| WTF happened to the place ? 03:09 - Sep 2 with 3322 views | Springhill_old_boy |
Just back in Portugal after a short trip back to Southampton to see family after 13 years. Jaysus what happeed to the centre ? Hardly recognised the place.. had a strange interaction with someone outside of West Quay .. who asked me aggresively if I was from here (I was with my Portuguese wife and kids plus my Ma who moved from Belfast in the 70s (I was born in 73)).. I replied used to be .. he then asked me where the nearest sex shop was ...
Feckin expensive cost me over 2100€ for flights and hotel (feckin bastard ghosted me after having arranged and confirmed for 2 months on Booking.Com .. should have stayed in Ocean Village for around 600 quid .. ended up in Warsash in a feckin fixed caravan for almost a Grand... jaysus ... |  | | |  |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:15 - Sep 2 with 3152 views | saint22 |
Little Britain for you
The whole place is a shambles | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:38 - Sep 2 with 3098 views | saintwizzler |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:15 - Sep 2 by saint22 |
Little Britain for you
The whole place is a shambles |
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Tories run up a huge debt.
Gotta repay all that furlough money somehow!! |  |
| We thought that we had the answers,
It was the questions we had wrong. |
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:57 - Sep 2 with 3025 views | Heisenberg |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:38 - Sep 2 by saintwizzler |
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Tories run up a huge debt.
Gotta repay all that furlough money somehow!! |
Britain is a litter strewn dump. Street drinkers and homeless people sleeping in parks and doorways and run down city centres and high streets full of phone, charity shops and nail bars. Roads are becoming undriveable in places and as the recent riots showed the justice system is on its knees.
Austerity Brexit Covid and corrupt incompetent politicians have screwed this country. |  |
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 08:08 - Sep 2 with 3011 views | solent_toffee |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:57 - Sep 2 by Heisenberg |
Britain is a litter strewn dump. Street drinkers and homeless people sleeping in parks and doorways and run down city centres and high streets full of phone, charity shops and nail bars. Roads are becoming undriveable in places and as the recent riots showed the justice system is on its knees.
Austerity Brexit Covid and corrupt incompetent politicians have screwed this country. |
There are loads of great, progressive cities in the UK. I was in Manchester last weekend and it is brilliant, loads going on, a really vibrant city. Liverpool is the same. Leeds has had a fortune spent on it in recent years as has Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol are also superb before you even start on London.
I’ve been here for 24 years and the city has barely made any progress especially in comparison to the cities mentioned. Lack of vision from the council? I don’t know but it’s grim. | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 09:30 - Sep 2 with 2869 views | grumpy |
Sorry you had that experience, Springhill.
I am at a age as to remember Southampton when it was great.
Sadly shopping took over entertainment.
The East Street Shopping Centre, The Bargate Shopping Centre,The Marland's and West Quay Shopping Centres took over the centre.
East Street and The Bargate shopping Centres had to be demolished.
Gone has the Pier,Lido,Top Rank Dancing,Skating and Bowls.
Sadly we have lost a lot of Character of how Southampton was once.
As a major Shipping Port what people must make of our Centre and Railway Station etc I dread to think. |  | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:05 - Sep 2 with 2826 views | SaintNick |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 09:30 - Sep 2 by grumpy |
Sorry you had that experience, Springhill.
I am at a age as to remember Southampton when it was great.
Sadly shopping took over entertainment.
The East Street Shopping Centre, The Bargate Shopping Centre,The Marland's and West Quay Shopping Centres took over the centre.
East Street and The Bargate shopping Centres had to be demolished.
Gone has the Pier,Lido,Top Rank Dancing,Skating and Bowls.
Sadly we have lost a lot of Character of how Southampton was once.
As a major Shipping Port what people must make of our Centre and Railway Station etc I dread to think. |
I do agree that a lot of places have gone, but I sometimes wonder whether people look back with too much nostalgia.
Yes shopping has taken over the city centre, but that is the case in all big cities.
The City centre back in the 70's was devoid of much either shopping or entertainment, all of the aforementioned Pier, Lido, Top Rank, ice rink and bowls were all a fair way out of the City centre.
By the end 1980's if you walked from the top end of London Road to Holy Rood Church on Above bar & the high street, there were just two bars, Bogarts and what is now Belgium & Blues.
