I was a student in Swansea from 2009-2015 and I returned to visit for the first time in 10 years today – I actually feel sad seeing the decline in the city, given how many happy memories I had here.
When I graduated in 2015, Swansea was vibrant, Swansea was clean, Swansea was proud.
I stepped off the train this morning and walked down into the city centre – High Street was always quite rough, but even at 9am on a Monday morning it felt extremely unwelcoming and considerably more run down than I ever remember. Where have the high street stores gone?
Likewise with Oxford Street – I was so happy to see M&S surviving, however there seemed to be more shops closed than open and many stalwart brands had been replaced by charity shops, vape shops and mobile phone repair shops.
The same could be said about The Quadrant – good to see so many shops open, but it felt empty and purposeless without an anchor store like Debenhams as the focal point. The main atrium used to feel like the hub of the shopping centre, but now it felt empty and vacant.
I’m delighted to see Swansea Market doing so well – it was by far the busiest and most lively part of the city. I enjoyed breakfast and coffee whilst enjoying the ambience of what I remember Swansea being like – my favourite Welshcake shop was still open too, so I’m taking a little piece of Swansea back home with me.
I genuinely hope the market continues to thrive into the future, as so many others in South Wales seem to be struggling.
I don’t intend to berate or stamp on Swansea as a city, it’s only my observations on a sunny Monday. But for goodness sake, Swansea Council have ripped the heart out of this once thriving city centre and I can only hope that it finds it feet and recovers.
by CoffeeNoSugar6
33 comments
*F**k the T****s”
Where are you from? I think this is happening all over to a degree. If you live in a big city like London or Manchester you probably won’t have noticed it as much.
I’ve noticed decline in some areas of Cardiff, more rubbish and anti social behaviour. Over a decade of cuts and economic mismanagement most likely to blame. People are struggling so less often go out + more shopping done online.
Poverty. Austerity. Fucking Tory Government.
I’m addition to what everyone else is saying, Brexit hit Wales hard and online shopping did a number on high streets.
I don’t think the council can be blamed for this. It’s combination of changes in consumer habits (shift to online and out of town retail), changing leisure habits post Covid, cost of living and food/alcohol rising, and of course years of general neglect of the welsh economy by successive UK governments. That the market is one of the few thriving areas reflects rise of petit bourgeoisie as an economic force, but sadly small businesses can’t revive the economy of an entire city.
i think the same can be said anywhere in this country right now sadly, shops closing, highstreets dying, roads and buildings crumbling while they just keep getting richer without making enough positive changes.
Urban retail is dying all over the UK and beyond. It’s happened very quickly because Topshop, just to pick one example, were making record profits as recently as 2008. Now they’re gone.
Swansea is more exposed to these changes than most places because the postwar city centre developed as a retail only zone with few offices and even fewer residents. Even the universities and colleges are far outside the centre and don’t contribute to footfall for the shops and cafes.
The council has been trying to change that, but the task is huge and progress is slow. Plus, some of the earlier attempts at regeneration were misconceived – the old David Evans site was replaced by low rise shops, which proved unsustainable, rather than a mixed use development which would probably have worked better.
I think you’re misremembering Swansea to some degree. Not a criticism, but our experiences often colour our memories, and if you had a good uni experience in Swansea then you likely remember the city fondly.
I did the occassional work shift on the high street back in 2015 and this exactly how I remember it. I hated the walk from the train station to the shop I worked at because it felt dangerous and derelict. The women in store would usually only be asked to pick up those shifts if there were no other staff available, and on request they would sometimes send two of us together so we wouldn’t have to do that walk alone.
Simply put, the direct result of deindustrialization. The transition from a production economy to a service one. Where the Banking services sector basically sucked the investment outta these places.
I know. Bitter.
EDIT: Consequence of Late stage Capitalism.
Not an expert, but I’d gamble that Brexit and Tory neglect had something to do with this.
What has happened to my beloved <insert town here> ? The reason. Online retail. When it started getting serious my manager of the time said to me “get out of clothing retail, this is going to go downhill”. It did. I did. I switched to food retail.
Swansea has been a shit hole for a lot longer than 2015.
Cardiff queen street is also a shit hole, the city centre from a retail perspective is just about propped up by st David’s 2
Don’t even start on Newport centre shopping!
Brexit, amazon, stinking tories
I looked at the photos and thought ‘Meh, that’s not bad. Look at Rhyl town centre if you want deprivation. ‘
Then, I thought of Wrecsam, and Bangor and Flint – they are very much the same. Things have been like this for a decade or more.
Debenhams, Top Shop and lots of the other retailers that are no longer in Swansea are nowhere else. Other companies that are still going didn’t just close in Swansea, they pulled out of lots of smaller cities and towns. It’s not a Swansea problem. It’s a common problem across the country. It’s high rent and rates prices (it’s often more financially viable for landlords to leave units empty!?)and lower footfall because it’s so much easier to shop on Amazon or Temu.
