The Decline and fall......

[Ashley 288]

Drove through centre of Nottingham yesterday, millions (billions?) looks to have been spent, whether wisely is another matter, then I got to Mansfield Rd, seems the only people there and northwards making money are window boarders and for sale sign makers! Sherwood Rise/Nottingham Rd to Haydn Rd was always "quiet" but north of there to Vernon Rd used to be quite thriving, with at least 6 factories employing 100's of (mainly) women, now seem all gone and hardly a shop bar the new Sainsbury superstore open cept odd hairdressers, every garage is shut or has vanished, and once on latter road whilst some shops remain a feeling of gloom and despondency seemed to hang about, pubs look like drug dens, (if open) and rows of 1960's houses/flats tinned up awaiting demolition, Bulwell Market had about 3 stalls, though to be fair not sure if proper market day, then to cap it all when I got to the garage that was to do my mot found the 2 brothers who run it having a full scale punch up! like a scene from the Mitchell Brothers Albert Sq! A long running dispute had come to a head, punching and kicking, (both crap at such) end result was one driving off shouting that's it the business is closed, the other calling the police! needless to say I didn't get my xxxxxxx MOT!

[Cliff Ton 10,464]

I reckon it's the same in quite a few areas of Nottm. On the rare occasions I go back to Clifton, most of the shops there are like something after a bomb has been dropped.

There are groups of half a dozen shops all over Clifton, and in the 60s each group had a butcher, grocer, newsagent, etc. Now half of them are boarded up, and the remainder is a car spares shop, a video shop, a takeaway, and a 24hr convenience store. They all have grilles and shutters when they close at night. Back in the 60s, the owner just locked the front door and walked away, knowing that when they came back in the morning the plate glass window would still be there.

Other places I've noticed that have died are Radford Road, Hyson Green - the stretch on both sides of Gregory Boulevard. That used to be full of shops - god knows what they all are now.

But if you want to see an area which is run down and full of Pound Shops and Junk shops, go to Broad Marsh Centre. It's been going downhill since about 5 years after it was built and has been on the bottom for a long time. Drury Hill was atmospheric and should've been preserved, and the rest of the old Broad Marsh area was a slum, but the replacement is a disaster - just like the new Trinity Square.

And if you haven't seen that.......the old 1960s car park was better than what is there now.

[denshaw 2,871]

Years ago there were a few fish and chip shops on main streets but now a lot of shops seem to sell hot food. Whether it is Kebabs, Pizza, Indian or Chinese take away or many others. Just take a look at Mansfield Road from Vic Centre to Forest Road and you will count at least 25 hot food shops. Are people being lazy or is it they have less time?

[radfordred 6,284]

I used to love going to the greengrocers with me Mam the grocer with his brown dustcoat & pencil stuck behind his ear, in the days when you where not allowed to handle the produce, giving the cheery chap the opportunity to slip damaged,bruised & sometimes squashed fruit into your bag & use his thumb in the scales so he could over charge my poor old Mum.

How times have changed, I now use my thumb to push the scales back up @ the self sevice till!