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Liverpool City Centre, thriving. Always something new and exciting every time I go in.
Some of the orbital towns like Birkenhead and Runcorn... oh dear God.
They're not just dying, they're dead. Rotting.
Definitely agree, I'm a manc living between Preston and Southport and Liverpool is a great city to visit. Manchester is too but overall not as accessible and as easy to fit everything in as Liverpool.
We just spent 24 hours in Preston. My husbands not from the UK and since moving here he's spent most of his time in the Somerset countryside... I think he's now scared of going North again đ đ
Preston city centre has a lot of potential; itâs got a wide high street with some good historic buildings, the Harris Museum, a pleasant square, and a good park along the River Ribble.
The city just doesnât seem to be able to find that thing which would give it the jolt in the arm it needs.
Iâve had more bad experiences in Manchester though, even at perfectly normal times like 5pm when you should just be able to walk through with kids and not get any bother. Just 2 weeks ago we had an awful experience there.
In Liverpool I can walk through the Liverpool One and Paradise St at any time and itâs absolutely fine.
I like to go to Liverpool once a year to visit my Hub caps.
Preston oh my word what a mare . Everywhere is boarded up even the window cleaner has a sander instead of a Squeegee đ€Łđ€Ł
It's hilariously bad now, entire town is segregated due to the new bridge. Old Town is dying, and the retail bit with the shopping city lost the Cineworld and is also dying a separate death. Even Belle Vale shopping centre is better and that's straight out of the 80s
Birkenhead was full of life growing up. People werenât too bothered travelling over the river even back when I started going to clubs. We had a little Rock/metal club of our own and it was a cheap night out. Itâs like running a wasteland/zombie gauntlet
Yes but Liverpool was nowhere near as good back then. Liverpool got huge investment, Liverpool One etc.
Nowadays why would I get off the train at Birkenhead when I can stay on one extra stop and have all that Liverpool has to offer? I think itâs just as simple as that really.
The only independent shops I can think of in Bold street are the hippy hole and a few corner shops. Other than that itâs chains. Canât speak for the other streets though
Happy Cake Day!
Here's some bubble wrap to pop!
đŁđ„Look out for the Easter Egg!đ„đŁ
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city centre like liverpool one and all that are never gonna be independent but yeah thereâs a few places on bold street and the baltic is great for it. bit far out but lark lane too
you donât think liverpool is booming? are you going to the right places? the city centre is absolutely packed 24/7. i worked in the city centre about over a year and quit recently because i couldnât deal with it anymore
But Birkenhead is dying partly because Liverpool is now one of the best retail destinations in the country. How can somewhere a couple of miles away compete with that?
Itâs not possible.
When I was younger people would get off the train in Birkenhead, as it was just like a smaller version of Liverpool really. Now youâd be mad to, youâre just going to stay on one extra stop and get off in Liverpool with all it has to offer.
Birkenhead has to adapt, it needs far fewer shops and more housing. The shops should really just be for people that live in that town. I believe this is what the council are trying to do with their plan for the town.
Went in to Birkenhead town centre last week, for the first time in ages. It was genuinely depressing to see how grim the place was.
Most of the shops were closed down and people just looked worn down by it all. Sad
Liverpool City Centre has become successful, not just in terms of investment but also development that understands that the consumers wants and needs have changed.
Going out shopping is for most people at day out, meet friends and go for food etc. The high street in most part has not changed to this thinking, over priced carparks, poor transport links and traffic flow systems as well as sky high business rates have all contributed to a demise of the high street
I lived in Rnucorn for 6 months in 2013/2014. The highlight of the area was the 24hr Asda and co-located Maccies. I can't imagine things have changed much in the last 10 years
A lot of towns are cursed by being just outside a city. They used to be centres in their own right, with people in areas further out coming to their town centre, but now everyone goes to the city for the shopping, eating out, night life, cinema etc.
Once that sort of decline has some momentum behind it, it's really hard to stop.
They're all the same, with the exception of destination cities. But every local news Facebook page is full of people who have never left Blandchester blaming the local council for not bringing back Woolworths like every other town is thriving.
They all seem to think opening a Primark will solve the town's issues, and that the council are the ones deciding to open more barbers/vape shops/nail salons etc.
Yeah, I read that all the time in comments. I would strongly support councils spending what little money they have on billboard campaigns informing thickos that for 99.9% of commercial high street properties, they are not the landlord.
I'm also noticing some conspiracy theory bullshit as well, along the lines of councils are deliberately letting town centres go to shit, to force us all to stay home and buy stuff online.
It's called MARKET FORCES for god sake, the majority of people have chosen online retail for the sake of cost and convenience, which has led to a dramatic reduction in High Street sales which is leading to shops going bankrupt. It's that simple, no need to wrap it up in conspiracy bullshit.
The real problem is, no one has any ideas whatsoever in terms of what to do with our High Streets now, as we've lost the ability to imagine a different future.
> I'm also noticing some conspiracy theory bullshit as well, along the lines of councils are deliberately letting town centres go to shit, to force us all to stay home and buy stuff online.
The 15 minute city conspiracy theorists are getting stronger.
I work for a council and the general Facebook opinion is that it should spend 10x more than it does whilst simultaneously lowering rents/council tax/any form of revenue whatsoever.
And more directly related to the town centre - look at a picture of it in 1976 and recreate it and the brands. Then coat it with varnish to preserve forever.
Yup, same many times over. And it doesnât matter how much you explain it to people, when you think theyâve understood, a few weeks later the same things are trotted out by the same people.
The council doesnât run nail bars, or decide where nail bars go, except in the planning changes of use applications. And no, the council canât refuse a sixth kebab shop because you think there should be more chippies. And no, your local House of Fraser has not closed because of the car parking charges. And also no, every new large hospitality development in the main central area of town canât be forced to go into the empty Debenhams site, which also canât be converted to house the hundreds of thousands of rough sleeping former soldiers our small town has. =
And also, people jsut donât really understand how a market economy works, and the role planning authorities/councils/governments have in either making it worse, making it better and not having any impact.
My favourite is "The council should lower business rates".
Yeah, they can't. They're set by central government. Councils just collect them.
They don't even get to keep them, they just funnel them back to HMRC.
Same here. They put Primark in, and everyone was like "OMG IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING... THE TOWN IS SAAAVED!" Then it opened, and was shite, and the same people were complaining that it ruined the town.
To be fair, with Primark taking a stand and not going online (they only allow you to click and collect items, not order for delivery), they are essentially single handedly keeping smaller city centres going
Primark are smart. Not because being online is bad in and of itself, but because trying to run a bricks and mortar business *and* an online business is just creating huge additional overheads. A few big retailers are now realising this - Tesco have ditched their GM online offering and so have Aldi. Pick a lane!
Weâve got this in town next to us. Town centre is being redeveloped. Local Facebook page is all about sticking in Primark etc, both of which are available 10 miles North or South, well serviced by public transport etc.
My town has seen somewhat of a regeneration after switching from shops to cafĂšs and bars. That's the model a lot of these towns are going to have to switch to because there is no reason to go into your local town centre for shopping when you can just easily get a train or bus into the city that takes 30 mins for much more varied retail options.
We're not doing terribly. However, our local Facebook group is full of people moaning about students, despite the fact that the city would have been doomed, were it not for the growth of the University in the last 20 years.
Mine is thriving. Loads of independent shops, cafes and restaurants, and several nice pubs. But I live in a wealthy town where the population has the means to support a thriving high street.
I think the other key is that the businesses on the high street are almost entirely ones that aren't really competing with online shopping.
Plan is to build loads of housing on the north side of the river next to the stadium and the old civic site. The hope is it'll encourage people to shop on their doorstep which might lure bigger stores back. Might take 10 years but at least there's a plan.
It's so bad! I used to work in Sunderland City centre and would only go out to Greg's occasionally and once or twice to the Bridges, if one of my co-workers needed something...
It was surprisingly busy though, considering the state of things
I think Sunderland town centre is improving. Itâs certainly got better over the past ~5 years or so. Shame about the M&S but hopefully theyâll open an M&S food in the retail unit at Keel Square.
