How has your hometown changed since you were born?

[RzorC]

better football team

We have a lot to be thankful for in this country, although at times it doesn't feel like that. But our country is going to shit and I am not sure how it can ever change and be revived. I am middle aged. I strongly believe that I won't see it improve in my lifetime. Not being sensationalist- I just can't see the rot being reversed.

My hometown was always crap. But more recently a big estate has sprung up on the edge and more incomers have arrived. My dad complains that when he's on uis daily walk he'll say good morning/afternoon to people he passes and they don't respond. Ten years ago they did. I think the incomers don't understand it was customary to greet each other, even if you were strangers.

It was a thriving, busy market town with loads of shops, chains and independents, along with plenty of nice pubs, places to eat and clubs to go at weekends. Now it's practically a ghost town and you're lucky to get a market at all most weeks. Very depressing to visit.

Not been back to where I grew up in 6 years as my parents finally saw sense and moved out of London (best thing they ever did). It was the boiling frog analogy. I moved away over 20 years ago and Jesus wept every time I went back it got worse. Litter everywhere, houses turned into HMOs so no kerb appeal, Draconian parking restrictions, soooo much street clutter - signs, bins, railings, bossy road signs etc. Rampant overdevelopmwnt, money laundering fronts disgiluised as grocery shops/barbers/nail bars. And of course no two people in the high street seemed to speak the same language, so no point in engaging in a cheery "Awight?". Everyone looked so fucking miserable.

And this is in a part of London that used to be highly desirable, and even as recent in the 80s I remember as being full of independent shops. If I look at old photos from the 50s/60s (before my time) it makes me want to weep. Hey ho.

Was quite quaint, charming and friendly. Now turned very hipster! Also apparently has issues with county line due to proximity to bigger towns and cities. Interesting mix...!

My hometown hasn’t really changed that much. Different shops and restaurants yes, but the majority of units in the centre are occupied and there always seems to be plenty of people out and about when I visit. The town hasn’t really expanded, it’s been the villages nearby that have had all the houses built. So traffic is definitely worse. Not so many obvious addicts/homeless people either. I don’t know where they’ve gone though.
DM is forever bemoaning that there’s ‘nowhere to shop’ but I don’t know what shops she’s going on about. All the main players are there still. If I ask her directly where she wants to shop she can’t tell me. I think she hears other people (Mail readers) complaining and wants to join in tbh. I always enjoy a wander round and shop a bit when I visit!

The town I live nearest now is completely rundown though, commuter ghost town. The next nearest town has had a complete revival, new shopping centre with decent occupancy. I tend to go there.

Much more bougie, MUCH more expensive, especially property.

I grew up on the edge of a city on a60s housing estate adjacent to a golf course. From the highest point on the course you could see open fields. Now you can see the shopping mall and the aircraft works are being converted to a concert venue and the runway is being lost to housing as urban sprawl takes over.

In the city centre we have empty units where m and s and Debenhams were. The city also seems ato be a hub for migrants, particularly Somalian.

Well it’s L I v e r p o o l so everyone’s perception and perspective will always differ - but seems now to be a world away from my 50s/60s childhood which tbh I’m in two minds about - 👍🏿☘️

The town I was born is has turned from a reasonably nice and busy market town into a run down dump with cheap shops, vape shops, cheap and nasty takeaways. It also has lots of social problems, many along racial lines.

In the 1970s it was diverse with a lot of Irish and Polish immigrants, big Sikh population, one part of town very chi chi and one part more run down. It's still quite similar...
Changes include no more big destination department store, housing in the fancier area of town no longer has huge period mansions next to HMOs (they are all mansions or split into v expensive self contained flats). The large Catholic church has more Polish than Irish families now.

I grew up near a small seaside town, but I was in a village (which hasn't changed at all!). The town does now have a large Tesco's just outside it. Nothing much has changed in the town itself. Minor things like the small Tesco's changing to a Co Op! But really it's pretty much the same as when I was growing up (and I'm in my 50s). But it was a bit of a dump then and still is now! It's a town where when people visit that part of the country, they're advised not to waste their time going there!

More houses, several big new estates have been built.

Two smaller doctor's surgeries have merged and new medical centre been built (much harder to get an appointment!)

Lots of independent shops in the high street have closed, and we now have much more bars and food outlets. We've had three fancy burger bars open in the last 6 months (not sure why, as the first one doesn't seem very busy!)

The swimming pool/leisure centre closed down, as did the one in the next town, and we have a new one in between the two towns. They seem to be trying to merge the two towns together slowly.

Hugely gentrified, a borough in central London. Grew up in 80s and 90s. Lots of sleek skyscrapers now. Schools used to be awful. They are better now, though still not somewhere to move for schools. Very trendy place to eat out, the fruit/veg/household goods market is more about street food now. Nice new shopping centre with well maintained shops and cinema. I grew up on a council estate and there are still lots of council flats there, which keeps it down to earth. But most of the private housing is very expensive - million pound Georgian terraces, some houses converted to flats and some new build flats. So it's very polarised - lots of lawyers and City workers alongside families on min wage/benefits. People always assume I'd have lived in one of the expensive houses when I tell them where I grew up!

Hackney, central London. It’s changed so much since the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

DH's has gone completely downhill and is unrecognisable from the cheerful working class town it used to be. The skilled industrial jobs all disappeared in the 80s and 90s, to be replaced with low-paid out of town retail and service sector jobs, which are also now in terminal decline. It's seen as downright dangerous and very high on the indices of multiple deprivation.

Mine was always well known as a blot on the landscape, although it was busy and thriving. Now bigger and even uglier, with the remaining historic buildings demolished to make way for (mostly empty) shops.

Less crime and dogshit on the streets compared to when I was growing up.

Northern industrial town. 60,000 people.

An absolute shell of what it was as recently as the early 90s. Massive social problems, self-segregated along racial lines, overwhelming (and very visible) drug issues, virtually empty shopping centre - apart from numerous and blatant money laundering fronts that are always open despite never having any customers (and the owners can somehow afford high-end sports cars). Litter in every flowerbed. Every alleyway knee-deep in flytipping. Cars on every pavement so it's not even easy to walk anywhere. Almost all of the pubs have closed down.

Utterly forgotten by the government. Utterly overlooked by the police.

And for fuck-knows-what-reason this town voted Tory at the last election.

It was a great place to grow up - and I'm not looking at that through nostalgic, rose-tinted spectacle. Believe me.

I haven't lived there for over 30 years. I still love going back, and each time I look for signs of improvement. But there never, ever are any.