Late night shopping and street food bid for Crouch Street and Eld Lane

The South Lanes Project, inspired by Camden Market, Shoreditch, and Brighton’s North Lanes, has been set up to support businesses in Colchester.

The vision, which is being spearheaded by business consultant Neil Gibb, is to transform the south side of Colchester into a thriving, vibrant area.

It will cover streets running from the east end of Crouch Street to the west end of Eld Lane.

The project, which is organised by businesses in the area, hopes to create events and festivals as well as street food and stalls.

As a first step, the group is looking to experiment with a late night opening on Wednesday, May 22 in Sir Isaacs Walk and the bottom end of Trinity Street.

This will coincide with a Shakespeare event at Tymperley’s tea rooms. Mr Gibb said: “We are seeing across the country a major change in the middle of city centres, a lot of the focus is on retailers closing down.

“All you have to do is look at streets which have empty properties and that is contagious.

“What we are interested in is rethinking what shops are about and making them more than just a place to buy things.

“There are so many interesting people here and we want to focus on a joint identity.”

• Neil Gibb

The first experiment on May 22 will see the lanes lit up with shops open in Trinity Street.

Businesses are being encouraged to stay open until 7pm.

Mr Gibb has been talking with businesses for about six months to gauge the level of interest.

A similar Shops on the Walls scheme, earmarked for streets such as Sir Isaac’s Walk and Eld Lane, stalled after being being mooted in 2010 due to lack of investment.

In March, Nick Chilvers, a former retail manager, called on Colchester Council to bring the issue back to the table.

The plans are being discussed at Cabinet meetings.

The Shops on the Walls project, which is separate to the South Lanes Project, will be led by Our Colchester - which is in charge of the town’s Business Improvement District schemes.