WREXHAM – Another collapsing British City?

We took a road-trip to Wrexham in North Wales to check out what’s going on in this City! We bring you some TOWN NEWS and show the good and. the bad of this place, trying to figure out why this Welch City feels like it’s really struggling. Why are so many British Towns and Cities on the brink of collapse? Why can’t these places be maintained and looked after? Why so many empty shops?

Wrexham, located in northeast Wales, is the largest city in North Wales and historically an important hub for coal mining, brickmaking, brewing, and heavy industry. It’s rich in history and local pride, with landmarks like St Giles’ Church, Erddig Hall, and a growing association with sports thanks to Wrexham AFC’s global rise in popularity — especially since its high-profile ownership by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

Why Is Wrexham Perceived as “Run Down”?
While Wrexham has many assets, like a strong community spirit and beautiful surrounding countryside, it has struggled with several challenges that contribute to its “run down” image:

🏭 Post-Industrial Decline
Like many towns in the UK, Wrexham was heavily reliant on traditional industries — coal mining, steelworks, and manufacturing. As these sectors declined in the late 20th century, unemployment rose, and the area struggled to replace those jobs with sustainable alternatives.

🏘️ Urban Decay & Planning Issues
Many buildings in the town centre are dated, empty, or underused. Some regeneration efforts have stalled, and investment has historically lagged behind that of cities in southern England or nearby Chester. The closure of long-standing businesses has created gaps in the high street, reinforcing a sense of decline.

💰 Economic Inequality
There are pockets of significant deprivation in and around Wrexham. Low wages, limited job opportunities in certain sectors, and cuts to public services have exacerbated social and economic issues.

🚫 Negative Perception and Media Coverage
Wrexham has sometimes been portrayed negatively in the media, focusing on crime or poverty. This reinforces public perceptions — even if parts of the city are vibrant or improving.

🛠️ Slow Regeneration (Until Recently)
While there have been council-led efforts and EU-funded projects in the past, many locals feel regeneration hasn’t gone far enough or been sustained. That said, recent developments — especially tourism and attention brought by Wrexham AFC — are helping to reverse that narrative.

What’s Changing?
Wrexham AFC and The Racecourse Ground have brought international attention, investment, and tourism.

City Status (granted in 2022) has sparked interest in long-term investment.

New developments like the Wrexham Gateway project aim to improve infrastructure and commercial space.

In short: Wrexham feels “run down” in parts because of industrial decline, underinvestment, and urban decay — but it also has strong roots and a growing momentum for revival.

#Wrexham #WrexhamVlog #VisitWrexham #WrexhamCity #NorthWales

Subscribe for more adventures: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj1DTkI8ZTQlsQJsG-BXDcQ

