I took this photograph from the roof of the Spencer Hall Market in June 2013 and it might make an interesting comparison with the post entitled ‘Stockton High Street, Winter 1986’ which was added to Picture Stockton recently.
Photograph and details courtesy of David Thompson.
May I state here and now Frank’s Carpets have nothing to do with me or mine.
Looking at the picture the buildings all look as if they have had a makeover in fact quite smart even Frank’s and now the refurbishment is near completion I rather like the overall effect.
As to the splurge of Charity shops, betting shops etc everything has its day people must use them or they would vanish. My walk along the south end of the Town last week got me the best pork pie I have had in years from one of the Butchers in the Shopping arcade and it was quite busy in there as Christmas shopping gathers pace.
Knocking the Town and the Council is all well and good if you know a better way and say so, the Town will continue to change more so as new housing brings people back into the centre area’s, then and only then will the shops come back, it would be even better with a tramway system making it easier to move from the outskirts to the centre.
I do think the crowds who come in for the events held there show it is still a popular place to be.
Might have been good to wait until the work was finished, as it is now (addition of new short-stay parking and taxi rank etc.)
Noticeable by comparison to 1986 being the way charity shops, gambling places and the like seem to have taken over from regular shops, with one obvious subversion- the turning of the social club/bingo hall that used to be there into a carpet showroom (Frank’s) of all things! (Proof the town has something left to it that the retail parks haven’t taken away).
We can of course forgive Frank (the lover of carpets), as they are only occupying the corridor that used to lead to the club/hall/cinema that was behind it , between the High Street and West Row (which is now a rough car park). Being a long thin corridor it seems that Frank’s rolls of carpet are just the shape for the building.