Is This Place Even Worth Fixing?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ย. 2024
- / wanderingturnip
www.buymeacoff...
The 7th episode of the Death of the High Street - SLOUGH
This has been the most reccomended place for me to visit down south, so it had to be the first on my list to check out that isn't in the north.
Turns out the south's high streets are struggling as well. I spent the day exploring the main shopping area, and checking out the inside shopping complex which has already been halved in size and apparently will be turned into houses.
I wanted to learn about the history and the library offered a little into Slough's past, but as a town it has done well in stripping itself of its interesting previous lives.
It is also home to one of the biggest Tescos in the world. As this is one of the biggest causes of the declining high streets, I had to pay that a visit.
Thank you so much for watching and the support.
Until next time,
W.T
#abandoned #empty #derelict #town #explore #england #beach #property #buildings #invest #levellingup #towns #money #history #online #shopping #order #prime #amazon
Brighthouse was a notorious rent to own company, accused of targeting the "poorest, most desperate families" and operating in the "most deprived areas" of the UK, charging exorbitant interest. Not a great loss to any high street!
Same with Perfect Home. They were both in Rotherham but have closed. No great loss at all. Back before everyone got credit local furniture/home shops would sell things "on tick" or HP monthly payments without the high interest rates. It was the only way poor families could afford to buy things. I remember my mum going into a shop called Pecks in Rotherham to make her payments
So happy to see the derelict premises of this dodgy company. The goods that Brighthouse sold were classed as 'graded', meaning they were customer returns, many of which had intermittent faults.
Absolutely. Glad to see it go.
@@antonycharnock2993 perfect home were awful, apparently they have gone into liquidation.
Have you heard seen 50 shades of chav a poem based on bright house 😂😂😂😂 uk birthdates collapsed when bright house closed Down many a single mum on benefits couldn’t entertain tyrus or declon on the courner suit
Greg's closing down has got to be the nail in the coffin for any town. 😂
Someone call the UN. A humanitarian disaster is happening in Slough. It's a pasticide.
That really is a sorry day Gregs turning off the sausage roll oven. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Gregs prices have skyrocketed anyway
To be fair, sausage rolls could never be a big seller in Slough
@@seanrmWhy's that? Do the people of Slough not like pastry? 😇
I live in Slough and you've down a good job in telling Slough's story. A couple of things, the giant Debenhams was also large M&S next to it. Both gone. Even Poundland has closed. The Shopping Centre is supposed to be bulldozed and turned into flats. But that is apparently a 20 year(!) development. Glad you highlighted the big supermarkets and what they have done to the town centre. The Horlicks factory development is one of the few bright spots on a pretty depressing place. The bus station which cost £11M and didn't protect you from the weather, was burnt by vandals. No one seems to want to fix it.
Also Slough is just a 5 min drive from the King and his castle in Windsor. The two towns are a perfect example of the wealth gap in the UK
Yep! I remember finally earning enough to move to Windsor. Moved away from the area completely now, but fond memories of both towns
I do agree about the Tesco and Salisburys, they killed the town centre. Salisbury (it was a Tesco site they were forced to sell) stands on the old Greyhound Stadium that hosted many live events and brought a lot of people into the town on Friday nights.
Yes DLR London. Apart from getting workers in and out of the centre (was closed much of the time out business hours) it was a Flu and Hypothermia breeding ground as it was so cold. Being next to the River which is 10 times COLDER than other parts of London protected by buildings.
How the developers got away with that is a puzzle as it cost a pretty penny for girders and glass.
@@limyrob1383You should ask Aldi and Lidl to open stores.We have both and they sell things much cheaper.
You know a place is screwed when even a poundland can't survive
I drove a delivery van for an electrical company around that area in the early 90's.
I was stunned when I arrived at an address in Slough to deliver a fridge and the owner took me through the garden to what was initially a large garden shed. This owner had converted the garden shed into two separate living quarters that he was letting out to tenants.
I've since learned this is very common in the area. The local council even pay Housing Benefit to some landlords for claimants to reside in these "huts" which I find absolutely disgusting.
In 2013 (I think) the council hired a company to fly a plane over the town and they identified 6350 "suspicious" sheds or garages that were emitting heat. I remember cycling down numerous residential roads in Slough in the 80s and there being very few cars parked on the road in the evenings. If you do the same now then there are a lot of cars parked on the road despite there being no obvious reason (No nearby shops, offices, train station or new homes built / House has a big drive way with 2 or 3 cars parked on it). We've always suspected that this was going on and that the council (Labour) ignores it.
@@chrisf9377
This country (The UK) has gone to heck and there's no sign of it improving regardless of which political party happens to be in power. Tories dont "fix" any of the wrongs Labour did, and vice versa.
I've a sneaky suspicion they (the hidden elite) are ramping up for a huge reset and population cull of the surplus "breathers" and "eaters" that they feel are surplus to requirements going forward into their new paradigm.
Good luck and stay safe.
Our future was never our own.
That sounds odd, with reports of slaves (modern, and domestic) it may be likely a few were taking advantage of an already strange situation, but, if a guy can "rent" at the bottom of a garden, for safety, in a time when dodgy landlords do worse, who's to blame him for asking, or trying?
And the shed inhabitants work in Heathrow.
Hey!! I live in one of the mini apartments which you refer to as “ Huts “ hmm they aren’t that bad besides landlord Greg said I maybe getting a bucket this year so I can finally have a toilet.
Ironic, the "Shopping Centre" that killed the high street, has now died too
I don't think that counts for all shopping centres. At least the really big ones like Trafford, Metrocentre, Westfield, Meadowhall, they remain very active with a ton of footfall and business. It's mainly in smaller towns where these complexes are struggling.
Who would have thought that allowing a supermarket to build the worlds biggest Tesco adjacent to the town centre would result in the closure of all the smaller shops.😮
It is NOT the worlds biggest Tesco
@Steve-ix2un oh well, disregard my post then, the store had obviously nothing to do with the demise of the town centre.
Welcome to George Orwell 1984 and the WEF smart cities
Mental council paid back handers to allow it , one makes a billion a year profit other shops gone in the area , idiots.....
Same thing happened up here, Tescos opened and killed the town
The "Americanisation" of Britain, with ever larger shopping centres (many out of town) and best accessed by car, is not a good fit for a much smaller, compact country.
It has happened in other parts of Europe, too - but nothing as bad as in the UK.
it's their own fault , for electing Trump wannabees like boris . but just as in the US I feel sorry for the other half of the population who didn't vote for those clowns
Hardly malls are empty here as well in NYC skyscapers are empty in NYC becoming apartments for a cool 4500 dollars a month.A lot of people work from home.If they hare American things then why is there a market for them in UK?
