Rundown town centres

[talkativesprout]

The leafy Cheshire Village of Dukinfield seems to have avoided wholesale decline......as the rest of the catch up ;)

 

[idahoblues]

Always said a town is dead as soon as the high street is full of shite-looking takeaways and charity shops.

I live in a place called Totton, just outside Southampton and to be honest, from being the fastest growing town in Europe in the late 80's/early 90's, it has turned into a bit of a dump, pubs that are still open are shite and serve rubbish 'name' lagers and crap like Doom Bar.

The huge West Quay development in the centre of Southampton sounded the death knell for smaller places outside the city.
Most of the local areas like Totton, Hythe, Bitterne, Shirley and Bassett have gone to the dogs.

I used to work out of an office in Totton, late 80's. It was a shit hole back then as was Northam and Thornhill

 

[The Silver Surfer]

Bury has done well with the development of the Rock but you can't underestimate the pull of the market. Coach loads of pensioners travel in because of it. The Rock could quite easily have been a white elephant were it not for the existing pull of the 'world famous' market. It might not be to your taste but it is authentic and marks Bury out from the identikit town centres up and down the country. Rochdale and Bolton ruined their markets and both have suffered as a result.

I see your point. Maybe I just don't like the crampness of it and the feeling your're in a rabbit hole. Plus the fish market smells don't help!

It does have some good food stalls i'll give it that, proper roast meat and loads of diversity in choice. But compared to Radcliffe or other markets, yes it beats them hands down.

 

[Chippy_boy]

My point about Bristol is that virtually the entire city needs bulldozing. Most towns have the posh areas, the OK areas and the run-down areas. Bristol has 1 posh area and 39 run-down areas. It's thousands of acres of meh. And yet, bizarrely, when I say I live in Bristol, peoples' eyes light up and they say "ooo, isn't Bristol lovely". It's like some Orwellian big brother/emperor's new clothes thing going on. I feel like saying, "have you BEEN to Hartcliff"??? Chernobyl is nicer.

 

[abu13]

The leafy Cheshire Village of Dukinfield seems to have avoided wholesale decline......as the rest of the catch up ;)

Syria will start to look like Dukinfield if they don't sort their shit out soon :)

 

[Bilboblue]

I used to work out of an office in Totton, late 80's. It was a shit hole back then as was Northam and Thornhill

Totton was nowhere near as bad as Northam, Millbrook, Thornhill, Blackfield, Langley etc.

I was living in Marchwood back then, far nicer.

 

[peoffrey]

Ashton was like the land that time forgot when I was last there. Zombies masquerading as humans drifted from B to A whilst traders had little to offer in terms of quality or value. The Ikea looks handy but that's about it.

You can buy whilst horizontal with just a few clicks. Why do anything else?

 

[idahoblues]

Totton was nowhere near as bad as Northam, Millbrook, Thornhill, Blackfield, Langley etc.

I was living in Marchwood back then, far nicer.

Portsmouth was one of the roughest towns that I can remember

 

[Como Cat]

Ashton was like the land that time forgot when I was last there. Zombies masquerading as humans drifted from B to A whilst traders had little to offer in terms of quality or value. The Ikea looks handy but that's about it.

You can buy whilst horizontal with just a few clicks. Why do anything else?

....because you are supporting a local business, or supporting a business that employs local people. Because that business will probably pay the correct tax to our government. Because your purchase won't be clogging up the streets (even assuming you don't send it back) whilst a 'self-employed' delivery driver attempts to meet his/her targets. Because sometimes its good to get off your arse and get out of the house. Because if no one supports their local shops we'll end up with streets of opticians, chain stores, fried chicken shops and estate agents or rows of shuttered up units like that photo from Bristol.

Admittedly, I would not go to Ashton to do any shopping.

 

[Mikejl]

Hyde struggling to be anything but a dump, I know I shop there every weekend - multiple variables at play. Major & Gummer taking backhanders to allow our of town development in the 90s started the current rot. Excacerbated recently by the Internet option for shopping - obviously, councils on the whole run by either well intentioned but generally incompetent (Lab LD councillors) or bent/corrupt ones (Tories) forgive the generalisations but I'm a subjective twunt.

Back that up with a huge tightening of the purse strings from central government as thanks to dishonest thieving financial institutions & a compliant Lab government & now a gleeful Tory one we 'endure' austerity politics, so tax dodging corporates can continue to move cash around globally rather than pay their share.

Game is up & the high street as a 'go to' for shopping is nearly dead, and irrespective of all of the above this was almost certainly going to happen eventually, best course of action now is to try and develop as much as possible as affordable housing stock.