Middlesbrough on a night time

Most town centres are rubbish these days so Middlesbrough isn't unique there. We don't need every town to have a town centre anymore. People can travel so they go to the cities or the shopping centres to do their town centre shopping. Just in the North the big cities like Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool still have thriving city centres. The small surrounding town centres are rubbish and getting worse but it makes sense for the business to just have big flagships instead of 100 tiny shops.

People don't travel for a night out as much as they do for shopping so people still want to go out in town centres. There's still a place for them but councils need to organise them better into pockets that share resources better (putting transport, police presence, restaurants, bars, takeaways) into walkable distances.

I've been out on towns and cities all over the country and Boro has always been edgier than others. Seems like there are just more people with the "who are you looking at" attitude that are hoping for a fight.
 
That comment was a wild ride! Would never have guessed where it ended up given how it started. Many twists and turns. Bravo!
ha ha...I know...tangent man! I was on a roll and with my memory, if I didn't get it all out there and then, I'd forget what I wanted to say!🤣
 
Most town centres are rubbish these days so Middlesbrough isn't unique there. We don't need every town to have a town centre anymore. People can travel so they go to the cities or the shopping centres to do their town centre shopping. Just in the North the big cities like Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool still have thriving city centres. The small surrounding town centres are rubbish and getting worse but it makes sense for the business to just have big flagships instead of 100 tiny shops.

People don't travel for a night out as much as they do for shopping so people still want to go out in town centres. There's still a place for them but councils need to organise them better into pockets that share resources better (putting transport, police presence, restaurants, bars, takeaways) into walkable distances.

I've been out on towns and cities all over the country and Boro has always been edgier than others. Seems like there are just more people with the "who are you looking at" attitude that are hoping for a fight.
I know, so many people these day don't know who they actually are, so need to ask others "who are you looking at?" Not for a scrap, just cos they're off their t*ts and genuinely don't know lol
 
I've been out on towns and cities all over the country and Boro has always been edgier than others. Seems like there are just more people with the "who are you looking at" attitude that are hoping for a fight.
100%. I sometimes wonder whether when people say Middlesbrough is no different from anywhere else, and there's trouble everywhere... if it's not the trouble following the person, rather than the other way round!
 
Once you move away from the town and come back you really notice how downhill it’s went in recent years.
Definitely 😒

I grew up in Middlesbrough in the 70s-80s yet only fond memories. I can only presume it was also 'rough' then due to the hard times. Yet never really saw it. It was maybe because I was young. Although we had a few car stereos nicked lol.

Yet I probably go 'home' 4 or 5 times a year to see my parents. I usually tie it in with a home match so I can go with them.

The town center and high street is awful. Just rubbish flying through the air and run down looking shops. I guess the same has happened in many towns and cities. I imagine more smack heads and homeless now. Yet never overly feel threatened by them.

The funny thing is I've now lived on the south coast longer than I ever did it Boro. So that's why I say 'home'.

Although anyone wants 'rough?'. Blackpool is absolutely awful. The worst place I've been in recent years. You get off the strip and it's like a set from the walking dead😂
 
I had this conversation with my old man after we got back from the Watford game. When we went to Vicarage Road a few weeks ago me and my mate parked in the shopping centre car park and spent an hour there before making our way to the game. As a town, Watford is a bit smaller than Middlesbrough but their town centre shopping area is hugely better than ours. Its on a completely different level.

I know quite often local pride kicks in when discussing such issues but Middlesbrough town centre is dreadful. Its a poor place to shop, a poor place to eat and a poor place to go for a few drinks.
Yes, we stayed in Watford earlier in the year and for a town a similar size to Middlesbrough, the town centre is infinitely better in it’s shops and facilities, including entertainment venues, such as the indoor golf and other type of activities, nice eating venues, a place people want to come into and spend time. We have gone the opposite way, it has been allowed to run down, lack of investment, I actually think moving Primark to Teesside Park could be the final nail in the coffin.
 
