As a regular weekly visitor (2 to 3 times a week) to Wigan from the late 70's to the mid 80's and less so until about 15 years ago. It really saddens me how this once great bustling town has fallen. Genuinely some of the most friendly, down to earth and funny people I have ever met.
Change for change sake and for no other good reason. To town planners and councils, NOSTALGIA is a dirty word that they don't understand and readily frowned upon:
Like many Northern towns Wigan’s demise started under Thatcher and continued under Blair. I’m old enough to remember Wigan in the 1960’s and 70’s. No charity shops or homeless people on the streets -independent shops and a sense of pride in the town.
So it seems that a good deal of the destruction started around 1979.... sadly many worthwhile and characterful buildings were (and still are) simply being left to fall into dereliction or demolished and replaced by grim and blocky concrete horrors or temporarily left as barren ugly spaces. Also, it is in LANCASHIRE... never ever will I say greater Manchester. As of 2023 it has become a depressing skeleton of a town, all its spirit long gone due to difficult economic times and blunt neglect in many instances. H G Wells would probably still be driven to write a book very similar in tone to the one he wrote so long ago in the bad old days!!! Wigan lost its Victorian Market Hall and cobbled town square when both were removed instead of being preserved as a heritage project, they were replaced by a new market hall and galleried shopping centre, opened officially in 1991 by the late Lady Diana, Princess of Wales..... now that is also being demolished for yet another town centre scheme. The latest development is almost universally disliked by the residents of Wigan... there'll be 'another' cinema (we have one currently struggling to survive)' another' bowling alley (we have one currently struggling to survive) and a block of about 454 apartments/hotel. There are already hotels in and around the town centre, they too are most likely struggling to survive. There is certainly nothing to 'visit' in the remnants of Wigan. The current extremely challenging economic times we are all experiencing don't bode well for the success of the latest UNDERTAKING, I used that word for a reason, this hugely costly demolition/new build could well be the death knell of the dying town. Surely it would have been better to protect and encourage growth by offering much more free parking, lowering rental/rates for shops and market traders. What has happened instead is that now almost all the remaining shops are suffering from a diminishing level of passing trade! Such a shambles! The coal, the mills, the bus and tram industry, the garden tool industry and many many more... all long gone .... replaced by vape shops, pawn shops, charity shops, etcetera. I can't help having the feeling that Wigan came from rags to riches (though not equally shared) and now it's back to rags again in 2023! I'll edit this because all this is probably too emotional but they are my views on the matter. What a great pity that the recent meddlings and redevelopments have had nothing of the sensitive, selective, careful about them whatsoever ... as proposed by the Rector Malcolm Forest! Bernard Coyle was right about the loss of rateable value... the Victorian market hall could have been a centrepiece, preserved and protected, something of heritage not just a place to shop, too late now.
Eeee Wigan my home town… I vaguely remember it being like this before they built the new indoor market and galleries. They successfully managed to ruin that now as well, last time I went to Wigan the indoor market was a shell of what it used to be and the outdoor market is now virtually non existent… so sad to see. I think the biggest waste of money was the new shopping centre, all that happened was the businesses in the galleries moved to there which made the old galleries like a ghost town I think Wigan also has a problem with anti social behaviour these days, I lived there all my life until 18 months ago when I moved to anglesey for a quieter life. I love Wigan and it I will always class it as my home but The crime rate was increasing and we were seeing more violent crimes happening in our local community. And the traffic in and around Wigan is bonkers, try driving anywhere at 3pm onwards at 30mph is almost impossible, your lucky if your actually moving. Once it took me 2 hours to travel 10 miles 🤯….. since living on Anglesey I have never once got stuck in a traffic jam, sometimes you can go out and never get behind another car and no cars behind you……and you never see gangs of youth hanging around outside of shops or on street corners. In fact I Dont think I’ve ever seen a gang of kids 😂 saying that I do live in the middle of nowhere 😂😂
As a regular weekly visitor (2 to 3 times a week) to Wigan from the late 70's to the mid 80's and less so until about 15 years ago. It really saddens me how this once great bustling town has fallen. Genuinely some of the most friendly, down to earth and funny people I have ever met.
