Chris Jones & Chris Wade have masses of experience working with high streets across the UK. They have been brought in to help develop proposals for the shopping area on Chepstow Road.

Maindee Village Partnership: Potential for Creativity?

Chris Jones (below left) and Chris Wade (below right) have masses of experience working with high streets and towns across the UK. They have been brought in by Newport City Council for 3 months [June to end of August] to help develop proposals for the shopping area on Chepstow Road.

This work is particularly important to the development of Maindee as a creative centre as they could help find relationships with businesses and landlords: for example to brighten up buildings; find meanwhile uses for spaces [such as workshops or galleries] or find subjects for artistic inspiration.

Chris Jones and Chris Wade

The session in Maindee Library on Tuesday 19th June started with Chris Jones appealing for leadership from people operating on Chepstow Road. In that respect there were three trustees and three staff of Maindee Unlimited, who run the library and link to the Maindee Festival, one landlord of a property on Chepstow Road, two people interested in finding a future for the former Co-Op store and the promoter of the Maindee and Chepstow Road Shop Local App. The latter, Chris Barnbrook, told us that he had been working for the past 3 months to encourage people to sign up to the mobile phone app that he has created. The app is designed to promote local shops and services and does this by sending regular updates. The app has managed 300 downloads in 3 months: in reality more are required to make the app viable long term.

Like lots of places, businesses centred on places like Maindee have to find ways of working together rather than competing. In this respect there are strengths within Maindee: a good collection of hairdressers for both men and women; wide choice of places to eat and enough pubs to make a good weekend night out. These are the kind of factors that magazines such as Time Out find in their reviews of places like Peckham, now a very cool part of London but previously comparable to somewhere like Maindee. 

Maindee map with pins

The session was well organised with the use of the map (above) very effective communicating both the scale of the shopping area of Maindee and the general tone. The main opportunities for a creative approach are probably:  

  1. 1. Consider the entrances to Maindee

Could the railway bridge on Chepstow Road be lit up? Could the land on the corner of Wharf Road and Chepstow Road be landscaped?

  1. 2. What could happen to the Co-Op

There were two people at the meeting showing a desire to do something with this building and there appears to be a willingness from the owners of this building [not the Co-Op] to consider uses of the former supermarket for a short period. Could there be a subdivision into workshops for people for makers? Could there be a range of little market stalls?

  1. 3. Use film and photography to explore and represent the place

We are already starting to explore the Maindee through the tapestry project, through mosaics and now through the project which explores how people make homes in Maindee. Could there be opportunities to explore the cuisine of Maindee or maybe represent the different types of haircut? Strike the right balance between promotion and making a realistic account.

  1. 4. Continue in a spirit of generosity

Like the twentieth anniversary of the Maindee Festival on July 9th the same spirit can be found in the charity of Maindee Unlimited set up to help bring things together: for example the library is being run by volunteers and the newsletter features lots of articles about local organisations and people. This investment helps to support the place and share a feeling of togetherness. The next meetings take place between 4th and 15th July.