There's being a decline in the town centre there's no doubt about it but is it any worse than similar sized low income townsvin the north?
I came out of a gig in Newcastle tonight centre and was shocked by the numbers of people sleeping rough , rows of them.
The all night greggs had bouncers on the door.
Back in the 80s and 90s you used to regularly see fights in the town on a weekend, now it's more of a ghost town which might seem more risky than it actually is?
 
In terms of shopping, the town centre is worse, like every town centre is, because it has been devastated by first of all out of town retail parks and then by online shopping. Oxford street is rubbish now compared to its heyday.

Is Middlesbrough town centre rougher on a night than it was?

Doubt it. Middlesbrough has always been a bit dodgy. In its early days it was seen as as lawless and rough as the Wild West. It was certainly rough in the 70’s and I know a lad who moved hear in the early 80’s from Glasgow - that’s right Glasgow in the late 70’s early 80’s - and was absolutely shocked how often there were fights here compared to Glasgow.

I barely missed a Friday or Saturday night out in the town centre for 12 years in the late 80’s to 2000 and as much as it was a great place for nights out and people used to come from all over the country, there were periods when I didn’t go a Friday or Saturday for months where I didn’t see a fight.

When I first started going out it was mostly the top end of Albert road/ corporation road that was good, then it changed to around the station. Now it’s baker street area earlier on and Southfield road that is has shifted to.
 
I think sometimes there is an element of rose tinted glasses, or people not paying as much attention in their youth to what town was like.

I worked in the Dundas arcade about 2000 and lived off parliament road around 2005 ish for a few years in student digs and the area was fairly unpredictable. Scally wags looking for trouble, cars damaged, houses broken into etc.

Begging, fighting, people stealing from the shop I worked in. Once things shut in town it was like a ghost town.

Saw fights in the street with fair regularity. Random assaults on students and general public from time to time.


I'm not sure much has changed since on return visits. All still very deprived looking areas. Probably less shops. Same sorry looking folk asking for bus money or fags.

I find it interesting now I don't live in such an area how quickly you forget how hard poverty impacts an area/ the people and how lack of support/ opportunity leads to multi generational poverty. You can live in your bubble and literally forget the woes/ deprivation that exist very quickly. And when I return I often feel more uncomfortable with it, and especially when my family are around it and with me.
 
Middlesbrough, Stockton, Billingham, Redcar. All much of a muchness in terms of shops, nightlife and scrotes but Middlesbrough seems to be the place that’s always mentioned in these kinds of threads.

Pretty much all towns and cities in UK has its antisocial issues and thugs looking for trouble after a couple of Breezers.
Leave Billingham out of this our shopping centre is like Milan 😁
 
There was a lad begging outside Hudson Quay b4 the game with a massive scary howling dog. Saw him get out of a new car in Stewart Park today with his large dog and 5 other expensive looking dogs, didn't seem destitute to me.
 
There was a lad begging outside Hudson Quay b4 the game with a massive scary howling dog. Saw him get out of a new car in Stewart Park today with his large dog and 5 other expensive looking dogs, didn't seem destitute to me.
He’s been there the last couple of matches. The dog wasn’t howling when we went past, looked pretty comfortable and (despite looking like a cross between a bull and a Staffy) was receiving plenty of fuss. The guy was not aggressive.
He was probably dog walking on SP, but if you give money to someone who clearly doesn’t need it, more fool you.
 
Boro can be sketchy and im mid 30s and i've felt a bit unsure at times, nothing to be ashamed of whatsoever i dont think, but i was walking through Manchester Saturday night around 2300 and there was some very ropey moments. Multiple homeless people (of which i was gobsmacked at the number, more than i've ever seen in London or anywhere) openly shouted i was a greedy b*stard and selfish cnut for saying i had no change and all quite confrontational etc it was really quite ropey. I was actually saying to our lass lets just get back to the hotel cos it felt a bit sketchy.
 
There are loads of people begging in mbro but to be fair they're usually quite polite when you say you have no change and wish you a good day.
 
There are loads of people begging in mbro but to be fair they're usually quite polite when you say you have no change and wish you a good day.
Every Aldi and Lidl seems to have one hanging round near the trolleys hoping for peoples £1 coins.
 
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