Does Anyone Recognise Their Home Town Anymore

[nailit]

from say 10-15 years ago??
Ive always said that Stoke has been a dump for years but
others have said the same about their own town.
In the last few years Ive been to other cities & towns and the high street has
been declining.
From seaside resorts like Blackpool to inner cities like Manchester,
All on the decline.

Any cities on the up?

[rowanwitch]

Battersea riverside maybe, but most of it is still small terraced houses, and small shops, bars and just a few expensive pretentious little independent shops among the usual suspects. It's still pretty tatty with a lot of deprivation the whole South Chelsea thing is mostly a myth.

[Prudie]

The actual architecture of central Dorchester looks pretty much the same, it's when you walk the 2 or 3 central streets you see the change, unit after unit of empty shops. Over the last 20 years or so we have lost Woolworths, M&S, Laura Ashley, Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Coast, Adams, the main post office, Next, Dorothy Perkins - the list goes on.

[Buenchico]

Canary42 clearly hasn't been doing much city centre shopping lately!

Chapelfield has now rebranded to become Chantry Place and Castle Mall has become Castle Quarter.

Here in Ipswich, we've also got two indoor shopping malls. Sailmakers is virtually deserted because the company that owns it still sees it as somewhere for retailers to sell their wares during normal shopping hours (and there are very few firms prepared to pay their high rents). The Buttermarket Centre is thriving though, because the owners put money into switching it from 'retail' to 'leisure'. It still has some shops but most of its trade is now people using the many eating places there or visiting the cinema or bowling alley, with the centre open until midnight for such activities (and even 24 hours for users of the gym).

[dustypuss]

Hi prudie . I thought you were talking about York for a moment.

[Canary42]

/// Canary42 clearly hasn't been doing much city centre shopping lately! ///

Not in Norwich, the dreaded Covid has prevented me venturing up into wildest Norfolk from the Portsmouth area where I now reside.

///Chapelfield has now rebranded to become Chantry Place and Castle Mall has become Castle Quarter.///

... and Windscale was rebranded as Sellafield for all the good that did ;-)

[jno]

true, Canary, and Lymeswold cheese didn't last long (though the late Miles Kington loved lampooning it). These 18th-century-village names are seldom the attraction marketers think they will be.

[rowanwitch]

I really like Norwich shops. Dave and I always squeezed in at least a half day there when we were in Norfolk. It was something to do before we jumped in a taxi to the Fat Cat or the Brewery tap.
Favourite shopping is probably Liverpool, big enough to have the shops you need but small enough to be able to get around it in a day.

[jno]

re London shopping, Oxford St is slowly falling apart, Primark flourishing but many of the big names gone. They tried putting a mountain at one end but that was a failure.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/marble-arch-mound-closure-intl-scli-gbr/index.html

But Bond St and Regent St are okay and the Westfield malls in east and west seem to be booming, though they dropped plans to build one in Croydon

[pat2604]

What would you say counts as my home town?

Wimbledon born and bred for 15 years
Village outside Bedford 10 years with a few years working in Europe

Norfolk 43 years

Is it where I was born and spent my childhood? Or where we have lived for such a long time. I'm never sure! I still call myself a Londoner, although Wimbledon was not in London in my time there. It was then Surrey.

Our local town has changed but so have most towns. The town centre is not the hub any more But the atmosphere is still much the same. Still a small friendly town that will never appeal to those seeking a busy life with lots of entertainment. Wherever you go, shops, doctors surgeries, just walking around, you will meet people you know to have a chat with.

Where we actually live probably hasn't changed in centuries.

[davebro]

I think my home town can only have improved! (tho' I haven't been there for 30 odd years).

Only downside is there will be fewer pubs!

[Canary42]

pat2604 makes a good point. Two of the places I've lived in during my existence have certainly changed --- their names.

Wootton Bassett became Royal Wootton Bassett
Staines became Staines-upon-Thames

Both occurred after I had left ;-)

But I take comfort in that Herne Bay, Charmouth, Sheringham, Swindon, Stevenage and Sandy remain the same !

[pat2604]

Staines, Stevenage, Sandy and Sheringham have all been familiar places sometime in my life, Canary. Sheringham is still.

[pixie374]

Home town, was the question. Mine improved loads. Until covid. I haven't been there since, but would imagine it's struggling, fighting against the Internet.

[pat2604]

My mother was born and bred Battersea Rowan. It used to be one huge slum area back in the 1920s. To me it was the home of the amazing fun fair and pleasure gardens. Mum hated telling people where she came from. When I tell people I was born and bred in Wimbledon and lived near the common, they think I must come from super,-rich stock. Far from the truth!