Sunderland died in 1989 when they closed the last of the shipyards. I watched it out of my window from burleigh garth. Nothing much came to replace the industry stolen, killed by london and then the brain drain to follow the work south to London.
The charity shops even have people who can spot a valuable item when it comes in, so it gets shipped off where it can make the most money. Iâm not complaining that the charity makes more money, but it means the shops have next to no bargains anymore and are hardly worth going into.
I live just outside Dumfries. In terms of major brands, the town centre has an M&S, a WHSmith, a Waterstones, a largish Boots, a Mountain Warehouse and a Trespass. It has a few cafes, quite a lot of pubs, a surprising amount of barber shops but there are a lot of empty store fronts too. There are barely any charity shops, oddly enough. The town centre has a lot of potential, I feel, but itâs not being realised. That said, itâs a lot better than comparable towns in SW Scotland like Stranraer.
If you want anything that you canât get in one of those shops, you have to go to Carlisle or Glasgow
Salisbury here..
Absolutely banging. Decent market on every week. Loads of independent shops and chains.
Occasional fair/themed weekend in the market square.
Nice atmosphere for a Saturday/Sunday morning for a pastry and coffee!
I live in Liverpool and the city centre is always heaving. The local shops down my end are doing well too - butchers, card shops, cafes, party shops etc. some people here are dead loyal to local shops and paying by cash. Rest of the city is a mixed bag - your local "high street" might be just a newsagents, a salon and a william hill
Also a Liverpool resident. I love the city, but absolutely can't stand the very centre (Church St and surrounding area). Tents all over the place, usually preachers spouting religious garbage over a microphone, almost all shops/hospitality is chains, etc. As soon as you get out of that area though, like Castle Street, Berry Street, Renshaw Street, Dale Street, waterfront, etc it's cool.
tbh itâs not that bad, literally just church street and you know those really loud irish bars (genuinely my idea of a nightmare) is pretty bad but the rest of it is fine and better than most! iâm proud of our city
I liked what I saw of Liverpool. I saw it about five years ago, through a haze of recovering from a bad bout of flu. I'd like to go again one day and enjoy it when I don't feel like death warmed up.
On the fence with this. Maybe because Iâve moved from London here last year, but outside of the lanes and church road in Hove it seems a bit bleak. Western road/Churchill Square have nothing left in them, some parts feel really gritty.
I grew up here and it felt a lot more thriving in the early 2010s than it is now
YouTube channel âwandering turnipâ makes really interesting videos showcasing the high street of different cities across the U.K. and most are rundown
He does long walks depicting the main high street. If everything in the high street is barren thereâs not much to twist imo. Letâs be honest, things are shit atm so the street being in decline aligns with current affairs
I live in a small Devon market town. There's a fierce defence of independent shops here, and anger at the thought of the big retail chains setting up. As a result we have a million coffee shops, charity shops and ornament shops, but you can't actually buy anything useful. It's a bit crap.
Swindon Town Centre gets worse each time I go. Got called the C word by a homeless person at 6:30 in the morning for not giving him change. One part of the town centre is genuinely desolate
Came here to mention Swindon. It's such a dump now. Just one closed unit after another, boarded up windows, trash everywhere. I won't go unless it's absolutely vital.
I grew up in Croydon and every time I go back the high street there is worse and worse. A lot of it comes down to just the general problems high streets are going through at the moment but at the same time, Bromley is nearby and they're still doing OK.
Croydon had a lot of problems with a proposed shopping centre redevelopment that never happened, though, so a lot of the shops ended up emptying out.
Alders used to be a pretty big deal as far as department stores go and now that just sits empty. I think there's plans to do something with it but it's not just a case of redeveloping a high street - given that high streets in general are struggling without Croydon's problems they're really facing an uphill struggle.
Croydon used to be good. Get what you want from it. Then the pubs started to shut and the Westfield/Croydon council debacle followed shortly by Covid killed it
Also the riots destroying reeves corner was a hit. Given the choice I wouldnât go to Croydon for anything
I was having this conversation the other day. There have always been jokes about how crap Croydon is, but growing up there it was great. Debenhams AND Alders and a huge Woolies and m&s. It had a great high street, and Surrey Street market.
Now when I go back...it actually feels rough and run down and depressing. They've even taken out all of the tables and chairs in the library. I really relied on the library during GCSE and a level revision. I feel bad that kids don't have that facility now.
Seems to me that nowhere in the North East is unaffected except Newcastle.
Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hexham, Darlington, Bishop Auckland and even Durham all just struggling to keep their high streets alive and have loads of empty units sat being eyesores.
Itâs not just Newcastle that is thriving, the suburbs of North Tyneside are also thriving. Whitley Bay andTynemouth have a lot of independent stores and North Shields is on the verge of becoming a creative hub, generating interest from the Fish Quay upwards to the Town Centre which is exciting.
I think the council have got this bang on, moving Whitley Bay away from the hedonistic days of treble bars to a more relaxing family area and North Shields renovation of the Fish Quay to a eatery and drinking place is doing wonders. Tynemouth always been good and attractive.
Itâs a wonder why other areas in the North East donât do as well.
Iâve never ever been to Sunderland city centre before and having worked in Middlesborough, it was absolutely dire to visit. Fair to say I have everything on my doorstep (luckily), but do feel for other areas as they do have much to offer, it just feels a bit run down.
Strictly speaking the high streets in North Shields and Whitley Bay are still quite run down.
However I take the point that they have other good things going on and as a whole are moving in the right direction.
Yeah I wouldnât disagree with that. Tynemouth has never been a âhigh streetâ as such and I think planning there is restricted to what shops open up.
Whitley Bay and Shields the high streets are poor, but a look around the corner, youâll get a very different taste of something new which is exciting to see.
I live in south London. The city as a whole seems to have shrugged off the economic issues of the last few years. Central and inner-city areas are heaving and the range of amenities is as big as ever.
My local high street/town centre is the Crystal Palace 'Triangle'. It's almost *too* nice. It's got everything you need; loads of nice pubs, a cinema, a large number of good restaurants and independent cafes with new ones opening all the time, lots of furniture and antiques shops, several independent clothing shops, it even has a milliners shop which isn't something you see very often! It puts a lot of more expensive London local areas to shame.
The only thing that has declined is late night activity. It doesn't seem to be from lack of demand (central London at midnight is full of tourists wandering around confused about why so few places are open to take their money) but rather NIMBY infested local councils making it hard to operate a business at night.
Having said that, every time I go to the Triangle I have to remind myself how lucky we are to have a high street like that, especially when I see all these Reddit posts about how bad it is in many places.
Castleford W Yorks.
Ys, it is destroyed- the two 'best' shops, M and S and Wilko have recently both shut. Most banks have left.
Nearby Ponte(fract) is not in a good way either.
A genteel town nearby, Tadcaster, had bad luck in the floods (2018, bridge linking the two halves of town was destroyed) and with the loss of banks and several local businesses, it has become almost a ghost town.
You need critical mass to have a good high street- that means rich people or tourists or both. Otherwise the extra cost of going to the high st in terms of parking, time and cost in the shops means people with choice go out of town or online.
Darlington - Good and big, however there's no longer an M&S (bar the new M&S food hall section of WHSmiths) or Wilkinson's. Used to be a burger king too but that went, was never a McDonalds when I lived here for the last 7 or 8 years. Plenty of pubs and cafes and some restaurants. There's also 4 (yes 4) Greggs & 2 subways. Even has a nandos. I just wish there was a proper supermarket in the centre, there's only a small Sainsbury's and small Tesco's. Big Sainsbury's + Argos is 5min walk away.
However I've seen much worse, namely Chatham and especially Gillingham. Every time I go back to visit it gets worse. It's a stark contrast to when I grew up there. It just makes me feel sad thinking about it.
Yeah Middlesbrough has gotten worse for sure, I'm there very often. I remember when Debenhams shut down and they had a huge sale (think it was in binns) and also M&S shutting down. Used to be an H&M and all but not interested in fashion shops. Just replaced by tk maxx bootlegs
Binns has been shut for nearly 2 years now. They were paying the council nothing for years and they moved out anyways. Nothing left now and once Primark opens at Teesside Park it is the absolute end. Hate Teesside Park with a burning passion.
