This Place Once Had Everything. What Happened?

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Episode 13 – Death of the High Street / Huddersfield

I headed across the valley to Huddersfield. A town with a reputation for being dangerous. Gun crime, knife crime, gangs and the rest all have been tales told for years. Is it true?

I was interested to look at the high street as I had heard only bad things. Everyone saying how the town has just given up and is a shadow of what it once was.

The town has a crazy history as well, as only 100 years ago, it bought its self back from the all powerful landlord family, the Ramsdens. So how does a town then fall into disrepair so quickly. The locals had a lot to say about this place, unfortuntely nothing good.

It had a great market and out door food stalls, and I feel like my impression from the day wasn’t as bad as the people who live there, who have more personal experience.

I did however find a lot of chimneys which was fun.

Until next time,

W.T

#huddersfield #high #street #urban #decay #shopping #retail #abadoned #shopping #city #explore #explorepage

yep look at this all closed everything down there there’s nothing there’s nothing positive anymore you know I’ve seen many many arcades with closed down shops but I’ve never seen a moldy one before that’s the first when William the Conqueror overran England one of his projects was to create the Doomsday Book which was notes on all the towns and villages in England and this was in 108 6 and what he said of Huddersfield then udas felt he just said it is waste so not good first impressions of Huddersfield and as I’ve arrived today about a thousand years later also not good Impressions parking was an absolute nightmare I’ve literally been driving around for the best part of an hour the Ring Road around Huddersfield is a nightmare trying to get into the actual town to park un unbelievable I’ve had to park about a mile outside of town honestly I’m absolutely raging I know exactly what William the Conqueror was on about so welcome back to another episode of the death of the High Street and yeah you’ve got it we are in Huddersfield and I wasn’t even going to have the focus of this episode as parking but seen as though I’ve just gone through that horrible experience it’ll be an episode where we can really delve into just how annoying parking is for trying to keep a town center alive or a village it’s the same as when I worked in this little pizza shop in the small village where I live the parking wardens were out until 8:00 p.m. at night that was when you had to have a ticket for luckily I live in the town so it’s not too hard for me but people who were driving in and working until we were working till 11:00 p.m. at night they were having to pay up until 8:00 p.m. to work in the town that shocking anyway there’ll be plenty of time to rant in this video The Town Center is just over there so let’s get into Huddersfield see what the state of the high Street’s like have a wand around and yeah who knows what we’ll come across it’s got a very interesting history Huddersfield so we’ll talk about that as well so here we are at the top of Huddersfield town let have a little wander around see what we find so there’s the bus station just there Sumit here so just the one up there on that bus station really unattractive station though with just the one to let let’s walk down this way see what we come across so what we got here this is yeah so this building here that seems like there’s some work going on in it and it says it’s going to be luxury student accommodation now Huddersfield and from what I’ve heard from everyone who’s told me about Huddersfield it’s just turned entirely into a student Town that’s it the university is here everything’s at towards the students everything that’s empty is just becoming student housing seems like that’s going on there yeah I mean obviously at my age obiously a lot of changes you know well obviously all downhill you know yeah oh really everything downhill nothing it’s nothing positive anymore you know uh I don’t know what it is people don’t care anymore yeah people’s attitudes have changed you know people don’t care about the surroundings people don’t look after things people throw rubbish about people just don’t bother I’m mind shocking fa if I do that that is part of progress you know so I mean it’s not the shops what’s a problem even more shops we’ve got on there it looks a mess you know youve only go like look over there I mean it’s just awful look nice yeah big unit on the end here oh wow that’s massive wonder what this was huge space there at that so yeah all that giant building there that’s tette what’s that 6,000 square ft wow so it turns out over 50% arcade down this way let’s go have a little explore down the arcade see what’s going on in there the Old Market used to be further down town that that got pulled down a lot of change a lot of change a lot of new buildings as students mov you know yeah yeah even more so last five years combination that’s built all over this field Now Queens Gate Market we that’s that’s due to be fla in probably made some more student buildings library is closing as well so that’s moving up to the Civic Center oh is it a lot of pubs have closed down gone or they made into some other accommodation well I’m 66 now I one more for changes so yeah they did say out since we got married so don’t think there’ll be any change for me for the rest of my life b a lot and a couple of PES from my brother inside here handmade in Huddersfield locally produced gifts and art that’s a lovely to see and just down at the bottom one to L there I was expecting way more from that I thought more would be closed but no there was just a one in there and it all looked like interesting independent stuff good on your hooders field no you got some closed over there what’s that you got your big butchers there fruit and veg store over there I can’t believe it there’s literally nothing CL oh no yeah there we go I always do this and then I see something but honestly pleasantly surprised with this bit but then you got wheel Co here the Giant Wheel Co which is yeah well is massive look at this huge so it starts all the way down there goes all that way all that way wow that is the biggest wheel Co I’ve ever seen and then here at the end of this bit was all good down there here one to let yeah one closed there yeah and then a couple closed at the top but so the interesting thing about Huddersfield was for hundreds of years it was owned by one family all the real estate here all the property all the land was owned by the ramsdens they