City of Culture: Could Wrexham become new UK cultural hub?

Wrexham

"We rise together," reads a slogan over some of Wrexham's shopping streets

By Nick Bourne & Haf Edwards
BBC News

Traders and residents have their fingers crossed that Wrexham can secure the UK's City of Culture 2025 title as it could lead to a major investment.

There has been a mixed response about what its new city status means as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

But people told BBC Wales the culture crown finalist needed to fill empty shop units if it was to lift prospects.

It has generated more than £170m for Coventry since it took the title in 2021. Could Wrexham be next?

Wrexham FC has been creating one of the biggest dramas locally since Hollywood owners, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, bought it in 2021, leading to new money, improved performances and more fans.

The team lost a nine-goal thriller on Saturday, stalling hopes of a fairy-tale ending with a return to the Football League after 14 years.

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Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds took control of Wrexham FC in February 2021

Away from the pitch, the City of Culture title "would be a massive thing" for wider Wrexham, according to local tour guide Phil Phillips.

"We know that it brings in a huge amount of money, not just for Wrexham but for the region," he said.

Radio production student Alice Mitchell said despite a big student population from nearby Glyndwr University, the "town" had become quieter over the last three years so she hoped its cultural aspirations "may bring more people here".

"There is definitely a bigger buzz about the football stadium," she said.

Having their say.... Alice Mitchell, Phil Phillips, Kerry Evans and John Griffin

Wrexham's retail and leisure offering has long been in competition with neighbours Chester and Shrewsbury for visitors.

More recently, it has also been competing against fellow City of Culture finalists Bradford, County Durham and Southampton, with the winner set to be announced soon.

Wrexham born and bred John Griffin, 88, said its shopping streets have seen better days.

"I don't use the town very often," he said. "It is a bit down, with a lot shops closing."

One of Wrexham's main shopping streets, busy with people

He watched his first Wrexham match in 1944, aged 10.

And he said he hoped the team would make it back into the Football League, prompting more regular crowds of 9,000-plus as seen this season.

But that is still a far cry the day he and more than 34,000 other supporters cheered from the Racecourse stadium when Wrexham hosted Manchester United's Busby Babes in a FA Cup 4th round clash in 1957.

"It was a great day," he recalled, despite Wrexham's 0-5 thumping.

Wrexham FC was founded in 1864, making it one of the oldest in the world, but it is not just the so-called beautiful game that has drawn people to the area.

Muhammed Anwar (left): "This is where I made my bread and butter"

Muhammed Anwar, who has been a market trader in Wrexham for 53 years, decided to settle here because it was "nice and beautiful".

"I always say 'I've got two mothers; one who gave birth to me, that's India, and the one who feeds me is Wales'," he said.

"This is where I made my bread and butter. This is where my children grew up."

Kerry Evans, disability liaison officer at Wrexham FC, said: "We've got a lot to be looking forward to in Wrexham.

"City of Culture is very, very exciting.

"I think it will be amazing for the town, now city, of Wrexham."

At Wrexham Bus Station, college student Tigan said the City of Culture tag "could lift the area" if it led to more investment, but she had more pressing concerns.

"Town is OK but there is an increasing amount of drug addicts," she said.

"Some come up to me and ask if I have any."

As well as its football stadium, Wrexham has other attractions such as Thomas Telford's towering Pontycysyllte Aqueduct, a world heritage site, with officials looking at ways to attract more visitors.

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Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries Llangollen Canal across the River Dee

Wrexham's Carlsberg-Tetley brewery site has become a retail park but the old office remains

And the newly crowned city centre has seen a number of infrastructure investments and redevelopments, with hopes for more, including a national football museum.

The sprawling Carlsberg-Tetley brewery site - a major landmark in Wrexham - was shut in 2000 and later flattened, as part of a new wave of edge-of-town retail developments including Island Green and Eagles Meadow.

They were all watched over by the former high rise police station which was itself demolished in 2020, making way for another supermarket a stone's throw from two others.

Eagles Meadow opened only a five or 10 minute walk from Wrexham's pedestrianised shopping streets in 2008.

M&S relocated into one of the new retail units next to restaurants and a cinema complex.

Wrexham's Debenhams store has since closed at Eagles Meadow

Signage on closed shops promote the City of Culture bid

Debenhams became a key unit until its demise a decade later. The premises are still to be repurposed in 2022.

And stores like Topshop and Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burton, Starbucks and bakers Greggs also started to pull out of Eagles Meadow from 2018.

Walking around Wrexham, visitors can spot empty retail units covered in promotion for City of Culture, with slogans such as "We rise together".

Beauty store assistant Vicki Murt has seen the move to online shopping and said she was concerned Wrexham could still be on a "slippery slope" due to the empty units and a drop in customers.

"I'm not feeling much hope at the moment," she said.

Mixed opinions... Barry Williams, Kyle Willis, Morgan Thomas and Vicki Murt

Wrexham's historic indoor markets have also felt the pinch, which prompted a multimillion pound rethink.

The former People's Market became Ty Pawb - Welsh for "Everybody's House" - with arts, food and entertainment, as well as shops and market stalls.

Shop assistant and Wrexham FC supporter Kyle Willis said there was a good community spirit in Ty Pawb but the wider town centre "needs something like the football club - it needs money".

Stallholder Imtiaz Hussain, who sells confectionary, said Saturday was usually "heaving" in Ty Pawb with live music drawing in customers, but other days could still be quiet.

Morgan Thomas, events co-ordinator at Ty Pawb, said it was a pivotal part of Wrexham council's "wider agenda to bring arts and culture to Wrexham, to regenerate the town centre, create jobs, attract tourism".

Referring to the City of Culture bid, he said: "There's a lot riding on it, potentially £200m of investment coming into the region."

Ty Pawb opened as a shopping and cultural centre in 2018

Ty Pawb has itself become a finalist in Art Fund Museum of the Year 2022 with the prospect of a £100,000 prize, set to be announced in July.

Wrexham council chief executive Ian Bancroft said the nomination came at a "hugely exciting time for Wrexham".

Art student Bunny, who has been living in temporary housing for many months, said she was concerned some were "focusing on expansion".

"They want more people coming in but they need to help the people who are here," she said, while on a lunch break at Ty Pawb.

Beauty products shop owner Barry Williams remained unconvinced by the new shopping and culture model in Ty Pawb or whether the new city status tag would lead to the return of big name stores.

Wrexham's new city status has not been welcomed by all

He said attracting more independent businesses on to the high street could lure visitors away from places like Shrewsbury.

"The town is dying. We have been here for 40 years. This is not the Wrexham we started with," he said.

"Wrexham people are nice people - they are desperate for more.

"I know the council doesn't have a magic wand but they are the only ones that can encourage anything to happen," he said.

Plans for a football museum of Wales have been sitting on Jonathon Gammond's desk at Wrexham Museum as they await final approval.

He has also been preparing for a new exhibition with art and design students and British Library staff, based on the first map of the Wrexham area which was created in 1577.

"We were inspired with Wrexham being put on the map," he said.

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Wrexham Museum could become home to a new national football museum if plans are agreed

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