Shifting Sands

 SLIDING SCALES

I lived in Southport for twenty five years. There was a spell, during that period, when we'd be in Preston every third of fourth Saturday. There was a good, if old fashioned, indoor market, with a great variety of food stalls. We got to know the centre fairly well. It had a nice solid working class feel to it, very different to the middle class pretensions of it's slightly twee neighbour a few miles down the coast. Not that Southport was a bad place to live, it just had a very different vibe.

I moved back to Edinburgh over eleven years ago. Since when I have returned to Southport a few times, but never to Preston (other than the train station ). So when we saw there was a Wallace and Gromit exhibition on in the town ( now officially a city) it was an opportunity to revisit and see what had changed in the last decade. We also heard that a friend's band was playing in Southport the night before we planned to go down. A quick check showed they were the support to one of our favourite US duos (Alice Howe and Freebo), so the overnight trip became a "two centre holiday" - a night in Southport, another in Preston!

I'd been told that Southport had been in decline, but what I saw of the centre (we were there for less than 24 hours) was still saddening. A once busy arcade, with several interesting shops, cafes, bars, now feeling like it's haunted, with a few ghostly remnants clinging on.  The beautiful Victorian canopies of Lord Street in disrepair and shop fronts defaced with gaudy tat.  A sense of loss.  Of course it's not all bad, but it's when you return after a long period that you see what a huge difference time has made to a place.  

Then there was Preston, which I'd not seen in over a decade.  Busy streets, very few empty shops, a sense of purpose.  Still feeling like a working class town, which was always a refreshing contrast to the faux-poshness of Southport.  Culturally refreshed, with a revamped gallery (where W&G were starring), new artwork in the streets, and an excellent indoor food market.  There was a confidence to Preston that wasn't there before.  (And yes, this is from a superficial impression, but it felt real enough.)

So what does this tell me?  Another reminder that change happens.  Constantly.  We all know that, and yet it stll comes as a shock to be reminded so visually.   Fortunes shift.  While differing local government policies will have played their role in the decline and rise mentioned, there will also be external factors.  Southport grew up in the 19th century as a pleasant seaside resort for the well to do of Liverpool and Manchester.  It's perhaps no coincidence that both those metropolises have turned themselves around in recent years, with both, especially Liverpool, now major tourist atractions in their own right.  Swings and roundabouts.  If I manage to return a decade from now (if I'm still capable!), I wonder if the town will have gone up or down?