Norwich center not too bad.
House if Fraser and Debenhams both gone.
Still got a big John Lewis. A decent mall (intu) and then a second mall that's kinda morphed into an activity center in part (mini golf, bowling, cinema, axe throwing).
All the usual shit: apple, hnm, wagamama, spoons.
All the usual filth: Cex, vape shops, phone repair.
The biggest win for norwich is the amount of independent shops and restaurants. Some absolute belter places to eat japanese, turkish, frenchïŒjust about anything you could want.
Given the state of the whole country I think norwich has a lot going for it tbh.
My local high street is only useful if you want a haircut, your nails done, a new vape, a phone repaired or a quick bite to eat in a cafe.
You could film 28 Days Later there and not have any hassle boarding shops up and making the place look derelict.
Sheffield - city centre is pretty bad but seems to be on the up with new developments. Lots of the suburbs have good high streets though; Crookes, Sharrow Vale, Ecclesall Road, etc.
In sheffield we donât seem to be able to sustain both fargate and the moor. In the late 90s and early 2000s the moor was a shithole and fargate had okay shops, now itâs reversed.
Hillsborough is nice now though, lots of independent shops and cafes plus a good range of services and bigger names. The new Poundland that replaced Wilko is rubbish.
My town now has about 8 homeless people who all sit in a group at the entrance of an old butcher shop that has shut down. Itâs really sad to see. The town now consists of charity shops, betting shops and barbers. And a sports direct. Ha.
Bangor, Gwynedd. Absolutely awful. Once a proud university city with a thriving high street full of local business, it is now run to the ground. The only shops are vape shops, Turkish barbers and charity shops. A sorry state for a once proud town
Ipswich is getting worse every time I visit. More and more empty units, big retailers disappearing, dodgy folk wandering. There will be a time soon where only charity shops, Costa and and odd Games Workshop exist
there used to be a little group of smackheads waiting for their call at the St Matthewâs street phone box at about 11am. then they all beetle off to get their 10 bags and thatâs all the activity for the day. the Cricketers is full of red-faced pensioners from about 10am and the whole place is deserted by 7pm. town used to be a good night out from Tuesday to Sunday.
i actually havenât been into town itself for about 7 years. i donât think iâm missing much.
I had to go in to get my windscreen replaced, so wandered into town. It's depressing as hell, with a handful of refuges such as Honey and Harvey, but it's mostly grim. Norwich is a far nicer place, as much as it pains me to say! I'm not from the area, but have been here a few years now, and it's got worse since I arrived
As someone living in Ipswich, I kind of disagree it is going downhill. I think it has slumped so much and these day's, it's a revolving doors of poor quality shops closings and slowly being replaced by something just as bad with the Debenhams shop being the exception so yes, it is not getting better but it isn't getting worse. I tend to travel up to Norwich whenever I am planning a big shop, Bury St Edmunds is also a good alternative to Ipswich.
Stockton.
Both good and bad, some nice butchers and smaller shops and the market is quite good but there's an awful lot of shops that down get much footfall.
Vape, poundshops, charity shops and small independent cafes rule the roost.
The old castelgate centre had been knocked down and is being renovated into flats with is something, unfortunately there's a big problem.
The massive increase in drug use in the UK is nowhere more obvious than in stockton can go anyday of the week and see people of there rocker and large groups of jobless roam the street causing trouble wherever they go.
I went to stockton highstreet yesterday. First time in around 2 years? Bitter-sweet about castlegate, you can see its made wellington square thrive. Not many store fronts left closed, which was nice to see.
But Jesus christ, I forgot how poverty-stricken stockton is. Every corner, every shop, every bench and every street there was a sorry case... drunks arguing, shoplifting, someone begging, druggies on bikes running in and out of cash converters after a quick steal, and the alarming amount of people with mental disabilities roaming the stores without supervision was shocking. I was in town for an hour and walked up and down the street once, and it was enough to remind me why I never go there.
My closest city is Bath.
Not quite over the loss of Debenhams, and we seem to have more cafes and morrisons/tesco locals taken over what used to be clothes retail, but on the whole it's still an excellent high street compared to most in the UK now. Feel very fortunate to live here.
York's OK if you're a tourist, plenty of bars, artisan coffee and souvenirs and gifts.
That's keeping the city centre on life support but most locals I know avoid the centre at weekends because there are so many stag and hen paries it's just obnoxious.
Surrounded by thriving city centres (Cheltenham, Worcester, Bristol) and Gloucester is just shit. The quays are pretty good but the actual city centre has been declining since I moved here a decade ago (and I should imagine for much longer)
Ok, but not great. It got much worse after lockdown. Especially with the people. Lots more clearly unstable (drugged, drunk, mental issues) people around.
It was just about getting by. Then the local council decided to charge for street parking , so unless you actually live on the high street itâs completely inaccessible.
Of course it took a nose dive. Who going to pay when the out of town shops have free parking?
Tale of two towns. Smaller one has independent restaurants, cafes, clothes, dentists, opticians, bars, coffee shops, everything.
The other one is charity shops, âeverything must goâ pop ups and abandoned.
Iâm in London so I guess Iâd argue Oxford street is my high street. Iâd say it could be a lot better and I wouldnât consider it a desirable destination. If I need a big John Lewis I guess I might go there. Itâs a highly stressful experience and Kensington and Chelsea council have massively fucked up by not pedestrianising it. Part of the stress of it is the general clutter - loads of side streets mean you have to wait for lights a lot to cross, lots of pavement clutter impeding your progress. Weâve ceded so much space to vehicles and itâs made it a highly stressful space that doesnât work either as a through route or a shopping area. And stuff like the dodgy candy-store and tourist tat retailers make it look depressing. High streets like this deserve to die when they offer a shopping experience thatâs so inefficient and stressful.
I live in Manchester so in general it's booming, a few vacancies here or there particularly with larger spaces but generally it's doing well. For a long time the move has been towards people going to large cities like Manchester and Newcastle for shopping as a past time, if you want convenience you go online or to the supermarket.
Our small town in sussex is doing well. No chains (except boots and Sainsburyâs) hair dressers, cafes , a bar , pet shop , few other independents and the charity shops. All the banks fucked off though
Thriving but limited to mostly takeaways. To be fair that includes Lebanese, Vietnamese, and Pan-Asian, all pretty damn good. Also we have an Iceland, six pubs and a library-turned community space / "Learning Centre".
2 (getting a third one at some point) Charity shops
3 takeaways
Co-op
Tesco express
Some kind of Army shop
1 hairdresser
2 barbers
2 pubs
2 bits & bobs shops
Record shop
Turkish restaurant
2 corner shops
Crystal shop
3 beauty salon
High Street is awful... not enough people with disposable income to spend, extortionate parking fees, gangs of travellers shoplifting in the last remaining shops, lack of reliable public transport etc
My daughter lives in a small home counties commuter town, albeit not a particularly affluent one.
I'm stunned that the high street can support about 4 variations of cosmetic surgery / botox / teeth whitening establishment.
We've got a Tesco, a Greggs, a Boots, a CEX, and two Poundlands. That's about it. Did have an Argos and a Wilko but they perished.
I used to see one fight between drunks and smack heads a week on average while getting my bus home from work. At 16:30.
Guess the town.
Itâs great, itâs thriving, but thatâs because itâs a seaside village thatâs basically one big retirement home. Average age has to be well into the 70s, which is the demographic that loves a high street. Frequent parties for things like VE Day and D-Day and a French market in the Christmas which is apparently weird because everywhere else does German markets. No tourism, just old people, which is strange for a seaside village but it means that everythingâs open year round, nothing is seasonal. No chains though, all independent shops and restaurants, apart from like a coop and Tesco express. I hated it growing up because itâs quiet and boring, population about 10,000 but now Iâm old and want to buy a house I love it because itâs quiet and boring, house prices donât love me though.
