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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel weirdly sad that a shit hole is getting redeveloped.

29 replies

UrbanBrawl · 17/01/2026 00:34

Several times a week I walk past a small part of a city centre made up of a collection of fairly routine Victorian industrial buildings - what used to be small workshops. They’ve been empty for years, run down, graffiti everywhere, falling to bits. But they ooze character. I don’t know why, it’s sort of urban decay, a glimpse of the past. There’s just something sort of quiet and time-capsule like about this small collection of ramshackle buildings.

Anyway, they’re now slated for demolition, to build another tower, made from glass, identical to dozens of others in the city, and in other cities. Once done it’s going to be cleaner, look nicer but it’s also a bit soulless? I feel quite sad about it. AIBU? Any know what I’m talking about?

OP posts:
EmeraldRoulette · 17/01/2026 12:26

@UrbanBrawl I totally get it

Maybe it's just the sadness of a lost attachment to the past

I felt like that when they finally knocked down the Insull memorial, which was part of a national temperance hospital near Euston. It was out of use for decades, i think. I used to go past it on the bus. So when they finally knocked it down for HS2, it felt like a loss and I can't articulate why. I did find a blog about it, but it doesn't even show the part of the building that was attractive. Maybe that small section sticks out in my mind for some reason. The rest of the hospital wasn't attractive in any way - so that bit kind of stuck out.

I think it was a favourite among people who explored abandoned buildings. But those blogs are often taken down, aren't they? No one wants to get charged with having entered illegally.

I suppose I spent so many years seeing it from the bus, it just became part of my consciousness.

Maybe it's the sadness of the fleeting nature of things. And when something that you've seen all your life suddenly vanishes, it registers at a deep emotional
level even when it shouldn't.

NotMeAtAll · 17/01/2026 01:05

It's as if nothing was learnt from the architectural destruction from the '60s and '70s. 🙄

Original poster
UrbanBrawl · 17/01/2026 00:42

TakeALookAtTheseSwatches · 17/01/2026 00:37

Not unreasonable at all, a beautiful old church was knocked down in my town a while ago, it had been derelict for years but was a stunning building. They haven't even built anything in its place so it's just wasteland now, makes me a bit sad every time I go past it.

Thank you!

The thing is, these aren’t even stunning buildings - they’re just fairly run of the mill, probably not very well built Victorian industrial buildings. No great architectural achievement. But they have such atmosphere about them, in part because of the state they’re in.

I can’t help thinking that the city’s desire to invest and develop means it’s losing its character and becoming just like the next big city.

OP posts:
TakeALookAtTheseSwatches · 17/01/2026 00:37

Not unreasonable at all, a beautiful old church was knocked down in my town a while ago, it had been derelict for years but was a stunning building. They haven't even built anything in its place so it's just wasteland now, makes me a bit sad every time I go past it.

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