This week Guardian Cities published an article by former Bolton resident Andy Walton – a deeply personal piece on the once-mighty northern city’s decline, and the gutting of its historical centre.
Almost one in four shops in the once-thriving market hub now stand vacant, with the decline of industry and the deterioration of the inner city blamed on poor decision-making and missed opportunities by local authorities.
The article struck a chord with many of the city’s residents, and prompted a defiant response from local authorities, who took umbrage at Walton’s reporting that Bolton had been hollowed out to become a “nothing of a town”.
On Wednesday, The Bolton News reported on town leaders’ frustrated response to the story, with Margaret Asquith, the chief executive of the city council, expressing concern about the “disheartening” effect it could have on the city’s young people.
“It’s disappointing,” added council leader Cliff Morris. Morris said the photographs used to illustrate the story did not capture recent developments in the city in the last eight years. “There are a lot of people interested in our town centre and we are doing extremely well.”
Morris extended an invitation to Walton to visit Bolton and see for himself “all the changes and improvements” that had been made. “We don’t dwell on the past – we look to the future,” he said.
Walton, who is now based in London but has family in the Bolton area, told Guardian Cities that many local readers had made contact with him to air their thoughts on the changes in their home city.
One woman told him his piece had moved her to tears. “I don’t live there now but family do,” she wrote on Twitter. “The memories of 80s/90s are good – Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights were party time and the place was so busy.
“It was a great place to grow up but now I’m happier to be raising my own children in Newcastle.”
Of the many hundreds of comments on Walton’s story, key themes emerged: that Bolton’s fortunes had fallen behind neighbouring Bury due to failures of leadership; that supermarkets and shopping centres had drained once lively town centres; and, notably, that the same sad decline could be seen in cities and towns across the north and elsewhere in Britain.
Here are a selection of reader responses.
A failure of leadership
The key decision makers at Bolton Council do not live in the town. They use the town as a stepping stone to get to better jobs in larger towns or cities. Hence the crazy decisions, such as making the Market Hall soulless, concentrating urban planning on retail, instead of encouraging people to live in the town.
A feeble bunch of old, white councillors who know nothing about regeneration, culture etc adds to the issues.
Bury has/had a go ahead group of elected members who embraced the Metro system, who encouraged local businesses and put money into arts and culture. Bury is booming, Bolton is in the knacker's yard.
"Bolton’s problems aren’t unique, says Stephen Young of Bolton council. “All town centres aren’t what they once were"
Perhaps Mr Young should take a 6 mile trip down to Bury to learn that some town centres continue to thrive and to grow, and perhaps he might then consider the decision of Bolton Council not to allow the Manchester Metrolink to come to Bolton on the grounds that it might take shoppers away from Bolton. That went well!
There have been too many poor planning decisions in Bolton. There is nothing left to build on in the town centre. Its quite sad really, but tipping point is past I'm afraid.
I moved to Bolton to be with my partner about two years ago, and in that short time, the decline of the town centre has been so very obvious. Having the council pin all it's hopes on the regeneration of the Market Hall is both short sighted and naive. Don't get me wrong - the opening of the Vaults and the Light Cinema has injected a degree of new life into the town centre. But there is no night time economy to speak of. In fact, other than the booze den's of Bradshawgate, the town centre is deserted after 6pm practically every night of the week. Transport links that are the very definition of poor do not help either - train services are patchy and poorly provided, the once busy night bus to/from Manchester was withdrawn over a year ago, and there this no real night time offer to entice people into Bolton town centre - other than the Market Hall. Bolton as a town is in terminal decline, and a new transport interchange, planned new flats and student accommodation is not what is needed to reverse this decline. Lessons can be learnt from Bury and Altrincham, where new & innovative retail and food offers have livened up those town centres to a noticeable degree. The council leaders need to get their heads out of the sand and actually do something tangible, practical and which meets residents' needs....not that we've been asked. And as for me as a resident? I intend to leave Bolton - ther's nothing here for me....or anyone else, it seems...
Having been born and brought up in neighboring Bury, and moved to Bolton in 2001, it's truly sad to see the current state of Bolton. When I was young Bolton was always seen as Bury's "posh neighbor". We used to go to Bolton as a treat. Both towns hit decline, but the council in Bury had the foresight and imagination to get on and fix it. Result...a lively town centre and a level of affluence. Bolton, on the other hand, continues to spiral in to decay. And the blame lies with the council. Dumb planning decisions, no balls to take on imaginative solutions, no desire to attract investment. Just a continuing victim mentality. To be fair the grant idea with the solicitors was at least imaginative. But they even managed to horse that up by the ham fisted way they went about it. Come on Bolton Council...we deserve better than this.
