Ghost Town.


I was only in Stevenage town centre briefly today, to make a connection on the bus to visit my dad, but the few minutes spent there were still a bleak experience.

I say this from the point of view of someone who grew up there for the first sixteen-ish years of my life and didn’t want to leave it, which either suggests I was looking at it through some kind of filter inspired by youth, or that standards have seriously dipped since; I would say it’s a little of each, but mostly the latter, as the town needs serious regeneration to shake its lacklustre image.

The problem with Stevenage new town is it isn’t, by which I mean it’s barely shrugged off its original 1950s architecture to move with the times and find improvement; this makes for a wholly uninspiring, apathetic atmosphere that it’s very hard to change. I think it takes real energy for anyone to sum up the motivation to want to leave it and move on; that’s not they should have to, but it’s not like it’s a town buzzing with prospects.

I was fortunate when I lived there really, as not only was I based in the old town, which was nicer, but I was in a band that I cared about, and also wanted to be an actor; this gave me drive. If I hadn’t had that, I don’t know what I’d have done with myself.

Put me there at 16 now and I’d be completely overwhelmed, which I think is illustrative of the change in my lifetime. People walk through the street looking miserable at best or angry at worst, but can you really blame them? If you live in Stevenage, what is there to do, except visit Fairland’s Valley, Cineworld of the Gordon Craig? It’s like a town with an unbreakable forcefield. around it That said, I’ll be the first to defend it if someone knocks it too much; yes, Hitchin is my home, but I still have a soft spot for what Stevenage represents for me.

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