My Hometown

The iconic clock that immediately identifies my location as Chester.
Although I moved to the Lake District nearly 30 years ago, my family are all still in Chester and, as my mother has advanced in years, I have found it necessary to visit on a more regular basis to help with finances, paperwork and general day to day living. This weeks tasks were to hang some pictures, help with a financial review and pay in a cheque at the bank! Tasks already lined up for next time are to replace some broken curtain hooks and source a wing mirror cover for her car. Apparently, this latter item “just disappeared”. More likely she has hit something but getting her to give up driving is absolutely not up for discussion at present!
Having got into the city centre just before 10, I was quite surprised to find nowhere open and comparatively few people about. Looking a bit more closely, I realised how tired Chester looks these days. Empty or scruffy looking buildings, rubbish everywhere and assorted dodgy looking characters do not make for a welcoming city centre, and that’s before you start looking in those shops that are actually still open. Some look almost normal apart from a Perspex screen, others have staff in virtually full PPE guarding the doorway and only allowing one person in at a time. Definitely not conducive to browsing. The streets are clearly marked as to which side you should walk, though this was being universally ignored whilst I was there. The icing on the cake was having to queue for half an hour, just to get into the bank. Certainly weren’t any backwards glances as we headed up the M6 shortly afterwards.
One of the reasons we left Chester 30 years ago was because it was getting too crowded and busy. Certainly can’t say that these days - in fact, almost the opposite. It will not take many more shop closures or failures to turn what should be a delightful and historic city into a ghost town. Don’t think I’ll be moving back any time soon.