I used to live in Bolton ...

[jaffka]

An ex colleague of mine opened a massage parlour in Crewe (The source of some great stories - "Any chance you could turn up on Tuesday night Bob about 8 ish? Need someone to do a client's missus. Don't worry, he's chained to the wall with a gimp mask on and screams abuse at you, but they both love it" ).

Aaaaaaanyway............He'd done some scouting around and asked if I fancied going halves on a place in Bolton next to Trinity Street as "It's a shithole down there and will fit right in". Something told me Olan Mills wouldn't have been impressed.

A knocking shop?

[TANGODANCER]

Exactly but there is the problem. Old people a) on the whole don't have massive budgets and b) tend to die.

Well, that's really started my week off with a fxcking bang. Cheers. Just told the wife to take her coat back off.

[BWFC_Insane]

Exactly but there is the problem. Old people a) on the whole don't have massive budgets and b) tend to die.

Well, that's really started my week off with a fxcking bang. Cheers. Just told the wife to take her coat back off.

My point was TD that when your kids and grandkids are your age, do you think they (and the majority of their generation) will abandon the online shopping and trafford centre to go back into towns like Bolton? Cos I can't see it.

I think I was trying to say it was a generational and habitual thing that was dying out slowly....

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Exactly but there is the problem. Old people a) on the whole don't have massive budgets and b) tend to die.

Well, that's really started my week off with a fxcking bang. Cheers. Just told the wife to take her coat back off.

It's a statistically corroborated fact that we are living longer as we get older. The average age for old people to die is now 82 (obviously younger people die younger than that, especially base jumpers and motorcyclists). UNESCO has also shown that the elderly are getting angrier. Put the two together and it is an inevitable conclusion that we're on the verge of an old-fogey spring, where we'll rise up and slaughter the youth. This will do two things simultaneously, it'll instantly reduce the average age of death back to 24, and it'll make us surviving old bastuds very smug knowing we've survived way beyond the average age of death. So there.

[jaffka]

Exactly but there is the problem. Old people a) on the whole don't have massive budgets and b) tend to die.

Well, that's really started my week off with a fxcking bang. Cheers. Just told the wife to take her coat back off.

My point was TD that when your kids and grandkids are your age, do you think they (and the majority of their generation) will abandon the online shopping and trafford centre to go back into towns like Bolton? Cos I can't see it.

I think I was trying to say it was a generational and habitual thing that was dying out slowly....

Maybe we are due a generation that rediscovers outside and doing things outside

[TANGODANCER]

Maybe we are due a generation that rediscovers outside and doing things outside

Yeah, bring it on....

[Montreal Wanderer]

The entire town centre is dreadful. It is deeply depressing. I fear it may be irreversible. Only the market, it seems to me, remains competitive with out of town developments (and won 'best market in the country' from Radio 4's 'Food Programme' and even this looks run down, though obviously still vibrant. I really enjoy shopping there - the fish market above all!

I'm a bit confused by this and subsequent posts concerning the market(s). When, so to speak, I used to live in Bolton there was the 'Closed Market' in Market Hall on Corporation Street, and the 'Open Market' out near Deane Road and Moor Lane. The Open market was the place to go for fish and other fresh produce. It was open in the sense that, though it had a roof, there were no walls. So what happened? Is there now only one market? Where is it?

[TANGODANCER]

The Market Hall is still where it was but can't be called a market anymore as it's just a shopping precenct. The outside Market (near the bus station) ie, the fruit, veg and fish market is still near the bus station but is inside and quite sizeable.(The one Will refers to) A couple of days a week there is an anorak empire market outside of it.

[BWFC_Insane]

Exactly but there is the problem. Old people a) on the whole don't have massive budgets and b) tend to die.

Well, that's really started my week off with a fxcking bang. Cheers. Just told the wife to take her coat back off.

My point was TD that when your kids and grandkids are your age, do you think they (and the majority of their generation) will abandon the online shopping and trafford centre to go back into towns like Bolton? Cos I can't see it.

I think I was trying to say it was a generational and habitual thing that was dying out slowly....

Maybe we are due a generation that rediscovers outside and doing things outside

I hope so. But I doubt it really. Although I guess at some point it may change when petrol eventually becomes prohibitively expensive.....

[thebish]

Even Sweetens bookshop had to close down not long back.

Further evidence anyone with a kindle should be dragged out inbto the street and publicly flogged...

not sure it was kindle that started that decline - it was online book shopping...

