Town Centre Latest

[stevieb]

3 minutes ago, SatanGreavsie said:

. Fast forward...what went wrong? 

Cliff Morris. 

[ErnestTurnip]

Never mind immies or Cliff Morris, alcohol bought outside a pub or licensed premises should cost say 52.5 times as much. 

[ZiggyStardust]

possibly mentioned this here before.

Was working in the town centre at the time Dumplington (the Trafford Centre) opened.

Bolton responded by employing some woman who would spearhead the fight to win shoppers hearts, and keep them coming to the Town Centre.

Her first action was to scrap all free parking in the centre, and increase the charges for those that was already P&D.

Game over at that moment, then they killed the market hall.

[MickyD]

The council are full of empty promises of improvements. Odeon and Moor Lane bus station are crying out to be redeveloped and the council talk about building student accommodation between Le Mans Crescent and Blackhorse Street. 

[Nowack]

My daughter's damming verdict was that it made Stevenage look good. 

[Not in Crawley]

2 hours ago, Nowack said:

My daughter's damming verdict was that it made Stevenage look good. 

Ouch, that's saying something.

Well, I'm still looking forward to coming back in a couple of weeks, I don't go into the centre much if at all when I visit, but the food festival is on so will pop along to that before coming back.

[bolty58]

On 08/08/2022 at 18:46, stevieb said:

You schlepped from trinity St to the market place to save on 20p to have a piss. 

Tighter than cramp you pal! 🤣 

Everything else is accurate as fuck. 

Not me matey. Generous to a fault. Did you miss the bit where I said 'the missus needed a toilet'?

Towd her she's getting a she wee whether she likes it or not. She can use the back streets like I do then 😉

 

[bolty58]

On 08/08/2022 at 21:20, stevieb said:

Cliff Morris. 

Whoever it is, it has to be either incompetence, asleep at the wheel or an ulterior motive.

I would bet on the latter.

[Pablo]

On 08/08/2022 at 16:41, bolty58 said:

Some of you will have anticipated this. Got my first few hours of solid exposure to Bolton town centre today. Fucking hell, what an utter shit hole.

First problem was missus wanting a toilet. Ended up in the Marketplace vaults after trying a number of places. The bus station expect you to pay FFS!

Newport Street - as I don't speak Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian or Urdu it only needed tents and I would have believed I was in Calais.

The outskirts of Bolton are magnificent. Wildlife, countryside etc. up there with the best. The centre is a cesspit which wants knocking down and redeveloping but we all know that won't happen. Bury is miles ahead of us for a reason.

I always bollock the missus when she tells people in Oz we are from 'near Manchester'. I am beginning to see why she does it. Ashamed of what was once a proud town which people travelled for miles to do their shopping in.

 

Its always been a rough shithole, its delusional to think it was some stunning safe zone with trendy places to eat drink and shop.

Gangs of white lads mugging other white lads at the bus station, all round the fountains and on the Town Hall steps every weekend and summer, thats in 80's and 90's.

The best shops was talibs & stolen from Ivor ffs....Originals was decent but too expensive....and why it was robbed bling......espeiclly is you knew the lads working in it.

Only difference now, is less people due to edge of town shoping and more brown faces.

Edited August 10, 2022 by Pablo

[Traf]

7 minutes ago, Pablo said:

 

Its always been a rough shithole, its delusional to think it was some stunning safe zone with trendy places to eat drink and shop.

Gangs of white lads mugging other white lads at the bus station, all round the fountains and on the Town Hall steps every weekend and summer, thats in 80's and 90's.

The best shops was talibs & stolen from Ivor ffs....Originals was decent but too expensive....and why it was robbed bling......espeiclly is you knew the lads working in it.

Only difference now, is less people due to edge of town shoping and more brown faces.

Pretty much.

That said, I've no issues with it.

[mickbrown]

Aye. People forgetting it was rough as fuck on a Friday and Saturday night in the late 80s. So much so I remember them deploying police horses in the town centre at one point.

[only1swanny]

Waterstones are moving to the market place, huge shop to be moving. 

It does upset me massively with what's happened to the town centre, farnworth is now an empty husk, even smaller centres are struggling. 

