Preston: The show must go on

The lack of a major entertainment venue is hampering the growth of Preston’s night-time economy, a leading hospitality entrepreneur has warned.

Tens of millions of pounds are currently being invested to boost the city centre’s leisure and cultural offering.

A new leisure and entertainment complex project has been given the green light to move to the next stage of its development. Animate is central to the £200m Harris Quarter Towns Fund investment programme and building work is set to start early next year.

Earlier this year the £14m renovation of the Harris Museum got underway. The ambitious project to restore and reimagine the Harris is set to be complete in spring 2024 when it reopens for visitors.

However, when it comes to live entertainment and music, the city’s Guild Hall shut its doors in 2019 and they are still to re-open. That followed the closure of popular university venue 53 Degrees four years earlier.

Anthony Smith is owner of Bar Pintxos which he opened in the city centre last year. He says: “Preston’s a difficult place to crack. Sundays to Thursday is pretty much dead.

“I’m here because I see the long-term future in Preston and I’m probably two to three years too early.

“Preston needs a 6,000-seater stadium or some sort of prime music venue. Blackburn has the facilities to attract big names, we aren’t at that level. We can’t even go to watch a panto at Christmas in the centre of Preston, which is shocking.”

He adds: “We have a massive student community, and we are very spoilt in Preston to have a vast number of places which deliver food and drink priced at a level that does incredibly well.

“We have a wealth of those offerings but what we are short of is footfall and the attractions to bring people in and to keep them here, so they don’t just commute in and out or live in Preston and go straight to Manchester or Liverpool.

“Building offices and apartments is wonderful, but unless we take care of the centre and provide something that is going to be attractive and keep them here you are always going to have that issue ‘Why Preston?’ apart from it’s a gateway to somewhere better.”

He adds: “Preston is a couple of years away from looking radically different. I think we are heading in the right direction. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have brought £1.2m into the centre of Preston looking at a long-term objective, I’d have gone and done it in Spinningfields, Liverpool or somewhere else.”

John Chesworth agrees with Anthony on the city’s need for a prime venue. John, who chairs the city’s Towns Fund board, says: “A city like Preston without an event space is something that can’t really continue. It is something that needs addressing.”

Michael Conlon, of Conlon Construction believes there is an opportunity to create a new venue on the site of the old Odeon cinema in the city centre, which was destroyed by fire earlier this year.

He says: “We could have an event space there. Why not? It’d be right in the centre of Preston. Have somewhere where people can have conventions, not just go and see bands. Let’s also have business events.”

Conlon is currently working to deliver the Harris regeneration project, which he describes as “the jewel in the crown of Preston’s buildings.” He adds: “Obviously that’s part of the cultural offer. The other thing we have is this wonderful university, right slap bang in the middle of the city.”

Nicole Billington, new head of policy and external relations at Preston City Council, says there are some “good foundations” to build on when it comes to the cultural and leisure offering.

As well as the work at the Harris she points to the successful regeneration of Preston’s historic markets, the first stage of the Harris Quarter project.

She says: “The Harris Quarter regeneration is underway. That will be bolstered by the further Town Deal investment and levelling up if that comes through round two.

“Everybody uses the high street differently, and we need to bolster that by investment and repurposing leisure and entertainment as much as possible to support retail. Preston has lots of plans in place.”

Russell Millhouse, head of external and public affairs at UCLan, says Preston’s cultural and social experience is important when it comes to recruiting students and can also play a major role in persuading them to stay once they have graduated.

He says: “That social element is really becoming more and more key to that, because you want to live in a vibrant place.

“You want to live where something’s happening and if they’ve had a good experience throughout their university time, then they will know that that will continue.”

Andrew Atkinson, managing director of Fairhaven Housing, sees challenges that must be met. He believes that repurposing “some of the wonderful architecture” and “breathing more life into the city centre” is important to prevent the retail developments now sitting on its outskirts creating a void.

City-based architect David Cox takes a positive view when it comes to Preston’s future. He says: “We’ve got the components, we’ve got the investment plan, we’ve got the policies.

“What we don’t do very well is sharing. We need to talk it up, build some pride in the place and actually get the feeling that we are doing something, because we are. This city is going to look very different in ten years’ time.”