For years the vision for Southampton has always been to
bring a little Mediterranean magic to the south coast by mirroring the
re-invention of Barcelona.
With more than a
little imagination the QE2 mile could become our very own Las Ramblas – the
iconic boulevard peppered with performance art and quirky happenings leading to
a glittering waterfront with bohemian bars and al fresco dining.
We could only hope city planners would have the foresight to
give the go-ahead to a home grown Gaudi to produce an iconic, crazy building or
two to really put the place on the world map.
With Barcelona rapidly becoming a distant memory, Capita’s
Property Director Richard McCarthy had another city vision for Southampton to
aspire to.
At our recent Breakfast Briefing where the council’s CEO
Dawn Baxendale and political leader Councillor Simon Letts spoke with unbridled
passion about the city, Richard (who studied in Southampton in the 70s and was
a top civil servant helping to introduce Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs)
before joining Capita) proposed aspiring to become the next San Francisco.
He made a plea for Southampton to embrace a few more
buildings with scale and to be more daring with density. He had recently
returned from the Californian city and while he admitted it had its fair share
of social problems, he was impressed by a visit to the highest building in San
Francisco.
(Having spent a few days in San Francisco myself, I can concur
with the point he raised about social issues. It is the only place I have
visited where the concierge in our hotel presented us with a map showing no-go
areas where we shouldn’t stray).
Having thought about it, there are parallels between
Southampton and San Francisco. There is the potential for Southampton to have a
wonderful waterfront along the lines of Fisherman’s Wharf (but without the sea
lions).
And it would only require a few coats of red paint to
transform the Itchen Bridge ...
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