Went to the Trafford Centre last night, worked there at hmv and its always been quite a nice place for me (long story), even that place is struggling with huge empty units, the difference being they are made to blend in rather than the mess that the centre shops are in. 

[fatolive]

2 hours ago, Pablo said:

 

Its always been a rough shithole, its delusional to think it was some stunning safe zone with trendy places to eat drink and shop.

Gangs of white lads mugging other white lads at the bus station, all round the fountains and on the Town Hall steps every weekend and summer, thats in 80's and 90's.

The best shops was talibs & stolen from Ivor ffs....Originals was decent but too expensive....and why it was robbed bling......espeiclly is you knew the lads working in it.

Only difference now, is less people due to edge of town shoping and more brown faces.

True. 
but it’s is more dilapidated now though, more empty buildings and def more beggars etc .
You are right re the rose tints to an extent , I found myself saying to my lad  on his way to level last Saturday, “ towns crap now, look at what you going out in , bloody trainers and a t shirt to one club, when I was your age, had wear shoes go in town and it was buzzing in the 90s” etc etc 

thing is , when I was doing the same in the 90s my dad was telling me how crap it was in comparison to when he first came here in the 60s , great place then, what with the needing a tie and pubs shutting at 10 . 
 

nightlife changes all the time , and fathers think their time was best , but I don’t think it was as scruffy and dilapidated in either of those periods compared to how it is now, even if there was the same amount of nobheads about . 

[Pablo]

1 hour ago, fatolive said:

True. 
but it’s is more dilapidated now though, more empty buildings and def more beggars etc .
You are right re the rose tints to an extent , I found myself saying to my lad  on his way to level last Saturday, “ towns crap now, look at what you going out in , bloody trainers and a t shirt to one club, when I was your age, had wear shoes go in town and it was buzzing in the 90s” etc etc 

thing is , when I was doing the same in the 90s my dad was telling me how crap it was in comparison to when he first came here in the 60s , great place then, what with the needing a tie and pubs shutting at 10 . 
 

nightlife changes all the time , and fathers think their time was best , but I don’t think it was as scruffy and dilapidated in either of those periods compared to how it is now, even if there was the same amount of nobheads about . 

 

My lad goes level too, but what the wear now is not a Bolton thing, its what they are all wearing round the country.

I like town, I go in 1 or 2 times a week for a quick pint or some food, some good places still knocking about.

I think the food is better now, than is ever was from my memory. All I could get was chippy or a pasty ffs, now we have all sorts.

Shops being empty is the big one really, meaning less people. This feels like a national issue really, the shopping estates have killed town centre shopping.

The big clubs in the 90's / 00's fetched a lot of people to the town....I do wonder had they not been open, maybe the place would have been just as dead back then.

Football at Burnden has to have had an affect too on the Town centre itself, I’m sure other areas have benefited though.

I do also think its a bit popular to "diss" the town and call it all sorts, it can be decent. But truth is, its not much worse than it ever was.

Plus most of the poeople that moan, either moved away from the place or have never lived here so dont even put anything back into the town, rocking up at UNIBOL every other week does not count either.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Pablo

[bolty58]

Spent a very pleasant day in Bury today. Chalk and cheese.

[Traf]

8 minutes ago, bolty58 said:

Spent a very pleasant day in Bury today. Chalk and cheese.

Your lunch sounds shit.

[royal white]

6 hours ago, Pablo said:

 

My lad goes level too, but what the wear now is not a Bolton thing, its what they are all wearing round the country.

I like town, I go in 1 or 2 times a week for a quick pint or some food, some good places still knocking about.

I think the food is better now, than is ever was from my memory. All I could get was chippy or a pasty ffs, now we have all sorts.

Shops being empty is the big one really, meaning less people. This feels like a national issue really, the shopping estates have killed town centre shopping.

The big clubs in the 90's / 00's fetched a lot of people to the town....I do wonder had they not been open, maybe the place would have been just as dead back then.

Football at Burnden has to have had an affect too on the Town centre itself, I’m sure other areas have benefited though.

I do also think its a bit popular to "diss" the town and call it all sorts, it can be decent. But truth is, its not much worse than it ever was.

Plus most of the poeople that moan, either moved away from the place or have never lived here so dont even put anything back into the town, rocking up at UNIBOL every other week does not count either.

