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.

I was in Nottingham yesterday. There are still thousands of bunches of flowers stacked up outside the Council House (ie the Town Hall) in the Old Market Square in memory of the victims of the attack. It’s such a sad sight.

On a more positive note, the city centre was very busy yesterday. Nottingham seems to be doing better than Leicester at the moment with fewer empty shops and a generally less grim feel about the place. The Broadmarsh area is still a building site, obviously, and that street is very quiet.
All the bars, cafes & restaurants in Hockley were packed out during the afternoon and you couldn’t find a free table to have lunch outside in the sun anywhere. The place was buzzing, like in pre-covid times. After what happened a couple of weeks ago, it was great to see.

The area around the station is being pedestrianised. It's taking bloody forever!

Well dd was totally sold on the bullring!

We went there but didn't like it at all. Partly due to the behaviour of some of the people shopping there. Strange as I enjoy shopping in London.

The worst city I've been to recently was Edinburgh, it's really gone downhill.

@ThomasHardyPerennial how long is it taking? I’m sure I last went to Leeds pre-lockdown and it was a work in progress then. Some of the shopping centres and arcades look v nice, as does the Uni campus.

That was an earlier stage of the work @LadyWithLapdog , think it was the new roof on the station concourse and new main entrance back then. I don't think the whole scheme is supposed to be finished until 2025. They always seem to be digging something up around the city centre!

On the subject of shopping and rundown towns/cities, I still really enjoy shopping in Leeds. I like Trinity, and some of the empty units seem to have been filled recently. Quite a lot of empty shops on Briggate still, but will be interesting to see what happens.

I was in a pub in Leicestershire the other day. And someone was saying the same typing scout Leicester. To be honest I think Leicester is much better than Nottingham these days. It's had more money spent on it.

One problem in my local town is that shops used to be owned rather than being a chain or charity shop and the owners kept the shopfronts nice and pavement clean. Now it’s all a no man’s land and with v few street cleaners everything is cruddy.
How much would a man and a powerhose actually cost. We are going to lose tourists - I wouldn’t visit our uncared for towns.

You lot don't know how lucky you are. I grew up in Scunthorpe, and then worked in Grimsby. I still look at the local newspaper online, once in a while.