Let me ask you a question. Suppose you know of a modest bar/cafe in your city, a good place to get a sandwich and coffee and/or beer. Suppose also that it has a scenic situation with a river view, and is also an important stop on a specialist national transport route.
Now imagine that you are a city official in an administration that is always short of funds, and you’re searching to improve the yield (a lovely word for economists, is yield) from a site that offers only a modest rental income and minimal fees from car parking.
You have two choices. You can sell off the whole block of land to a developer, who will demolish everything and construct a block of houses and apartments. In this way you’ll bring in a sizeable chunk of funds at a stroke and also provide an ongoing source of income from housing taxes. But of course, you can only do this once.
Or alternatively, you could choose to invest in the site and turn it into a tourist destination in its own right. You could extend the existing building with its interesting envelope and history, perhaps to double the size, so increasing the popularity of the cafe, which just happens to have an incomparable view of the river to the west. You could create additional facilities, and you could market the resulting centre internationally as a ‘must-stop’ destination for those who prefer this form of transport.
The possibilities even extend to a dedicated hotel, a ‘podhotel’ with all the facilities to cater for this notoriously partisan in-crowd. In this way a little site could create a buzz for the whole locality and even become a centre for this part of national route.
So, what should you do? Enjoy the low-hanging fruit now, but understand that it will never return. Or look at the longer term possibilities and where your society is going? What whould you do?
CycloHub zero – the acorn
Let me introduce you to the CycloHub. A modest cafe/bar and attached repair shop devoted to all things cycling situated on the UK’s National Cycle Route 72 and the banks of the immortal river Tyne.
Officially it is known as the Cycle Hub, but I have to say I prefer my name, so this is the one I’ll use here. The building containing our little cafe is an old one. Situated on Spillers Quay, it is surrounded by a rather unfortunate area of tarmac used for car parking.
I was musing on these possibilities last weekend while at the tail end of a wedding reception in the centre. It was late, the party was dying down, and I was looking out the open French windows onto the view westwards and the city lights on the still water. On this still evening, it was quite a beautiful view, and the more I looked the more I thought that it was quite incomparable – quite the best view to be had over the river and the quayside to the west.
What a pity I thought. Such a magnificent view, soon to be gone and enjoyed only by a few people in private houses, when it could have been part of something much bigger, part of the social regeneration of Newcastle upon Tyne that is already taking place in the immediate neighbourhood of Ouseburn.
The more I thought about it, the more I began to realise that this site could, with a little imagination and the kind of support that has already transformed Ouseburn, become a centre for the mix of working life and leisure that is becoming the way forward for cities across the UK and Europe.
Going Green – and what it means
We know that we have to decarbonise, that we have to find ways to reduce our dependence on cars and fossil fuels. And I have long thought that the future of commuting, of both city and short-distance transport, is the eBike.
The Covid pandemic brought enormous changes to British society, many of which we are still seeing worked out around us. One is the growth of the delivery industry, which for better or worse has encouraged many people to rely much more on home delivery for everything from the new car to the next meal.
Which means that for most residents of big cities, towns and suburbs, the private car is fast becoming more of an indulgence than a necessity. I’m sure that the family car will be with us for a long time yet, but the future is pointing towards alternatives, and I personally believe the eBike is going to play a central role.
For people like me who have nearly always cycled, and for whom cycling to work was once an everyday affair where, for the most part, the worst weather could be avoided and you might arrive at your workplace no more than slightly damp, two wheels have many advantages. Add the power of electric motors to compensate for the ills of advancing age, and you can see how the arrival of the eBike has come just at the right time.
But that is the bread and butter stuff, two wheels as a necessary form of transport. If, however, you take the view of some people more committed to environmental causes, then the eBike is practically a gift from Heaven.
Take that of a good friend of mine residing in Norway. It amazes me to see how he has been able to take his daughter to school every day, all through the ice and snow of a Norwegian winter, on an eBike.
The machine was a rather special one however. A German-made electric bicycle with a long frame designed for carrying children or luggage, and fitted with studded snow tyres. During my visit, the mornings were entertaining as said friend and daughter dressed up in head-to-toe waterproof nylon onesies covering everything including crash helmets, plus waterproof boots and mittens. Never mind the snow and slush – it’s off to school!
And he was not alone – other parents were doing exactly the same. For him and his family, cycling, and now eBiking, is not only their everyday means of transport, but is also a passport to adventures across Europe.
Too many road users
My friend’s generation is a different one to mine, if perhaps only by one remove. I grew up in an era when cycling was a useful means of transport for those who were too young or not wealthy enough to drive. I graduated to motor transport as a matter of course, but still cycled shorter distances when it was more convenient, which, day-to-day, was most of the time.
What has changed since those times is the huge growth in motorised traffic around the world, to the point where we have probably reached peak traffic. The cities where I worked in Britain and in continental Europe have become overwhelmed by sheer vehicle numbers.
There are now simply too many cars on the road for driving to be easy, comfortable or even healthy. Even those people who love their cars, and I had my place in that territory in the past, have to admit that where they live would be better off if there were fewer vehicles.
In such an environment, and in cities especially, two wheels are the obvious answer. And the eBike, with its ability to deal equally well with hills and with ageing knees, is a logical form of progress.
A future that could be
Which brings me back to the CycloHub. Given where society as a whole is going, given that the future is almost inevitably going to involve compromise about our use of the internal combustion engine, then perhaps we should find a way to embrace that future rather than just grudgingly accept it. Make using the bike a joy, with lots of places to stop and socialise, as well as exercising or getting where you need to go.
I look at this site and imagine what could be – a buzzing hub of activity, with city commuters mixing with long-distance riders crossing England. Customers looking at new bikes, because there would of course have to be a new bike dealership. Riders getting their bikes serviced and/or cleaned. And people simply taking a coffee and admiring the view. Much of this would have to take place under cover, perhaps under a pergola lined with climbing plants, because this is Newcastle of course, and the weather rules all.
But then, even in the worst of weather, there are two pubs across the road. And not just any pubs, but arguably two of the best hostelries in Newcastle, the Free Trade Inn and the Tyne Bar, both centres for nightly music and entertainment. All that’s lacking in the locality are a cycle dealer and a cyclists’ hotel.
CycloHub reborn?
The possibilities presented by a rebirth of the CycloHub are part and parcel of the kind of changes that cities all over the world are making now, as climate change places ever more emphasis on the need to decarbonise (if you are still in doubt about this, read my piece about a warming cellar).
These changes will transform much of the way we think about transport, even short-distance commuting, in the future. Perhaps then it is better to make a virtue out of necessity, and find ways to bring some enjoyment in the process. This, to me, is real forward thinking.
In the meantime however, back on that Saturday night, it was very late, the bar was closing and I had to end my musings. Making my way home only a little unsteadily, I wondered what direction my adopted city might choose for this site in the future. To become a constituent part of the future 21st century, or to develop yet more soulless blocks of housing. Perhaps we still have to wait and see.
© Philip Hunt 2023.
More info
The Cycle Hub, Newcastle upon Tyne
Good way of promoting more eco and healthy ways of traveling to work.