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/andrewemerson

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Welcome to Rexom’s new town center. Well, it’s not really new, is it? This has been here since what when do you reckon this was built? 1990s, probably. Oh, wait. This is cool. All right. Ah, gourmet food truck. Looking good. Already given the first shout out. Not sponsored. Look at this new place. Rexom AFC club store. Yeah, we got a bit of a scoop. A bit of a scoop for Rexom news. Look at that. Not quite open yet, but it’s not going to be long till that’s open. Looking good. And we’ve got JD Sports on that side. So, it’s well placed for the sports corner. So, we’re on York Street, Rexom, Yorkie Street. Look at that’s a grand building, isn’t it? Midland uh Midland Bank Chambers. That’s on just onto High Street. We’re going to have a little walk around up Chester Street and uh we’re going to try and find a little place where we’ve eaten before and you can get the greatest chips in all of Rexen. Isn’t that right? Oh, whales. Yeah, whales. A bold claim. Had chips and egg there and I never have chips and egg, but I just fancied it and it was really, really good. Um, so see if we can find it. Was up a little alleyway. I’m pretty sure it was down Chester Street. Some nice little uh Look at these old buildings here. [Music] Nicely done, aren’t they? Look at that. like barbers in there. Hairdressers. What’s that? Cafe Christinas. That’s proper Welsh. That, isn’t it? I think it was this way. I think it was this way. Another barbers there. Wine store. Enjoy every moment. Another barbers. What’s with the barbers? Do people’s hair grow faster in Wales or something? Due to all the rain. Yeah. What’s that charity shop there? And this is Hen Blast Street. That’s a strange name, isn’t it? Henlast Street. Oh, remember this little alleyway we walked up? There’s a few antique shops up this way. [Music] temperance bar. So many cafe. So many cafes and hairdressers. They like food and haircuts in this town, I reckon. Oh, that’s right. This takes us out onto the main uh shopping street. And then it was f even further back the other way than that. Yeah. Oh, that’s a one of the famous pictures of Rexom when you see it on uh postcards. Is that old black and white building? Hope Street we’re on to. I hope we’re going the right way. I know where exactly where it is. I hope. Pound Bakery. So, this is Wales, isn’t it? We’re in this is like the first town in Wales that you get to from England if you come from uh the north. But it has uh it’s not distinctively Welsh, is it in feeling? It feels more like an English style town to me. Yeah. Yeah. But there are little things like the dragon that give it away and people speaking Welsh [Music] there. Ah, I think we’re getting close. So, remember thatch pub on the corner is called the horse and jockey. That’s a grand building there. Argyle Street. Wonder what that was for. That gate. No, you can get a turkey or something. Don’t know what that would have been for. You know what? I think it was just down here. Oh, yes. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This looks cool. Look at the door on this. Horse and jockey. It’s quite low that. Look how low that is. My head going in there. If you don’t bang your head going in after a few pints, you’re definitely going to bang it coming out. It’s a nice old pub that though with a thatch for the middle of a town. Not unusual. Yeah. Lovely. What’s going on here? That’s quite a nice one. Yeah, it’s paintings go. That’s quite nice. Right, let’s check if it’s open. It’s a bit like it’s a bit more disguised than it was last time, isn’t it? Bit more building work going on. Oh, it’s up. Looks open. How would you like to sit? Should we sit here last time? I think no, we sat there last time. Okay. Next to that corner, [Music] right? Let’s have a seat. Sit down. Look at that. Our chips are homemade and freshly prepared each day by hand. We are told our chips on the best in Rexom. Rexom is not that big, but it’s still quite a good claim. I’ve just noticed as well over there on the blackboard. Bangers real mash peas and gravy 770. [Music] I can’t be wrong, can it? I’ve got to try that. I’m a massive Bangers and mash fan. Got to see. Going to get it. Give it a rating out of 10. We’ll see if it’s banging. We’ll see if it’s absolutely banging or whether it’s just mash. [Applause] Can I try and check? Oh, no. I I didn’t mean to like drag the largest chip out. Yeah, right. Oh, delicious. [Music] A proper crispy. Going try that gravy while I’m at it. Look at that. £7.70 garden peas. Let’s try the mash peas. Looks a bit hot yet, doesn’t it? That’s really nice. So that’s really that mash is like proper homemade. Try that sausage. It’s an ordinary sausage