This, we were encouraged to feel, was how Salisbury could be, if we only dared to dream big enough.
It was so gorgeous it actually, however briefly, made me want to live in an urban flat.
Naturally, it would need to have rooftop allotments and greenhouses, internal courtyards, green energy, chic shops and spaces for home workers and office-based businesses down below, all sandwiched into a tall converted building tastefully remodelled to take a step back from the busy street frontage.
And we’re talking about someone whose lifelong fantasy has been a ancient stone farmhouse complete with Aga and an orchard!
The occasion was a hugely worthwhile online meeting organised by the Civic Society and hosted by Wiltshire Creative.
Some fascinating contributions were made by Andrea Pellegram, the planning consultant advising the city’s Neighbourhood Plan group, city council leader (not for much longer, alas!) Jeremy Nettle, and a bunch of highly articulate architects and developers who are behind the extraordinary Biophilic Living project in Swansea.
There’s so much to inspire us going on there that it’s hard to explain in this short post.
Look up their beautifully illustrated website (biophilicliving.co.uk), and ask yourself: What’s to stop it happening here, other than a lack of leadership with the requisite willpower?
Doubts were expressed about whether inner city regeneration of this type could work within the limits of a historic conservation area like ours.
It could, was the answer, by thinking laterally. Instead of transforming one great big building (although we’ve got one or two of those that could do with it), we could start on individual street scale, interweaving nature with existing development.
We’ve got to think up ways to encourage more young people to come here to live and work affordably, and Biophilic Living is admittedly an ambitious one.
But post-Covid, which has accelerated the decline of retail and changed the way we all live, possibly for the long term, we’ve got to do things differently. Which was the theme of the evening.
I guess the Maltings is the obvious place to try it out, and perhaps Wiltshire Council’s ongoing attempt to bring all the land holdings there under one ownership is the one thing that could make it possible, if Trowbridge had a mind to try.
I know their deputy leader Richard Clewer was watching, and I’d love to hear his take on it.
Meanwhile the Neighbourhood Plan team hope to go out to public consultation with their draft ideas for the city in the spring. I don’t envy them.
Now we’ve seen what could be done, I guess the job of persuading us to settle for less would be a thankless one!
Some fascinating contributions were made by Andrea Pellegram, the planning consultant advising the city’s Neighbourhood Plan group, city council leader (not for much longer, alas!) Jeremy Nettle, and a bunch of highly articulate architects and developers who are behind the extraordinary Biophilic Living project in Swansea.
There’s so much to inspire us going on there that it’s hard to explain in this short post.
Look up their beautifully illustrated website (biophilicliving.co.uk), and ask yourself: What’s to stop it happening here, other than a lack of leadership with the requisite willpower?
Doubts were expressed about whether inner city regeneration of this type could work within the limits of a historic conservation area like ours.
It could, was the answer, by thinking laterally. Instead of transforming one great big building (although we’ve got one or two of those that could do with it), we could start on individual street scale, interweaving nature with existing development.
We’ve got to think up ways to encourage more young people to come here to live and work affordably, and Biophilic Living is admittedly an ambitious one.
But post-Covid, which has accelerated the decline of retail and changed the way we all live, possibly for the long term, we’ve got to do things differently. Which was the theme of the evening.
I guess the Maltings is the obvious place to try it out, and perhaps Wiltshire Council’s ongoing attempt to bring all the land holdings there under one ownership is the one thing that could make it possible, if Trowbridge had a mind to try.
I know their deputy leader Richard Clewer was watching, and I’d love to hear his take on it.
Meanwhile the Neighbourhood Plan team hope to go out to public consultation with their draft ideas for the city in the spring. I don’t envy them.
Now we’ve seen what could be done, I guess the job of persuading us to settle for less would be a thankless one!
PS And as my husband points out, architecturally innovative development along these lines would attract visitors in its own right at a time when the city is no longer a retail destination.
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