Not just in Bolton ...
This is the story of many provincial towns and cities. You relocate the football/rugby stadium; allow out-of-town shopping; stick in a ring road, and before you know it, the town is dead. All in the name of progress of course. The cities and towns that have resisted have maintained their character and vitality. Bath being a fine example.
Many comments here along the lines of "The same could be said for ......." which is perfectly true and shows the extent of the crisis which surrounds so much of the country today.
I live in nearby Manchester and despite the relentless propagandising of the city council much the same sort of issues Bolton has are manifest in the City. The largest growth industry, apart from the massive programme of BTL Apartment building must be in producing "To Let" signs and stray not too far away from that beacon of success "Media City" and you see that the benefit to what remains of Salford has been non too evident.
The writer touches on the reason. There is no local work based economy for many of the satellite towns that are dying on their feet and having spent my entire working life in manufacturing, first in what is now called East Manchester and then in Leigh I can only comment that these places have been hollowed out by the loss of secure manufacturing jobs which made their inhabitants producers as much as consumers.
The decline in places like Bolton and many other places across the country has mirrored the loss of local industries and now it is too late to just keep developing more out of Town Shopping Facilities which rely on easy access from the dead hearts of once bustling towns and easy access to debt to pay for the experience.
I can never reconcile the fact that we're supposed to be the 5th or 6th biggest world economy with this kind of endemic problem. If you travel you soon realise every second town in the UK is dying on its arse.
And it's not a north / south thing. Quaint little towns in Dorset, sturdy mill towns in Lancs, inland or coastal, it's happened everywhere.
I suspect it's partly supermarkets, which destroy local businesses and therefore jobs. If they're US owned, like Asda, you know the profits leave the UK. Supermarkets creep closer and closer to the centre of our towns, they fight councils in the courts and win, until they are the town centre - look at e.g Winsford in prosperous Cheshire.
Exactly the same happened to where I grew up, West Bromwich. Once it was a town with some civic virtue, a couple of absolutley wonderful Victorian/Edwardian parks; a thriving market and what was claimed as the longest high street in the UK; a lovely, old but functional, swimming baths; a cinema; family owned shops; lots of small engineering and manufacturing companies, with Salter's Scales and Jensen cars being the most famous.
I recall going into the town hall around 1969 (I left in 1970) and seeing a wooden, painted, model of the future development of the centre; when I got home I told my mum about it (I was 14) and said how awful it looked and how sterile. When I returned in 2013 for a school reunion (our school Churchfields was demolished), I was gobsmacked by the dereliction that existed.
As I had not been for many years I was expecting to find some nice Balti restaurants, instead the market had been reduced to a handful of tatty stalls; a shopping centre squatting on both sides of the HIgh Stree both disfigured the view and was grimy, tatty, and woebegone. Along a mile of High Street the only places to eat were chicken outlets; one pub was open despite broken windows at the top; the entire economy and infrastructure had been crushed by the building of a ring road along with parking restrictions everywhere, so cutting off traffic and visitors.
So the solution to 'regeneration' is apparently a huge shopping mall called New Square, with the biggest Tesco in the UK and full of soulless chain stores. This is set outside the centre and not only further drags customers from the High Street but pretty much makes the existing shopping centre redundant.
On top of that the council spent over £100 MILLION on a failed art centre called the Public. I visited it and it was appalling. God forbid any of that money could have been spent on turning the High Street into a destination that is attractive; or building a new swimming pool or a cinema. Or restoring Dartmouth Park.
Now of course they have all these things, cinema, sports centre with pool, etc. But all done on the same inhuman, lego architecture, everything the same as everywhere else model. A town centre that was perfectly serviceable for 150 years, with its own individuality and quirks has been anhilated, along with tens of thousands of similar small towns.
When you look at these processes it is difficult to see how Marx was wrong as he predicted that unrestricted capitalism would lead to these outcomes. It is becoming a fact now that only the rich can afford 'individual' or 'bespoke' shops, and outside catering it is becoming increasingly difficult for individual traders to survive.
Not far from me in North Finchley there is an extremely old-fashioned shop that used to be common when I was much younger. It stocks wools for knitting, fabrics, crochet equipment, yarns, and threads and needles and buttons and hooks and knitting needles, and curtain wire, and ribbons, and silks and patterns, and art brushes and stuff I can't recall. I have little call to use it but I love going in when I do as it is run by a wife and husband (the wife very much the CEO) who give attention to every customer and every request and query. Time slows down inside, nobody is in a hurry, there is alwasy some chit chat, (there are a lot of regulars) and it is like going back to the mid 60's.