Ireland also has become totally Amercanised. The 24/7 work and hustle culture has been indoctrinated into the general public due to all the American multi-national HQs based there and neo-liberalism on steroids. Rural Irish towns have become run down like many UK towns, small businesses and pubs simply can't survive. I live abroad and when I return home, my country has become largely unrecognizable.
Simplistic drivel.
I think that shopping using a car is less about Americanisation and more about people having more money, higher income jobs and so they can afford the money to buy cars, and choose easier life over tradition. Also the population getting older might be part of reason. It is not easy to carry all shopping by hand to home when age 60+
All those giant, empty spaces and we still can't seem to offer the homeless a roof over their heads and some warmth for a night.
they all go to the mosque
Abandoned buildings arent warm
@@CAMSLAYER13 probably better than being outside in freezing conditions though.
All the homeless need to go to france and come back on a din ghy
I think it comes down to that fact that many UK town centres were decimated during the 20th century with awful architecture and terrible town planning. The shops were the ONLY reason to visit many, and now the internet has allowed people to say away from these god awful places. Whenever I find myself in a vibrant high street or town centre in the UK they all have once thing in common; they are actually pleasant places to be and spend time even if just passing by because they have some beauty and character left.
absolutely true, but disorganisation finds itself a problem everywhere, the notion renting or buying is ok for anyone, anywhere is leading to disintegration and division, people need to know what to go for (and why) to make retail, leisure, pleasure, and other sectors of the economy to make sense
Then finished off with diversity. Thank you, politicians.
The Three Tuns Pub was one of the original coaching Inns for the London to Bath run. The area out back were stables for the horses. The Herschel Pub was a lively Irish pub. Sad to see such decay. The chimney in the Trading Estate is for the independent power station. Slough Estates Ltd owns the entire land there.
From an old ex-Slough person.
Thanks, I wonder when The Three Tuns poured it's first pint.
I remember The Three Tuns Pub. Was brought up in Britwell Estate and would regularly visit the Burnham Village shops, once each an individual trade..Bakers, Electrical, Shoe Shop Butchers, Bike shop etc and all killed off by the Village Supermarket.
I also remember a posh Department Store in Slough called Seuters..or Suters.
And as School kids we'd often go to the back of Mars Factory where some of the factory girls would give us some reject bubble gum.
Old ex Sloughie here too. Loved my home town back in the day. Sad to see The Three Tuns shut. I can still recall the sweet smell of the Mars factory, and the swings in Lascelles Park, Suters department store and the indoor market, and trips to London and Windsor with our mum on the train. The Golden Egg cafe. Brunel Bus Stn. Sad to see the March of so-called progress sucking the heart and soul from everywhere.
@@juliee.7072 ...Sounds just like my old Slough. And yes I remember the lovely sweet smell coming from the Mars factory on a windy day.
I keep promising myself a trip out to Burnham Village where as a kid I would regularly buy a sack of fresh straw from the Pet Shop for our rabbit....carrying the straw on my back in all weathers across fields that seemingly no longer exist, looking at Google Street View...new houses everywhere.
Surprised its not been knocked down and turned into an Indian restaurant yet as thats what happened to the Yew Tree and the Crown Pubs from what my uncle who lives there told me , only 3 pubs left in the whole of Sloughdonistan LOL
I moved to England in 2015 and although many aspects are good, I was massively surprised at the squalor, and how run down places can be here
Switzerland it is not! England has always had smog and dirt.
Where from?
I moved to Manchester from the Republic of Ireland in 2002 and initially this was my experience too
I moved from Estonia in 2010 and although Estonia is no paradise, seeing the decline of the country I’ve come to as a young man to study has been shocking. I love this country so much and I want it to thrive but there seems to be nothing the regular folk can do to help lift it up. It all comes from those above us, in the Parliament…
Welcome to over ten years of Tory rule
I grew up in Slough, walked home from school everyday via the High St, through the late 90's and mid 2000's. Definitely used to have a heck of a lot more going for it. Loads of great shops back then - HMV being my particular favourite. My folks still live there and it really is quite sad whenever I go back to visit them. That Tesco definitely was one of the final straws for the retail sector there - especially, as you highlighted, its criminal proximity to the High St. And yes that burnt structure was the spanking new bus station - lasted I think less than a year before that fire destroyed it. Slough Council declared bankruptcy in the last couple of years - it's clear to anyone how poorly managed the town has been for so long. Very sad, but not a unique story, as your excellent series is documenting. If you were down in the area for another day I'd have suggested taking the train one stop to neighbouring Windsor and walking through Peascod St (the name of their High St) for an example of a High St that is the complete opposite. Thriving like mad. Being opposite Windsor Castle might have something to do with that. Compared with being opposite a different type of Castle (Tesco).
Thanks for posting this very interesting comment..👍 I think it's great when people who know an area take the time to explain in more detail..
it was great in 80s - remember 'our price' next to marks?
Shit. I remember when the station was built, it was a big deal for Slough
It is mainly not poor management but the strangling of local authorities by the central government with their austerity 'cuts'. The " Return to Victorian England". The councils are going bankrupt mainly because central 'government' stopped financing them as much. The Institute for Government reports:
"Local authority ‘spending power’ - the amount of money authorities have to spend from government grants, council tax and business rates - fell by 17.5% between 2009/10 and 2019/20, before partially recovering. However, in 2021/22 it was still 10.2% below 2009/10 levels." That is without taking inflation into account. In real terms the local authorities have suffered a near 40% reduction in revenue with a large increase in needs.
The institute for Government:
"The fall in spending power is largely because of reductions in central government grants. These grants were cut by 40% in real terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20, from £46.5bn to £28.0bn (2023/24 prices)."
No local authority, especially those with a poor, deprived population, could survive such cuts.
Slough and its like is what the Central ( Conservative ) government wanted... a return to a small entitled, privileged rich group and a servile poor deprived majority with local authorities unable to help or cope.
But councils have been short sighted and ignorant by encouraging shopping malls and by ( driven by lack of money) increasing business rates to unsustainable levels..
They are also not 'green'. People love trees, parks, green spaces..'nice places' to come to. If the councils had greened and made town centres pleasant, attractive to visit, and provided good cheep public transport to those places people would have come into town...and shopped!
Where I live the council has a policy of 'nature in town'..and people flock to the centre where' nature' is
everywhere plus a variety of cafés, restaurants, places to live too, makes a huge difference. Instead of "shopping malls" there is decent in town housing ...which means shoppers are already in town..etc etc.
The public transport is good and cheap and free on weekends ..which means on Saturdays the centre is booming.