 

I think it’s a myth that town has suffered because Burnden closed. 

[fatolive]

7 hours ago, Pablo said:

 

My lad goes level too, but what the wear now is not a Bolton thing, its what they are all wearing round the country.

I like town, I go in 1 or 2 times a week for a quick pint or some food, some good places still knocking about.

I think the food is better now, than is ever was from my memory. All I could get was chippy or a pasty ffs, now we have all sorts.

Shops being empty is the big one really, meaning less people. This feels like a national issue really, the shopping estates have killed town centre shopping.

The big clubs in the 90's / 00's fetched a lot of people to the town....I do wonder had they not been open, maybe the place would have been just as dead back then.

Football at Burnden has to have had an affect too on the Town centre itself, I’m sure other areas have benefited though.

I do also think its a bit popular to "diss" the town and call it all sorts, it can be decent. But truth is, its not much worse than it ever was.

Plus most of the poeople that moan, either moved away from the place or have never lived here so dont even put anything back into the town, rocking up at UNIBOL every other week does not count either.

 

Yeh fair comments, know it’s a national thing and not a Bolton thing as such . 
still scruffy twats though compared to us in our heyday, and we were little scruffy twats compared to how our dads dressed to go out,and it was ever thus ,  but our lads don’t have the choice now we had I don’t think . 
 

I do think it’s gone down hill, but it’s not just Bolton, I really don’t get the Bury love in either, I think that’s crap .
 

 

[stevieb]

"Swap jumpers and make another move" 

That was my eras time how to deal with nob head bouncers. 

My dad and his mates method to deal with over zealous bouncers (when I was a teen) was to put black socks over their dad trainers... 🤣 

Fuck knows what they did at our age. 

[tomski]

2 hours ago, royal white said:

I think it’s a myth that town has suffered because Burnden closed. 

Even in it lowest times it’s still 6k of people not in the town which is massive.

[royal white]

3 hours ago, tomski said:

Even in it lowest times it’s still 6k of people not in the town which is massive.

Not sure how you’ve managed to work that out? 

[bolty58]

8 hours ago, Traf said:

Your lunch sounds shit.

😄 Aye mate, took some swallowing 😉

[Ghana White]

Bit unlucky Bolton with Whiteheads  selling up and market hall being revamped as an empty hall.. otherwise just gross incompetence from the council that killed the shopping side. Real shame. It was always a rough night out though. Although I remember bringing some mates from uni in the 90s out in bolton and they said it was like being in Spain on holiday with all the people out and bars packed... I feel like the towns not moved with the times much for a beer although definitely maybe and northern monkey have started to change that. I wouldn't rebuild Crompton Place, just have a massive square for events and less empty shops.

[DazBob]

9 hours ago, tomski said:

Even in it lowest times it’s still 6k of people not in the town which is massive.

Not sure it'd be that high.  The majority of folk going to the game would bypass the town centre completely.

Sure, Burnden closing won't have helped the town centre, but it's by no means anywhere near the killer blow.  The list of other, more important factors is nigh on endless - quite a few of them, but not all, being council fuck-ups.

Online shopping.

Trafford Centre.

Middlebrook.

The three satellite retail parks. 

Closing one end of the Arndale Centre.

Expensive parking.

Building the new bus/rail exchange fucking miles away from the Market Place.

Taking the budgies out of the Arndale.

Knocking down Diamonds.

 

All town and city centres have suffered massively from online shopping, but you need your local councils to adapt.  Ours never did ... and made decisions anyone with half a brain could see would make a bad situation even worse.

It's been said a million times before, but the town centre is far, far too big.  It all needs condensing into a much smaller area, something like The Rock in Bury. Flatten all the rest of it on the outskirts and turn it into nice, green spaces so that the immediate approach actually looks quite pleasant, rather than rows and rows of closed down shops and/or knocked down buildings.

That'd all cost a bit of money though I suppose, which could be a problem.

 

 

 

[L/H White]

online shopping is the killer reason for town centres, they're all shite

why drive into town and pay for parking when I can get it sent to my door within a few hours

pound bakery, vape shope, nail shop, barbers and repeat

flatten them all and build some mosques imo