in there. Might be. Who knows? You know what? Really actually really tasty. It looks like ordinary catering sausage, doesn’t it? But it’s actually it’s really, really tasty. M. Just what I fancied on a windy, drizzly day in North Wales. [Music] So yeah, that is the Priary Cafe and it was as good as ever. As good as a year ago when we came and had fish chips and egg. So that time I had bankers and mash garden peas and I can say it definitely tasted like homemade, didn’t it? It wasn’t so good. Yeah. What would you score it? 10. I’m going to give it a 9 and a half. I always like to leave a little bit of room for improvement. It could have been a tiny bit bigger. sausages could have been a tiny bit bigger, but yeah, really, really tasty. Give it 9 and a half. Right, we’re going to have a little look up Regent Street and um we’ll see if we can find any bargains or any Port Marine pottery. Oh, first poor marine. That’s a little late for us though. That one in there is We like early. We don’t like being late. This is where you find it in Wales though, don’t you? Hopefully. [Music] [Music] [Music] Can’t see anymore. That’s actually a nice ball. Do you like this? Similar. Similar sold. £12 average. What does that mean? I don’t know what that means. [Music] It’s a bit big. It’s a big is it needs a joke in it, doesn’t it? That nice though. [Music] Should we have a look? Yeah. Rexom Central Arcade, built 1891. Yeah, there was there was definitely an antique shop. It’s still there. It’s quite a big one. Have a little look down here. [Music] Tweenies. [Music] Fancy an ice cream. Same. Oh. Hey, look at that. That’s what I call luggage. Luggage goals. You want to drag that to Turkey though, would you? But it look cool. [Music] Oh, there’s a lot in there. Look at that. [Music] Knitting patterns. [Music] Look at that 70s couple. You like rabbits? [Applause] [Music] [Music] That’s uh vintage clothes. [Music] This is actually quite cool. It’s all old, isn’t it? [Music] Well, we’re getting the full effect of the sound of Rexum and It’s bleeding bells belting out from the church of this amazing new city. Not a town. I’ve been corrected. I’ve been corrected so many times for calling Lichfield a town. People say it’s a city that um got to call Rexom now. It is actually a city. Look at this. So maybe something going on today like a wedding or something which is why it’s extremely loud. Although I have seen people coming in and out of the church. So we’ll have a little look inside if we can get in [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Looks like there’s a bit of a looks like a raffle or church raffle or thing. I think we can still walk around. [Music] So you’ve got the army in the window. Mhm. Cuz this is the um this church is the chapel of the Welsh fuselers. Okay. Which is why we’ve got many of these uh depictions in the Mhm. stained glass windows. Look at that. Unusual. Let’s have a little look up here. Some amazing stained glass windows. They look like all different kind of ages. I’m not sure what the depictions are. This looks like uh one of the teachings of Christ. And this one, we’ve got many scenes what look like [Music] some kind of uh biblical scenes. So I’m not sure what [Music] can see some uh paintings there on the stone. Maybe doom paintings. They look like very old kind of frescos on the original stone there. Just trying to make out what it is. And a bit a little bit going lower down. Probably that whole arch looks like it would have been painted. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] carnivore. See what they did there? I see cuz they’ve merged the words carnivore and or no. What about butcher market? Butcher’s market. We need a butcher. What’s that? High street feeder. That’s a bit weird, isn’t it? Wants to Overton Arcade. The drunk monk. Is that a pub? It’s like probably a little pub down there. Oh, there’s uh Yeah, looks like maybe that’s the only thing now. Oh, what’s that? Butchers Market. Should we see if there’s anything left open in the butchers market? There’s some whailing coming from down there. So, I want to try and avoid any whailing whailing monks trying to sing karaoke. I think we’re a little late for the market. What time is it? Half three on a Saturday. Almost completely passed. There is few things. Oh, look. They’ve got that big uh Rex and thing as a banner there. Massive. Card shop. It’s another way. It looks like another way in or out. Actually, is that the one we uh came down, isn’t it? It joins up to the one we came down. Yeah. There’s a few things still in here. Football shirts there. Trainers. Some fancy footwear. What else? We got a health food shop. There’s not. It’s a Indian shop. Indian curries, isn’t it? I like a curry, can’t we? What we got down here? Pet shop. Sweets. Sweet shop then. Trying. Yeah, trying. But it’s it’s more than half empty, isn’t it? There’s a few more shoparoos in here. Movies. You got any old books? I’ve got some old books. [Music] She’s going to be my She’s going to save my life. [Music] She’s going to be my life tonight. