I have been removed.

I use it every now and again and I think it should remain open - all it needs is policing (shock, horror) and closing at night. A remodelling of the passage so that all the hidden alcoves are removed would be a good move too. Essentially it's poorly designed (or more to the point, not designed at all to be a public passageway) and the police would rather it just disappear than actually police it. If they know illegal activity takes place there, could they not send in two coppers from Raven Meadows and two from Pride Hill and actually catch a couple of criminals in one go? Oh wait, the police don't do that sort of thing anymore... how silly of me. Ditto for all the anti-social behaviour that goes on at the bus station.

I think it would be expecting too much of the police to have to especially police the 70 steps. Basically if we had had input from a police architectural consultant when the shopping centres were designed, as happens know with new developments it would never have been allowed to be the enclosed ghastly pastiche that it is. It bears no resemblance to the old quaint steps (but dangerous!) I remember in the 1970s.

It is a fine example of the huge importance of design in planning decisions something I think and hope is changing for the better though in Shrewsbury it will probably lag way behind the rest of the country.

I know you feel strongly about the fact that it is an ancient ROW PS but when you have lived through the 1980's when vast areas of land that originally belonged to all of as tax payers was sold of to insurance companies etc to create these shopping centres there was never going to be the public ownership that we had always benefitted from again. Some towns were literally cut in half by this and people found after the shopping centres were closed in the evening they could no longer travel across their own town centre!

I don't know what the answer is except perhaps it could be closed off with shops that have access being allowed to use it or keep it as an escape route incase of fire or terrorism attacks.

It certainly isn't a tourist attraction and really all these passages are risky places to frequent at certain times of the day.

I fully agree that the way the shopping centres (Pride Hill and Darwin) were built totally wrecked that part of the town. The historic urban fabric was destroyed - it consisted of "burgage" plots leading down from Pride Hill to the (old) Smithfield with passages running along them (similar to what still exists in the urban block between Mardol, Roushill and Smithfield Road). The Seventy Steps could have been modelled far better BUT I still believe that they could be remodelled, especially as part of wider (re)development including the gap site between the two shopping centres. I was (once again) disappointed that the plans for the gap site development never took on the issue of the Seventy Steps. Unfortunately most officers in the planning department don't seem to realise the importance of pedestrian routes through the town and conservation officers are too busy chasing up idiots damaging listed buildings. Yes there are routes from Pride Hill down to the Riverside area, but only via the shopping centre malls themselves, which isn't the same thing as proper public thoroughfares.

Closing Seventy Steps is another example of the "can't do" attitude in Shrewsbury, something which I feel really lets the town down and holds it back. Shrewsbury could be something so much more - and I don't mean becoming a city or anything like that. I mean in terms of the public realm, the standard of new buildings, etc. And there are many to blame, including the Civic Society, which doesn't appear to do much!

You mean designing a £30 million ugly building with Willmott Dixon who must be rubbing their hands with glee and protecting local councillors interests which often involves trying to impose ridiculous conditions in conservation areas that are not necessarily worthy of their time. <_<

T o work in the 21century old street patterns may have had to be redesignated but the disneyfication of the town was not necessary and sadly continues today.

The only good recent buildings in the town are those that have undertaken positive repair and the bold exciting Nexus, Mansers and Moreton point. Some may like Cirrus House but I am not over keen.
The Owen Owen corner and Century House are no better than the shopping centres.

I'ts amazing how people can condemn an area after an incident! How many other places in Shrewsbury are similiar to this location I wonder?

None that I know of Andy but then I do not frequent men's toilets!
I have been in some pretty awful ladies toilets in my time but then hang on, this is supposed to be a tourist sttraction not a public convenience!!! <_<

Toilets too! We are getting there :rolleyes: More of a necessity to tourists than an attraction I would imagine. You have raised a point though lemon. The toilets as a letdown for not only tourist but obviously for the residents of Shrewsbury. I dont use them also. Personally I am sick of fresh vomit as I walk to work through the Mardol each week day morning, which has not been cleaned up. Having phoned the outgoing SABC lot I was told that the 'streetcleaners' were having a leaf crisis and were busy trying to clean the autumn fall up. As for the smell of stale urine, another site is the passage albeit short under Rowleys museum

Other dangerous places? I think quite a few places are slowly becoming no-go areas at certain times in Shrewsbury, I also think that people are slow to report loiterers or vagrants to the authorities swiflty enough.

Andy, I can assure you (although I cannot reveal how) there has been more than one incident down there, I am aware of a compilation of incidents that have been seen and recorded, including men having sexual encounters with other men, and heterosexual activity between all ages during the day. :blink:

Not sure that there are no go areas in the centre of Shrewsbury yet, although the incident in the Dana last week was not encouraging. But, for a supposed tourist town with an ageing population, are there any public toilets in Shrewsbury which don't have an unsavoury reputation?

And am I just imagining things, or have Castle Court and the steps to the bus station got really scruffy over the last few months? A pity, as it's a useful shortcut, considering that the Woolworth's cut through is unlikely to remain open, WH Smith is a fight through the crowds and the route through Marks and Spencers is just a bewildering labyrinth.

Town Walls I take your point, but The Seventy Steps is not a public toilet, it is just being used as one !
The Castle Court steps are a mess and the bus station has a permanent cleaner, Joe public is the problem, there is another way through, use the entrance to the reference library, that comes out opposite the bus station too ! :D

Quite, exactly my point HH.

As far as public toilets are concerned what is wrong with the one's in the Darwin shopping centre?

If PS wants us to return to the Mediaeval days then I don't think the unsavoury activities mentioned here would have even taken place in private! :blink:
The streets would have been running with all sorts of ghastly excrement.

You're very right, I am just being lazy.

Down where? I'm not with you?

Seventy Steps..?

The point I was trying to make was that I had not read anything in the press prior to the seventy steps incident. As for gays and straight people going there they are clearly breaking the law by commiting alleged lewd acts in public and again hedgecutter types about a 'compilation' then I am suprised at the lack of prosecutions here. This clearly though suggests that the area should be policed more often as it seems to have become a no-go area certainly for the Police it would seem

You must be aware that there is a campaign to get The Seventy Steps closed, either as a permanent measure (highly unlikely) or at certain times of the day or night.
Council officials, the police, Council, Town Center Residents Association and The Darwin Shopping Centre are all involved here, as are members of the public and other concerned bodies. They are up against the Civic Society who I feel sure have never used this thoroughfare and are determined to keep it open at all costs.
And it is Hedgehunter, not Hedgecutter !!! :angry:

hmm.....sorry about the slip of the finger hedgehunter you werent AvronB in a previous life were you? I obviously am curious of what a hedgehunter is? I live in the country and havent seen one yet :lol:

Hedgehunter is a play on words, think railway employees and you will find your answer. :)

I think all SABC councillors should be invited there to see for themselves what a state they are.




When the very last one of them has entered, lock the doors both ends, permanently!
:lol:

Seventy Steps is a public right of way as of 18th December. It's going to be difficult to close it now! :P

Not even with all the SABC councillors inside? SHAME! :lol:

Was'nt Hedgehunter a horse that won the Grand National?