Every time I pass the place I have my fingers crossed that it will not be closed. I suspect they have, like some friends of mine further down, been shrewd enough to buy the premises decades ago and so have not been forced out by rent increases, as so many have. But they are getting on and I wonder what will become of the place when they eventually have to retire. Probably yet another chicken outlet, or nail bar, or possibly a charity shop, because we haven't got enough of those have we?
Bolton’s better days
Sad to see my native town in such dire straits. Pre-war Bolton was'nt much fun and neither in wartime although we didn't receive the hitlerian attention that larger cities did. It's heyday was in the 60s to the 90s when it was known as the place to shop. Times change ever more quickly and it's difficult to know how to compete with the mega shopping centres unless the town has one built centrally with a multi storey car park to serve it.
Politicians cannot change social preferences but enlightened town planners might if they are allowed to. Otherwise town centres will go the way of America. It needs creative application. One town I have visited in canada was similarly dying when the council had the bright idea of letting its artists and sculptors loose on the buildings, painting them in bright colours and building monuments and sculptures. That town now has 8 million visitors a year. Creativity and original thinking!
It was a great town to grow up in the 70's & 80's and the centre was the focal point of weekend shoping and drinking. I only went to Manchester for gigs. Now Manchester is looking particularly vibrant in what it has to offer and has helped suck the life out of surrounding towns (with the exception of Bury) and the town hasn't exactly helped itself. I find it quite depressing when I go back now, apart from the pasty shop everything else has declined. Hope the fight back works, but it will take time.
I have fond memories of Bolton. I worked there from 1999 to 2005. I could get all I wanted at the huge variety of shops and Christmas shopping was a breeze. We often went out with the office on Friday night around the pubs and then onto Jumping Jacks or Atlantis etc for late night drinks. Memories of our annual darts nights in The Old Man and Scythe.
When I first went back a good few years ago, I was shocked, it was like Blackpool without the sea in parts "2 shots for £1" and seemingly popup bars hastily opened up to make some quick cash only to close again just as quickly.
I am surprised at the speed at which they are now revamping it mainly around the new transport interchange and the top end of the shopping centre. When it's finished it should look good.
All in all who can have a pop at Bolton when it's the home of Rice 'n' Three and Ye Olde Pastie Shoppe?
One of the last remaining 'great features' of Bolton is the fruit, veg and fish market. There was a thriving open market next to it. The town planners moved the open market to the other side of the main building which means there is now no passing trade, that market is now dying on its arse. Moving the bus station now means that there will be a considerable foot journey to access these markets. A lot of the custom of the market comes from people travelling by bus from surrounding towns. The thought of being laden with shopping and the walk back to the new transport 'hub should just about kill the market. Town planners? Clueless.
Change is the only constant
Bit sad that we measure the life of our communities by the success of their shopping centres. If everyone is out there buying things regularly and the shops are all doing good business, then all is well. Yeah, we live to shop! It was a relief to hear mention of a cinema, theatre and art gallery.
Well clearly Bolton is far more prosperous than in the days of cotton which was the absolute peak industry for inequality: most worker earned very little, these were not skilled jobs. This sounds like a planning problem more than anything: Bolton has a new shopping district that is thriving and an old one that is not.
In the C19th (when cotton was king in Bolton) nostalgia was considered to be a disease. Now we revel in it. Surely there is a balance somewhere.
Things change, and often for the better. I grew up in a town not far from Bolton and I remember being dragged around on the weekly shopping trip by my parents. Every Saturday morning spent going from shop to shop. It used to take the whole morning - a significant portion of the weekend. Fortunately those days are gone. I can get all the essential shopping I need on the way home from work one evening, in less than an hour. Other more specialised purchases are done online. It frees up my time to do things I enjoy.
The days of going on a shopping trip to a town centre are gone. The future of town centres is a mix of housing and leisure activities: Restaurants, bars, cafes. In order for things to improve, towns need to let go of an outdated model.
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I have lived in the town for sixty years. It is completely run down in parts and on Bradshawgate has all closed down units. Even the pawn shop has closed and the centre is full of beggars. Very depressing as council tax is pretty high and we can't get to see a doctor for three and a half weeks, the train station is a slum so are the trains. There is no work so people pillar onto packed trains to commute to Manchester. We are saving to get out and go to Devon or Cornwall when we eventually get our state pensions. Not sure what the European union ever did for trashcan towns in the north such as Bolton.