Shocked after visiting city centre

[Snog]

I've just cycled through the centre of my small city for the first time in 4 months.

So many shops and restaurants are boarded up and have closed for good, maybe 30%?

I found it really shocking to witness. Is it the same where you live?

It's not the same here but alot of places such as pizza express and one of the costa branches have not reopened since Lock down so I can only assume they will be closing down. I think there will be more and more pubs, shops and restaurant closures. There's just not the volume of people out spending as their was.

No.

I live near a medium sized city. Everything is open again in the centre. Just a couple of restaurants and cafe that haven't reopened plus theatres and cinemas of course.

Would you say your city was struggling before lockdown in terms of being particularly hit by austerity etc?

I can't see all of the pubs, cafes and restaurants weathering the new social distancing restrictions.

Same here- small city SW. Kids Gap gone, also Cafe rouge..quite a few shut..

My city was very economically buoyant pre lockdown but relies a lot on tourism and students. City centre rents are very high.

Same here.

Yes lots of shops in my city centre have not re-opened. Some never will.

I guess I thought that more deprived parts of the UK would be harder hit than my area which is normally a boom town but I'm now thinking that's too simplistic a view.

I think T&T will put people off cafes and masks put people off shopping further to be honest..it seems a different group of people on the streets here too (not the more affluent ones)

Ours usually makes 370 million a year from tourism and the same again from students.

I suppose with high rents the boom is needed more than other places

Previously it was rare to see more than one or two vacant shops in the whole city which is why it is so shocking now.

I know that city centres in many areas have had lots of vacant shops for a while pre. Lockdown but that wasn't the case here.

Yes I think the high rents is a key factor. There are a handful of big landlords who aren't compromising much on rents.

I live in a up and coming suburb, which pre lockdown had a lot of small independent businesses -food,bars, micro breweries and bakeries, I cant seen them surviving this and some have not reopened. Its bloody sad and upsetting.

Some of ours are boarded up- looks awful. Smaller shops are open for now, most of them but will see. Cafes seem Ok with tables outside. But apart from that many people are just picnicking in the park still

I live in a London suburb which is looking quite thriving all things considered because all the people who’d normally be travelling into the City and shopping/eating/drinking there or in the West End are staying put and spending locally. The only place which has shut is a charity shop. It’s a very localised blip but I think that the high streets of London zones 2-4 will do relatively well.

Our council charges the high rents here. they are not allowing any breaks either. They have also increased in recent years even prior to this

@Snog

My city was very economically buoyant pre lockdown but relies a lot on tourism and students. City centre rents are very high.

Yes, I think these cities will be hardest hit, sadly. The places that had already been fucked impacted since 2010 probably have not so much left to lose (although presumably still some), the places that did ok will be hit now.

It's going to be grim. Apparently only 17% of restaurants opened that first weekend? It's a long road back and any local spikes will make it even tougher.

Sometimes it just feels like the End of Days, even though it's a beautiful sunny day today. I have an overactive imagination which is sometimes more of a curse than a blessing.

SE big town 30 miles from London and lots of shops closed down before Christmas or just after and even more so now. House of Fraser and Debenhams is due to go. We only have one poundland as its reasonably posh area but I expect a few more tat shops will pop up. However a lot of even the smaller shops just remain closed like mother care

Mine you expect the other end of the spectrum fucked in other ways too, not good either way really

@PassingByAndThoughtIdDropIn yes exactly the same here! When we’ve cycled into central it’s been ghost town but our area seems to be thriving with most people here seemingly working from home on healthy salaries

I confess I try to avoid walking past the boarded up places as it gives me that end of days feeling too

In my London suburb, lots of shops closed down after Christmas or moved premises. They have plans to change some of the shops to housing anyway.

It's the pubs that I'm worried about as lots have not reopened even though they have beer gardens and most of their business in the summer was in those gardens.

So far my village shops have remained open. I 'think' they'll all survive 🤞🏼 It's an odd little village.

One of the nearby towns had been going through a hard time with several years of upheaval in the town centre where loads of shops closed, when I drove through the other day it was reasonably busy and no permanently closed shops that I could see.

I haven't been into the nearest proper shopping town nor the 2 nearby big shopping towns, so I'm not sure.