Now there must be about 25
Back in the 80's Oxford street & the Bedford place area were also dead, but now both are vibrant areas with bars clubs and loads of restaurants.
by the mid 70's the Pier had closed, the only real discotheque as they were called back then was the Top Rank and Fridays, the other nightclubs such as the Sillouette were jacket and tie only venues.
Southampton has a lot more going on now than it had 45 years ago.
Yes id does lack character, but that has a lot to do with the fact that the City Centre was completely flattened during the war, 90 % of the buildings are post second world war.
Liverpool is a city that i know well, back in the 1970's it was a dump full of bomb sites and disused Victorian warehouses, that were so well built it was too expensive to knock them down, the Albert dock was a blackened wasteland, Mathew Street had one pub in it and you wouldn't venture down there after dark on your own.
They still had the character in the city centre add the Beatles and it became their saviour, sadly whatever we want to say, we never had those foundations to build on, they had a waterfront that was accessible.
That is not to say though that the City Council should not have done more down here, truth is they have done very little and have continued with that tradition even now.
We have little to offer the cruise passengers and what little we have, like the City walls and the Titanic or even D Day, we do little to promote and when we do we overcharge, £11 for the Sea City museum in the Civic Centre, a small place you can do in about an hour, compare that to the Liverpool Life Museum or Maritime museum, both massive and free. |  |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:20 - Sep 2 with 2780 views | kingslandstand1 |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 09:30 - Sep 2 by grumpy |
Sorry you had that experience, Springhill.
I am at a age as to remember Southampton when it was great.
Sadly shopping took over entertainment.
The East Street Shopping Centre, The Bargate Shopping Centre,The Marland's and West Quay Shopping Centres took over the centre.
East Street and The Bargate shopping Centres had to be demolished.
Gone has the Pier,Lido,Top Rank Dancing,Skating and Bowls.
Sadly we have lost a lot of Character of how Southampton was once.
As a major Shipping Port what people must make of our Centre and Railway Station etc I dread to think. |
And don't forget the massive coach station Grumps! |  | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:24 - Sep 2 with 2763 views | grumpy |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:20 - Sep 2 by kingslandstand1 |
And don't forget the massive coach station Grumps! |
Which there was two,the Green Bus Station where Marlands is now and the one in Bedford Place.
I walked round Bedford place the other day,what a dump. [Post edited 2 Sep 10:25]
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:41 - Sep 2 with 2714 views | grumpy |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:05 - Sep 2 by SaintNick |
I do agree that a lot of places have gone, but I sometimes wonder whether people look back with too much nostalgia.
Yes shopping has taken over the city centre, but that is the case in all big cities.
The City centre back in the 70's was devoid of much either shopping or entertainment, all of the aforementioned Pier, Lido, Top Rank, ice rink and bowls were all a fair way out of the City centre.
By the end 1980's if you walked from the top end of London Road to Holy Rood Church on Above bar & the high street, there were just two bars, Bogarts and what is now Belgium & Blues.
Now there must be about 25
Back in the 80's Oxford street & the Bedford place area were also dead, but now both are vibrant areas with bars clubs and loads of restaurants.
by the mid 70's the Pier had closed, the only real discotheque as they were called back then was the Top Rank and Fridays, the other nightclubs such as the Sillouette were jacket and tie only venues.
Southampton has a lot more going on now than it had 45 years ago.
Yes id does lack character, but that has a lot to do with the fact that the City Centre was completely flattened during the war, 90 % of the buildings are post second world war.
Liverpool is a city that i know well, back in the 1970's it was a dump full of bomb sites and disused Victorian warehouses, that were so well built it was too expensive to knock them down, the Albert dock was a blackened wasteland, Mathew Street had one pub in it and you wouldn't venture down there after dark on your own.
They still had the character in the city centre add the Beatles and it became their saviour, sadly whatever we want to say, we never had those foundations to build on, they had a waterfront that was accessible.
That is not to say though that the City Council should not have done more down here, truth is they have done very little and have continued with that tradition even now.
We have little to offer the cruise passengers and what little we have, like the City walls and the Titanic or even D Day, we do little to promote and when we do we overcharge, £11 for the Sea City museum in the Civic Centre, a small place you can do in about an hour, compare that to the Liverpool Life Museum or Maritime museum, both massive and free. |
'Southampton has a lot more going on now than it had 45 years ago'
Seriously Nick, do you really think that?