The town where I live has also brought one or two what they call commercial 'locomotives' to the centre and housed one of them ( a major electronics outlet) in a gracious, previously municipal building. This has massive footfall and is surrounding by greenery, cafés and cinemas..plus night clubs and many little shops and is serviced by a tram stop...etc etc
Another great move by the council is to initially finance a very innovative art project in the centre which
now boosts tourism to the town which previously was not a tourist destination. Another initiative is to have made the centre walkable and cyclable with many many very large trees....etc etc
nah - its because of foreigners taking over@@daydays12
You need to do a series on the bankrupt councils of England. Would be a big hit, look into the incompetence of council members in places like Woking
And 13 years of tory grant cuts, but you know that!
And Croydon!
lifetime's work there my friend 🤣
Theres a limit to how much enthusiasm you can portray a subject, I think such a drab subject may not get many views
lol no more like Badly spent money on Regenerative projects but not solving the core issue of Costly business property. @@colincampbell4261
my home town has had Millions spent on it , tidal barrier etc some of the older Grade 1 shop fronts fixed up but No shops can afford the rates and Rent the Non-local landlords are asking because the Good chunk of the stores on the front are either owned by a corporation (shopping centers) or its property owned by some Foreign tycoon.
What is sad is those small independent shops like sport shops, shoe shops, camera, electronics,etc where you could try things before you buy and have some experienced sales person give you advice. That is what we have lost.
I find it very sad and hard to swallow, seeing Slough like this. I lived in this area from 79-2017 and spent so many great times in a thriving high street. Could literally spend all day there with so many decent shops and local sightseeing. I remember when big supermarkets opened and the high street started to die off. Lots of trouble and crime. My childhood was great, this is simply heartbreaking.
I used to work in slough 20 years ago in an officially sad building as all the windows were tinted, No matter how sunny it was outside it looked miserable and grey from the inside. That's when I took up smoking so I had an excuse to go outside.
When I was at University in Preston (a long time ago now), the brands on the highstreet were complaining about the rates, and one by one they all started to close. It seems like there's a simple solution - lower the rates, which will lead to more stores being open, enticing more footfall. Why would anybody want to visit a highstreet that just has charity shops and boarded up shops?
It seems that the people in charge of the highstreets just haven't got a clue, or don't care.
Do you think part of the problem could be people don't support there local stores anymore they prefer to buy stuff from Amazon or supermarkets
Also the shutdown of nearly all bank branches has reduced footfall significantly in my market town. The banks are making more money whilst destroying any semblance of customer service. Slough was an awful place even 40 years ago.
In my town, Gosport Hampshire, most of the buildings in the high street are owned by big corporations for hedge funds. They charge massive rents to the usual high street retailers and as they close down don’t seem to care. So it’s a double whammy rent and rates.
As stated here Slough's Council effed up, so my guess is that they either couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery or there was significant corruption. Probably a combo of the 2😟, I'd bet a significant amount that the companies involved have names in common with the council.
Problem is business rates aren't set by local councils. They're set by central government. And who owns all the buildings and land? Investment companies who are owned by rich elites and Tory supporters.
So yeah, we had a perfectly good bus station in Slough, the council in it's infinite wisdom then decided it needed to be completely flattened to allow for offices, the new bus station was built (the monstrosity you found) only to be set on fire in a reported arson attack back in 2022.
Slough was a once great high street with two bustling shopping centres, many places to eat etc, unfortunately over the course of the past 15-20 years it has just got worse and worse year on year.
I am 35 and after 32 years of living in Slough moved away in February 2020, my only regret was not doing it sooner!
My mum lives in slough, i live in Lincoln. I have to visit that dump 3 or 4 times a year. Talk about depressing, each time i go it gets worse, we used to go to the all you can eat chinese restaurant ( closed since covid )next door to the boarded shopping centre in your vid was the odeon cinema, the regeneration has stalled due to council bankruptcy, the site of the indoor market was sold to a indian/Pakistani businessman who buggered of with all the cash. He raised the rents on the stallholders, drove them out, drove down the price of the property, sold at inflated price and hasn't been heard of since. The bus station is a joke that just isnt funny, the library curve an eyesore, all of it just reeks of a town ready to give up the ghost. Behind the bus station, you get the train station , this is a little gem however shame you missed it. The opening credits of the British office show Slough in its glory, where the curve/ bus station are situated was the old roundabout just opposite brunel University which you missed also ( literally spitting distance from library/bus st) bulldoze Slough and start again from scratch.
indoor market, as a kid i adored it , that was the 60s......sigh
I feel like your channel could dovetail nicely into how car dependency and lack of walkability in these places destroys communities and doesn't foster a sense of "third place". The gentleman on the bike touched on that when he mentioned he just goes to an off license and takes his beer home because the pubs that have remained aren't places you'd want to visit. We need places besides home and work (which is the same for some) to unwind and socialize and places like pubs, parks, the high street, and generally places that aren't next to noisy, busy streets help foster a sense of community. The US is in the middle of a loneliness epidemic in part thanks to poor city planning and infrastructure which has prioritized cars over livable spaces.
As always, I wish you and your channel nothing but success. You've been doing such great work. Love the new logo with the black and yellow jacket :)
This is spot on - UK massively underserved for third places. Most countries in Europe do this a lot better
@@Alger0us Absolutely agree.
We vote with our wallets
My son was thrilled to bump into you last weekend at the local tip!
Oh yeah was that at tod tip? I’m always there as I can’t be bothered with the bin men 😂
Are you sure it was the tip? It could have been Slough.
The US mirrors this in its abandoned shopping malls and acres of empty parking lots. Thank you for taking us with you. You brighten up the blight.
yes, but america is haphazard in its investment, too, it doesn't understand itself, either, american businessmen don't understand what america is, they only vote and donate for tax dollars
yes, but america is haphazard in its investment, too, it doesn't understand itself, either, american businessmen don't understand what america is, they only vote and donate for tax dollars
@@matthowardtv America has always been everyone’s yet no one’s somehow. “The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind” -BD
First dead shopping centre i visited was when our daughter, teaching in a nearby city, took us through one in Nihama, Shikoku island..... due to population decline, presumably....in 2012
@@neville132bbkcenter*
The chimney you touched was the Mars factory. Used to be able to smell the chocolate when you walked passed
No that's the power station they build decades ago to burn waste. But the chimney he saw from the high street was horlicks,
We were recently in Norwich, and it is thriving. All of the shopping streets and shopping centres were busy, with a huge variety of businesses. Lots of pubs, cafes etc too. We walked around on a Tuesday afternoon and everywhere was busy. So refreshing to see, and I can see why people would want to live there.
MUST BE MAJORITY WHITE THATS WHY
I moved to Norwich 4 years ago from London and love it there is a real ethos of shopping local and independent...that said the old Debenhams right in the centre is a real eyesore and I wish tge council would hurry up renovating the gardens by the Primark!