Change for change sake and for no other good reason. To town planners and councils, NOSTALGIA is a dirty word that they don't understand and readily frowned upon:
Like many Northern towns Wigan’s demise started under Thatcher and continued under Blair.
I’m old enough to remember Wigan in the 1960’s and 70’s.
No charity shops or homeless people on the streets -independent shops and a sense of pride in the town.
So it seems that a good deal of the destruction started around 1979.... sadly many worthwhile and characterful buildings were (and still are) simply being left to fall into dereliction or demolished and replaced by grim and blocky concrete horrors or temporarily left as barren ugly spaces. Also, it is in LANCASHIRE... never ever will I say greater Manchester. As of 2023 it has become a depressing skeleton of a town, all its spirit long gone due to difficult economic times and blunt neglect in many instances. H G Wells would probably still be driven to write a book very similar in tone to the one he wrote so long ago in the bad old days!!! Wigan lost its Victorian Market Hall and cobbled town square when both were removed instead of being preserved as a heritage project, they were replaced by a new market hall and galleried shopping centre, opened officially in 1991 by the late Lady Diana, Princess of Wales..... now that is also being demolished for yet another town centre scheme. The latest development is almost universally disliked by the residents of Wigan... there'll be 'another' cinema (we have one currently struggling to survive)' another' bowling alley (we have one currently struggling to survive) and a block of about 454 apartments/hotel. There are already hotels in and around the town centre, they too are most likely struggling to survive. There is certainly nothing to 'visit' in the remnants of Wigan. The current extremely challenging economic times we are all experiencing don't bode well for the success of the latest UNDERTAKING, I used that word for a reason, this hugely costly demolition/new build could well be the death knell of the dying town. Surely it would have been better to protect and encourage growth by offering much more free parking, lowering rental/rates for shops and market traders. What has happened instead is that now almost all the remaining shops are suffering from a diminishing level of passing trade! Such a shambles! The coal, the mills, the bus and tram industry, the garden tool industry and many many more... all long gone .... replaced by vape shops, pawn shops, charity shops, etcetera. I can't help having the feeling that Wigan came from rags to riches (though not equally shared) and now it's back to rags again in 2023! I'll edit this because all this is probably too emotional but they are my views on the matter. What a great pity that the recent meddlings and redevelopments have had nothing of the sensitive, selective, careful about them whatsoever ... as proposed by the Rector Malcolm Forest! Bernard Coyle was right about the loss of rateable value... the Victorian market hall could have been a centrepiece, preserved and protected, something of heritage not just a place to shop, too late now.
Eeee Wigan my home town… I vaguely remember it being like this before they built the new indoor market and galleries. They successfully managed to ruin that now as well, last time I went to Wigan the indoor market was a shell of what it used to be and the outdoor market is now virtually non existent… so sad to see. I think the biggest waste of money was the new shopping centre, all that happened was the businesses in the galleries moved to there which made the old galleries like a ghost town
I think Wigan also has a problem with anti social behaviour these days, I lived there all my life until 18 months ago when I moved to anglesey for a quieter life. I love Wigan and it I will always class it as my home but The crime rate was increasing and we were seeing more violent crimes happening in our local community.
And the traffic in and around Wigan is bonkers, try driving anywhere at 3pm onwards at 30mph is almost impossible, your lucky if your actually moving. Once it took me 2 hours to travel 10 miles 🤯….. since living on Anglesey I have never once got stuck in a traffic jam, sometimes you can go out and never get behind another car and no cars behind you……and you never see gangs of youth hanging around outside of shops or on street corners. In fact I Dont think I’ve ever seen a gang of kids 😂 saying that I do live in the middle of nowhere 😂😂
you're not your meaning you are.
THE change that nobody in wigan wanted why cannot go back to lancashire NOW
the worst thing wigan council have ever done and hopefully it wont get worster than this
Sound is shocking
wigan is dead