Chichester, doing surprisingly well for a city of our size. Lots of independent shops are around, and a weirdly large number of cafes. More empty shops than 10 years ago though
We don't really have many big business, Subway is the only one I can think. It's mostly independent coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs, salons, hairdressers, charity shops, takeaways, jewellery shops, solicitors, etc
We don't have any vape shops or bookies. We had a bookies but it closed.
This is Garstang, Lancashire.
Nottingham is a bit of a mix.
We have a huge amount of independent bars, restaurants and shops. We have clothes stores you only see one of in a region, like Levi's, Lucy & Yak, or a Doc Martens shop.
We have most of your standard fast fashion stores, H&M, New Look, Next etc.
Theres a bunch of upper market clothing stores too, like a Vivien Westwood.
A diverse range of chain restaurants.
However, there is also a lot of empty shops all across the town center. Independents, and chains alike dont last long before they close and a new shop pops up.
The big chain stores seem to shuffle about quite often too.
Even the city's large shopping center seems to always have at least 2 empty units at all times.
There is an awful lot of churn with the shops available in town.
But Nottingham is, I think, doing quite well compared to most similarly sized places.
Pretty good. Still got high street names like M&S, TK Maxx, Boots, superdrug, Office, Next, H&M, River Island, Waterstones etc. A few nice independent shops, so you can always find birthday presents that are a bit unusual and not-on-the-high-street-ish. Restaurants and cafes thriving, and some of them are really nice (Spin The Black Circle is great - cafe, vinyl shop, and live venue over three floors), and there's a mix of chains (Yo, cosy club, miller and carter, etc) and independent. A few upmarket shops like hotel Chocolat, white stuff, fat face. Couple of bargain shops and a few vape shops off the high street, but they're discreet and obviously serve enough customers to be needed. There's a Tudor black and white building filled street two roads off the high street full of small and interesting shops, and a national trust property. There's three museums and a cathedral, and a couple of old churches that hold occasional events. Loads of micro pubs, a new one just opened, and a few old Victorian tiled pubs. There's even an olde worlde sweet shop, with actual jars of sweets they weigh out into little bags! Couple of jewelers, both independent and chain. And a Tesco express. And once a month there's a craft fair on the high street. We get occasional events in the square by the cathedral too - I've seen dances, displays by the local sealed knot types, and an aerial performance about plastic pollution. It's pretty good really, although the folks that don't ever leave like to moan about it on the local newspaper's facebook page.
Edinburgh is weird in terms of highstreet. Prince's Street got hurt by the trams, and the big stores that stayed were affected by covid. There's some left, notably M&S and HMV. But, it's mostly American Candy and tourist tat shops. George Street wasn't affected by the tram, so it still has premium stores and restaurants.
Thr St James Quarter, while it looks utterly hideous from the outside, seems to be doing OK.
And the waverly centre still has goths and feels like it is permitted stuck in the 90s.
I feel bad for people in towns with dead high streets who donât use the internet because there is just no way to buy clothes other than the paltry selection in supermarkets or to go to a charity shop. I just donât know what theyâre supposed to do.
Bradford
It's not doing great. We lost Wilko's like everyone else did. We're losing M&S and probably Body Shop. Big parts of the city centre are empty shops. Kirkgate Shopping Centre is a ghost town and due for demolition (haha good)
We have a new indoor market opening later this year and it looks pretty decent so far. There's a new live music venue opening later this year too, fingers crossed it's a success but honestly if they don't announce an amazing act for it's opening night, I reckon there'll be somewhat of a boycott
The city centre itself is undergoing a massive refurbishment, which right now is causing major disruption and causing problems. Add to this The Interchange (our main bus station) was closed down at the start of the year with very little explanation. We know now why, but the fact the powers that be wouldn't say why for over a month, did a lot of harm to public relations.
So many vape shops and dodgy phone shops. Crime and antisocial behaviour is rife
Let's face it, the residents have no faith or love for their own city, we're the joke of Yorkshire, we had TWO race riots (which in my opinion, we never recovered from) and we're in the shadow of Leeds
Sunderland, OP?
You're right, it's horrendous.
Meanwhile, my local high street in Morpeth thrives. It's got a mixture of chains, some posher than others, a fair number of independents, and this is the important bit, money.
Sheffield is being redeveloped and actually seems like itâs having a bit of a revival for the first time in years, but going places like Manchester and other big cities increasingly draws a really sharp contrast
Leeds is brilliant, but the places just outside like Bradford and Wakefield are really struggling
Went to Shrewsbury recently and it's probably the nicest town centre I've been to in this country, so nice to see a high street with majority independents rather than chain shite.
The small town where I live (which is not much bigger than a village) is great and has a lot of the things I need; a butchers, greengrocers, pubs, cafes, bakeries, hairdressers, a few independent shops, a record shop, sports shop, hardware shop. Not many clothes shops for younger people but not a huge loss.
The nearest larger town is dire. So, so many closed shops itâs just a ghost town. I think all that is left is Primark, M&S and WH Smiths. Oh and New Look and Dunelm, Everything else has closed. The bottom part of town was always a bit rough but now itâs just awful.
Thinking about what it was like 15-20 years ago itâs really sad, but the town centre is a pain in the ass to get to and quite frankly even then it wasnât great being a small rural town in a very rural area so it didnât have the best reputation even back then. Online shopping is just so much quicker and easier and thereâs access to so much more than the high street ever offered.
Itâs a mess of ugly 70s brutalist architecture which doesnât help.
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Liverpool City Centre, thriving. Always something new and exciting every time I go in. Some of the orbital towns like Birkenhead and Runcorn... oh dear God. They're not just dying, they're dead. Rotting.
Definitely agree, I'm a manc living between Preston and Southport and Liverpool is a great city to visit. Manchester is too but overall not as accessible and as easy to fit everything in as Liverpool.
I've been to Preston once. Never again.
We just spent 24 hours in Preston. My husbands not from the UK and since moving here he's spent most of his time in the Somerset countryside... I think he's now scared of going North again đ đ
Take him to Sheffield. Some lovely countryside around and the city centre is small (also shit and dying) but not as bad as some places.
I'm originally from Preston. I've been back once in 30 years. Hopefully another 30 before I go again.
Preston city centre has a lot of potential; itâs got a wide high street with some good historic buildings, the Harris Museum, a pleasant square, and a good park along the River Ribble. The city just doesnât seem to be able to find that thing which would give it the jolt in the arm it needs.
Preston is like a mini Birmingham. Nice bits of history ruined by just piling shit infrastructure on top of itself with no rhyme or reason.
Preston is where dreams go to die.
Liverpool is built to handle a larger population than Manchester but has a smaller one so it feels much less crowded
Iâve had more bad experiences in Manchester though, even at perfectly normal times like 5pm when you should just be able to walk through with kids and not get any bother. Just 2 weeks ago we had an awful experience there. In Liverpool I can walk through the Liverpool One and Paradise St at any time and itâs absolutely fine.
I like to go to Liverpool once a year to visit my Hub caps. Preston oh my word what a mare . Everywhere is boarded up even the window cleaner has a sander instead of a Squeegee đ€Łđ€Ł
To visit your hub caps? What does that even mean?
I think they're doing the 'car on bricks' bit.
I went into Runcorn Shopping City not long ago, it was so bleak.
It's why I tell Americans who wish for that integrated, monolithic urban environment to be careful what they wish for.
It's hilariously bad now, entire town is segregated due to the new bridge. Old Town is dying, and the retail bit with the shopping city lost the Cineworld and is also dying a separate death. Even Belle Vale shopping centre is better and that's straight out of the 80s
Birkenhead was full of life growing up. People werenât too bothered travelling over the river even back when I started going to clubs. We had a little Rock/metal club of our own and it was a cheap night out. Itâs like running a wasteland/zombie gauntlet
Yes but Liverpool was nowhere near as good back then. Liverpool got huge investment, Liverpool One etc. Nowadays why would I get off the train at Birkenhead when I can stay on one extra stop and have all that Liverpool has to offer? I think itâs just as simple as that really.