Yess moved to Norwich a year ago and it's incredible. I would love for him to come to Norwich to show somewhere that's managing to still thrive and explore why that is, have no idea how its always so busy
I grew up in Slough and the high street was buzzing with all the usual brands. Soo many memories in BHS, Littlewoods and C&A bored while my mum shopped! Its dead now and not very safe.
folks also don't realise everything else is pretty much retail, including banking, hotels, air flights/holidays, even recruitment, it's all customer service when there's a transaction involved, we need more competition, as well as sense to see it all
Woolworths on Farnham road i have the best memories of as that store had everything and quick memory test do you remember the Safeway on Farnham road and C and A in Slough high street ? that was back in the 90s when the town had a community spirti and was majority Irish and Welsh community in that time before the 00s when it seems like all of India took over the town lol
The chimney is Slough's redeeming feature 🤣
Sainsbury’s used to be slough greyhound and football ground , I loved Slough back then , I grew up there from 8 to 20 years old -) in the 70s , great place to grow up back then ! Such a mix of people all getting on , I left in 1980 , now I am French and live in a village over looking the sea in Corsica , not bad for a kid from Slough ,
I was born there too we Slough natives are very clever in a Del Trotter way LOL I managed to escape the town too , seems like all my friends i went to school with either ended up working in Dubai or another foreign nation or they live in posh parts of the UK nowadays , no one in their right mind ever stays living in Slough its as if God placed us all there as a test to see how many could escape but saying this back in the 90s i enjoyed living on Long Readings Lane number 28 it was brilliant we had 2 dogs a 3bed home own garage with it and my dad at the time was earning ok money and had a car , sadly when my mother died in October of 1998 thanks to the incompetence at Wexham Park Hospital my dad moved us all away from Slough as he kept seeing my late mum Patricias ghost round every street corner , that Wexham park is still a bad place it should have been closed down years ago in my opinion as most people who go in there never came out alive.
@@christineayres7199 i just moved away from slough, lived in long readings as well, was born there, mum got the keys from the council, 1956, spanking new house, mum loved it so much , she bought it, 2016 mum died (do not ask) everything went downhill from there, i tried my best, but gave up and moved away this year, nice memories but i do not miss slough
@@reginaseelaIam It was much better back then in the 80s and 90s but after my mother died in 98 my dad could see then how shit the area was getting , good example some random illegal migrant woman turns up at the front door one day with a fake baby in a pram begging for food , my dad had to get the cops in the end to clear her off this was back when the Police still had pride in their work unlike today where the only pride they have is attending a pride parade lol and they have to allow the illegals now to do what they want so to be politically correct lol but yeah Slough was a decent place once but Liebour destroyed what was left of it.
@@christineayres7199 i called the police only once for the behaviour of my nearbys 2021, Christmas, i was scared witless, they came 7 hours later(next day) and patted me on the head and told me i best move away.....then i got a doctor visit me a day later to give me pills.....i still like the police but i think their rights have been taken away to do anything and told that the victims of society are mentally ill. very sad
Grew up in Slough and lived there for the first 37 years of my life. You are 100% correct that the degeneration began with the arrival of the giant Tesco.
Fun fact, at one point the Sainsbury's which you walked past in the video (which is less than a 10 min walk from the giant Tesco) was another Tesco, until they were forced to sell it due to anti competion laws. So for around 2 years there were two giant Tesco's operating at the same time within walking distance of one another. The mind boggles.
I live in Slough and been here for the last 14 years and I have seen the town go from high to low. Back in late 2000s, the town's high street was booming. There were full crowds and during weekends it become very busy. There were numerous shops within the mall and outside which attracted numerous crowds.
And now when i walked the high street just last week i was sad to see Slough become a ghost-town.
I remember Slough in the 90s the early 90s was cool , I went to St Anthonys and then St Josephs high school and we used to have proper disco parties and all sorts of events with other families at the schools , used to meet up with friends to go shopping on Farnham road or in central slough at the Queensmare the M and S was a nice store as was Debenhams etc now all gone , I remember all the old pubs too as my late father used to go to them often , like the Crown , the Red Lion , the Lynchpin and Jolly Londoner sadly to me it is like someone erased my childhood from existence , change is not always a good thing , what was good was the old ways of the force as they would say in Star Wars lol
It's nice to see a perspective from someone outside. Being born in Slough, I take it for granted and don't realise how dead the high street is. Slough was somewhat vibrant 10 years ago, but now it's really just a town designed to keep everything in close proximity. Tesco near the train station, high street with barely anything left, and apartment blocks everywhere designed to be as close to the train station as possible so people can leave at their earliest convenience.
I’m in slough all my life , it’s fucking dead , you don’t get numb to it
Its interesting you should point out that a decade ago Slough seemed a more vibrant place. I'd argue one of the major causes of the recent decline in highstreets is 13 years of austerity and stagnating wages. Covid and to a lesser extent, Brexit, have also played their part, but this trend predates both of those. High streets were already facing challenges from online shopping and the proliferation of out of town retail parks. But the recession of 2008 and the disastrous policies that stemmed from it have really destroyed many town's high streets. Street view on Google Maps is a very good tool for tracking this decline. If I look at images of my own town on there (incidentally, Bolton, the subject of a recent Death of the High Street video) the appearance of the town in 2008, just on the cusp of the global financial crash is significantly better than now. If you take money out of people's pockets for 10+ years its unsurprising that they spend less and less of it on the high street.
Was there 10 years ago and quite liked it!
Burnham is the only part worth anything.
That's interesting, all i heard about Slough was it had office space, but i don't think even with office space or whatever, a town thrives post-industry here, in my view, it may be a multitude of businesses, and industries, and media/creative things of craft and other ways/traditions, and a lot else that makes it even worth seeing/being there for, as many of us don't share in the same thing, like office workers, who have their own things, too, even with a vibrant, or "busy" area, how much is there for you to go between? i or you may only like a few places, shops, to go to, surely?
Although I’m a UK citizen, I find your videos thoroughly entertaining. You’re almost doing what I wish bald and bankrupt would do - poke around the UK a bit more! High street has been doomed to fail since the early 10s in my view, a shame but you can understand why. Especially with the points you raise about hyperstores and the obvious online shopping.
A lot less sex tourism too!
Another honest episode of the decline of the High Street! I was there in Slough today and it is as bad as you have depicted! We walked the length and breath of the High Street, past The Observatory and Queensmere Shopping Centres and there was rubbish, pigeons and dirt everywhere, most shops were shut down, and the car park was dark, damp, dingy, poorly lit, with lifts not working on all 6 floors. The bus station, the victim of arson a few months ago adding to the terrible squalor, forlorn and dejected look! It was awful!
