There is a great group on Facebook with lots of images of Ilfracombe used to be. It’s well worth visiting. It has a lot of peoples memories on it too. It would be great to bring some of Ilfracombe’s heydays back. I fear the councils plan to build lots of new homes is not the way to do it and may ruin the town in the long run, especially the plans for the bus garage.

Check this out:
ILFRACOMBE HISTORY FORUM FACEBOOK PAGE

Star Trek actor William Shatner has apologised to a Devon town for saying it was “laced with prostitution” on Have I got News For You. 

Mr Crabb, 49, emailed Shatner’s agents: “As Captain James T Kirk, Mr Shatner has been to places where no man has gone before, however, the episode of Have I Got News For You clearly shows he has never been to Ilfracombe.”

It’s a good bit of publicity and a godo call from Paul Crabb. Certainly better than the logo fiasco that had a local councillor saying that teenage pregnancy was a good thing!

I grew up in Ilfracombe. The cast of Coronation Street stayed at the Carlton Hotel that I lived in during the 1970′s (my parents ran it for a while), as did Titanic Tom, a survivor of the famous ship that came year after year, Lady Diana came, the Olympic torch came, arsonists came and burnt down a lot of hotels that didn’t have planning permission to be knocked down, the Pavillion went, the Cliffe Hydro went, The Mount went, the Collingwood went, the Candar went, the Ilfracombe Hotel went among others…but it still has charm even though the high street is a mess and the council seem obsessed with painting it in corporate blue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-18519123

Take care Ilfracombe. We will see you soon.

Some 200 stores a day have shut since January and there could be 135,000 boarded up by the end of the year.

Yet while the death of Woolworths, Zavvi and other chains have grabbed the headlines, they mask a bloodbath that has gone largely unnoticed.

Small shops, the lifeblood of town centres, have been driven to the wall at an alarming rate.

Just over one in 10 of the country’s 900,000 shops is now standing empty.

Rows of empty stores do more than give a downtrodden image. They also risk attracting crime and antisocial behaviour, which is why it is vital action is taken.

The Mirror has a 10 point plan:
1 Monthly rents instead of quarterly to ease bills

2 Abolish upward-only rent reviews

3 Reduce business rates in line with falling RPI

4 Scrap plans for business rate supplement

5 Cut red tape on rate relief for small firms

6 5% VAT rates for small businesses

7 Force banks to lend to small firms again

8 Persuade insurers to reinstate credit insurance

9 Scrap high street parking charges at weekends

10 Urge landlords to let empty shops at low rents

We can’t argue against any of these. We think point 9 is a good one for the weekends, or at least make the parking charges a lot less in Ilfracombe, especially at the end of the tourist season.

But we think there should be an 11th point:

Think of high streets a whole rather than just a collection of shops. Have a strategy for the types of shops they want, try to create a niche, especially in touristy locations like Ilfracombe, try to make them more inviting places to be and encourage good design and the retention and restoration of original shop fronts with quality signage.

Thisis the link to the original article.:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/03/26/save-our-high-streets-we-have-to-stop-the-rot-in-town-centres-115875-21228567/

The way it was

“Perhaps we need to look at our High Street, and accept that we don’t need anyone else to sell baked beans, but what can we ‘niche market’? Years ago, South Molton became a regional ‘centre of excellence’ for antiques. Land locked Braunton is the surfwear capital of North Devon. Any ideas?”

We totally agree.

Many high streets are similar to Ilfracombe. Essentially they have a lot of empty shops, they probably look a bit shabby and unloved, lots of charity and pound shops, a few convenience stores and a sprinkle of clothes shops and a heavy dose of chicken/fast food outlets and dotted all over town will be a baffling amount of hairdressers and barbers.

These high streets support locals who don’t go to the out of town Tesco/Sainsbury’s/Asda/Morrisons or local market town (in this case Barnstaple).

As Ilfracombe swells in size during the summer months due to tourists, it seems a little daft that the high street doesn’t capitalize on this fact.

Ilfracombe has, potentially, one of the prettiest high streets anywhere. A majority of the shops have original shop fronts (which thank goodness have a conservation order now). It has so much potential. As I wrote in an earlier post “Ilfracombe was beautiful”.

