Tell me about a wonderful day in St Ives

E: The Boat festival – everyone was down by the river – 7 deep.  All the shops were busy my husband and his friend played music in the town, we had friends down.  We were on a boat, the atmosphere was great despite all the mud, you couldn’t buy a pair of wellies anywhere.  All the boats were lit up at night – we went to watch music, went to the pub, listened to Jazz in the garden of the Robin Hood.  The atmosphere was electric.  We had a barbecue on a friends boat.  We had to get up at 4am to pack to go on holiday but everyone was talking to everyone else and no one wanted to pack up and go home.

L: The Dickensian market when the whole town is buzzing.  This was a couple of years ago when the weather was ok and lots of people were out – there were so many involved.  The stalls were really good, everyone was dressed up, there was loads of gluhwein!  I can remember the smell of roasting chestnuts.

A:  I really like that the town is so quiet – that you can nip in – its easy to access by bike and usually ok to find somewhere to put my bike

H:  I am always impressed by how many groups attend the memorial service and how well attended it is by the town.

E:  I went with visitors to the farmers market to get a nice steak.  L: I like that you can walk round a few times before deciding what to buy.

J: I like how knowledgable they are about their own produce, they have time to stop and talk.  The first time I bought Cavolo Nero was on the farmers market and I found out the chap supplies The River Café.

E: I went to the bank to get cash out to pay for my steaks and couldn’t use my normal bank, I had to hunt around to find a working cash point and in all the time it took the Butcher was still stood chatting to my visitors, they found out a lot about the town that way.  I like that I can take my time.

R: A key part of enjoying the town is enjoying the markets.  My intention is always to shop locally although I often end up in the supermarket (Waitrose/Tesco).  My partner does the bulk shop.   I notice the influx of chain shops eg Costa and feel a bit sad about that.  When we have visitors we always walk the thicket, go to pubs and walk by the river.

Future visions for the Town

The sun is shining and there are more shoppers out and about, there is a wide variety of local shops, outdoor cafes, restaurants.  Planning laws have restricted what is allowable for shop signage and we are more able to enjoy our architecture.  There would be music on The Waits.  The centre of the town in protected and all new buildings and architecture blends in well.

The Corn Exchange has been beautifully renovated and opened to a diverse range of groups.  It’s the hub of the town.  The Broadway has been incorporated into the town centre more – pedestrians are more encouraged to go that way, parking is easy and enables me to do bigger shops locally.  Much of what an ideal St Ives would look like would mean going back to how it was in the ‘80s with the old shops (Grocers, cheese shop, interior design shop, toy shop) and it would have a much different less corporate image than say Huntingdon.  There is a bit of a café culture; the Tap Room for example caters really well at different times of the day to different groups; Moms & Babies in the morning, business lunches, afternoon teas, evening functions.  There would be fewer take-aways and those that are there would be made to tidy up after themselves.  There would be more boat hire easily available at the quay, not too expensive but a good thing to do with visitors.  We could make more of the river to bring people in .  A café spreading out from the river where you could sit outside would be nice.

There would be more short stay parking to make it easier to nip out for a paper and a pint of milk, parking generally is adequate but needs to be carefully monitored to ensure it is not abused.