It’s especially galling when one sees the bank branches closing down, that were getting taxpayers bailouts doing the aftermath of the credit crunch of 2008/2009 and now all these banks have moved online - the saddest part is that these areas were only beginning to recover from 2008/2009 in 2019, then Covid hit in 2020 with all of these gains being wiped out - we are even beginning to hear rumours that despite its recently changed ownership/management, despite its building extension programme, the Trafford Centre in Manchester is in financial trouble yet again - if any more of its anchor tenants move out, let alone any smaller stores, this could very well mean the end for the Trafford Centre and many other “out of town” shopping centres - even the old Clerys Department Store in Dublin’s O’ Connell St has been boarded up since before Covid and no-one knows what will happen to this beautiful listed building opposite the GPO - other rumours about Easons bookshop and the Arnotts Department store on Dublin’s Henry St abound as well, so no-one yet knows what will happen to there as well as Brown Thomas on Grafton St, even M&S here in the U.K.
Town of the year
@@mister_M. Towns of the year is tipton West Bromwich and Walsall in the West Midlands
@@Bingo-zd1gp waht a tip
you leave the pidgeons outta this, it aint there fault......lol
William Herschel was also a renowned composer, best known for his 24 symphonies. The Guy was multi talented
And his sister Caroline? as well
Talented Family @@mauk2861
??
You aving a laugh😂
It's definitely getting more like a Post Apocalyptic movie out there. I worked on the Sluff Trading Estate for about 9 months 30 years ago. It was a busy place and I remember the Observatory shopping centre being a new extension to the older Queensmere. Another historic brand name from Slough was Dulux paint. UK High streets are in a death spin and I can't see a solution. Even changing to housing will only make things slightly less bad. No shops, no jobs, no shoppers etc will just leave town centres as dead centres. At least in Slough they will have an enormous Tesco in town rather than out of town for all the apartment renters who won't be able to afford a car or a drink in a pub.
12:34 you make me laugh “wow, is that a chimney?” It’s like you’ve found your oasis in the middle of Slough!
19:13 TU is Sainsbury’s clothing brand. Like Asda has George and Tesco has F&F- Five nights at Freddie’s… 😂
It was lovely to see Slough, obviously modern day Slough, it is cleaner than I thought it would be but it is lovely. I was born in Slough 1956 now in New Zealand
Soon 70 years old, for sure you'll not go back to slough 😂
i was born in 1957, upton hospital which is now slough but was eton when born,
Lived near Slough for several decades, and never once felt the need to enter the town centre, let alone shop there. It was a dreary poorly-planned mess even in the 1970s.
I'm an American who lived in Blackpool some years back. I know- it's a long story, but I really enjoyed seeing your updates on that area. It's been in decline for years. It's kind of depressing to see so many businesses closing.
Blackpool would be ok if it did have too many beds and breakfasts. A few nice hotels with entertainment would make Blackpool a decent place.
Blackpool has been a depressing shit hole for decades
I used to drive through Slough to get to the motorway and was so glad I was only going through it!
I don't recognise this country anymore and to be honest I'm glad my life is nearly over because I hate what the UK has become.
That’s so sad, but I do understand your sentiment. There are still lovely places out there though
I feel ya…
That's such a sad comment but I get it 😢
well all i will say is i don't wish i was a teenager or young years anymore i once wished it but not anymore!
Because NO ONE even in these comments are honest about why Slough is a Sh1thole now ... we all know it BUT no one says it.
I was in boarding school in Slough. They sold the grounds to Tesco to build that huge one. There was a preservation order on the old cedar trees, but they 'accidentally' knocked them down. Back then (late 7os) the High Street was very busy. I used to know Slough by its pubs back then, the best ones were off the High Street though.
Funny how big old trees get "accidentally" knocked down. /s
Licensed Victuallers if I remember it being called.
@@johnmccormick1648 That's the one
yeah i remember that, though abroad at the time, i did sign the petition, i think mother nature is getting her revenge for that
I love your videos mate. And I love your love for chimneys! Hopefully in ten years time you'll be doing a series on the successful regeneration of these towns... Who knows! ❤
Slough was miss managed, they sold the whole high street off to one developer and he’s in jail for money laundering. All the big brands couldn’t renew leases and that’s that, dead high street.
Online shopping was the death knell for so many high streets in the UK and the future, if there is one, lies in independent specialist retail outlets where you can buy something genuinely different to whatever the giant chain stores offer but you need a thriving, monied middle class for this to work.
“The inventor of the zebra crossing, somewhere around here is a warehouse full of black and white paint”, just spat out my tea 😂😂
Haven't seen an electric Belisha beacon here in NZ for years..all done with super fluoro orange discs.
I grew up, went to school and worked round this area many years ago. I also remember the Three Tuns pub, which in my day, was never without custom. Incredible to see it like it is now. Seriously man, there was a time when Slough was something; really mate.... just so, so busy. Many of the UK's, even World's, biggest companies had bases in Slough. Fun historic fact... Before trains, Maidenhead (next town west of Slough) was a far more of an important place simply because it was the farthest a set of horses and carriage could travel from London without a need to stop. When horse and carriages were replaced by trains, Slough, with it's proximity to London yet cheap land prices, offered a great place to set up factories. The Welsh connection comes directly from the GWR traveling from Cardiff to London. Slough would have been a great place for young Welsh folk to come and earn a living without going down a mine. It also meant that goods from America, landed on the Welsh coast by ship, could be quickly conveyed directly to London overnight ! As for Slough now... well, you can see what happened to the High Street but there's still plenty of jobs in the area.
Never had a chance to say before but thanks for all your videos.... totally mind blowing from my 'old duffer's' perspective ! Things have changed so, so much.
My father was a young Welsh lad that you referred to. He came to Slough with his family in the late 30s and lived in Upton Lea.
so the real question should be: how come a pub that is never without custom shuts down.
_"Depressing, disheartening..."_ - then, *"WOW!"* 😍
Said Turnip whilst wand'ring through Slough..
A brick chimney he'd spied
Punching tall, full of pride!
He thinks the town's wonderful now! 😆
Great poem, but would 'spied' fit in better as 'espied'?
Very good...👍
@davidore2176 😁 Thanks, David! 👍 So appreciate you commenting on my little limerick.. I agree, "espied" is a better word, but the line would them have one syllable too many and I'm soooo fussy about that.. I know this is far from my best humorous verse as I wrote it quickly after the upload, but I read so many limericks which don't "flow" and it drives me nuts.. I'd even change some of Edward Lear's work if I could.. 🤭🤷🏻♀️ What am I like! Thanks again!
@@katewolfspirit6722 Thanks, Kate.. 🤗 I love humorous verse..
Love it!