'Pier, Lido, Top Rank, ice rink and bowls were all a fair way out of the City centre'
Depends what you call the City Center.
The Lido you could catch a bus to the civic centre and walk a short distance to.
Top Rank, ice rink and bowls were just off Bedford place.
How many of us old ones used to go to the Dell on Saturdays and end up there in the evenings?
I worked in Oxford Street and I can assure you it was far from dead.
Bedford Place looked a dump when I saw it recently, admittedly that was during the Day not the evening when it may have had some atmosphere I grant you.
I don't think you can blame the War on how it is now,have you been to Berlin? | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 11:15 - Sep 2 with 2669 views | SaintNick |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:41 - Sep 2 by grumpy |
'Southampton has a lot more going on now than it had 45 years ago'
Seriously Nick, do you really think that?
'Pier, Lido, Top Rank, ice rink and bowls were all a fair way out of the City centre'
Depends what you call the City Center.
The Lido you could catch a bus to the civic centre and walk a short distance to.
Top Rank, ice rink and bowls were just off Bedford place.
How many of us old ones used to go to the Dell on Saturdays and end up there in the evenings?
I worked in Oxford Street and I can assure you it was far from dead.
Bedford Place looked a dump when I saw it recently, admittedly that was during the Day not the evening when it may have had some atmosphere I grant you.
I don't think you can blame the War on how it is now,have you been to Berlin? |
In 1979, Southampton was dead, the only two real places to go if you were late teens early 20's when the pubs shut were the Top rank, the Centre Inn or a couple of seedy clubs in St Mary's street, a lot of people went to Bournemouth on a Saturday night to places like the Maison Royale, if you went there it was like half of Southampton were there, always a few coaches ran down there.
Yes the Lido was quite near the city centre, but how many days of the year was that in use, it was only open from May to August and it was only in the school holidays that it was busy during the week.
The Top Rank & ice rink were basically a mile from the City Centre and was about half a mile from the nearest pub (just checked on google maps) and was isolated from the city centre.
Yes loads used to go to the Dell and the Top Rank, but the City Centre itself had very little in the way of pubs or bars.
I worked just by Oxford Street from 1980-84, it had two pubs open the Grapes & the London Hotel, plus a hotel bar, the rest of it was shops, you did have the Parkers & another bar that at one time became Le Tissiers Celebration plaza in the 90's, but Oxford Street was dead in the 1980.s and i spent a lot of evenings sat in the office there, so I knew, the Grapes & the London saw little business after 7pm.
It only picked up in the late 1990's.
In the 1980's Bedford place had two pubs , the Bedford and the red Lion and a few indian & Greek restaurants and takeaways, round in Carlton place the likes of the Pensioners & The Cricketers were the only two pubs and they were more drinkers pubs than for the younger set
The trouble with Southampton back then was everything was outside the centre and out on a limb, Oxford Street was 3/4 mile from the the Centre Inn and double that to Bedford Place.
It is still a bit like that you can't wander from Oxford Street to Bedford Place easily although the High Street does make a half way point.
I can blame the war now, all the post war buildings are still standing, walk from the top of London Road to The Royal Pier in a straight line 1.25 miles and there is barely a pre WW2 building along that road or in the streets off it such as East Street etc.
Yes I have been to Berlin a couple of times and like Southampton it was flattened, but during the day it has the WW2 historical sites, most of which such as Hitlers Bunker or Check Point Charlie are just the site of, rather than an actual building.
In the evening the nightlife is outside the main City centre in places like Kreuzeberg | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:09 - Sep 2 with 2597 views | grumpy |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 11:15 - Sep 2 by SaintNick |
In 1979, Southampton was dead, the only two real places to go if you were late teens early 20's when the pubs shut were the Top rank, the Centre Inn or a couple of seedy clubs in St Mary's street, a lot of people went to Bournemouth on a Saturday night to places like the Maison Royale, if you went there it was like half of Southampton were there, always a few coaches ran down there.
Yes the Lido was quite near the city centre, but how many days of the year was that in use, it was only open from May to August and it was only in the school holidays that it was busy during the week.
The Top Rank & ice rink were basically a mile from the City Centre and was about half a mile from the nearest pub (just checked on google maps) and was isolated from the city centre.
Yes loads used to go to the Dell and the Top Rank, but the City Centre itself had very little in the way of pubs or bars.
