We take a look at the main High Streets in Dudley to find, yes a number of shops unused or closed today, but actually a large number occupied and trading, although the type of shops that are there these days have changed a lot from yesteryear.
00:00So we're just on Dudley High Street and just chatting to a gentleman here, he's lived in Dudley some time.
00:06And your memories of the High Street, sir, it's changed quite a bit, hasn't it, over the years?
00:10Oh yeah, drastically. It's not the same place as it used to be. It used to be a gold mine in the 50s.
00:15Yeah.
00:16When the buses used to run through the marketplace.
00:19So your memories of it as a young whiffer snapper around the town.
00:23So there was a lot of the nice old buildings, you say, have just gone now and been replaced by...
00:28That's right, all the old pubs in the marketplace, Dudley Arms Hotel, that's gone.
00:36Yeah, that's quite a few pubs. The arcade ain't the same as it used to be. It's a shame really.
00:43And you were saying that where the Weatherspoons is, that used to be at Halfords back in the day, so you were a regular visitor in there.
00:49Yeah, that was Halfords and that was Grey's Department Store.
00:52Yeah.
00:53And that's Greystone Passage.
00:54Okay. And so what kind of shops run here? Because I mean, now when we look at it, we've got, well, what's in front of us?
01:00We've got a bank, an empty, a coffee shop, a food place, another food place, a drinks place, tanning.
01:07You know, it's not the variety it used to be. I mean, you're a smartly dressed man, you're here in a tie and a shirt and a...
01:14Well, all the quality shops we've got.
01:17Yeah.
01:17And I know people shop online now.
01:21But the...
01:22That shouldn't have been allowed to escalate, because it's just destroyed the...
01:27Plus, lack of government money as well.
01:31Yeah.
01:32They keep giving the councils less and less to pay for other things.
01:37Yeah.
01:37You know, the country's going backwards.
01:40So what do you, um, what do you tend to come to Dudley for? Do you have a stroll? I mean, or is it, is it, yeah, you're reminiscent? Do you come for a bite to eat or...
01:49Yeah. Well, no, I've been to the bank, actually.
01:52Yeah.
01:52There ain't nothing else I come up here for today.
01:55So if the bank went, that might be you not coming, potentially.
01:59It's the last thing that's keeping you coming.
02:02Yeah.
02:02Yeah, so, um, it's just, the old atmosphere's gone. It's, er, why do Birmingham's the same?
02:09Yeah, yeah.
02:10The old atmosphere's gone, but you had to be alive at the time, years ago, to know the difference.
02:15Yeah, well, that's it.
02:16I mean, the people today, they don't know the difference.
02:18Yeah.
02:19So what there was, er, so back in the day, there was a vibrancy, a familiarity?
02:24Oh, yes, yes. As I say, Dudley was a goldmiler.
02:27Yeah.
02:27I suppose I was both Rampton and the other towns, but, er...
02:32Um, as a, back in the day when it was thriving, if you walked down the High Street here, would
02:36it, would it have been that you were bumping into people you knew? There was your neighbours
02:39and familiar faces?
02:41Oh, yeah, it used to be full of, yeah, every Saturday, yeah, as I say, because the buzzies
02:45used to go through the, er, marketplace, you know?
02:48Yeah.
02:50And people used to, in them days, when people used to come shopping every Saturday,
02:54they'd have the best clothes on, more or less.
02:58Yeah, dress up, yeah.
02:59Yeah, it's a totally different world now, to show you.
03:02And that must, when you remember it as it was, er, it must be quite sad, really, to walk
03:08down here and reflect back.
03:10It is, it is, it's, er, it's horrible, really, you know, when you see the way things were,
03:17and I think we're digressing into a third-world country.
03:23It does feel like that at times, doesn't it, yeah?
03:25Yeah.
03:25So how old are you now, sir, if you don't mind me asking?
03:27I'm 80.
03:2880?
03:29I'll be 81 this year.
03:30Yeah, and always lived around the Dudley Way?
03:32Yes, I've always lived in the, in the Blackburns, yeah.
03:34Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes.
03:36So if there was, erm, back in the day, what was your, what was your, was, did you have a
03:40favourite shop?
03:41Was there kind of right, if I'm going for it, I mean, as I say, you're a smartly dressed man.
03:45If you wanted a nice shirt, where would you have gone back in the day in Dudley?
03:48Well, I'll say there was various shops, er, what sort of outfitters was there?
03:54Yeah, no, there was, as I said, Dun & Co was a good shop.
03:59Yeah.
04:00My dad always used to buy his caps from there, and, you know, but, er, they go in the shops
04:08now, and it's rubbish.
04:10Yeah.
04:11It's all from abroad.
04:12Yeah.
04:13Yeah.
04:14Yeah.
04:15Unless you could, yeah, go to London, and you can't get quality, er.
04:19So if you, if you wanted yourself a nice pair of smart shoes, and a nice smart shirt, it
04:24wouldn't be that easy to find it on Dudley High Street like it used to?
04:28Well, no, I mean, er, even the centre of the shoe industry, er, Northampton, I'd hate
04:34the same.
04:35Yeah.
04:36They've got one good shoe shop, they have one in, er, Newt Street, Birmingham, Crockett
04:41& Jones, but you go in to Marks & Spencer's, all their shoes are from India.
04:47Yeah.
04:48You know, er, yeah, everything seems to be made abroad these days, doesn't it, generally?
04:54You get what you pay for.
04:55Yeah, yeah.
04:56But, er...
04:57So what do you, do you think, was it the advent of the internet and online shopping, you think,
05:04that really, when you really notice an impact starting, was that one of the big things,
05:09you think?
05:10Well...
05:11And stuff like these out-of-town rich shopping centres, I mean, just down the road is the
05:16very old centre, that kind of health, can it?
05:17Oh, no, because, er, I used to work in the round of steel burns.
05:21Okay, yeah.
05:22Yeah, yeah.
05:23Er...
05:24Do you think, the decline of this town is, in terms of its high street and shops, like
05:31many towns, but do you think it's, it's as simple as two things, out-of-town retail