Slough is forever engrained in my mind, the place that they filmed Road Wars
lol, that came to my mind too :D
Pat & Carl!!
episodes of road wars still get aired on pluto tv to this day 🤣alot of old shows on there to watch
A friend and I got pulled over by Pat and Carl! We (unknowingly) had a brake light out, it was hilarious..
"Excuse me sir, I've pulled you over as you have a..."
"OH MY GOD! YOU'RE PAT FROM ROAD WARS!!"
"HOLY S**T! ARE WE ON TV?!!"
😂 sadly wasn't, but they were good chaps. Probably more impressed that these two 20 year olds had a proper spare bulb kit in the boot of our complete banger lol
My late dad met Pat and Karl at a petrol station in Slough , you know the one on the trading estate where the bowling alley used to be ? he had a good chat with them there in the late 90s my dad had similar car 2 litre Vectra and they had an Omega he just talked with them for a few mins about the cars and doing 140mph in his lol not the best idea to tell a cop you speed like that haha
Born in Slough in 1966 and moved to Ireland in 1996, the high street was brilliant in the 1970s and 1980s
In the 70s I taught in Slough at the Licensed Victuallers’ School, my first job. First pay slip was £80 - a month (emergency tax code). The school was right next to the beautiful railway station (which you missed). Where’s the school now? In Epsom. Sold the land to Tesco so that store could be built. Thanks for the video. Well done.
yes, i noticed that, slough station when i last saw it has never remodernised (thankfully) i expect that stuffed doggy is still there
What a cracking video. I went to Slough in the very early 80s, thriving but even then, utterly depressing.
The big Debenhams was formerly two stores: Owen Owen (formerly Suters) and, to the left of that, Marks & Spencer.
Lived in Langley for 30+ years and my Mum worked in Suters/Owens for over 20 years.
The council overspent their way into insolvency a few years back.
Tesco's was the old Slough bus station and LV private school.
Haven't been to Slough in over 15 years now, so it was interesting to see such a decline
it was great in 80s - remember 'our price' next to marks? and the man busking in the queensmere?
@@mrsthatcher9815 I think the oldest 'original' building (a business that has been in the same place for the longest time) is WHSmith (but not the Post Office bit). Spent a lot of time (and money) in Our Price. There was also a great record store in the old covered market at the top end of the High Street
Suters and where santa claus use to hang out
I had to spend two weeks to attend a course in Slough in 2017 and it was run down then but, wow, this is an eye opener. You can tell what kind of place it was as one night I went into the Nandos on the high street to get some tea and parents were bringing their kids in Trick or Treating
Almost bought property in 2012 (2bed apartment for £275K) in Slough. Back then it was depressing, I can’t believe it’s become a hell of a lot worse. I had a lucky escape. It’s got good links to London, but it’s definitely not a place you’d like to be on weekends.
Im amazed the property prices keep going up in Slough but back in the 90s it was the cheapest place to buy a home near central London as the Motorway was only up the road so a good way to commute into London , nowadays no one in their right mind would live in Slough or London as they are dangerous
Got to say, yours is one of my absolute favourite channels now. I've watched my home town centre of Burton-on-Trent decline in much the same way as the places you've so far visited - from the pretty busy 1990s to the cacophony of vape shops, bookies, chicken shops as well as the brewing heritage sites scythed by progress to build housing or be left to rot. One thing Burton lacks - that I don't see in your videos (not seen them all yet) is a complete lack of anything for youngsters and teenagers to do - some of the vacant shops here could open as kids' spaces but the council are more hell-bent on high rents, increased parking charges and selling off land to unscrupulous developers. Sure this is a pattern across the UK.
Honestly, yours is the best channel on here. I've told so many people to watch your videos, and they all love them. Such essential viewing for anyone who wants to know what day-to-day Britain is like. Thanks as usual!
Omg u did my request of slough !!!!! I’m in slough right now
Great content again mate. Doesn’t say a lot about main stream tv when a lad with a camera phone is making better content than they could ever do!
Ah thanks for that mate 😀
Tesco is on the site of the Licensed Victuallers School, and Sainsbury's is on the site of the Greyhound Stadium. Slough high Street was buzzing in the 80s. Sad to see what's happened.
I married my 1st husband in Slough in 1958. Many streets had Welsh name. Whenever you went into somebody’s house you knew if they worked in Mars factory by the loads of sweets they had on their sideboards. Regret to say it always was a miserable town. We went to live in Windsor. Bet that town isn't much better now. Now live in a small Devon seaside town that only recently let in a small Sainsbury's. Our little high street is buzzing with small businesses. Will fight to keep out any other supermarkets.
Windsor is still lovely.
The best thing about Slough is the poem about Slough...
And people have the cheek to say it's grim up North ... I totally get you're Mill Chimney interest. Railway bridges do it for me 😊. All the best from the East Riding .
At some point you have to start considering that it's deliberate. The people in charge of these units on the highstreets would rather they sit derelict making no money than lowering their rates to entice new businesses to open up. My guess would be they're just waiting till a time that they can sell the land for new developments of flats and offices.
Oh yeah I think you are spot on. Especially with Slough. That high street is essentially pointless yet the land close to London is so valuable
@@wanderingturnip I pre-emptively left this comment before finishing the video where you touch on the fact it is already happening. it's a shame that the majority of high streets will just become high-rise buildings, squeezing as many people as possible per sq/m
The landlords still end up paying business rates on empty buildings after 3 or 6 months (can't remember which). Business rates are a huge problem for tenants - and a massive overhead you don't get by being an online retailer. So the landlords could rent the units for £0 but if the tenant is still paying tens of thousands in business rates every year it makes it unaffordable
@tommypip out of interest who sets business rates? I run an online retail business myself and can't see myself considering brick and mortar due to all the additional overhead costs that would cripple any potential profit
@AnonAtry they are set by the valuation office agency (an offshoot of HMRC). The problem is its based on historic rents (at the moment its worked out on the estimated rental value on 1st April 2021). So you're paying rates based on rent 2 years ago so in a falling market your rates are disproportionatly high.
Another fact about slough, was back in the early 1980’s, two computer giants of the time had their UK offices in Ajax Avenue. They were Commodore and Atari!
About 15-16 years ago I worked with a guy who grew up in Slough. He regularly spoke about the deterioration of the town, and how it's been affected culturally, mostly by immigration, I thought he was exaggerating. Now I live in London and work in Slough occasionally, and I've realised it's actually worse than he made out. The first thing I was greeted with when I arrived in Slough for the first time, was a human shit on the floor of the carpark I parked my van in.
😂 I’m sorry I laughed
Seems as though everything is falling apart everywhere.
