Some viewers may not understand the significance of the sofas in gardens. This is not fly-tipping or being too bone idle to bother getting the Council or licensed disposal firm to remove the furniture. On sink estates like these, the presence of a sofa in front garden is a status symbol. It shows that the occupants have enough benefits handouts to enable them to replace an old sofa with a new one. Those with benefits handouts that they don’t know what to do with go to the next stage and adorn their gardens with an Argos kiddies’ trampoline and, for those with the very highest status, there’ll be an illuminated reindeer or Santa Claus, on top of the porch for maximum effect.
0:40 When I was at college in Swindon this was the local subway. One day in my final year (2016) some friends and I went there for lunch. A man came in with a metal pipe and full balaclava, smashed the counter and robbed the place. We missed our afternoon seminar providing statements to the police. The place was closed for about 2 weeks after that. A friend and I also had our bikes stolen at knifepoint while spending an afternoon cycling from Coate water over the M4. We stopped on a bench to eat some sandwiches we’d packed and were approached by two men asking to borrow the bikes; we said no. They said they were going to take them anyway and when we stood up to stop them, we quickly had knives put to our stomachs. We then let them take the bikes. We were a good 10 minute cycle away from civilisation and on a bridlepath only accessible on foot or cycle from coate water. We didn’t fancy bleeding out there. When I was younger I did a paper round and one day as I cycled onto Springfield road in old town, I saw an older gentlemen with his trousers around his ankles doing the five knuckle shuffle and depositing his remains into someone’s front garden. I was also followed by a man when walking my dog across a field just off the old railway line (also when I was younger). I stopped to pick up after my dog and he stopped in sync and pretended to mess with a shrub with his foot. I continued to look at him and he caught my eye at which point he sprinted away. I left Swindon after university in 2020 and moved to Cornwall. Never looked back. My sister, her husband and my nephew still live in Swindon as do many of my pre-university friends. The traffic is awful, the town is dull, it’s full of perverts, pregnant teens and migrants - the next London overflow town beyond Slough. Not for me.
I travel quite a bit round Bulgaria, and there are many small, poor villages there. There are many dilapidated buildings, where people have left to find work. But they do seem to be proud of their country, there are a lot of Bulgarian flags flying, and can't recall seeing discarded fridges and sofas littering the place. Maybe we, as a country, have lost pride in being British. Understandable given the weakness and selfishness of successive governments.
What happened is Britain has grown complacent and fat off of past glories. We still bang on about the war and beating the Germans but since then sold our industry to every Chong Tunde and Rajesh... What have we done to feel proud of since the war or Boudicca? I'm not talking about a beautiful country side and rural areas that most brits don't even frequent anyway... And all the world has beautiful architecture not just England... So what do we produce that the rest of the world values needs or admires? At this point the greater part of the earth is at least bilingual but no, not us brits we're British! I could go on but see what I mean? The world has moved on in innovation whilst we're still "Dann the pub"
@@CARLIN4737Hold your horses right there !!!! Bulgarians in Britain are WORKING their asses off ,paying taxes ,not doing crimes and murders like Muslims and Africans .We are not loud like Muslims ,we are an Orthodox White Christians with very good manners and can only help the economy of the UK . If you are talking about the Gypsies they are problem of India cause they originate from there .Yes they are lazy ,don't pay taxes and rely on government help . But still Bulgarian gypsies are civilised and not murderers and rapists like most of the illegals . If Polish ,Bulgarians ,Romanians, Lithuanians leave the UK your construction will be in so much trouble since we built most of it .
I was in the RAF at Brize Norton in the early eighties. I used to like to Visit Swindon on a Saturday and the town centre was a bustling hive of activity. Used to pop in to the big town centre pub which was always busy of a lunchtime, back a horse in the bookies and then go to the football ground to watch Swindon Town play. We also used to go to the Brunel Rooms nightclub quite often. The town now looks a pale shadow of it's former self.
I live abroad but recently came over to London on a quick business trip. I actually grew up in Swindon and after seeing your previous video on the town center decided to extend my stay over a weekend to go back and visit the town. Not been there since probably around 2009. Its genuinely depressing to see what it has become. Swindon never had the greatest reputation...being so close to nice places like Bath, Oxford and Cheltenham and the bigger, more exciting places like Reading and Bristol, it always had a bit of a downmarket, provincial rep. But the town center and the old town were always bustling places. I've spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe and Russia and the town centre resembles the kind of deprived, run down cities you find in places like Serbia and Bosnia (that is NOT a comment on immigration, I have no idea of what the demographics are of Swindon these days, it is simply an observation of similarity). It feels like it is a doom cycle of decline. The nightlife was genuinely pretty decent not so long ago and always really busy. You had to queue to get into places like Walkabout, the Brunel Rooms etc. My hotel was right in the center of town and on Saturday night I could barely recognize the place compared to how it was when I grew up. The nightlife has literally gone. In the 90s and 00s Swindon was a pretty good place to live, it had worked hard to improve its reputation and there was a lot of jobs and industry, but now it just looks like a run down backwater of a failed state.
