Over the past 25 years how has the area you were brought up in changed?

[Meditationgame]

What part of the UK are you from (North, South, East, West, Wales, Scotland, England, Northern Ireland) and has it changed for the better or worse?

South east and it's really different with too many new homes everywhere, too many cars, too many people , not enough services and a general feeling of anger and loss of hope it might get better any time soon.

North west England and it’s got better, really: more shops, more things to do, more transport. If I were a teen nowadays I am not sure I’d be as desperate to move away as I was in 1999 when there was fuck all to do or see.

I believe I speak for everyone when I say 'it's got much busier'. And worse. Definitely worse.

I'm in the East Midlands.

Estate I live on hasn't changed much at all. A mile or so up the road, more houses. The town I would say is better.

House prices have gone bonkers in that time.

Should have added, South West.

Surprisingly little. There are a few more buildings, but it is surprisingly like living in a time capsule. It’s the kind of place where teenagers still work the till at the supermarket on weekends. I thought Covid was going to kill the old-school ethos, but thankfully it survived.

North West. The bad: high street full of empty shops, more cars, more homelessness.
The good: it's cleaner, more thought given to green spaces. Better restaurants.
But most notable is how little has changed. It's not particularly different in most respects.

I've only been back twice for funerals and tbh, apart from more housing, looked about the same. Mind you there was a thread on here last week that called it boring, so can say it probably hasn't really changed.

It's the new builds that are worrying although I'm aware I'm a NIMBY, but the strain on our services is real and every home will have at least one car, if not two!
The supermarkets have expanded , but they are not keen on building more schools or anything people actually need to function it seems.
The roads are congested and all you see are more and more people around ( of which I am one I know )
It feels a bit bleak at times and broken

Worse absolutely everything is worse! Roads are shocking pathways might as well have trees growing out of them they are completely covered in weeds. Everywhere looks like an end of the world film. Then there is the town centre hardly any shops but now have homeless people basically setting up little villiages in tents and they are very vocal unlike I remember from the few when I was younger which is intimidating. And there are hardly any English at all in my town. To be honest every time I go I could cry at what it has become

South East.

Much busier, more crowded and noisier.

More barky dogs.

More cars.

It was a village on the south coast, it’s now a sprawl. I think about it a lot. Walking through fields that are now housing estates. We actually lived in a house that I had known as fields. There was a lovely apple orchard that is now a housing estate. I no longer live there but often wonder if I love the countryside so much because of these lovely childhood memories of fields that exist no more.

Definitely many more immigrants and homeless people where I am.
A few homeless were moved on over the summer , but they seem to come back
The shops need a facelift and I don't tend to use them much because of the parking costs
Roads are potholed beyond belief and alleyways are over grown.
Feral teens cause havoc Friday / Saturday nights, yet the new homes are so expensive so our own kids have to move out further as they can't afford them

North West here too but I'd say it's got worse.

A few places are 'up and coming', true, and there are beautiful parts. But in the small towns there is more social deprivation than ever, and a lot of social/political issues too.

The wealth divide in this country is more apparent than ever in the small northern towns.

The town I grew up in looks almost exactly the same as it always did, but more dilapidated, because the government has basically ignored it.

South East - small town.

I don't live there anymore and I am always quite shocked when I go back. Not sure whether I have rose tinted glasses. It was never a posh place but perfectly functional with a sense of community.

The high street is now rubbish, loads of empty shops and no real useful shops unless you want fried chicken or your nails done.

Everything looks unkempt. Houses all have their front gardens paved over for parking, cars up on the kerb everywhere. No one takes pride in their house anymore and the ones that do have painted them grey. Grey everywhere. Rubbish and weeds.

The place I grew up was always a wealthy area, but it seems to have got more pretentious. Looks the same if you drive through it.

East London. The large council estate I grew up in has gone. Very little social housing remains. Lots more cafes and bars. The weekly market has gone, and the road it was on is full of "trendy" bars and clubs. When I was looking to buy there 25 years ago, prices were already well on the up. Gentrification 1.0

Some people tend to like the front of their homes to resemble the local tip i think ! Old beds , overflowing bins , weeds , don't bother cutting their hedges back.
One small car park next to a few shops near me ; people must have parties every night as it's full of tin cans and empty bottles of beer etc. it's cleaned up , then done again the following weekend. The bottles are a risk to people's tyres as well as looking shit
I despair of people as they do it and don't care
No respect

It was a lot of older retired couples, quite genteel and clean.

Now it is not...

I’m from a village in the east mids. Haven’t lived there for 25 years but visit very regularly as parents are still in the family home.

It’s a bit busier but not really that much. One new housing estate, the last one was built post-war so it’s been a while since the last development!

We have 4+ coffe shops now, one is Costa the others are independent. There were NO coffee shops when I grew up in the 80’s so that’s a positive change. Although I spent £6.50 for 2 drinks for me and dd last weekend, in the 80’s I don’t think people had the income, it’s an old mining area.

We still have greengrocers, butchers, fish man on Fridays, egg man on Saturdays. Still a post office, library and regular bus service into local big city. I can see why my parents have stayed.

My 16 year old commented last week that there are lots of families compared to pre-Covid. It feels lively and a happy place tbh. Sometimes I wonder why I moved away to the big smoke because I could actually do my science job for a local company.

Village in the Midlands to be honest hasn't got better but can't see it's got worse apart from loosing a lot of shops over the last decade.

Wealthy town in the South East which used to have a town and country feel.
When I visit it, the high street looks the same and feels wealthy still, but the rest is very run down, busy and a lot rougher, lot more housing and no country feel.

Yorkshire, I lived in the same place for 35 years, there have been way too many houses built for the place. The roads are narrow, some are one way and the place is choc full of cars. The junior schools are over subscribed, the doctors are full.

The council have released the money paid by the developers as the want to spend it in less affluent areas, understandably in part but it’s supposed to support the local area where all these houses have been built.

The same has happened where I grew up.

The main town had gone from good to a dump, I very rarely go now. Full of North Face ninjas, drunk/drugs. Vape shops, nail bars, betting shops and charity shops. Lots of immigrants too. It’s probably ten years since I was there with DP and he commented that he hadn’t heard anyone speaking English while we were walking around

City in Wales - it has changed a lot eg in the city centre and the waterfront but the suburb I grew up in is almost exactly the same apart from more traffic. Same ‘type’ of people in the area too.

The roads in a lot of the villages ten miles away from me are too narrow for these bigger cars and there are just too many cars. A lot were built for horse and carts, not rangers and Discovery's.
South east is very busy though , but cramming more people in isn't helping matters