Liverpool seems to be thriving
It is, thanks to our corrupt and very cheap to buy politicians
@@nanostar6138 well i've seen videos on youtube of the night life and that doesn't appear to be suffering 🤣🤣🤣
Erasing the British culture from existence is what's going on and turning the UK into a Banana Republic we may as well have Fidel Castro running the UK now if he was alive LOL
It is sad to see all these Towns so desolate mate, yet another interesting video.
ay yeh and more and more becoming desolate till one day every town outside london will be desolate...
Great that you are documenting this decline. Biggest shock is the 2 town centre pubs gone. Hope there are some others close by
Wetherspoons.
I wonder if the longbarn is still open, that was my fave about 10 years ago
@@pinkmandymoo the one in Cippenham? As far as I know it's still open.
There is probably still a 'spoons. There once was a time when you could start at one end of the high street and have a half in each pub you passed. You would not make the full length of the road. Now however it's dead.
i'd rather drink a pint than give 10%
I used to live in Slough between 2008 and 2016. It was a pretty lively place then, looks flipping awful now! So strange to see the Queensmere all shut up like that. The big shop with the lockdown instructions used to be a BHS, another huge loss to the high street. It seems all department stores are doomed to fail.
Someone once said, if it wasn’t for the Office and David Brent, no one would know Slough even exists!
Something folks may not realise is that by the (accessible) entrance to Queensmere there is a paved area with a poem written on it. To the left of that there used to be a big multi screen cinema and event centre (The Fulcrum). There is an old pub (The Kingfisher) that is literally buried below the area with the inscribed poem. Unless they dug it all out before putting that paving down the pub was left intact and they just covered the entrance with a concrete slab
I just posted a reply about exactly that 😁
@@chrisbardell Used to visit the Kingfisher for lunch when I worked down the bottom end of the High Street (better food than the Pied Horse). At night things changed in there and it got a lot more stabby but I did see a few bands in there
@@marklee2648 Only ever went in there lunchtimes, myself - days off-shift when I was wandering around the shops, bored. Always thought it would make a great little music venue; there was a slightly elevated stage area on one side of the seating area, if I remember rightly. Cheers for the memories!
I used to drink down the Kingfisher when I was at school.
Those that remember Slough from the late 60's early 70's might recall that it once had 2 cinemas. A lot of people might remember the old Granada cinema at the very top end of the High Street but at the other end, past the Observatory, there was an old department store called Isaac's. A couple of doors down from there, opposite what used to be the old Co-Op was another, much smaller, cinema
Check out Croydon town centre, it's like a post apocalyptic wasteland. Only Primark and M&S keeping it just about alive (bear in mind I haven't been there for a year but doubt it's improved too much since then!). Edit; Interesting that so many things originated in Slough. The Horlicks factory looked great. Amazing how modern architecture inspires zero fantasy or positive emotion, as if it's all designed to keep people depressed.
You have every right to film wherever you want to. It's not illegal. Folk can ask you not too, but that's up to you
& it's up to the pictured individual whom disapprove. Wether they plant a fist in the photographers face-???🤔. A 50-year pro photographer speaking from experience-!!!😉.
As a Slough resident, the High street stores are victims of internet shopping. Add the pandemic and a dose of social engineering with multi-culturism and the town has become soulless. The council is bankrupt and the streets are full of trash because people don't care about their environment.
It's defnitevely getting worse and can't see it improving anytime soon. 😲
Grew up in Slough, lived there for about 20 years from the mid 80s. I remember when the Maybox cinema opened, one of the first multiplexes in the UK, around the same time the ice arena at Montem was built, the Queensmere shopping centre had a revamp and an open plan pret a manger franchise opened, believe it or not to my childish eyes Slough felt - dare I use the word - vibrant? Then during the recession of the early 90s you began to see more and more boarded up shops, the Observatory shopping centre opened during the 90s but was always a bit of a busted flush, filled with lots of empty units and never quite matching Queensmere in terms of attracting decent stores. The rot really set in around the early 2000s, I moved away shortly after but returned a handful of times and with each successive visit the town just felt worse, as if it was succumbing to its inevitable destiny. Watching this video feels like I’ve lost a part of my soul, places are familiar but also totally different, Slough feels like an entity that only exists to ferry workers into London and service the factories on the trading estate. There’s nothing to attract people there or make life worth living for the people who live there. Don’t get me wrong Slough was always a bit grim compared to its more affluent neighbouring towns like Windsor and Maidenhead, towns which in all honesty aren’t endowed with an excess of charm themselves, but seeing this you get the impression the place is on its last legs.
I’m pretty sure Slough has gone bankrupt, meaning it’s Council has
2021
Incredible, inspirational and a great and important record of how our high streets are changing. I love that you relate in the historic elements and that gives the whole series a feeling of being in another “middle phase of evolution”. Will we come out the other side? I hope we live to see it..
Seeing the state of Slough is an eyeopener.I know about declining town centres around Leeds and Manchester but didn't expect to see that in the Home Counties.Watching the film I wondered if they had a big out of town retail park near Slough but then you vsited the huge Tesco right in the town centre!
You should come and see what desperation, depression and anger there is in the air in plenty of Home Counties towns within a 30 mile radius of London. Overcrowding, underfunding and falling living standards haven’t helped, but look at Luton, Stevenage, Hatfield, Harlow, Basildon, the Medway Towns and Thurrock if you want to see ‘the beautiful south’. You’ll never be as happy to drive back up the M1!
The Queens Mum hated Slough I could never understand why growing up in Slough. In Slough you had a wonderful vista you could look out from Slough and could see a great view of the Castle. Queens Mum would look out from the Castle ramparts and have a great view of the Slough Trading Estate with a Great chimney in the middle of it. Drank in the Herschel Arms a few times. Its unemployment rate in the early 60's was 1/2%
Well done. Very well done. Yank here, have done countless walks of "dead downtowns" in the USA. Our decline began in the 1960's (especially mid-sized / smaller cities) with the advent of the enclosed "mall" (shopping center). There have been some revivals and some downtowns have indeed "come back"over the decades. Its different now post-pandemic with rioting / looting. Even many "malls" in the USA are folding. It became in the end too expensive to do business in the city center. The government in the end killed the "golden goose" with expensive parking, and rent / fees / taxes. Who wants to go downtown where there is crime (hooliganism / harassment) when you have the Internet or a safer suburban strip plaza that is patroled with free parking? The US restaurant indusrty like the UK I am sure runs on a razor thin profit margin as well. One bad month can ruin you today in that business. I am sure pubs are included in that now.
I was in England for Jubilee in 2022 for all of June (and also to visit relatives in northern Wales....Conwy if you must know) and I really enjoyed Manchester. The High Street has problems there too......but I took a walking tour with a local Mancurian and he spoke about the mills, the canals, the history. Beautiful brick-work and craftmanship of some of those older buildings from the Victorian Era. Keep up the good work my friend. Really enjoy your stuff ;-)
The Tesco carpark still isn't big enough sometimes!
