
Weremuthe said:
I must be unlucky whenever I am crossing the Wear Bridge it's like a car-park in both directions - that roundabout near St Marys must be used by hundreds of cars every hour
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I was talking about pedestrians, no cars on a footbridge.
 
turnthetide3 said:
As a kid I was always envious of people who lived in houses around Roker Park.
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I was the same.
Remember being jealous of those you could see in the houses getting their tea and watching the results on TV when we had a long cold walk home.

Hang on, if I leave the game early like 85 mins I can do that and have people thinking I’m class .
 
Weremuthe said:
So why did 'most of those' become not fit for purpose in only a few decades
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They didn’t…e,g the civic centre is 50+ years old and was lauded as a fantastic example of brutalist architecture.

The new station looks great and that’s just the smaller entrance.

Northern Spire is fantastic.

The aquatic centre roof doesn’t leak…it did but was repaired, at a cost to Balfour Beatty. Aquatic centre looks great

Park Lane interchange is great

Stadium of light and surrounding developments are great…especially the Beacon and the hotel

Seaburn Centre (not leisure centre) was fine and built by the builders of Seafields, not the council. It had its time.

I could go on (e.g the college) but you’re just a moaner
 
I think it actually looks better than the first concept if we're looking for positives. If they'd pushed for something more striking the project would have most likely been delayed whilst additional funding was secured, during which time there's a real risk of the project collapsing altogether if the economic conditions shift.

To be honest, when the new footbridge was first announced I was skeptical of it happening any time soon. Masterplans are almost always scaled back as budgets become clear, and this seemed the sort of thing you'd expect to be axed first.
 
Weremuthe said:
True -but we always get fobbed off with mediocrity whether it's in the build and/or the maintenance of the build and that build soon falls to bits.
I think they see us (Sunderland) coming and say 'its only them offer them the minimum' - we take it and then you get what you can pay for.
We need to pay a bit more and build more durable structures and in the long run we'll save money.

Off the top of my head I can think of (built/bodged in my life time) the following

Town Centre Bus Station - health hazard
Civic Centre falling to bits
Glass Centre - ditto
Northern Spire - shocking paint job (which was discovered before hand-over)
Railway Station - cheap and chatty upgrades, new replacement is underwhelming after what was first envisaged
Crowtree Leisure Centre - demolished before it fell down
New Swimming Pool - roof leaking badly(?)
Stadium of Light and the infrastructure around it
Seaburn Leisure Centre - demolished not viable?
Seaburn fountain - nobody else would touch it...
Click to expand...

To say the new Railway Station front is a cheap and chatty upgrade is stupid at best and wilfully dishonest at worst.

Rightly so the Civic Centre is falling to bits you'd think so as it's being bloody demolished.

How is Park Lane a health hazard?
 
Weremuthe said:
True -but we always get fobbed off with mediocrity whether it's in the build and/or the maintenance of the build and that build soon falls to bits.
I think they see us (Sunderland) coming and say 'its only them offer them the minimum' - we take it and then you get what you can pay for.
We need to pay a bit more and build more durable structures and in the long run we'll save money.

Off the top of my head I can think of (built/bodged in my life time) the following

Town Centre Bus Station - health hazard
Civic Centre falling to bits
Glass Centre - ditto
Northern Spire - shocking paint job (which was discovered before hand-over)
Railway Station - cheap and chatty upgrades, new replacement is underwhelming after what was first envisaged
Crowtree Leisure Centre - demolished before it fell down
New Swimming Pool - roof leaking badly(?)
Stadium of Light and the infrastructure around it
Seaburn Leisure Centre - demolished not viable?
Seaburn fountain - nobody else would touch it...
Click to expand...
Some of those are 20-30 years old man, is your basis for bemoaning current developments really due to an expectation of the same standards as the Seaburn Centre/civic centre? That's an extraordinarily negative outlook. I don't know what's underwhelming about the new railway station, if anything it's overwhelming. It makes the surrounding area look even more desperate for modernisation than before.

Northern Spire paint job :lol:
 
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