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Which way? Straight. And then maybe we go right instead of going through the alleyway. See if we can find anything else. More news for Rexom coming soon. Memorial Park coming soon. Guessing that’s going to be in here. City of culture. There’s not much breeding in there culture wise at the moment. We’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, place is getting cleaned up. Bit of a spruce thing going on. Home of Rexom’s only eating challenge. What? Oh, look at this. For an eating challenge. Six sausage, six black pudding, bacon, fried bread, eggs, tomatoes, can of beans, hash browns, maybe mushrooms, maybe not. 20 quid complete in 20 minutes. Get it for free. What? How many? What does loco mean? Local 17 customer zero. So, no, this is it. Is it? And no one’s managed it. 20 minutes. What do we reckon? Oh, hell no. Well, lucky for us it’s closed. I think I’d need to starve myself for about 3 days before and then I might stand a chance. But otherwise, Too much bread. It’s too much. Yeah, it’s cheating. It’s cheating. The bread will fill you up. Yeah, that’s absolutely right. Without the bread, not a problem. Wow. Eating challenge. Where are we? Here. on Queen Street. Queen Street. So, ah, right. There’s the center with the So, we haven’t walked at all up this way. So, there’s quite an interesting building at the end there. Developing the creative and cultural ambitions of a city. What is it? We don’t know. You know, oh, you know what I think it is? There’s um there’s actually Rex building a new uh museum to football. Oh, really? Yeah. Museum of football. And it’s going to be called Wait. First half, second half. No, wait. Are you making museum? A museum of two halves or something like that. No, I’m not making it up, honestly. No, it’s completely true. Oh, look. Oh, I want to have a look to check out this what in Gerard’s. Yeah, we’ve got a cafe Nero there. Right, you go in Gerards. I’m going to look in here. Okay. [Music] Right. Oops. What’s happened to my gimbal’s gone skyward? Sort the gimbal out. So, this is nothing to do with the football museum then. This is actually vision for the old library. So, we got the old library there. We’ve got something bit of redevelopment, reconstruction going on. And where is that situated? Opposite Cafe Nero. So you can sit in Cafe Nero, enjoy your coffee, and check out the new library. Matcha. We have matcha. Right. Where are we headed now? I need a show. Okay. [Music] Yeah, it’s bigger than I imagined. Have we actually ever been up this side? We haven’t, have we? No. Captain Andy over there banging his tunes out. [Music] Little park there. This looks like um kind of um I can see the history of the library on that side. This looks like a guild the guild hall. Rexom guild hall there. And then we’re on the corner of our Guile Street. And then we’ve got some more shops at this side. Looks like another Turkish barber there. Busy as ever. This looks like um uh what does this look like? Bit of a collapsed Chinese uh Chinese supermarket. Gmbosque. Another Alibaba over there. Alibaba and the 40 Thieves is correct. And uh another person that will steal your money if you’re not careful. Bill Hill. Another barbers. So I think we found Turkish barber street. Mr. Te’s Mr. the tea. [Applause] And we found finally the cultural heritage of Rexom with this degenerate artwork. Lord Street. Lord Almighty. What is going on down this street? Welcome to Rexom World Food Center. Amazing. Right, where are we headed now? Headed into more and more slightly dodgy areas. So we’re just enjoying a little cup of tea at Caffiniro listening to the tunes of Rex and buskers and taking in the atmosphere. So what do we think of Rexom? He’s colorful. It has got a vibe, hasn’t it? I think it’s like it’s like a lot of other collapsed towns as I would say in Britain. It’s like there’s not a lot left to be honest. A lot of boarded up shops and like rundown places and it’s a bit grubby. It’s got a vibe, but it’s like it needs like a lot of help, doesn’t it? A lot of investments. Enjoyed our lunch. That was absolutely delicious. Really good. We had a bit of an issue with the uh car parking, didn’t we, when we u when we when we arrived. So, we drove into it there was a car park like in the center next to the center of town, like in the middle of the ring road. We drove into there lo and it was half empty and we thought oh this is great. It’s like why is it half empty and then um put two pound