Dereliction

This is Hamilton town centre just after midday. No people but for sale or rent signs everywhere. Even the colourless window graphics on the empty Baird’s Emporium add more monochrome to the dull scene.

The thriving town that once was the main retail centre in the County of Lanark is reduced to a squalid shadow of its former glory.

In pedestrianised Quarry street many shops are empty, a few quality shops remain. If the street view is bad don’t look up. Above the shops the buildings are in a state of decay with broken gutters spilling rainwater down the sides of buildings creating green slime on once immaculate sandstone.

Nearby town centres like Bothwell and Larkhall did not ban cars and they are booming. The idea of parking charges and long walks to shops is a planning failure and Hamilton is a prime example.

Nearby Regents Way a covered mall is clean but relatively empty. One shop with three staff and no customers had a desk barring entry, requiring prospective customers to be vetted, presumably for Covid. All customers in the mall are required to follow a one way system. Compliance is overdone, preventing free movement is suicidal but no one seems to care.

The anchor store in the mall is a large M & S. The store will close next month taking most of the footfall with it. There is no evidence of a resilience plan for the town.

Last out please switch off the lights.