What's the difference between Sunderland & Newcastle?

The Tall ships event this year was a real eye-opener as to the potential the docks and the East end on the south side have were they to be redeveloped/commercialised.

I thought the same. Walking about the east end during the tall ships race gave a glimpse of when Hendon was the old centre of the town. It's a shame the centre has migrated away from its original design. Really there's loads of land at Hendon and east end to be commercialised / accommodation. I think places like that should have been prime candidates for "a doxford park" type development. Also the buildings at the east end are highly visible around the harbour and river. Although it's pie-in-the-sky but a football bridge between the east end and st.peters would be an amazing addition. It's good to see Tombolo relocate down there.

(Ps Play your bingo from them!)
 


Geography & history.
Its got a bigger river, so grew more during the industrial revolution upon which was granted city status at the back end of the 19th century. Investment snowballed from then on.

Its no different to whats happened with the rest of the country in that London gets the lions share, then in the north Manchester gets the lions share etc.

If people really want Sunderland city centre to improve then they need to support it by spending as much money here & give investors a reason to invest rather than just lazily blaming the council for everything.
 
Geography & history.
Its got a bigger river, so grew more during the industrial revolution upon which was granted city status at the back end of the 19th century. Investment snowballed from then on.

Its no different to whats happened with the rest of the country in that London gets the lions share, then in the north Manchester gets the lions share etc.

If people really want Sunderland city centre to improve then they need to support it by spending as much money here & give investors a reason to invest rather than just lazily blaming the council for everything.
This..
 
It's the biggest city between Leeds and Edinburgh and is the unofficial capital of the North East. Of course there will be some historical sentimentality towards suggesting Durham as the unofficial capital of the North East but ask 100 people outside of the region to name a city in the North East of England and I'd wager the highest answer would be Newcastle.

Put all of this together and it's no surprise it gets the strongest interest/investment. The times I've been to Sunderland city centre it's in a very poor state and not very comparable to Newcastle which leads developers to be massively averse to taking a risk in development there.
 
There isn't enough money in the north east to support Sunderland and Newcastle, as the trains and buses and roads are set up to support Newcastle, it makes sense that the investment goes there.

What that doesn't mean however is that sunderlands centre should have been allowed to fall to bits and look shit, Sunderland should be seen as a residential area but with a nice town centre for locals to enjoy nice surroundings in the historical buildings with a focus on places to eat, drink and other lesuire activities, sunniside is an attempt to do that but it should be in the centre instead.

Agree, it seems the successive councils could not make their minds up about what should be the “centre” , looks like Sunniside is once again being seen as the focal point. Surely the effort must be made to create residential property in the city centre now, just like it was over a century ago. I think John St , Frederick St etc would have been high end residential areas , proper streets with big houses to live in .
The area of the city centre is too wide for the amount of retail and businesses there now and they are unlikely to return , so maybe relocate businesses to a more compact area and develop the rest for housing, and not just student residences . Then new businesses supporting the new city residents will appear. It’s just history going round and round , as it does .
 
Sunderland city centre is a joke, Newcastle is lovely. Its just bigger and better in every way. Sad but true

Sunderland’s more of a town really and just a city in name, it feels nowt like a city when you’re in the centre so it’s unfair to even compare the two as if they’re like for like. It’ll never compare in size due to geography but that doesn’t mean the centre shouldn’t be a nice and pleasant place, which sadly it isn’t for the most part. Instead of trying to compete to be as big or better we should focus on doing our own thing and making it a nice place in our own unique way.

Building the likes of Doxford Park miles outside the centre was suicidal for the town centre in the aftermath of heavy industry going, while Newcastle embraced change and now has a vibrant centre full of workers all through the day and night during the week and Sunderland becomes a ghost town after 5 o’clock. All comes down to jobs and footfall.
 
Instead of looking backwards on obvious mistakes a new plan should be put in place to develop Sunderland centre.

  • Choose a focal point e.g. Keel Square and work out from there. Extend the Bridges across the shithole that is Blandford St to Holmeside and across the Market Square.
  • Create a China town on John street (various ethnic restaurants connecting the shopping area with Sunniside.
  • Move the druggies out of Sunniside.
  • Give businesses a chance to get established before fleecing them for rates.
There are some nice places in the centre but it lacks connectivity.
 
Instead of looking backwards on obvious mistakes a new plan should be put in place to develop Sunderland centre.

  • Choose a focal point e.g. Keel Square and work out from there. Extend the Bridges across the shithole that is Blandford St to Holmeside and across the Market Square.
  • Create a China town on John street (various ethnic restaurants connecting the shopping area with Sunniside.
  • Move the druggies out of Sunniside.
  • Give businesses a chance to get established before fleecing them for rates.
There are some nice places in the centre but it lacks connectivity.

Great idea, that like.

We certainly need a connection of sorts between Sunniside, The Bridges and Keel Square.
 
The biggest difference is that every regeneration body for Tyne and Wear directed all investment into Newcastle.

Thankfully now that we’re in different combined authorities that will never happen again.

Pretty much every residential area in Newcastle is either a complete shithole or disproportionately overpriced.

Sunderland is doing well and will continue to do so
 
Instead of looking backwards on obvious mistakes a new plan should be put in place to develop Sunderland centre.

  • Choose a focal point e.g. Keel Square and work out from there. Extend the Bridges across the shithole that is Blandford St to Holmeside and across the Market Square.
  • Create a China town on John street (various ethnic restaurants connecting the shopping area with Sunniside.
  • Move the druggies out of Sunniside.
  • Give businesses a chance to get established before fleecing them for rates.
There are some nice places in the centre but it lacks connectivity.

The streets around sunniside would be good for a Chinatown!

The biggest difference is that every regeneration body for Tyne and Wear directed all investment into Newcastle.

Thankfully now that we’re in different combined authorities that will never happen again.

Pretty much every residential area in Newcastle is either a complete shithole or disproportionately overpriced.

Sunderland is doing well and will continue to do so

I'm glad we're out of any regional partnership. It should be good for all authorities south of the Tyne to bid for investment for themselves. I'd love to see all the authorities south of the Tyne to become competitive and develop their own economic strategies
 
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It's the biggest city between Leeds and Edinburgh and is the unofficial capital of the North East. Of course there will be some historical sentimentality towards suggesting Durham as the unofficial capital of the North East but ask 100 people outside of the region to name a city in the North East of England and I'd wager the highest answer would be Newcastle.

Put all of this together and it's no surprise it gets the strongest interest/investment. The times I've been to Sunderland city centre it's in a very poor state and not very comparable to Newcastle which leads developers to be massively averse to taking a risk in development there.

Doesn’t make it right.

And I’m surprised you have the gall to still post on here. Care to repeat your comments about a certain poster on here going through a tough time that were made on a mag forum?
 

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