[Montreal Wanderer]

The Market Hall is still where it was but can't be called a market anymore as it's just a shopping precenct. The outside Market (near the bus station) ie, the fruit, veg and fish market is still near the bus station but is inside and quite sizeable.(The one Will refers to) A couple of days a week there is an anorak empire market outside of it.

Okay, so the old 'Open Market' still exists. There used to be a large number of fish stands with trucks rushing in from Fleetwood all the time. I'm glad some things remains because from the other reports on this thread I'm not sure I'd recognize anything. The Closed Market did sell groceries but had general stores as well including Halfords where I bought my first bicycle in 1957 - they had an entrance on Knowsley Street as well as the market. They've probably long since gone bankrupt.

Edit: I've just looked at the Market Place on google streets. The old Corporation Street entrance looks the same but the rest of the building seems to have been rebuilt.

[William the White]

The Market Hall is still where it was but can't be called a market anymore as it's just a shopping precenct. The outside Market (near the bus station) ie, the fruit, veg and fish market is still near the bus station but is inside and quite sizeable.(The one Will refers to) A couple of days a week there is an anorak empire market outside of it.

Okay, so the old 'Open Market' still exists. There used to be a large number of fish stands with trucks rushing in from Fleetwood all the time. I'm glad some things remains because from the other reports on this thread I'm not sure I'd recognize anything. The Closed Market did sell groceries but had general stores as well including Halfords where I bought my first bicycle in 1957 - they had an entrance on Knowsley Street as well as the market. They've probably long since gone bankrupt.

Edit: I've just looked at the Market Place on google streets. The old Corporation Street entrance looks the same but the rest of the building seems to have been rebuilt.

The building's shell remains the same. Inside it has been replaced by chain stores/designer shops. Some have closed already. It was doing ok as the Market Hall. It's now doing badly as a shopping centre. 'Nostalgia's all right but it ain't what it used to be... etc', but this was not great thinking, to replace something doing well and rare with something you can find everywhere is not great thinking...

[TANGODANCER]

The building's shell remains the same. Inside it has been replaced by chain stores/designer shops. Some have closed already. It was doing ok as the Market Hall. It's now doing badly as a shopping centre. 'Nostalgia's all right but it ain't what it used to be... etc', but this was not great thinking, to replace something doing well and rare with something you can find everywhere is not great thinking...

Couldn't agree more. I posted on here when they talked about the Market Hall closing, and the massive amount of signatures against the change. I knew some of the people who lost their jobs, and the traders couldnt afford the rent increases and moved elsewhere. Rather a disaterous decision by the council as it turned out.

[Dujon]

It's a statistically corroborated fact that we are living longer as we get older . . .

Damn it, old chap, I hadn't noticed. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

It's a statistically corroborated fact that we are living longer as we get older . . .

Damn it, old chap, I hadn't noticed. Thanks for pointing it out.

That's the beauty of statistics... they can mean almost anything you want them to.

[Hoboh]

I'd like my hometown's centre to look less run-down than it appears to do.

I accept the influence of out of town shopping malls & intenet shopping. I appreciate there's a recession. I know 'progress' is inevitable and buildings close & change use.

It's just a bit of a shock to see taste thrown out of the window on top of all the above pressures. As a gateway into a major Northern town Trinity Street was not impressive yesterday.

Now you know why I have an intense dislike for the fat controller and his Halliwell Mafia!

[Hoboh]

The building's shell remains the same. Inside it has been replaced by chain stores/designer shops. Some have closed already. It was doing ok as the Market Hall. It's now doing badly as a shopping centre. 'Nostalgia's all right but it ain't what it used to be... etc', but this was not great thinking, to replace something doing well and rare with something you can find everywhere is not great thinking...

Couldn't agree more. I posted on here when they talked about the Market Hall closing, and the massive amount of signatures against the change. I knew some of the people who lost their jobs, and the traders couldnt afford the rent increases and moved elsewhere. Rather a disaterous decision by the council as it turned out.

You really suprised!



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[CrazyHorse]

Is that target there so the snipers know which side to aim for?

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Is that target there so the snipers know which side to aim for?

I'll get onto the Lebanese bloke over the road!

[CrazyHorse]

Is that target there so the snipers know which side to aim for?

I'll get onto the Lebanese bloke over the road!

Irrelevant like but....
I briefly worked in Cairo many moons ago, and our hotel had both a Lebanese and an Italian restaurant in it. Suffices to say, we only went to the Lebanese the one time. The dirty bastards.