I worked just by Oxford Street from 1980-84, it had two pubs open the Grapes & the London Hotel, plus a hotel bar, the rest of it was shops, you did have the Parkers & another bar that at one time became Le Tissiers Celebration plaza in the 90's, but Oxford Street was dead in the 1980.s and i spent a lot of evenings sat in the office there, so I knew, the Grapes & the London saw little business after 7pm.
It only picked up in the late 1990's.
In the 1980's Bedford place had two pubs , the Bedford and the red Lion and a few indian & Greek restaurants and takeaways, round in Carlton place the likes of the Pensioners & The Cricketers were the only two pubs and they were more drinkers pubs than for the younger set
The trouble with Southampton back then was everything was outside the centre and out on a limb, Oxford Street was 3/4 mile from the the Centre Inn and double that to Bedford Place.
It is still a bit like that you can't wander from Oxford Street to Bedford Place easily although the High Street does make a half way point.
I can blame the war now, all the post war buildings are still standing, walk from the top of London Road to The Royal Pier in a straight line 1.25 miles and there is barely a pre WW2 building along that road or in the streets off it such as East Street etc.
Yes I have been to Berlin a couple of times and like Southampton it was flattened, but during the day it has the WW2 historical sites, most of which such as Hitlers Bunker or Check Point Charlie are just the site of, rather than an actual building.
In the evening the nightlife is outside the main City centre in places like Kreuzeberg |
I wouldn't have said Southampton was dead in the 70s.
The Southerners,The Red Lion(bottom of town),Gattis,The Duke of Wellington etc etc there were plenty of interest.
I remember walking from the Top Rank into town it wasn't a great distance.
How can you blame the war its how its developed after that counts.
Berlin is an amazing City,their railway station makes ours look like a something out of Thomas the tank Engine.
Who could ever forget The Checkpoint Cafe,Lions Cafe and Cadena Cafe,ABC,Odeon,Classic cinemas.
The Juniper Berry was famous.
Southampton is pale reflection of those days now. | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:18 - Sep 2 with 2571 views | Number_58 |
Not sure how Soton have got their town planning so disastrously wrong down the years. It's not as though there's no other towns and cities to take inspiration from. I went to Gunwharf recently and had a wander along the seafront. Although much of Pompey is a bit of a dump, the waterfront area is lovely and the real focal point of the city. It puts Soton to shame. Southampton does have a chance to do something special with the redevelopment of Town Quay and Mayflower Park (if it ever happens) but you just know that it'll inevitably end up as some half-arsed carbuncle with the usual 'shops, hotels, bars and michelin-starred restaurants' that the developers and investors love, but no-one else really needs or wants. |  | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:27 - Sep 2 with 2559 views | SaintNick |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:09 - Sep 2 by grumpy |
I wouldn't have said Southampton was dead in the 70s.
The Southerners,The Red Lion(bottom of town),Gattis,The Duke of Wellington etc etc there were plenty of interest.
I remember walking from the Top Rank into town it wasn't a great distance.
How can you blame the war its how its developed after that counts.
Berlin is an amazing City,their railway station makes ours look like a something out of Thomas the tank Engine.
Who could ever forget The Checkpoint Cafe,Lions Cafe and Cadena Cafe,ABC,Odeon,Classic cinemas.
The Juniper Berry was famous.
Southampton is pale reflection of those days now. |
The Southerners was a lively place that is true, but The Duke of Wellington & The bottom of town Red Lion were hardly places that you went on a night out,, the Gattis that was by the Bargate was a steak house effort by the time I was drinking
The Top Rank to the shopping precinct was 1.25 miles yes im sad enough to put it into google maps now.
The post war buildings are all still the same, all that had changed in the centre is the addition of the 3 shopping malls, the Bargate one is long gone but hopefully the new development will be quite good
The Marlands is now mainly just low budget shops only the West Quay is busy.
Yes the Berlin rail network is impressive as is the station, funded for the 2006 World cup, the advantage of being a Capital city I think
If you are citing cafe's and cinemas as evidence as to how Southampton was a jumping joint, then I think I can rest my case on this one.
