GONE ARE THE DAYS when Speightstown was a bustling trading city by day and a lively party spot by night, even a popular place for young people to hang out and tourists to visit.
It is now labelled “a ghost town” by some of the residents and businesspeople in the area. Furthermore, many of those who ply their trade in that northern sleepy town said they believed they were being neglected as most of the attention was being placed on Bridgetown.
Retail activity was now sluggish and they feared some stores may soon close down if the situation was not corrected soon, some said.
Some of the business operators blamed the area’s current state on the lack of development over the years, the absence of Transport Board buses passing through, and deficient marketing.
Since the construction of Highway 1 along that area, the Transport Board buses no longer travelled along Queen’s Street – the heart of Speightstown.
They also maintained that the town could become a major tourist spot, should the government pay more attention to that area.
The St Peter location is home to a wide range of small, medium and large establishments, including food, clothing and pet stores, hair salons, appliance and furniture stores, banks, supermarkets among others.
BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY spoke to a number of store operators in the area to gauge how they have fared over the past few years. Most of them expressed a desire for more to be done in the area, noting that things seemed to be getting worse and, based on observation, not much seems to take place in that town during working hours.
Valerie Edwards has been operating her Val’s Hideaway Bar for the past 16 years. She said business had gotten so bad over the past few years that her sales now depend on people who know she has a business.
“Business used to be better but from the time they opened the Highway, things became very slow in Speightstown. After 5 o’clock in the evening, it is a ghost town,” said the proprietor of the small roadside bar and shop, and some evenings she would shut shop as early as 6 p.m.
She said not only had business slowed considerably over the years but there was much less human and vehicular traffic through the once vibrant city. She suggested Speightstown be considered a port of entry where at least two cruise ships could go and dock because “that would assist the businesses 100 per cent here in Speightstown. I am sure there are other agencies that would agree with me,” she said.
As a tour bus whizzed by, Edwards added: “The tour-bus drivers don’t stop at little places like mine. They look for the big enterprises – which should not be [so].
“If you have six or seven small shops in the area and the tour buses are coming along this way, they should at least stop and point them out so that the tourists would decide if they want to go in or not,”
Some business operators in The Town Square Mall, one of the more popular shopping areas there, shared similar concerns.
Linda Hinds, manager of AmeriBag (Barbados) Limited, said the north of the island as a whole had always been “underestimated” and it was about time a little more effort be put into developing the town and making it a major commerce and entertainment spot.
“Everywhere else is overdone already, [including] Warrens and Holetown. We just need the jetty fixed. It is criminal that it is like that for years.
“The area is not being promoted enough. It could be the new trendy place to come and have a specialty coffee. It really needs to be put across that way.
It is also a great place to walk through,” argued Hinds.
“Unfortunately, things are hard for a lot of businesses and a few of them are closing down.”
She suggested that “Speightstown has the potential to be a nice arts and crafts place.
“We definitely need a little more stimulation . . . especially for tourism. Tourists don’t only want to go to Bridgetown.
“Speightstown can be a major little place for tourism if the Government just put a little effort into it”.
Carolyn Wickham operates from the Up Beat store in the mall. She said, “The place has become more of a sleeping Speightstown, actually. Thank God Jordan’s supermarket is still there.”
She said most people who frequented the area owned a vehicle. Wickham argued that people who travelled on buses would not bother to venture through the town even after getting off at the bus terminal a few yards north of the heart of Speightstown.
“We need more attraction down here for tourists, actually. Having two cruise ships coming down by the Port St Charles marina, maybe we would see a slight increase in tourists.
“But in terms of locals coming, Speightstown need something more done to it to attract them,” she lamented.
Another operator in the mall, Annie Allie, said she believed the old town needed to be advertised more “because a lot of people don’t know Speightstown”.
Tropicana Laundries worker Jamilla Brown said while there has been noticeably less traffic along the Queen’s Street main road, business had been the same for them over the years.
Pharmacy to close A number of businesses have closed their doors over the years, one of the most recent being a branch of Dacosta Mannings, and the Knights Pharmacy branch is expected to close at the end of this month.
Cecilia Elibox-Waithe, store manager of the Speightstown Courts branch, said she was concerned more businesses could leave the area if something was not done urgently to welcome more trade and leisure activities in the area.
“I am in the process of trying to get a petition in the sense that I am trying to set up a meeting with the Transport Board. I just need to go to a few more businesses but the majority of them told me they would feel good if the bus would pass through again.
“I at least want a one-way where it could come and generate some more traffic in the area. The majority of businesses are on board.
“But it is in the planning stage right now. I figure the absence of the bus contributes to its being so dead,” she explained.
Dan, a resident in the area, said, “I don’t know what happen now but it is a destruction because everything gone dead. Speightstown isn’t what Speightstown used to be. It wants livening up now.
“I grow up in Speightstown when it was the Speightstown, but years passed by and I don’t know what really happened. We would usually find tourists all around here but not now, he added.
“We really want to see more activities and see the tourists coming out like before. After five o’clock it is a ghost town – you would wonder if anybody is living in this town.”
Speightstown was also known for being a popular trading spot for hawkers, especially on weekends, but as the years went by, fewer and fewer traded in the area.
A few fruit and vegetable vendors still dotted the pavement.
Fruit vendor Andrew “Stefano” Griffith expressed concern about a number of run-down buildings.
“A lot of people now prefer to just catch the bus from further north and go straight in town,” he said with a sigh.
“The buildings are only harbouring mosquitoes and rats, and paros sleeping in them. Pieces dropping off that one and nearly hit me in my head before,” he said.
Further along the road, fish vendors Merlene Skeete and Christine Baptiste sat on the pavement of the Speightstown Fish Market.
Skeete said she has been plying her trade in the town for the past 30 years but in recent times sales have become “very slow, especially when Dacosta Mannings closed”.
With a look of despair, she said, “Everything seems shut off around here. A little fish does take the whole day to sell.”
When contacted, Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry president Andy Armstrong said while he had no immediate plans for Speightstown, he was willing to work with businesspeople in that town to stimulate more economic and leisure activities.