There are large Tescos and Sainsbury's in Taplow and Maidenhead which are less than 4 miles away.
There are quite a few Parks in "Greater" Slough.
The big chimneys you saw first are the power station.
There are lots of Poles, Irish SE Asians, Eastenders and Welsh and have been since 1945.
Slough Trading Estate was the biggest trading estate in Europe (I had 4 jobs and 2 holiday jobs in there over the years ) I think I saw it made 2Billion pounds a year at one point.
Many pubs in Slough and outlying villages have closed... probably over half now.
South places I’d like to see you go to: Margate; Bognor Regis; Great Yarmouth.
Yarmouth is seedy I agree, but it hasn't declined as much as poor old Blackpool. You would never get an old hotel in GY for 60K. Probably due to being closer to London.
Glad you set the record straight about north vs south! And yeah, it IS a universal problem. Just travel over the Atlantic to my neck of the woods and tour some of the "lost towns" of the U.S. There are lots.
been a year since the station burned and they still haven't even bothered to clean the glass up
That’s mad
Who remembers when the Queensmare had a water fountain outside the entrance and everyone in Berkshire and Buckingham came to slough to go shopping. This hightstreet didn’t die, it was absolutely killed. They sold it to a Saudi developer who’s now in jail for money laundering. They big brands who were there couldn’t renew leases and no one knows what will happen to the land now. A total destruction for the economy of the town.
That ping pong parlour was a GAP store and there was a massive marks and Spencer, every big brand you can name was in the 2 shopping centres but now it’s a ghost town 😭
I didn’t until I saw your comment
I really never thought I’d be fondly reminiscing about how slough high street used to be
I live in Bradford, West Yorkshire what was once an industrial power house is becoming the Yorkshire equivalent of Slough.
How depressing to see this place now. My partner used to work for Sun Chemicals in Slough 18 years ago or so on that big industrial estate you walked through. I remember you could get an amazing all day all you can eat breakfast in the local cafe for local workers for a few quid. The best thing about going to Slough was the Mars factory had a shop where you could buy a huge cardboard box of reject or defective choc bars and other Mars products , for like a £5. Nothing wrong with them, just miss shapen or hadn,t passed quality control. Perhaps they still have the shop now. But I think the cafes have gone.
diets divide us, buying different things (for weight loss), and trusting people to tell us everything to do with our lives, and it changes year to year, find a good idea and stick to it
You know it's bad when Greggs has shut down!!!!
Tbh though Gregg's often close down then reopen nearby.
my ghost town got three gregs so i guess people really like gregs here lmao
I spent quite some time in Slough in the 1980s, worked on the trading estate. The town was quite a busy place then. Stunned to see what it has become. Come down to Kent, there’s a lot of high streets that have died there too, including Canterbury, which is now vape shops, mobile phone case shops and cafes for the dwindling numbers of tourists.
vape and mobile shops are ok, everyone needs to innovate, though, coffee shops are the same, loads of them, and not everyone likes coffee, so where are the innovations, and why can't they keep slotting in? that's the idea, right?
Oh dear. Yes poor old Slough. I work there. Strange thing is, despite this high street decline, the population continues to grow.
Great video, great story telling and all very accurate. It made me very emotional watching this because when I was a kid, Slough High Street was so vibrant and a great place to spend your weekend, all the big shops were there, and seeing what it is today is so depressing.
Enjoying your videos - I find it interesting how the UK has changed so much - and no one really has a solution to all these empty spaces. So many people are based at home now, drive to the supermarket, work from home and order online. Offices are all in out of town spaces but a large percentage work from home.
The only solutions I think would be small pockets of communities taking over the empty shops with a mix of housing, education, entertainment, workspaces and local shops but then the places have so much blight, road noise and lack of green space.. it would take too much vision and money to do... and your still in competition with big housing estates, cars and supermarkets.
It's every developed country unfortunately. I wonder what we'll do with all the retail space when everything we do is online...
@@muffinman4544 that makes too much sense for the people in power unfortunately
Most of the towns in England are in the same situation since covid-19 people have been shopping online and seem to be managing and saving money at the same time ...
The burn out area was the Bus Station which happened last year, alleged to have been an arson attack which saw a parked up bus go up in flames which spread to the building. Think the case is still ongoing.
Really? I used the bus garage around 10 years ago. That is so sad! Thank you for clarifying this.
Hey thank you for clarifying this 👍👍
Councils are to blame high business rates, letting big supermarkets to be built very close if not next to a high street and no free parking even if it's only for like 30/45 mins
The Herschel closed in 2023 and was the last reason to go in.
My old office is a few minutes into the video, I lost that job in 2008. A year later I went back into Slough to check all the Job agencies. Work had dried up within that year and all they wanted were drivers. All those agencies were where the bookies and Cash converters were. All gone
Flash back even further and it's hard to believe I used to travel to Slough to shop.
Maybe its my age, but I loathe supermarkets. Give me a high street any day. If the damn councils (and the money crazed, amoral, grasping government) would stop driving small businesses into the grave, maybe we could get them back. Britain, the third world of the developed world.
I am old enough to remember Sainsbury's being a gigantic room with stalls all around the walls, you'd go round clockwise for your different foods and stand in the middle having a good old gossip!😮😂
Basically they based it on a Market Square.
That was North End Rd SW6, 1968/69.
Most of the decay In the world today is down to government and council incompetence and corruption, and greed
Thank you for highlighting what a pitiful state this country is in. I do appreciate your little titbits of history they are the small morsels that cheer me up. 😀
I grew up near Slough and the town centre actually had a purpose to go to but as time went on it became more and more grim. That fire was the bus station and the chimney you didn't like was by the Mars factory. The cost to regenerate now is so high as it has been so unloved for years. The only potential is because Windsor, Marlow, Gerrards Cross, Beaconsfield etc are nearish so there is money in the areas surrounding it
Maidenhead high Street is almost as bad but it's a true commuter town so the suburbs are generally still very nice and it's going through a massive Regen itself. In 10 years maybe Slough will start to get some investment
@@Electricdreams21investment is a "same old story", where does the money go, and is it good money?
Thank God for the arrival of Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Lebanese, Turkish, Indonesian cuisine and I salute the numerous others. Thanks to all who came to Britain since the 80s and their creative and hard working children. Britain would be even more lost without you. Frankly those ghastly, stinky, violent, over priced, foul pubs go to their grave without any regrets from me. These dour Brits owe you SO much more than they will ever admit. Countrywide
OMG. Shocking does not even describe my impression of the place.