Southampton seemed to be quite vibrant in the 1960;s but it died in the 1970's, when I worked in a shipping company in the docks 80-84 everyone older than me told me this | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:48 - Sep 2 with 2543 views | grumpy |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:27 - Sep 2 by SaintNick |
The Southerners was a lively place that is true, but The Duke of Wellington & The bottom of town Red Lion were hardly places that you went on a night out,, the Gattis that was by the Bargate was a steak house effort by the time I was drinking
The Top Rank to the shopping precinct was 1.25 miles yes im sad enough to put it into google maps now.
The post war buildings are all still the same, all that had changed in the centre is the addition of the 3 shopping malls, the Bargate one is long gone but hopefully the new development will be quite good
The Marlands is now mainly just low budget shops only the West Quay is busy.
Yes the Berlin rail network is impressive as is the station, funded for the 2006 World cup, the advantage of being a Capital city I think
If you are citing cafe's and cinemas as evidence as to how Southampton was a jumping joint, then I think I can rest my case on this one.
Southampton seemed to be quite vibrant in the 1960;s but it died in the 1970's, when I worked in a shipping company in the docks 80-84 everyone older than me told me this |
Where are these jumping joints now in Southampton,Nick?
I think there are more Cafes than there are Pubs now which I think is quite sad☹️ [Post edited 2 Sep 12:54]
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 13:40 - Sep 2 with 2449 views | SouthSeaSaint |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:24 - Sep 2 by grumpy |
Which there was two,the Green Bus Station where Marlands is now and the one in Bedford Place.
I walked round Bedford place the other day,what a dump. [Post edited 2 Sep 10:25]
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Point of order.
The 'Green Bus' Station at Marlands was used by Hants & Dorset (primarily rural services) and the occasional Wilts & Dorset to Salisbury.
It was the 'Coach' station located at Bedford Place, primarily used by Royal Blue services and other longer distance passenger services. | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 13:46 - Sep 2 with 2442 views | SaintNick |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:48 - Sep 2 by grumpy |
Where are these jumping joints now in Southampton,Nick?
I think there are more Cafes than there are Pubs now which I think is quite sad☹️ [Post edited 2 Sep 12:54]
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My time of going out in Southampton past about 9pm is long gone, but when I walk down the high street on a Friday or night I see loads of packed pubs with music and entertainment, yes there is no massive place like the Top Rank, but that has been replaced by a lot more going on.
If you want a more mature night out there is Oxford street, if you was a grungy night out there is Bevois Valley, the younger lot go in and around Above Bar & Guildhall square and Bedford place, Carlton Place London Road etc is building up its reputation again.
If they were all next door to each otther than Southampton would be a very vibrant place, but it is too spread out | |
| Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime |
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 13:52 - Sep 2 with 2434 views | SouthSeaSaint |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:05 - Sep 2 by SaintNick |
I do agree that a lot of places have gone, but I sometimes wonder whether people look back with too much nostalgia.
Yes shopping has taken over the city centre, but that is the case in all big cities.
The City centre back in the 70's was devoid of much either shopping or entertainment, all of the aforementioned Pier, Lido, Top Rank, ice rink and bowls were all a fair way out of the City centre.
By the end 1980's if you walked from the top end of London Road to Holy Rood Church on Above bar & the high street, there were just two bars, Bogarts and what is now Belgium & Blues.
Now there must be about 25
Back in the 80's Oxford street & the Bedford place area were also dead, but now both are vibrant areas with bars clubs and loads of restaurants.
by the mid 70's the Pier had closed, the only real discotheque as they were called back then was the Top Rank and Fridays, the other nightclubs such as the Sillouette were jacket and tie only venues.
Southampton has a lot more going on now than it had 45 years ago.
Yes id does lack character, but that has a lot to do with the fact that the City Centre was completely flattened during the war, 90 % of the buildings are post second world war.
Liverpool is a city that i know well, back in the 1970's it was a dump full of bomb sites and disused Victorian warehouses, that were so well built it was too expensive to knock them down, the Albert dock was a blackened wasteland, Mathew Street had one pub in it and you wouldn't venture down there after dark on your own.
They still had the character in the city centre add the Beatles and it became their saviour, sadly whatever we want to say, we never had those foundations to build on, they had a waterfront that was accessible.
That is not to say though that the City Council should not have done more down here, truth is they have done very little and have continued with that tradition even now.
We have little to offer the cruise passengers and what little we have, like the City walls and the Titanic or even D Day, we do little to promote and when we do we overcharge, £11 for the Sea City museum in the Civic Centre, a small place you can do in about an hour, compare that to the Liverpool Life Museum or Maritime museum, both massive and free. |
Nick,
You mention comparisons with Liverpool, Manchester & Leeds.
