Sunderland now to Sunderland in 1999

Big Sharp Teeth said:
The Borough is rubbish now.
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When was it good?
Gillythedilf said:
Just drove through Newcastle west end /elswick and the top of westgate Rd .Nowhere in sunderland is as rough as that shit tip ,it’s wick round there like .No surprise that’s where the grooming gangs where operating .
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Said this before on other threads but the worst parts of big cities like Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool etc are so much worse than Sunderland rough bits.
citybythesea said:
They got rich off the back of other places digging the coal!


Its true, this is big business. Cities up and down the land are actively promoting student accommodation into the urban centres. Sunderland should do the same
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We already are aren't we? Joplings and Phoenix house are both student accommodation now or do you mean new purpose built buildings?
 
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Ciro_DiMarzio said:
When was it good?

Said this before on other threads but the worst parts of big cities like Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool etc are so much worse than Sunderland rough bits.

We already are aren't we? Joplings and Phoenix house are both student accommodation now or do you mean new purpose built buildings?
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Newcastle isn't a big city by the way. Delusions of grandeur more like what people get sucked in by
 
MrOompapa said:
St. Peter's Campus
Park Lane Bus Station
Seafront regeneration
Echo 24 building
Keel Square
Sunniside regeneration
Actually having a cinema
Bridges Expansion
Museum and Winter Gardens regeneration
Mowbray Park modernisation
Northern Spire
Transformation of the Old Cinema into "The Point" (Can you imagine what this looked like on the town back then)
National Glass Centre
Sunderland Aquatic Centre
Hilton Hotel
Metro Expansion
Beacon of Light
Empire Theatre redevelopment and hosting of west end shows

Given people complain about Sunderland now, can you imagine what it must have been like then? I didn't grasp that as a child obviously, but still...
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A significant proportion of those things were either competed or well underway in 1999. There was a huge push at the time for millennium projects at the later half of the 90s. Rather than pushing on after that massive kick we have had relative stagnation. I suppose it doesn't help that we have endured austerity max for the last 11 years.
 
Binternet said:
A significant proportion of those things were either competed or well underway in 1999. There was a huge push at the time for millennium projects at the later half of the 90s. Rather than pushing on after that massive kick we have had relative stagnation. I suppose it doesn't help that we have endured austerity max for the last 11 years.
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By the time many bigger projects were ready to hit fruition, we got hit by the recession.

Thornfield properties signed an £800 million deal to redevelop holmeside and build a skyscraper called the Spirit of Sunderland: Went bust and collapsed
A real estate project in the east end called portferfield plaza was underway, went bust and was abandoned (scaffolding remained for years)
All other projects were also put on hold or left
Government cuts then killed off sunderland arc and the regional development agency, further making delays
It wasn't until 2014, that the city actually started to gain investment momentum again
 
MrOompapa said:
By the time many bigger projects were ready to hit fruition, we got hit by the recession.

Thornfield properties signed an £800 million deal to redevelop holmeside and build a skyscraper called the Spirit of Sunderland: Went bust and collapsed
A real estate project in the east end called portferfield plaza was underway, went bust and was abandoned (scaffolding remained for years)
All other projects were also put on hold or left
Government cuts then killed off sunderland arc and the regional development agency, further making delays
It wasn't until 2014, that the city actually started to gain investment momentum again
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Yes exactly. The time to press on was with the momentum gained in the late 90s and very early 2000. We rested on our laurels and stagnated. By the time we got ourselves together later in the decade the world went to shit and we ended up being shafted by 11 years of austerity, bankruptcy and challenging investment from which we still haven't truly recovered.

On a separate note I can't believe we have a thread about Sunderland in 1999 without anyone mentioning our Millennium crowning glory, Ambit. It would have been 20 year old at the end of the month had it not corroded and died an early death. I wonder how much the final cost was including all the repairs and storage. It may have been paid for by the lottery arts fund and EU but I bet the council still ended up with a whopping bill from it.
 

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