Interview with Allen Duff (part 2)
In part 2, there is further discussion about food retailers and the Food Centre. Allen considers the latter to have been a mistake; by taking all the specialist food retailers out of the main building, he recalls that demand reduced and many of them failed. He believed that specialist retailers could survive in the main centre, if they had sufficient turnover. They discuss potential issues for CMK in the future: a new John Lewis in Oxford, the effect of parking charges and the quality and mix of shops. In Allen’s opinion, the centre will continue to be successful, but is not unique any more. He laments the removal of the indoor market and the fact that he was unable to attract more upmarket retailers; he also mentions the initial lack of cafés and restaurants, and his view that doors should not have been put on the building.
In the 1980s, Allen talks of the ‘huge pressure on the commercial department to get out and create jobs, and to seek private finance to enable office building’. He describes some aspects of his role as Commerce Director, saying: ‘we promoted employment like there was no tomorrow and did it work? By God, did it work’. Nowadays, car park charging is causing some firms to move out of the City centre to Knowlhill, for example. Allen comments: ‘the car parking charge issue is potentially very dangerous until we get a really decent public transport system’. Finally, he discusses leisure facilities and changes in public demand. Asked what he is most proud of in CMK, Allen says: ‘I don’t feel any particular pride apart from the pride of being involved. It was an unbelievable privilege to … work with the likes of Lord Campbell, Fred Roche and Stuart Mosscrop’.
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