It just needs a focus. As Paul rightly said, different areas have a focus and become a mecca for certain types of shopper. London is a case in point. For books you go to Charring cross road, for electrical items yo go to Tottenham Court Road, for furniture you go near Googe Street, for clothes you go to Oxford street, for cutting edge fashion you go to Neals yard, for trendy bars you go to Shoreditch, for Curry you go to Brick Lane.

These places become destinations for these types of businesses and they sustain loads of them, all competing for the same customer. As there are so many of then next to one another the draw in the shoppers that want what they sell. The number of similar businesses gives the consumer choice and consumers LOVE choice.

Don’t believe me? Go into a supermarket. Any fair size one will do. How many different versions of similar items can you buy? How many different types of Houmous can you choose from? Pizza? How many different brands are there of the same type of bacon? Margarine?

It would be a good idea to have survey this summer in the high street, down the front and other areas around Ilfracombe. Get people out with clipboards, engage the shop owners to take part and ask tourists what shops they like to look at, what shops can they remember from their travels, what was the most extravagant thing they bought on holiday (anywhere not just in the UK), on holiday do they buy antiques, souveneers, gifts? Do they like crafts, art and if so what type? Did they buy anything today from Ilfracombe? Keep the questions focused, try to get answers rather than just opinions (asking someones opinion often means they have to think of a response even if they don’t have an opinion on it. This can be misleading. I see it happen a lot in market research).

This survey could help shape the future of the types of businesses Ilfracombe needs to attract. Of course this doesn’t mean the end of ‘normal shops’ for the locals. Turtons Butchers is a great local asset as are many other essential local businesses.

A great example of where I can see Ilfracombe in the future is in Whitstable in Kent. It’s a seaside town, it has an oyster festival on it’s harbour which brings lots of visitors to give it focus (this is something Ilfracombe desperately needs, along with a great market….why they don’t do this in the old bus garage is beyond me) and it’s high street is beautiful, full of interesting, exciting shops.

This is a link to some of the makeover visuals we did on the high street.
What do you think?

You have to log in. Got to;

www.theilfracombecentre.co.uk

It looks like this:

MAKE YOUR OPINION HEARD

Probably see you there.

W.I.I.

The new logo for Ilfracombe. Do you think it looks like a sperm?

Here is the reason behind it:
New brand says “Take another look at Ilfracombe and be surprised”
Representing Ilfracombe’s business community, Ron Ley, Director of Charterwell Homes said, “It is important that Ilfracombe looks at how it currently positions itself in the market and where it would like to position itself. Ilfracombe has not always been consistently presented as the quality destination it is and it is this lack of consistency and targeting of the lower-spend market that we aim to redress.”

A considerable amount of background work and collective thinking informed the process and development of the brand. Consultants Fresh Bread Marketing had a brainstorming session
in the summer with representatives from Ilfracombe’s tourism, retail and business
communities as well as Ilfracombe Town Council and North Devon Council. They were given the difficult task of encapsulating Ilfracombe’s fascinating and appealing attributes into one logo, strapline and brand that reflects and reinforces the distinctive essence of Ilfracombe.

Fresh Bread’s Tessa Martin said, “Ilfracombe is a fresh, intriguing place to visit with an
impressive landscape. It is steeped in and continues to offer a maritime experience and has a strong cultural theme with a fascinating Victorian heritage.” She continued, “The new
Ilfracombe logo, with its idiosyncratic ‘swirl’ above the ‘i’ indicates intrigue, mystery and
drama expressed with a spot of humour and fun too. It also reflects the twists and turns of
the landscape and can conjure up thoughts of the seaside, sea, an ice-cream, the harbour and fish.”

The logo incorporates the strapline “Curious Coastal Charm” – three words that evoke some of Ilfracombe’s best characteristics. Curious reflects the intriguing, edgy elements including
its arts and events; coastal communicates harbour, paths and dining and sports
opportunities; charm evokes Ilfracombe’s community spirit and individual appeal, fun for kids, couples and families.

