Durham City Vision

Theme 1: Value & Importance of City Centre

The City centre is Durham’s most valuable single asset because it is the only part of the City and the sub-region that is known to and accessible to all its residents and visitors. It is the only common thread in all their lives.

We already know that a strong image of the City centre is held dear by people throughout the City, and in the villages and small towns across the county; there is huge pride in the City.

That everyone holds and shares this image makes the City centre precious, and the limited land and property within its confines are the City’s most valuable asset. The Peninsula is the most accessible point in the City and therefore has the greatest demands placed on it, yet its resources – land, building accommodation, traffic capacity, etc - are finite so must be used intensively.

The City centre has an intense concentration of Listed Buildings and most of it is within a Conservation Area. Together with the World Heritage Site these protect the City’s rich heritage. It is critical that this Durham City Vision finds positive roles for all the land and buildings not currently in beneficial, intensive use.

“It is by their centres that cities are recognised, judged and remembered. Most visitors to a City see nothing but the central area and one approach to it, and the only knowledge of a City that is shared by all who live in it is their knowledge of its centre. In the minds of residents and visitors alike, it is the image of the City’s centre that is called up by the mention of its name: for all, in a real sense, the centre is the City.” Greater Peterborough Plan, 1971

There can be no excuse if any part of the City centre does not have a clearly defined and articulated, positive role to play in the life of the City as a whole. The parts must be well connected and integrated and able to “inter-link” in the most effective manner to reinforce the social and economic life of the City. This inter-trading is its lifeblood. This richness creates the special character of the City centre but it has been neglected in recent decades. Now it has been rediscovered, it must be reinforced as part of an urban renaissance.

At the same time, nothing in any other part of the City should be allowed to challenge the supremacy of the City centre and its richness and scale of facilities, nor should anything be permitted or encouraged elsewhere in the City that prejudices the renaissance of the City centre as set out in the Vision and the objectives, strategies and proposals of this Durham City Vision.

Bearing in mind this importance, this first overarching theme about the importance of the City centre is supported by five other themes that underpin the development of proposals for the City centre of Durham:

• CAPITALISING ON EXISTING ASSETS
• CONFRONTING EYESORES
• TARGETED INVESTMENT IN THE PUBLIC REALM
• MAKING THE MOST OF THE GREEN ENVIRONMENT
• ENHANCING THE CITY CENTRE EXPERIENCE