A lunchtime visit to town (the city centre).
Walking from the Kingsway car park to the Arcadia Cafe in Newport Arcade it was pleasing to see so many new Kingsway Centre units including the Artisan Coffee Shop. A real effort has been made here to create some vitality and footfall in a difficult trading climate. The number of independent outlets in the city centre is definitely on the increase despite the continuing loss of household names such as Deichmann and WH Smith (store closing 26 April).
Commercial Street was active with some sort of religious declamation going on outside Ramsdens. The street scene was busy, with the usual need to be very much aware of what is going around you! The street itself has still too many empty units particularly towards the Westgate. It definitely needs work and I am sure efforts are ongoing but you come away with impression that in this online world and with the city centre already struggling it is very much oversized.
High Street contains two significantly improved and attractive areas – the Arcade and Newport Market. The Arcade has some very quirky and enticing units not least a taxidermist! Up and coming Arcadia has morphed into an additional cafe / bistro unit. We had a breakfast (9/10) and fish and chips (7/10), it took a little while to arrive but the service did acknowledge this and overall the vibe there was very good and staff excellent. All power to them.
We walked across to the Market which had a welcome sense of vibrancy and activity with a wide range of cuisines represented in the food hall. It was also quite busy given it was a dead Wednesday afternoon in a city centre with not enough office workers, students or leisure visitors. The more events and innovations the city has over the coming weeks and months the more this place will thrive.
Retail wise H&M and Primark were very busy but it goes without saying that the city needs a much bigger Primark store than we have at the moment. Preferably Primark or the Newport Ship could go into the vacant Debenhams store at some stage in the near future to give the city centre the lift it really needs.
There was a brief visit too to the Green Kitchen Cafe, newly established on Charles Street (former home of the Secret Garden). Their Instagram account and the recommendation of Jess Morden led us to purchase two breakfast muffins. They were perfection itself. We will return. So perhaps should you.