Stoke, The City With NO HOPE: Broken Britain 🇬🇧
459,408
Published 2023-11-24
If ever a city deserves the title 'post-industrial wasteland', Stoke-on-Trent is that place. Once a thriving conurbation that grew upon the pottery industry, this union of six towns is now a depressing ramble of dilapidated terraced housing and high streets of boarded up shops. The pottery industry is all but gone. Many buildings are crumbling beyond repair, there are few employment prospects and the locals mostly seem downtrodden and lacking hope. On my visit to the so called 'city centre', Hanley, it seemed that the only plausible pastime was to get pissed in the pubs. Stoke, The City With NO HOPE.
#britain #uk #England #Stoke #stokeontrent #poverty #crime #streetinterview
* If you appreciate what I do, and you would like to support the channel, you can do so at www.buymeacoffee.com/WendallExplores *
All Comments (21)
-
Get your special deal of NordVPN here: nordvpn.com/wendall
-
I’m an Aussie and I’ve been coming to the Uk for 40 years on and off and I can tell you now ( I’m here now) it is utterly and totally screwed. And I believe it’s deliberate. Very, very deliberate.
-
The sadist thing about this video is that the rest of the UK looks just like this. I've seen my own city deteriorate before my very eyes. Sad to see the death of a once great country.
-
My city was once a proud city, full of heavy industry and truly skilled people. It saddens me to what has become of my home town.
-
Most towns and cities in the country are like this I travel a lot with my job and find that the decay this government have allowed this country to fall into is criminal they should be held accountable for this .
-
Crazy to think my wife and I nearly settled permanently in Stoke after uni in 2006. It seemed to have potential to recover and is brilliantly located in theory. However on the two occasions I’ve been back since the decline has been brutal and stark.
-
Find these videos very emotional, growing up in different places around England and being on the streets. Now working in a posh part of England people have no idea about the dying parts of our community
-
The decline of Stoke really began in the 80’s with the miner’s strike and the growing trend (pushed by Thatcher’s government) for outsourcing necessities cheaper from abroad which eventually led to the closure of the pits, the steelworks and the pot-banks. Take away a city’s industries and you rip out it’s heart.
-
The old fellow was really humble. He had wisdom that could only come from experience.
-
Brexit happened nearly 8 years ago, and was supposed to revive areas like these. 8 years, and nothing has happened since.
-
My grandparents immigrated from Stoke to the US over a hundred years ago - grandpa was a potter. Always wanted to see it ... but I guess I can cross it off my bucket list now. You saved me from major disappointment, Wendall.
-
I'm not a native born Stokie, but I've lived here for 20+ years. If you went back as early as 15 years ago, Hanley, on a weekend, was rammed with people. Loads, going on and very vibrant. Unfortunately, Stoke suffers from the usual post industrial issues. Especially since the predominant employer was a monoculture (the pottery industry), we have now been left with low skill, low wage warehousing jobs and a cronic lack of investment. With little prospects for future generations. Hanleys decline has had many causal factors, such as the rise in online shopping and greedy business rates, causing businesses to close. And like a feedback loop, there was less and less to draw people in. The vacuum was filled by the homeless, drug addicts and gangs of male asylum seekers. Making people (especially women) feel unsafe there. It's ended up with a very poor reputation locally, and that's pretty much killed it. There are several good things about Stoke, though. One is that most people here are decent, I've genuinely met some wonderful individuals. And two, you are never very far away from the beautiful Staffordshire countryside! 😊
-
Hanley, Burslem and Tunstall used to be lovely towns, cant believe what they've allowed to happen, people used to be proud hard working people, everything has been taken away.
-
It's a disgrace that any of our citizens are left in such conditions, We should want better for our country, Our Government should be doing better for all of us, especially those with not very much to improve their living conditions.
-
Worked in Stoke a couple of years ago. There were some really forward-thinking, successful businesses around the area, but it was quite clear that all the workers would commute back to their homes in surrounding towns once they were finished. People would rarely go into the centre and spend their money.
-
The worst part of these cities especially in the shires is boredom, all the places to hang out other than pubs like youth centres are closed, no wonder people turn to drink or drugs
-
My family and I are from Stoke on Trent. I was born and brought up there from 1964, and in the 1970s and 80s Hanley was the place to be. It was a buzzing and bustling town. My parents saw acts like The Beatles and Roy Orbison in concert in Hanley and I saw some great groups there, too. In the late 1990s, things started to go downhill fast and in 2002 I moved to Germany and have been there since. My sister and her family left for Cheshire, and my lad lives in Chile where life is better. I went to Stoke the last summer to see friends and was horrified by the depravation. It's right what you say, it seems everyone has gien up caring. So sad.
-
People love to focus on drug problems, but in reality the worst substance is alcohol, it wrecks people and we are a nation of alcoholics. Many people are alcoholics but they don't think they are, I have some in my family and they're just in denial or don't see it.
-
Post apocalyptic decline. I lived in Stoke and surrounding areas. Great people, sad they got sold out.
-
I live in London but I was born in Bucknall and go back frequently to see family. There are a few lovely little shops and cafes dotted across the six towns. However, like with Potteries Potions in Longton, I see these nice places which people have poured their heart and soul into creating and always think 'I give it six months', and sadly I am usually proved right. The councils don't care, individuals who try to improve things aren't rewarded and have to give up, and on and on the apathetic cycle spins. It's soul crushing, and of everywhere I've been, it is truly the only place I genuinely can't see ever getting better