But Swansea was never this utopian oasis. When they called it a Pretty Shitty City in Twin Town in the late 90s, it was spot on then. But ignoring the poor retail offer, it’s still got some of most beautiful beaches and green spaces, so maybe celebrate those instead of highlighting the shops that lie empty because some fat cat was robbing his employee’s pensions.
I live on Anglesey the poverty here is off the scale. Most people just have given up or moving away if they can (my 2 boys a case in point).
Our largest town Holyhead is in a heartbreaking state.
I genuinely believe the Welsh government have no answers or solutions.
Heartbreaking 💔
I was a student then worked in Swansea from 1991 to 2001. High St and Wind St were both pretty dodgy areas in the early 1990s and both changed for the better(?) by the Millennium. Mumbles was a lot more popular then because the city centre was quite rough in parts, especially for students.
Probably a combination of brexit + Covid + 14 years of Tory austerity + lack of senedd investment
That Golf’s number plate in the last pic has the right idea for Swansea.
Blame the Internet – destroyer of society the world over.
Also, love that the M&S brought you some joy, though the fact of its perseverance highlights the issue you’re seeing: kindof like returning to earth in ten years and lamenting the loss of hotels while feeling relieved Airbnb is still there. Not entirely the same because m&s isn’t destroying its competition, but it’s similar in other ways.
The parking hasn’t helped. I used to park in Parc Tawe for free to go to the city centre, but that’s changed to 2 hours max these days.
Neglect by our useless governments over the years.
Absolutely suffering from idiotic, greedy and complacent town planning.
Why else do shops sit empty for years?
The boom bust cycles disguised the failure of high streets as a viable thing when zero imagination is involved.
Meanwhile parking, charges to drive into towns, shite facilities, shite access, shite shops that make every town identical makes visiting them very boring and expensive.
Wales is small enough to have characterful towns instead of a race to the bottom against bloody Amazon. Chasing the unit price margins against such monolithic (tax exempt, moral free, run by a cunt) companies is just doomed to fail a slow death by bleeding.
The city I grew up in and the city I spent a decade in are the same, shite developments and gentrification gets a free pass to jump on an economic boom them go to hell when they’re shut up. The developers don’t five a toss.
As far as I’m concerned a dying city or town should seriously consider knocking down building that have stood empty for over a set period. Compulsory purchase them from the slum landlords who do nothing at all.
Knock them down to build infrastructure that’s fit for purpose.
Imagine being able to park in a clean carpark covered in solar panels on the outskirts then sitting on a modern functioning, well planned, well maintained mode of mass transport that is free so doesn’t have to piss about with each and every customer. Imagion how quick you’d get around town and how stress free it would be.
Now Imagion in some of these butt ugly buildings that are rotting into wrecks…. Imagion mini gardens full of grass to sit on, trees to enjoy and spaces to just be human in.
The air quality would be amazing, the entire town would prosper because people would actually want to visit rather than grit their teeth to endure them.
God’s forbid, some of the buildings could be replaced with…. Gasp! Homes.
Death of the high street. Happening everywhere unfortunately 😕
Swansea could do with a bit of a lift, but I think it’s been this way for a long time. The retail closures are happening to every smallish city. If the centre wasn’t so dominated by chain shops then I don’t think it would feel so dismal. There are nice bits, though, they’re just annoying to get to.
Currently, Swansea’s basically centred around one great big through-road; traffic is terrible & despite a nice bus station, there aren’t enough buses and they’re always getting stuck in traffic.
Things are looking up, though. Welsh gov proposed the Swansea Bay metro, similar to Cardiff’s South Wales metro, which I think would help a lot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swansea_Bay_and_West_Wales_Metro
It’s a sign of the times and I’m pretty sure it’s happening everywhere. But I agree, it’s sad. Loved having days out in Abertawe with friends and family years back.
Im a german and I used to live in Oxwich from 2011 to 2014 and I went back there last year for Ironman and I was shocked too how everything changed and somehow it came down around city centre. But still in love with this place.
The car in the last photo has a very fitting number plate though.
Simple answer: Capitalism, decades of London Centric investment and Brexit
Apparently there are a lot of developments planned to be happening soon. Theres been some posts on here or Twitter recently confirming the details.
Irrc a lot of Abertawe’s issues stem from developers going bust mid way through projects. That may have been just the road scheme though.
That unit was empty when I was in Swansea Met in 2010!
A decade and a half of austerity from the govt and investors running for London or abroad + Brexit + Covid.
I feel that with the closure of shops for various reasons, going out of business and high rent. And Swansea did want to move them outside the centre. Lots of town centres are being let down. Independent shops are the way forward
I wonder if maybe the money is not being spent wisely to keep theses places going. My own town centre is the same. People like to blame out of town shopping and the internet but I think there’s more to it than that. Lots of independent businesses have opened up in my town and seem to be doing well
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