really really were the greedy landlords who just had full control and by 1920 people had got fed up of this they didn’t like that everything was owned by this one family so the town fought back they campaigned and they actually managed to pull it off the town bought itself from this family from the ramsdens yeah cuz then the people had control over how much rents were places now would not have rent going up every year it was really good for that housing was made affordable housing was built or the houses which were already in the area became affordable and became for the people it really was massive a huge huge thing it’s like going up now against I don’t know the Black Rock the Giants of the the corporate landlord World Hood isfield fought back and won so yeah it was only 100 years ago when the people Huddersfield got the town back it became theirs they could do anything they had control so how does in a 100 Years A Town lose that control it’s crazy isn’t it cuz places would literally dream of having that power now having all the buildings having all the access to things having rent control actual affordable housing only takes a 100 years and it ends up the same as everywhere else everywhere else that didn’t get to buy their own town I’m momentarily forgot about all my parking Rage which was good I’m glad I forgot about it but I’m back I need to bring it back up so the thing as well with with all these towns where you’ve pedestrianized everything you’ve made it incredibly hard just to drive near it let alone park into it if you’re a business owner if you’re someone who needs to get your car outside your shop that is literally just impossible in a lot of places now it’s so offputting it isn’t it with anything what are you doing green grossers you own a I don’t know Shoe Shop anything just trying to get your car near that shop now is so impossible charity shop there looks like it’s shut down now that’s interesting cuz normally you see a lot of Charity shops springing up hey mate you all right turnip I am the turnip yeah yeah yeah so that nice fell there who watching my videos just stopped and said that I’ve got to go check out the plaza down by the library which I’ll do but what I was just saying about charity shops is normally you see them springing up but my theory is with all these things that have come about like your depop your vintage all these uh secondhand shopping stores which really have boomed with the younger generation everyone shops on them I shop them I got this jacket from Vinted this would have cost about 200 quid I got it for 50 Quid and it’s this place where instead of people taking clothes down to the charity shop like they used to do what they do is they go oh well I’ll Chuck it online now maybe not everything’s worth 50 Quid but say a pair of jeans that could have just been taking to the charity shop they’re popping on Vinted selling for a fiver t-shirts selling for a couple of quid that whole Market which was ended up in the charity shops now just goes on these secondhand stores so yeah not good for the charity shops and this must be the plaza that that fellow was just telling me about with everything that’s shut down right yeah okay oh no this is the Piaza well everything looks down on this one is that the plaza down there oh no they’re both the pza that must be what the person was saying let’s have a little wand down as well see what the state of is look at this though yeah everything shut behind this fence I wonder what they’re doing that one’s open there look at that yep look at this all closed every single one going around uh oh that is that open it still looks closed yes that guy was right on this P bit going around here every single shop completely closed nothing open yeah huge one there on the end what’s this the shambles how fitting it is a shamble isn’t it coming over here what were this oh peacocks this store’s now closed right let’s walk back down the shamble see what’s going on there so yeah that c Cali on the end there shut it’s all shut apart from [Music] boots and through there looks like it’d be the whole indoor section of the PIAA all closed all gone big one on the end there empty closed shop that I like to see open Alice’s kitchen and Hardware love it look at that as well look at that mold I’ve seen many many arcades with closed down shops but I’ve never seen a moldy one before that’s the first surely that’s quite an easy problem to sort you don’t want to put people off coming in here but oh well how much have you seen it change then this town massively yeah been a Bloom Town to the dump that is today the dump that it is today really well it’s gone downhill it’s been pleasure to say that really how it’s run how it looks the deficiencies that are seen yeah the constant repair suspension on me c CU bottles in the roads I thought you going to ask for a direct evit engine no no none of that I just genuinely interested for people who live here top man see you later Ryan closed down Uniform Shop there as well another one there all all there the architecture of Huddersfield though is absolutely amazing grown from the wealth from the industrial Mills now the issue that Huddersfield has was it’s not easily connected like a lot of the other towns were when the leads Liverpool Canal opened up you could join them quite easily Now huddersfield’s location when you drive into it you have to go through a tunnel so they had to dig giant tunnels just to connect everything be that the railway be that the canal the roads which meant that it had a bit of a late start to the Industrial Revolution but yeah as soon as it was connected up it just had that incred growth and that’s when the ramdon were owning it and they did do a lot for the town for the town’s growth but then yeah got it back into the hands of the people and we got a chimney over there should we go have a look so here we go and what I really really don’t like about it they’ve got loads of bloody electrical equipment on it that’s no fun I reckon about a four out of 10 that one not big enough not aged weathered enough and I hate the electrical stuff on it hopefully we’ll find another one hopefully we might come across another chimney to fulfill my needs look what’s doing well kirky’s guns check it out that uh seems appropriate to talk about something else about Huddersfield which to be honest is probably the reason why I’ve not actually visited it I’ve not actually visited it that much if at all really I think I’ve probably been to Huddersfield in my life about twice and I only live about half an hour away but it’s got a terrible terrible reputation it really does