it was two pound for 2 hours maximum stay put 2 quid in to the machine and then and then it said sorry there’s no tickets available. So it printed out a receipt and on the receipt it said this is not a valid parking ticket. So we’re like it’s taken our money and now we have to leave. So, we left there, drove around in circles for a bit, trying to look for somewhere else. Um, eventually found a multi-story car park, didn’t we? We parked in there and um that was I think £3 for 3 hours. So, we got we got £3 worth and um you have to like use the QR code to pay. I think there was a pay machine. Uh we used a QR code and paid in there. So, eventually got parking. Yeah, Rexom, sort out your parking issues. Ripping us off before we even start. There’s a lot of sounds around here, right? A lot of sounds going on. Yes. This is kind of the Talbert Bar. That looks like a genuine old building. Oh, the bells have started off again. Look at that old uh inscription on there. That’s looking good. Stained glass window. Must be one of the oldest buildings in the center. There’s a lot of empty stores, isn’t there? Look at the size of that. That’s vacant. [Applause] [Music] Should we move here? Let’s see how much how much is a house in Rex. These are These are bigger, aren’t they? There’s half a over half a million for that one. Wow. We need a small one, right? How much is this? Oh, that’s tolette. 850 a month to rent. How much is a normal house? That was 350,000. Gee whiz. Okay, there we go. There we’ve got a little one, Russell. So, that’s out of town, but that one’s 120,000. So, that’s a cheapo. This one normal bungalow £550,000. You know what? I don’t think we should move here. There’s like it’s too expensive. How is it so expensive in this town? Can’t be. There’s nothing here. Yeah, as you say, there’s a lack of like normal shops in this town. Like um what were you saying? There’s no lush or white stuff or like we have seen a seen a water stones. Uh that’s probably about the most normal shop and a Primark. Um but otherwise apart from that it’s kind of rundown stores. They’re they’re struggling to get decent shops in here. I think I’d say I want to hear Jules Jules Brewery. Even that’s a bit boarded up. Bit run down, but [Applause] even that’s a bit uh it’s got a board over the window. It’s a bit run down. Are you filming? Right. film me walking over this bridge and it’ll uh we’ll do like a special effect and it look cool. Okay, now I can carry the bag. Don’t worry about that. It’s all part of the vibe. [Music] Did you get it? Yeah. Did it look cool? Uh, yeah. All right. Loads of flat for sale there. Fancy that one. Circle back. What do you think of this new area? It’s already abandoned, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s It feels like a bit disconnected from the town where we’ve been. Yeah. There’s like no real thing, no real street connecting here. There’s no flow through, is there? It’s just like completely separate. If you fancy a pair of DCs, pair the free pair going. Oh, they have got shops. They got river. Maybe all the shops are here. So, they got River Island. Oh, that’s good. Empty. Got Clarks over there. Foot asylum. [Music] Look. Foot Asylum. Loads of shops here. What we talking about? Next. So that’s why the town center’s dead then, isn’t it? This is the new town center which is almost a bit which is also a bit dead. Yeah. Sort of failing a little bit. Oh, that that looks as though that’s the old Rexom store there. And it’s moved from there to the other end. It’s like twice the size. Breaking news from Rexam. Do you like the mural? That must be Rex the football team, right? I’m guessing. Looks like uh James Dean and Oasis, isn’t it? Didn’t know James Dean played for Rexom, but must have done back in the 50s. Back to the gourmet food truck, which we didn’t try. So try that next time. Boots. There’s not a lot down this end, is there? Empty shops. They’re just charity shop. Charity shop and charity shop. And at the top, that’s also a charity shop like the one in Wagon, isn’t it? Hope they got Nando’s cost a little cost that looks closed down. And then the Odian cinema at the top. It’s bit bit of a mixed bag, but I will say one bad thing about this area. It’s very dirty. It’s like really scruffy, dirty. It needs a plumbing good clean, doesn’t it? Right, last hunt for Port Marian pottery. Should we find any on our little side quest and we’ll take it home. I’m not hopeful, though. I’m not hopeful. Cut. [Music] I want to see you smiling. I know that you’ve been fighting. So many battles for everybody but you. But you like a rope you got so tangled. Sometimes you got to let go. You need a little help from somebody like me. I’ll be your sweet anytime you call me. I’ll be your sweet and Darling. Oh. [Music] [Music]