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ARCHITECTURE PEDESTRIANS URGED TO ‘LOOK UP’ AND APPRECIATE THE ‘NEGLECTED’ PERIOD GEMS OF STRAND STREET Words: Les Able
A scathing indictment of neglected period architecture in the heart of Douglas has come from a leading estate agent who is urging shoppers in Strand Street to ‘look up’ and discover some of the neglected period gems above many shops and offices. “There seems little interest in preserving the facades above so many of the buildings in the town’s main streets and shoppers seem oblivious to what they are missing unless they take a few minutes to just ‘look up’,” says Mark Canty, director at Cowley Groves in Douglas. “The upper parts above buildings which date from the Victorian era and occasionally earlier, and also from the art deco period of the 1920’s, are all too often not in use or have windows blacked out as store rooms,” says Mark, whose interest stems from living in conservation areas of south east London where he worked as an estate agent before moving to the Isle of Man. “Here such buildings, many unique, are just neglected and there seems little interest in preserving them and while the shops might have attractive facades what is above is often just downright tatty,” he adds. “A facelift and revamping could do so much to improve the whole image of the town centre.” He goes on: “There is scope to create residential dwellings above the shops which would inject more life into Strand Street and
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the surrounding area beyond just 9.0am to 5.0pm. Take a look at Parliament Street in Ramsey, a number of the buildings above the shops are residential.” Mark, whose own house in Onchan was built in 1927 and is borderline art deco, urges people to take just a few minutes when walking along Strand Street and check the imposing architecture of some of the buildings above shop level. “It’s easy to go charging through town and be so busy about your business you forget to appreciate what is around you, Douglas town centre has a huge amount of heritage as long as you remember to ‘look up’.” “It’s imperative these buildings are kept up to scratch, people will be reluctant to invest money when they see that government and local businesses are not investing money themselves in moving forward. There is social history reaching back hundreds of years that we should celebrate as we spend time in what is our main high street by looking at the buildings above the modern shop fronts.”
ISLE OF MAN PREMIER MAGAZINE