Nottingham looks grim

[AskAwayAgain]

I live in the East Midlands a bit of a way from Nottingham. But we went into Nottingham to see a show. We had not been there since before the pandemic so I said to DH lets go in early and look around the shops beforehand and have something to eat.

I was really shocked by how awful the street from Marks and Spencers to Broadmarsh looked. Most shops closed and some that were open looked really tatty. I also had memories of the side streets being full of interesting gift shops, but most were gone.

Victoria Centre looked okay, but overall the City Centre was really poor and had little to offer, I am still shocked that a major City looks as bad as this.

No we definitely do not.

There were such changes to society during the pandemic some are going to stick like increased online shopping.

I think it's nearly everwhere OP. I went to Nottingham for the first time in December and I was pleasantly surprised.

We live in Bournemouth, the town centre is a total shithole now, it is very sad.

Sheffield has declined so much... I was shocked when I visited last year and I think it will have gotten worse when I next visit.

We went into Nottingham last year as we went to a gig there, it didn't seem any worse than other cities and large towns, most of them are a bit grim nowadays. It's probably better than Leicester and the large towns of Northampton and Bedford which are near where I live. I noticed Cambridge wasn't as nice last time I went there also.

Blimey, all this is making Peterborough look good.

Parking costs keep rising with less shops to visit when you get there. My local town has barely any useful shops left. It's all food and charity shops. One shop for clothing. Lost its shoe shop recently. Even lost pound land. You have to travel to other towns now for actual shops to browse in.

When I first moved to the area it had Woolworths, Adams, more clothes shops, you could actually buy what you needed there without going elsewhere.

It's the death of the UK high street, it's everywhere.

This^^

It’s still much nicer than Derby city… Better shops, nicer vibe, doesn’t stink of weed wherever you turn. The Intu in Derby is like navigating The Cube.

Despite moving to Derbyshire 3 years ago, I still haul myself to Nottingham for shopping.

Sadly, most town centres are like this now. Even before covid I used to get irritated by some morally superior posters implying that they only ever shopped online because a day of clothes shopping was for only for the shallow and vacuous.

Instead of people working in shops they are now working in warehouses picking stock or clogging up the roads with delivery vehicles.

I mourn the degeneration of the high Street and the loss of shops like Debenhams, BHS, Dorothy Perkins, Topshop, and the closure of M and S and John Lewis in so many places.

I still shop in real shops, I go through manned checkouts in supermarkets and I support local businesses as much as I can.

I don't want a sterile life where I never need to leave my house to buy anything.

Grottingham!

Shame because that was the big city I used to go to as a youngster before I moved away. We thought it was amazing. We used to go before covid too as adults on a night out and it was still lovely. The people are so much nicer too.

Derby was always bad, was it not?

It used to have a reputation for stabbing but I thought this had gone now? I live further south now in Northampton and that's dire (and I'm more nervous about being stabbed here as everyone has such a bad attitude) I think it's dire everywhere with town centres in massive decline.

Leeds used to be an amazing shopping experience. Now I nip to John Lewis and avoid the centre because it depresses me. You can't just blame Covid. Our government could have helped somewhat!

I had the misfortune to visit Swindon at the weekend. Now THAT was grim.

The Tories have let the country rot and facilitated their donors to pick the bones. Don't hold much hope for the wet lettuces in Labour to turn it around much when its finally their turn either, they seem to have reverted to Tory lite.

For town centres to thrive abject poverty needs to be irradicated (so homeless people properly helped and housed) and working class people having a spare few quid to spend. Rent caps would probably help small businesses too.

I live in Nottingham. The Broadmarsh redevelopment has been a stain on the landscape for ages and lots of high street shops are suffering everywhere.
But-so many amazing restaurants here. Lots of lovely little independent shops and cinemas.
Plenty of friendly folk and lovely communities on the outskirts. Not many people wandering around with machetes…
I work for a homeless charity here and the homeless situation is multi faceted and complex. I think what we see here isn’t specific to Nottingham.
Oh, and a bit of sunshine makes everywhere look better. Come and visit Nottingham, duckeh!

Nottingham has always been quite grim in places, and has had a massive drugs problem for as long as I can remember. I say that as someone who lives nearby.
People I know just don’t go there unless they have to because it’s horrendous to find anywhere to park and parking costs a fortune. Park and ride is cheaper but painfully slow.
The thing we’ve noticed is the decline in number of restaurants and the quality. It’s really hard to find anywhere decent to eat before going to the theatres (which are still fantastic).

I much prefer Leicester.

It really is everywhere nowadays but it's so much better than Derby. Now that is depressing!

Online shopping and working from home mostly. It's going to take a while for cities which had lots of large shops to adjust.

I feel this is every high street now but obviously more noticeable with the cities you know well and can see the contrast.

I was in Nottingham recently, i thought the centre looked vibrant.

It's happening everywhere as other posters have said. I live a few miles from Belfast (was brought up there) and the city centre is nowhere near the thriving, bustling place it used to be. Debenhams was the big draw at Castle Court shopping centre and of course that's gone now. I had an appointment for a health screening and afterwards a few hours to myself to wander about and found it difficult to fill the time. Everywhere I looked there seemed to be empty buildings, shutters down. It's possibly not as bad as other cities, but definitely not the Belfast I remember. DS1 goes in quite a lot with his friends. Once they've been to the Apple shop, Forbidden Planet and Subway, they're on the bus home!

Never seen one in my 33 years here.

If the UK highstreet sold stuff that people actually want to buy, with a reasonable choice, at a reasonable price, with options to make a nice day of it without doending £££ then it would still be thriving.

Unfortunately, retail, councils, landlords etc have inadvertently worked together in a way that makes the UK highstreet really unattractive for shoppers. There is so much that can be done to revitalise these city and town centres but the vested interests either don't care, have no vision or won't change.

A lot of people go to retail parks and malls rather than city centres if they just want to shop as there is often free parking and its quite quick to get round them. We have a shopping mall fortunately within walking distance as it often has a traffic and parking problem at the weekends and it is a much more pleasant shopping experience.