it its reputation precedes it you hear about gun crime there’s a bloody gun shop there but you hear about knife crime gang violence all this has been going on for years and years since I was a kid growing up we always knew that Huddersfield had this bit scary reputation which is just offputting clearly on a conscious level or a subconscious level I haven’t visited Huddersfield but yeah for a very beautiful aesthetic town with its buildings the houses on the way out they all surround Huddersfield they are gorgeous they’re massive stunning for this beautiful town it’s got a bad reputation so how does a place sort that how does a place solve that that issue I think I might have just found the Old Market though oh yeah this looks Ace oh this is a proper market look at this nice look at this market doing great wow this is awesome lovely busy Market loads of stuff open this is Grand yeah let get four of them and uh got the apples yeah so brilliant Market there look at that for an apple Granny Smith look at the size of that bad boy quick word from the sponsor of this video sponsor of this video is Apples um dead cheap Mega nice go have one proper good and close to any Town Center now you get a massive Tesco or a Sainsbury’s or a Morrison’s we saw that huge one in slow it was like the biggest Tesco in Europe or something and yeah that being so close to the town center it’s literally in the Ring Road it’s in the Ring Road going around of course that is soaking up a load of the trade there’s probably a car parking where you can park for half an hour for free we got a chilly Lounge that’s shut down I mean it is an absolutely St oh we got another chimney hey right one minute I’ll show you this first look at that lovely lovely bit of building there stunning but over here we got a chimney on the side of the mid again it’s not a massive one it’s not huge but it’s a chimney look at that hey it would be nice to find a massive one though wouldn’t it a proper big chimney maybe we will and a vinyl shop look at this class vinyl tap records buzzing that’s good to see against all the odds vinyl came back uh unfortunately Wallace Arnold travel could not survive and another one there as well School wear specialist there close down it used to be such an occasion didn’t it to go get your school uniform now all done online I assume so we got somewh else there closed but look at this look at all these food vendors out this is great all them food vendors out there which was Ace to see and you got all these cool crafts and stuff out this is cool I wonder if this is a permanent feature or if this is just a a momentary thing a temporary thing to have but it’s always funny when I see stuff like this where you got you got all these shops shut around on the streets and then you got all these people trading it just makes you think people do want to trade don’t they they want to trade in some capacity they’re just going to do it in what’s affordable brick motor ain’t affordable anymore but this stuff is everything’s just lowered you can do it found another market up here so let’s go have a look at Queens Gate Market oh Queens Gate Market the site is now closed that’s a shame oh well um let’s have a look down this way so whil we might I’ll be able to get into that other Market I have just noticed down there what looks like a big big old chimney this could be the one we’re after the one that’s going to do it oh just looking look above these buildings over there can you see that it might be the chimney for me who knows excuse me mate do you know if you can get any closer to the chimney oh you not jeez it’s hard to get to the town’s not realize that the reason a lot of the population and not just me comes to visit areas is to look at chimneys all these problems would be solved let me get to the chimneys it’s not happening it’s not happening can’t get to it unbelievable but there is one over there look at this one should we see if we can get to that one I got to see one that’s decent today there we go that’s what we were after how hard was that so yeah this is what I’m talking about a massive one one that you can come up and touch wonder when this was built you don’t know when this was built here exactly mate no it’s a good one though got a fancy little top on that one which is quite nice to see look at this here this had to be a pub I reckon oh yeah Sky Sports obviously the remnants of a pub something else here as well gone what’s hooders field like to live in then horrible really why there’s nothing fun to do nothing fun to do and look at these fat little chimneys never seen some like this before what on Earth there’s two of them there’s one there and one here what are these they look like brick cooling towers more than actual chimneys I got to find out what these are so this is well interesting you know at the start I said because of huddersfield’s awkward location it’s connected Everywhere by tunnels be it the road the canal the railway well these are air shafts that go down to the railway line I guess just to keep air flow going through there that’s mad that’s well interesting so there we go a really interesting day looking around hooders field and yeah it’s got a lot of empty shops like everywhere does nowadays but it was really interesting chatting to those folk as well who remember it different and I think the general consensus of this place is it’s just it’s changed so much for the bad for so many different reasons and that one interesting quote that guy said just about how people just don’t have pride in things anymore and I saw it the day when I was filming in leads I think it was these Lads just walking down the street just tossing rubbish onto the street and then just striding off it’s like the Disposable generation who face no repercussions and it’s just little things isn’t it that build up an area it’s not just the High Street closed shops that’s one thing but it’s also people’s feelings attitudes values towards the High Street and the place that make make a a place still worth visiting it was nice to see those chimneys that was good fun it was cool to see that market I got some food on that popup Market really really good shows that vendors do want to sell people do still want to be there trading and what did William the Conqueror say in 1086 when he came he said it is waste about hooders field now I wouldn’t go that far unless we’re talking about parking and then he was absolutely spot on and I think that’s what he was on about cuz I’ve uh I’ve got no idea where my car is and uh yeah well we might be stuck here so hopefully we’ll make it home Che cheers for watching anyway