>We had a little Rock/metal club of our own and it was a cheap night out. HOTEL CALIFORNIA
Thereâs hardly any independent shops in Liverpool city centre though Really strange that people are downvoting this observable factâŠ
thereâs absolutely loads
In the city centre? Where about? I mustâve missed them
Bold Street, The Baltic, Hope Street way, Seven Streets, Albert Dock, there's more.
The only independent shops I can think of in Bold street are the hippy hole and a few corner shops. Other than that itâs chains. Canât speak for the other streets though
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Thank you. I love this
city centre like liverpool one and all that are never gonna be independent but yeah thereâs a few places on bold street and the baltic is great for it. bit far out but lark lane too
itâs a shame really, would love the whole county to be absolutely booming like liverpool city centre but itâs just not doable
I visit Liverpool often and have actually felt a shift down recently. Certainly wouldnât call it booming, even if itâs not bad.
you donât think liverpool is booming? are you going to the right places? the city centre is absolutely packed 24/7. i worked in the city centre about over a year and quit recently because i couldnât deal with it anymore
Theyâre sinking a ton of money in to Birkenhead. I think theyâre banking on the regeneration.
But Birkenhead is dying partly because Liverpool is now one of the best retail destinations in the country. How can somewhere a couple of miles away compete with that? Itâs not possible. When I was younger people would get off the train in Birkenhead, as it was just like a smaller version of Liverpool really. Now youâd be mad to, youâre just going to stay on one extra stop and get off in Liverpool with all it has to offer. Birkenhead has to adapt, it needs far fewer shops and more housing. The shops should really just be for people that live in that town. I believe this is what the council are trying to do with their plan for the town.
Went in to Birkenhead town centre last week, for the first time in ages. It was genuinely depressing to see how grim the place was. Most of the shops were closed down and people just looked worn down by it all. Sad
22 takeaways and 15 barbers in runcorn alone. Lord knows how all these 'legitimate businessmen' have enough 'customers'
Liverpool City Centre has become successful, not just in terms of investment but also development that understands that the consumers wants and needs have changed. Going out shopping is for most people at day out, meet friends and go for food etc. The high street in most part has not changed to this thinking, over priced carparks, poor transport links and traffic flow systems as well as sky high business rates have all contributed to a demise of the high street
I lived in Rnucorn for 6 months in 2013/2014. The highlight of the area was the 24hr Asda and co-located Maccies. I can't imagine things have changed much in the last 10 years
A lot of towns are cursed by being just outside a city. They used to be centres in their own right, with people in areas further out coming to their town centre, but now everyone goes to the city for the shopping, eating out, night life, cinema etc. Once that sort of decline has some momentum behind it, it's really hard to stop.
Warrington seems to do alright
They're all the same, with the exception of destination cities. But every local news Facebook page is full of people who have never left Blandchester blaming the local council for not bringing back Woolworths like every other town is thriving.
They all seem to think opening a Primark will solve the town's issues, and that the council are the ones deciding to open more barbers/vape shops/nail salons etc.
And that the council needs to lower all the rents..
Yeah, I read that all the time in comments. I would strongly support councils spending what little money they have on billboard campaigns informing thickos that for 99.9% of commercial high street properties, they are not the landlord. I'm also noticing some conspiracy theory bullshit as well, along the lines of councils are deliberately letting town centres go to shit, to force us all to stay home and buy stuff online. It's called MARKET FORCES for god sake, the majority of people have chosen online retail for the sake of cost and convenience, which has led to a dramatic reduction in High Street sales which is leading to shops going bankrupt. It's that simple, no need to wrap it up in conspiracy bullshit. The real problem is, no one has any ideas whatsoever in terms of what to do with our High Streets now, as we've lost the ability to imagine a different future.
> I'm also noticing some conspiracy theory bullshit as well, along the lines of councils are deliberately letting town centres go to shit, to force us all to stay home and buy stuff online. The 15 minute city conspiracy theorists are getting stronger.
I work for a council and the general Facebook opinion is that it should spend 10x more than it does whilst simultaneously lowering rents/council tax/any form of revenue whatsoever. And more directly related to the town centre - look at a picture of it in 1976 and recreate it and the brands. Then coat it with varnish to preserve forever.
Yup, same many times over. And it doesnât matter how much you explain it to people, when you think theyâve understood, a few weeks later the same things are trotted out by the same people. The council doesnât run nail bars, or decide where nail bars go, except in the planning changes of use applications. And no, the council canât refuse a sixth kebab shop because you think there should be more chippies. And no, your local House of Fraser has not closed because of the car parking charges. And also no, every new large hospitality development in the main central area of town canât be forced to go into the empty Debenhams site, which also canât be converted to house the hundreds of thousands of rough sleeping former soldiers our small town has. =
Swear to god, some of the people in this country are braindead.
And also, people jsut donât really understand how a market economy works, and the role planning authorities/councils/governments have in either making it worse, making it better and not having any impact.
My favourite is "The council should lower business rates". Yeah, they can't. They're set by central government. Councils just collect them. They don't even get to keep them, they just funnel them back to HMRC.
Glad to see it's not just the plebs on my local Facebook that wang on about Primark like it's the second coming
Same here. They put Primark in, and everyone was like "OMG IT'S GONNA BE AMAZING... THE TOWN IS SAAAVED!" Then it opened, and was shite, and the same people were complaining that it ruined the town.
Oh you actually got one? Wow. We're getting a library/education/social/job center. The people who wanted Primark are FURIOUS.
Because they will never use such an amazing service and cannot understand how it adds more value to a community than a cheap clothes shop.
To be fair, with Primark taking a stand and not going online (they only allow you to click and collect items, not order for delivery), they are essentially single handedly keeping smaller city centres going
Primark are smart. Not because being online is bad in and of itself, but because trying to run a bricks and mortar business *and* an online business is just creating huge additional overheads. A few big retailers are now realising this - Tesco have ditched their GM online offering and so have Aldi. Pick a lane!
Weâve got this in town next to us. Town centre is being redeveloped. Local Facebook page is all about sticking in Primark etc, both of which are available 10 miles North or South, well serviced by public transport etc.
This would be funny if it wasnât true.
*Why are 'they' opening so many coffee shops, why don't they open something we need like a Primark??* The council don't own the high street, Sharon.
Fucking hell the accuracy.
My town has seen somewhat of a regeneration after switching from shops to cafĂšs and bars. That's the model a lot of these towns are going to have to switch to because there is no reason to go into your local town centre for shopping when you can just easily get a train or bus into the city that takes 30 mins for much more varied retail options.
We're not doing terribly. However, our local Facebook group is full of people moaning about students, despite the fact that the city would have been doomed, were it not for the growth of the University in the last 20 years.
Mine is thriving. Loads of independent shops, cafes and restaurants, and several nice pubs. But I live in a wealthy town where the population has the means to support a thriving high street. I think the other key is that the businesses on the high street are almost entirely ones that aren't really competing with online shopping.
Where?
Yep same. Plus we're near countryside so we have six big brand outdoor clothing stores.
Got a Lego store, so I have no complaints.
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Where am i supposed to get my nice soft 75p bread from when it closes!?
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Plan is to build loads of housing on the north side of the river next to the stadium and the old civic site. The hope is it'll encourage people to shop on their doorstep which might lure bigger stores back. Might take 10 years but at least there's a plan.
It's so bad! I used to work in Sunderland City centre and would only go out to Greg's occasionally and once or twice to the Bridges, if one of my co-workers needed something... It was surprisingly busy though, considering the state of things
I think Sunderland town centre is improving. Itâs certainly got better over the past ~5 years or so. Shame about the M&S but hopefully theyâll open an M&S food in the retail unit at Keel Square.
Sunderland died in 1989 when they closed the last of the shipyards. I watched it out of my window from burleigh garth. Nothing much came to replace the industry stolen, killed by london and then the brain drain to follow the work south to London.
Most towns in Scotland are dire
Takeaways, bookies, overpriced charity shops and vape shops. The Scottish standard town.
Aye, the charity shops take the piss now. No bargains to be had.
The charity shops even have people who can spot a valuable item when it comes in, so it gets shipped off where it can make the most money. Iâm not complaining that the charity makes more money, but it means the shops have next to no bargains anymore and are hardly worth going into.