As you rightly say Liverpool was a real dump post war as the bottom of the city had suffered massively from bombing during WW2.
It was Michael Hesletine (part of the Thatcher Govt) who helped inspire redevelopment post the Toxteth riots helped by significant funding from the EU and UK regeneration budgets as well as an influx of Irish capital linked to local Scally redistribution of capital from the drug trade.
Also the Whitaker family buying the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board has released 100's of acres of prime waterfront land for development land on both sides of the Mersey
I was at Uni in Leeds and dont recognise the centre of the city now with all the influx of capital from the Insurance business and other service industries.
I'm not so au fait with Manchester but the money from Man City owners has helped galvanise investment and Any Burnham has done his bit as the Metro Mayor.
All three cities have more than twice the population of Southampton which has always suffered from being in the so called 'Rich South' and there unable to access money from the EU or Central Govt funding. | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 14:50 - Sep 2 with 2381 views | grumpy |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 13:46 - Sep 2 by SaintNick |
My time of going out in Southampton past about 9pm is long gone, but when I walk down the high street on a Friday or night I see loads of packed pubs with music and entertainment, yes there is no massive place like the Top Rank, but that has been replaced by a lot more going on.
If you want a more mature night out there is Oxford street, if you was a grungy night out there is Bevois Valley, the younger lot go in and around Above Bar & Guildhall square and Bedford place, Carlton Place London Road etc is building up its reputation again.
If they were all next door to each otther than Southampton would be a very vibrant place, but it is too spread out |
Packed out with students no doubt.
The mature night in Oxford Street is for those who can afford it. | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 08:44 - Sep 4 with 1889 views | saint22 |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:38 - Sep 2 by saintwizzler |
It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
Tories run up a huge debt.
Gotta repay all that furlough money somehow!! |
Fkn furlough AND Eat Out to Help out from our brilliant chancellor who then became PM
The Tories screwed this country even more than most thought possible
As a man who travels and returns regularly the comparison to how things operate and work abroad is staggering
No country imperfect but we are way way behind on so many things it’s embarrassing | | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 10:12 - Sep 4 with 1839 views | franniesTache |
As someone who's moved away to the smoke but is back fairly regularly i actually have a slightly different view on Southampton.
My perspective is it's a hell of a lot better, cleaner and less aggro than it was for me growing up in the 80's/90's.
The bit round the civic center has been done up really well, bedford place has some genuinely nice spots there now and on the whole it feels like money has spent on the city.
Back when i was growing up i'd spend most of my time in the corridor from portswood through st denys to st mary's and the city was shady as f*ck, full of little rat runs and underpasses, a lot of crumbling concrete and town on a friday/saturday night was a 50/50 chance of a row.
I don't see any of that stuff now, in fact even the area around Northam estate and derby/empress road seems to have been cleared up.
My one complaint about Southampton these days - ironically - is it feels a bit soulless, a lot of the run down vibe is what gave it character in the past, and it feels like many of the proper boozers have gone and been replaced by "bars" or generic drinking places. Hell even Shirley high st seems to have been gentrified a bit now, which is f*cking weird to me.
A few do still remain, but mostly they're outside the city center itself (notable exceptions being places like the Wellington) but i definitely feel it's much more bland than it used to be. |  | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 12:32 - Sep 4 with 1746 views | MattFinish |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 07:57 - Sep 2 by Heisenberg |
Britain is a litter strewn dump. Street drinkers and homeless people sleeping in parks and doorways and run down city centres and high streets full of phone, charity shops and nail bars. Roads are becoming undriveable in places and as the recent riots showed the justice system is on its knees.
Austerity Brexit Covid and corrupt incompetent politicians have screwed this country. |
Spot on |  | | |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 13:47 - Sep 4 with 1703 views | SaintNick |
| WTF happened to the place ? on 14:50 - Sep 2 by grumpy |
Packed out with students no doubt.
The mature night in Oxford Street is for those who can afford it. |
Oxford street is hardly Dubai, it is only a little dearer for a drink than say Bedford Place | |
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| WTF happened to the place ? on 14:07 - Sep 4 with 1699 views | 1885_SFC |
I have fond memories of Barbarellas and Street Level as a new romantic in the early 80's  |  |
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