Further devices to enhance the brand are included in the brand identity manual as well as a new image library that includes photographs specially commissioned and some submitted in Ilfracombe Town Council’s photograph competition. They have been selected to show fresh
angles and different perspectives compelling viewers to take a second look whilst always presenting Ilfracombe as a high quality contemporary seaside destination.

Access to the logos and images is through http://www.theilfracombecentre.co.uk under the
heading ‘About Ilfracombe’. The Brand Identity Manual explains how to get the most effective expression of the Ilfracombe brand and is free to use but the strict guidelines must be followed to ensure consistency, quality and continued brand recognition.

Brand guidelines should be found here:

http://www.theilfracombecentre.co.uk/media/logos/Ilfracombe-Brand-Identity-Guidelines.pdf

AMENDED: It appears as if the £40,000 wasn’t for the logo (originally read in the south devon version of the journal website) it was £5000 including the photographs. That sounds a lot more like it.

Unfortunately it appears as if it was miss-quoted from Cllr Philip Webb: http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Ilfracombe-ferries-new-identity/article-1529371-detail/article.html

However the logo is still poor and a huge missed opportunity for Ilfracombe. The main problem we have with it is that there is actually a really good idea in there which has been missed. The strapline ‘Curious Costal Charm’ is nice. Really nice actually, mostly because at last someone has said something marketable about Ilfracombe that is actually true. The problem is that the logo doesn’t seem to relate to this in any way. I’d have been really honest about the town in a marmite/VW sort of way. Shabby around the edges, faded glories, but a real heart and beautiful if look hard enough.

As stated on various blogs, we think the logo looks a lot like a sperm on the i (or is it just us?). In a town with a high rate of teenage pregnancy were not so sure it was that wise.

For proof, look at these amazing images from the Frith Collection:

Sadly missed...

http://www.francisfrith.com/ilfracombe/

You can add (and read) people memories of the town too. The church where we had our wedding blessing is there, the hotel where I partly grew up (the Carlton). It looks really stunning in Black and white and It’s incredible how big the crowds are.

Lots of pictures of the pavilion. Non of it when it had the concrete wings. None of the high street.

I wonder what pictures will be on sites like this in the future?

http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/thesmuggler/Lee-come-vision-sore-eyes/article-1451859-detail/article.html

Thanks for the almost overwhelming feedback Smuggler, whoever you are. We would agree with you that the Green House would make a great wine bar. We do have idea for the Landmark, bus station and if you send pictures may be able to produce a ‘what if’ for those and the empty hotel site.

A boarded up empty pup in sydenham had a makeover recently on it’s boarded up hoardings. The pub is the Greyhound, so they painted ‘grey hounds’ in grey silhouettes over it (in the style of those old dog playing poker portraits you used to get in pubs). A simple solution that made a difference.

Were a fan of the smugglers articles, while we may not always agree with what he says, it’s good that someone has the balls to say it. And it needs someone to say the brutal truth sometimes. Best of all it raises debate.

The difficult bit is turning debate into solutions and actions.

There has been debate about making this into an exhibition. We have had designers in Devon contact us about helping out. I’m totally in favour of an exhibition, especially if they use an empty shop to do it in.

We have received a few images from people in Ilfracombe asking for makeovers. Many thanks for your images, keep sending them! We can’t do them all, but we will endevour to publish some more in the coming weeks.

Thanks

W.I.I.

Have a look for yourself:

http://www.thisisnorthdevon.co.uk/news/Designer-s-new-look-Ilfracombe-revealed/article-1439980-detail/article.html

W.I.I. wrote to all the Ilfracombe councilors last week to point them towards this project including Cllr Edmunds. As yet we are still waiting for them to respond. Perhaps they are all very busy!

Love it or Loathe it?

In Particular the Landmark and the bus station from as many different angles as possible. We think the bus station is an opportunity that should give focus to the harbour and be something for people to do rather than more housing. Cafés, a piazza, an artificial beach with supervision for young kids so mum and dad can enjoy a bite to eat, an outdoor theatre or street performers. Or perhaps a market. But not housing. Not there in such a prime location. It’s crazy!

Many thanks

Lee & Ariana

Send your pictures to this email address:

hi@designedbygoodpeople.com