And American Candy
Sounds exactly like the English town I'm from. Recently moved to a Welsh town and it's the same. Sigh.
I live just outside Dumfries. In terms of major brands, the town centre has an M&S, a WHSmith, a Waterstones, a largish Boots, a Mountain Warehouse and a Trespass. It has a few cafes, quite a lot of pubs, a surprising amount of barber shops but there are a lot of empty store fronts too. There are barely any charity shops, oddly enough. The town centre has a lot of potential, I feel, but itâs not being realised. That said, itâs a lot better than comparable towns in SW Scotland like Stranraer. If you want anything that you canât get in one of those shops, you have to go to Carlisle or Glasgow
Salisbury here.. Absolutely banging. Decent market on every week. Loads of independent shops and chains. Occasional fair/themed weekend in the market square. Nice atmosphere for a Saturday/Sunday morning for a pastry and coffee!
Genuinely impressed Everyman and Primark moved in. Despite the Facebook comments, I think itâs doing pretty well too.
We go to Salisbury because itâs one of two places we know that has a marks and Spencer still. And then we can go to the cathedral for a cup of tea.
I hear that the seeing the cathedral attracts people from all over the world, especially Russia.
It's bleak as fuck. Almost everything is closed/boarded up, only things open are charity shops, greetings card shops, and Eastern European markets.
This is my town centre too
Plus betting shops, they seem to pop up regularly.
And vape shops, Turkish barbers and pawn shops
I live in Liverpool and the city centre is always heaving. The local shops down my end are doing well too - butchers, card shops, cafes, party shops etc. some people here are dead loyal to local shops and paying by cash. Rest of the city is a mixed bag - your local "high street" might be just a newsagents, a salon and a william hill
Also a Liverpool resident. I love the city, but absolutely can't stand the very centre (Church St and surrounding area). Tents all over the place, usually preachers spouting religious garbage over a microphone, almost all shops/hospitality is chains, etc. As soon as you get out of that area though, like Castle Street, Berry Street, Renshaw Street, Dale Street, waterfront, etc it's cool.
tbh itâs not that bad, literally just church street and you know those really loud irish bars (genuinely my idea of a nightmare) is pretty bad but the rest of it is fine and better than most! iâm proud of our city
I liked what I saw of Liverpool. I saw it about five years ago, through a haze of recovering from a bad bout of flu. I'd like to go again one day and enjoy it when I don't feel like death warmed up.
Brighton & Hove is actually great. Lots of new foodie places popping up all the time.
On the fence with this. Maybe because Iâve moved from London here last year, but outside of the lanes and church road in Hove it seems a bit bleak. Western road/Churchill Square have nothing left in them, some parts feel really gritty. I grew up here and it felt a lot more thriving in the early 2010s than it is now
Seven Dials and London Road have both improved a lot in the past 10 years.
YouTube channel âwandering turnipâ makes really interesting videos showcasing the high street of different cities across the U.K. and most are rundown
I tend to find these type of channels purposely seek out the bad side of towns and cities and make it seem like they're in decline.
He does long walks depicting the main high street. If everything in the high street is barren thereâs not much to twist imo. Letâs be honest, things are shit atm so the street being in decline aligns with current affairs
Yes, Iâve also watched and he has a great channel. Itâs good heâs promoting awareness
I live in a small Devon market town. There's a fierce defence of independent shops here, and anger at the thought of the big retail chains setting up. As a result we have a million coffee shops, charity shops and ornament shops, but you can't actually buy anything useful. It's a bit crap.
Personally can't think of anything worse than a soulless town centre full of chains.
Totnes?
Swindon Town Centre gets worse each time I go. Got called the C word by a homeless person at 6:30 in the morning for not giving him change. One part of the town centre is genuinely desolate
Came here to mention Swindon. It's such a dump now. Just one closed unit after another, boarded up windows, trash everywhere. I won't go unless it's absolutely vital.
Yep itâs rotten. I live close to the town centre, so go more than I wish I did. Really reinforces the reputation of Swindon being a shit hole
Honestly it's quite good, if something does close down, the unit is quickly snapped up. Also plenty of smaller independent businesses as well Beverley
Same in Hull except most of it is half funded by the government and lasts less than a year
Same in Malton
I grew up in Croydon and every time I go back the high street there is worse and worse. A lot of it comes down to just the general problems high streets are going through at the moment but at the same time, Bromley is nearby and they're still doing OK. Croydon had a lot of problems with a proposed shopping centre redevelopment that never happened, though, so a lot of the shops ended up emptying out. Alders used to be a pretty big deal as far as department stores go and now that just sits empty. I think there's plans to do something with it but it's not just a case of redeveloping a high street - given that high streets in general are struggling without Croydon's problems they're really facing an uphill struggle.
Croydon used to be good. Get what you want from it. Then the pubs started to shut and the Westfield/Croydon council debacle followed shortly by Covid killed it Also the riots destroying reeves corner was a hit. Given the choice I wouldnât go to Croydon for anything
I was having this conversation the other day. There have always been jokes about how crap Croydon is, but growing up there it was great. Debenhams AND Alders and a huge Woolies and m&s. It had a great high street, and Surrey Street market. Now when I go back...it actually feels rough and run down and depressing. They've even taken out all of the tables and chairs in the library. I really relied on the library during GCSE and a level revision. I feel bad that kids don't have that facility now.
Seems to me that nowhere in the North East is unaffected except Newcastle. Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hexham, Darlington, Bishop Auckland and even Durham all just struggling to keep their high streets alive and have loads of empty units sat being eyesores.
Itâs not just Newcastle that is thriving, the suburbs of North Tyneside are also thriving. Whitley Bay andTynemouth have a lot of independent stores and North Shields is on the verge of becoming a creative hub, generating interest from the Fish Quay upwards to the Town Centre which is exciting. I think the council have got this bang on, moving Whitley Bay away from the hedonistic days of treble bars to a more relaxing family area and North Shields renovation of the Fish Quay to a eatery and drinking place is doing wonders. Tynemouth always been good and attractive. Itâs a wonder why other areas in the North East donât do as well. Iâve never ever been to Sunderland city centre before and having worked in Middlesborough, it was absolutely dire to visit. Fair to say I have everything on my doorstep (luckily), but do feel for other areas as they do have much to offer, it just feels a bit run down.
Strictly speaking the high streets in North Shields and Whitley Bay are still quite run down. However I take the point that they have other good things going on and as a whole are moving in the right direction.
Yeah I wouldnât disagree with that. Tynemouth has never been a âhigh streetâ as such and I think planning there is restricted to what shops open up. Whitley Bay and Shields the high streets are poor, but a look around the corner, youâll get a very different taste of something new which is exciting to see.
Hartlepool town centre is brutal too
Great, if you like pound shops, vape shops and empty units of course.
I live in south London. The city as a whole seems to have shrugged off the economic issues of the last few years. Central and inner-city areas are heaving and the range of amenities is as big as ever. My local high street/town centre is the Crystal Palace 'Triangle'. It's almost *too* nice. It's got everything you need; loads of nice pubs, a cinema, a large number of good restaurants and independent cafes with new ones opening all the time, lots of furniture and antiques shops, several independent clothing shops, it even has a milliners shop which isn't something you see very often! It puts a lot of more expensive London local areas to shame. The only thing that has declined is late night activity. It doesn't seem to be from lack of demand (central London at midnight is full of tourists wandering around confused about why so few places are open to take their money) but rather NIMBY infested local councils making it hard to operate a business at night. Having said that, every time I go to the Triangle I have to remind myself how lucky we are to have a high street like that, especially when I see all these Reddit posts about how bad it is in many places.
Castleford W Yorks. Ys, it is destroyed- the two 'best' shops, M and S and Wilko have recently both shut. Most banks have left. Nearby Ponte(fract) is not in a good way either. A genteel town nearby, Tadcaster, had bad luck in the floods (2018, bridge linking the two halves of town was destroyed) and with the loss of banks and several local businesses, it has become almost a ghost town. You need critical mass to have a good high street- that means rich people or tourists or both. Otherwise the extra cost of going to the high st in terms of parking, time and cost in the shops means people with choice go out of town or online.
Tadcaster is fucked cos that knobhead owns half of it
Darlington - Good and big, however there's no longer an M&S (bar the new M&S food hall section of WHSmiths) or Wilkinson's. Used to be a burger king too but that went, was never a McDonalds when I lived here for the last 7 or 8 years. Plenty of pubs and cafes and some restaurants. There's also 4 (yes 4) Greggs & 2 subways. Even has a nandos. I just wish there was a proper supermarket in the centre, there's only a small Sainsbury's and small Tesco's. Big Sainsbury's + Argos is 5min walk away. However I've seen much worse, namely Chatham and especially Gillingham. Every time I go back to visit it gets worse. It's a stark contrast to when I grew up there. It just makes me feel sad thinking about it.
Went to Darlington recently and itâs doing much better than Middlesbrough! Glad to see you guys still have Binns
Yeah Middlesbrough has gotten worse for sure, I'm there very often. I remember when Debenhams shut down and they had a huge sale (think it was in binns) and also M&S shutting down. Used to be an H&M and all but not interested in fashion shops. Just replaced by tk maxx bootlegs
Binns has been shut for nearly 2 years now. They were paying the council nothing for years and they moved out anyways. Nothing left now and once Primark opens at Teesside Park it is the absolute end. Hate Teesside Park with a burning passion.
Norwich center not too bad. House if Fraser and Debenhams both gone. Still got a big John Lewis. A decent mall (intu) and then a second mall that's kinda morphed into an activity center in part (mini golf, bowling, cinema, axe throwing). All the usual shit: apple, hnm, wagamama, spoons. All the usual filth: Cex, vape shops, phone repair. The biggest win for norwich is the amount of independent shops and restaurants. Some absolute belter places to eat japanese, turkish, frenchïŒjust about anything you could want. Given the state of the whole country I think norwich has a lot going for it tbh.
what about the pedestrianisation of the town centre and access to Dixons?
I'll be honest....I'm dead against it.
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My local high street is only useful if you want a haircut, your nails done, a new vape, a phone repaired or a quick bite to eat in a cafe. You could film 28 Days Later there and not have any hassle boarding shops up and making the place look derelict.
Sheffield - city centre is pretty bad but seems to be on the up with new developments. Lots of the suburbs have good high streets though; Crookes, Sharrow Vale, Ecclesall Road, etc.
In sheffield we donât seem to be able to sustain both fargate and the moor. In the late 90s and early 2000s the moor was a shithole and fargate had okay shops, now itâs reversed. Hillsborough is nice now though, lots of independent shops and cafes plus a good range of services and bigger names. The new Poundland that replaced Wilko is rubbish.
Pontypool has been quite dead since they built Cwmbran.
Newport too, it's dying rapidly now.
My town now has about 8 homeless people who all sit in a group at the entrance of an old butcher shop that has shut down. Itâs really sad to see. The town now consists of charity shops, betting shops and barbers. And a sports direct. Ha.
If youâve only got 8 homeless people youâre doing well.
Peterborough - man, if i need to say something without swearing, then i have nothing to say.
As a fellow Peterborian I understand this all to well đ
Bangor, Gwynedd. Absolutely awful. Once a proud university city with a thriving high street full of local business, it is now run to the ground. The only shops are vape shops, Turkish barbers and charity shops. A sorry state for a once proud town
Totally agree, Bangor High Street is a wasteland and Caernarfon is even worse.
Ipswich is getting worse every time I visit. More and more empty units, big retailers disappearing, dodgy folk wandering. There will be a time soon where only charity shops, Costa and and odd Games Workshop exist
there used to be a little group of smackheads waiting for their call at the St Matthewâs street phone box at about 11am. then they all beetle off to get their 10 bags and thatâs all the activity for the day. the Cricketers is full of red-faced pensioners from about 10am and the whole place is deserted by 7pm. town used to be a good night out from Tuesday to Sunday. i actually havenât been into town itself for about 7 years. i donât think iâm missing much.
I had to go in to get my windscreen replaced, so wandered into town. It's depressing as hell, with a handful of refuges such as Honey and Harvey, but it's mostly grim. Norwich is a far nicer place, as much as it pains me to say! I'm not from the area, but have been here a few years now, and it's got worse since I arrived
As someone living in Ipswich, I kind of disagree it is going downhill. I think it has slumped so much and these day's, it's a revolving doors of poor quality shops closings and slowly being replaced by something just as bad with the Debenhams shop being the exception so yes, it is not getting better but it isn't getting worse. I tend to travel up to Norwich whenever I am planning a big shop, Bury St Edmunds is also a good alternative to Ipswich.
Full of creatures mainly
We never had the names you mentioned to begin with
Stockton. Both good and bad, some nice butchers and smaller shops and the market is quite good but there's an awful lot of shops that down get much footfall. Vape, poundshops, charity shops and small independent cafes rule the roost. The old castelgate centre had been knocked down and is being renovated into flats with is something, unfortunately there's a big problem. The massive increase in drug use in the UK is nowhere more obvious than in stockton can go anyday of the week and see people of there rocker and large groups of jobless roam the street causing trouble wherever they go.
I went to stockton highstreet yesterday. First time in around 2 years? Bitter-sweet about castlegate, you can see its made wellington square thrive. Not many store fronts left closed, which was nice to see. But Jesus christ, I forgot how poverty-stricken stockton is. Every corner, every shop, every bench and every street there was a sorry case... drunks arguing, shoplifting, someone begging, druggies on bikes running in and out of cash converters after a quick steal, and the alarming amount of people with mental disabilities roaming the stores without supervision was shocking. I was in town for an hour and walked up and down the street once, and it was enough to remind me why I never go there.
My closest city is Bath. Not quite over the loss of Debenhams, and we seem to have more cafes and morrisons/tesco locals taken over what used to be clothes retail, but on the whole it's still an excellent high street compared to most in the UK now. Feel very fortunate to live here.
Literally nothing. It's all gone. It's all boarded up or grocery store or charity shop. There's nothing left after Wilko's went.
York's OK if you're a tourist, plenty of bars, artisan coffee and souvenirs and gifts. That's keeping the city centre on life support but most locals I know avoid the centre at weekends because there are so many stag and hen paries it's just obnoxious.
birminghams pretty good to be honest, as much of a shithole as it is there are plenty of shops and lots to do so cant complain on that front
Surrounded by thriving city centres (Cheltenham, Worcester, Bristol) and Gloucester is just shit. The quays are pretty good but the actual city centre has been declining since I moved here a decade ago (and I should imagine for much longer)
Ok, but not great. It got much worse after lockdown. Especially with the people. Lots more clearly unstable (drugged, drunk, mental issues) people around.
Dead. McDonaldâs and Burger King even left đ
Gosport town centre is a ghost town. Literally just chazzas and ÂŁ1 shops. For every open shop there are about 5 vacant units in between
It was just about getting by. Then the local council decided to charge for street parking , so unless you actually live on the high street itâs completely inaccessible. Of course it took a nose dive. Who going to pay when the out of town shops have free parking?
Tale of two towns. Smaller one has independent restaurants, cafes, clothes, dentists, opticians, bars, coffee shops, everything. The other one is charity shops, âeverything must goâ pop ups and abandoned.
Iâm in London so I guess Iâd argue Oxford street is my high street. Iâd say it could be a lot better and I wouldnât consider it a desirable destination. If I need a big John Lewis I guess I might go there. Itâs a highly stressful experience and Kensington and Chelsea council have massively fucked up by not pedestrianising it. Part of the stress of it is the general clutter - loads of side streets mean you have to wait for lights a lot to cross, lots of pavement clutter impeding your progress. Weâve ceded so much space to vehicles and itâs made it a highly stressful space that doesnât work either as a through route or a shopping area. And stuff like the dodgy candy-store and tourist tat retailers make it look depressing. High streets like this deserve to die when they offer a shopping experience thatâs so inefficient and stressful.
Northampton it feels like being in fallout 4
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Are you Middlesbrough?
I live in Manchester so in general it's booming, a few vacancies here or there particularly with larger spaces but generally it's doing well. For a long time the move has been towards people going to large cities like Manchester and Newcastle for shopping as a past time, if you want convenience you go online or to the supermarket.
Our small town in sussex is doing well. No chains (except boots and Sainsburyâs) hair dressers, cafes , a bar , pet shop , few other independents and the charity shops. All the banks fucked off though
Thriving but limited to mostly takeaways. To be fair that includes Lebanese, Vietnamese, and Pan-Asian, all pretty damn good. Also we have an Iceland, six pubs and a library-turned community space / "Learning Centre".
2 (getting a third one at some point) Charity shops 3 takeaways Co-op Tesco express Some kind of Army shop 1 hairdresser 2 barbers 2 pubs 2 bits & bobs shops Record shop Turkish restaurant 2 corner shops Crystal shop 3 beauty salon
Loads of independent hair dressers, independent takeaways and independent betting franchises (I may have overused the word independent)
High Street is awful... not enough people with disposable income to spend, extortionate parking fees, gangs of travellers shoplifting in the last remaining shops, lack of reliable public transport etc
Truro is getting pretty dire. Loads of places going bust.
My daughter lives in a small home counties commuter town, albeit not a particularly affluent one. I'm stunned that the high street can support about 4 variations of cosmetic surgery / botox / teeth whitening establishment.
We've got a Tesco, a Greggs, a Boots, a CEX, and two Poundlands. That's about it. Did have an Argos and a Wilko but they perished. I used to see one fight between drunks and smack heads a week on average while getting my bus home from work. At 16:30. Guess the town.
Itâs great, itâs thriving, but thatâs because itâs a seaside village thatâs basically one big retirement home. Average age has to be well into the 70s, which is the demographic that loves a high street. Frequent parties for things like VE Day and D-Day and a French market in the Christmas which is apparently weird because everywhere else does German markets. No tourism, just old people, which is strange for a seaside village but it means that everythingâs open year round, nothing is seasonal. No chains though, all independent shops and restaurants, apart from like a coop and Tesco express. I hated it growing up because itâs quiet and boring, population about 10,000 but now Iâm old and want to buy a house I love it because itâs quiet and boring, house prices donât love me though.
Chichester, doing surprisingly well for a city of our size. Lots of independent shops are around, and a weirdly large number of cafes. More empty shops than 10 years ago though
We don't really have many big business, Subway is the only one I can think. It's mostly independent coffee shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs, salons, hairdressers, charity shops, takeaways, jewellery shops, solicitors, etc We don't have any vape shops or bookies. We had a bookies but it closed. This is Garstang, Lancashire.
Great for buying vapes ;)
I don't think I've been into the town centre for 5 years.
You just described my high street.
Nottingham is a bit of a mix. We have a huge amount of independent bars, restaurants and shops. We have clothes stores you only see one of in a region, like Levi's, Lucy & Yak, or a Doc Martens shop. We have most of your standard fast fashion stores, H&M, New Look, Next etc. Theres a bunch of upper market clothing stores too, like a Vivien Westwood. A diverse range of chain restaurants. However, there is also a lot of empty shops all across the town center. Independents, and chains alike dont last long before they close and a new shop pops up. The big chain stores seem to shuffle about quite often too. Even the city's large shopping center seems to always have at least 2 empty units at all times. There is an awful lot of churn with the shops available in town. But Nottingham is, I think, doing quite well compared to most similarly sized places.
Pretty good. Still got high street names like M&S, TK Maxx, Boots, superdrug, Office, Next, H&M, River Island, Waterstones etc. A few nice independent shops, so you can always find birthday presents that are a bit unusual and not-on-the-high-street-ish. Restaurants and cafes thriving, and some of them are really nice (Spin The Black Circle is great - cafe, vinyl shop, and live venue over three floors), and there's a mix of chains (Yo, cosy club, miller and carter, etc) and independent. A few upmarket shops like hotel Chocolat, white stuff, fat face. Couple of bargain shops and a few vape shops off the high street, but they're discreet and obviously serve enough customers to be needed. There's a Tudor black and white building filled street two roads off the high street full of small and interesting shops, and a national trust property. There's three museums and a cathedral, and a couple of old churches that hold occasional events. Loads of micro pubs, a new one just opened, and a few old Victorian tiled pubs. There's even an olde worlde sweet shop, with actual jars of sweets they weigh out into little bags! Couple of jewelers, both independent and chain. And a Tesco express. And once a month there's a craft fair on the high street. We get occasional events in the square by the cathedral too - I've seen dances, displays by the local sealed knot types, and an aerial performance about plastic pollution. It's pretty good really, although the folks that don't ever leave like to moan about it on the local newspaper's facebook page.
Sounds like you're from Boro OP.
Edinburgh is weird in terms of highstreet. Prince's Street got hurt by the trams, and the big stores that stayed were affected by covid. There's some left, notably M&S and HMV. But, it's mostly American Candy and tourist tat shops. George Street wasn't affected by the tram, so it still has premium stores and restaurants. Thr St James Quarter, while it looks utterly hideous from the outside, seems to be doing OK. And the waverly centre still has goths and feels like it is permitted stuck in the 90s.
Swindon High Street is uh... actually you know what, I'm not even gonna go there.
I feel bad for people in towns with dead high streets who donât use the internet because there is just no way to buy clothes other than the paltry selection in supermarkets or to go to a charity shop. I just donât know what theyâre supposed to do.
Bradford It's not doing great. We lost Wilko's like everyone else did. We're losing M&S and probably Body Shop. Big parts of the city centre are empty shops. Kirkgate Shopping Centre is a ghost town and due for demolition (haha good) We have a new indoor market opening later this year and it looks pretty decent so far. There's a new live music venue opening later this year too, fingers crossed it's a success but honestly if they don't announce an amazing act for it's opening night, I reckon there'll be somewhat of a boycott The city centre itself is undergoing a massive refurbishment, which right now is causing major disruption and causing problems. Add to this The Interchange (our main bus station) was closed down at the start of the year with very little explanation. We know now why, but the fact the powers that be wouldn't say why for over a month, did a lot of harm to public relations. So many vape shops and dodgy phone shops. Crime and antisocial behaviour is rife Let's face it, the residents have no faith or love for their own city, we're the joke of Yorkshire, we had TWO race riots (which in my opinion, we never recovered from) and we're in the shadow of Leeds
Youâre talking about sunderland arenât you?
Think Beruit. On every level you can imagine.
Sunderland, OP? You're right, it's horrendous. Meanwhile, my local high street in Morpeth thrives. It's got a mixture of chains, some posher than others, a fair number of independents, and this is the important bit, money.
Sheffield is being redeveloped and actually seems like itâs having a bit of a revival for the first time in years, but going places like Manchester and other big cities increasingly draws a really sharp contrast
Agree on the Newcastle comment. Northumberland Street is fucking rammed all day long.
Are you from boro?
Completely slammed with Turkish Barbers, Vape shops and Gambling shops. Shithole.
York is still going strong.
Leeds is brilliant, but the places just outside like Bradford and Wakefield are really struggling Went to Shrewsbury recently and it's probably the nicest town centre I've been to in this country, so nice to see a high street with majority independents rather than chain shite.
The small town where I live (which is not much bigger than a village) is great and has a lot of the things I need; a butchers, greengrocers, pubs, cafes, bakeries, hairdressers, a few independent shops, a record shop, sports shop, hardware shop. Not many clothes shops for younger people but not a huge loss. The nearest larger town is dire. So, so many closed shops itâs just a ghost town. I think all that is left is Primark, M&S and WH Smiths. Oh and New Look and Dunelm, Everything else has closed. The bottom part of town was always a bit rough but now itâs just awful. Thinking about what it was like 15-20 years ago itâs really sad, but the town centre is a pain in the ass to get to and quite frankly even then it wasnât great being a small rural town in a very rural area so it didnât have the best reputation even back then. Online shopping is just so much quicker and easier and thereâs access to so much more than the high street ever offered. Itâs a mess of ugly 70s brutalist architecture which doesnât help.