Swindon fell into a freefall of decline around the time of Brexit (not saying that’s to blame just that’s the timing) as late as 2017 you could have a decent night out but the last decade has been cruel to Swindon. The council have given up on the town centre and central Swindon in general and now pump all the money into the suburbs to keep the middle classes happy. It’s a sad state of affairs.
I live in one of the satellite towns and come in for shopping, cinema etc and I've always had a positive-ish view of Swindon but a lot of the residential areas are really shit. Rose tinted glasses, that said Canal Walk, main shopping area, is really shit. Not worth going for, mostly just pound shops really. Not like the good old days with Woolworths, Burger King, GAME, Disney Store etc
I used to go there to the Cinema as a kid before they built the one in Witney, occasionally I go to the designer outlet, Shaw Ridge/ retail parks but I've never actually been to the residential areas, however Swindon is mocked a lot by Oxfordshire for being run down
Sad to see this about Walcott. I used to visit my cousins on Frobisher Dr every few summers in the 80's. I have fond memories of playing on the streets and parks around there. It was certainly different to rural Ireland where I grew but I remember it being a happy and fun place. I even joined my cousin on his early morning paper round, where we'd pick up the papers at 6am from the newsagents in Sussex Square and deliver to the surrounding flats and houses. There were a few tough nuts knocking about the square, but never anything that bothered us much. The local boozer, The Bulldog, did have a reputation but it never stopped my parents and aunts & uncles going there. Whilst my relations moved from that area in the 90's, it's still sad to see it painted in such a poor light. I'm sure there are lots of good people still living there. My cousins for their part went on to do good things with their lives.
Im a Walcot man, born and bread although I live is oldtown now which is really nice but Walcot has got worse in the last 20 years since I moved from there in 2001. The worst area in Swindon is Pinehurst followed by Town Centre and broad green.
@@ukexplored No. Greedy landlords and HMOs never help, but it is simplistic in the extreme to think that that is the main issue. It is simple supply and demand. The more people there are, the more houses are needed. Any shortage of any goods pushes up its price. Housebuilding would be an answer, but no economy can support the cost of a city the size of Liverpool coming into it every year. We need to build a city a year just to stand still. That's why housing is expensive. There are too many people in the country.
Quite a lot of your Walcot section was actually in Park North. The untidiness of the council estates outside is (on the whole) down to the council no longer maintaining them.
i live near the flats that were mentioned at the start and it always smells like weed and it doesn't feel the safest of places but apart from that it does look a right state
I live in one of those tower blocks and all I can say is what fun!! Antisocial behaviour on a daily basis, class a drug dealers living in the building, it's always fun watching the police dragging people out of cars by gunpoint for dealing and the noise all the time is awful! The building is in severe disrepair with a water pump breaking down and not fixed and elevators that don't work properly and a list of other things, mould in the flats and a ventilation system which barely works and also breaks the 2015 laws put in place by the government, its never ending with the issues of the building and local area, 3 times I have seen the glint of a knife in a low lifes hand aimed in my direction and the issues with drugs around the area are bad, some mornings I get to see a flock of crack heads sometimes with their children all waiting around the local phone box for the dealer to drop the brown!!! Then a 15 year old chav turns up on a surron with the drugs carrying a machete!
Eastcott meanwhile, is super high density. Is typically the location for first time home buyers, and those needing to benefit from social housing, or multiple occupancy, low rent options. i.e. those who own the land have no interest or financial capacity for enhancement or maintenance. But for little tear aways, its a fun place for mischief.
I live locally. Walcot west is a wealthy area walcot East is poor and deprived that's why the house prices are high. If it was Walcot east only prices would be a lot lower. As for eastcott agreed in the main what you say but there are worse areas like Manchester road and gorse hill.
Loosing more than 3000 jobs in car manufacturing cannot be expected to have no effect on a location. How has that been compensated ? And a cost of living crisis won't improve anything. If people start loosing a positive outlook and aren't offered proper chances to improve their lives some people will start neglecting their surroundings and, later, themselves. That can kick off a vicious cycle turning an area ready for being entered by corruption and crime. Deindustrialisation has made many places struggling - here in Germany too. But even more conservative politicians understand that decline is difficult to stop once it has started and hence try to avoid it early.
I used to walk from Curtis Street as a child, just so i could be around the older kids at Savernake Street rec. I think it was the 60 foot long curved slide that was the main attraction for some though.
Very amusing did make me giggle when I was a kid growing up in penhill the dogs went round in gangs and the cats carried flick knives ... Yes that woman was obviously attacking vloggers 😂 yes and lucky for us old feckers we don't have long to suffer millennial UK .... Man the lifeboat
I live in Eastcott, about a 2min walk from the "Top Boy" graffiti wall. I've never felt particularly unsafe here. The amount of fly- tipping in alleyways & graffiti tags everywhere though is shocking & makes it depressing.
I think some of the shots are from the Park estates. Don't recall them in Walcot. I grew up in Walcot East, but it seems from the footage that it is now much worse. At least the local shops look a lot better than Sussex Square which they replaced. Let's hope the new council can find a way forward and make the council estates worthy of living in.
Yes johnsbox , you are correct. To the casual viewer , getting Park North / South mixed up with Walcot wouldn´t be an issue . But having been brought up in Walcot it was a big deal as both areas had a certain antipathy towards each other . During the early seventies I remember quite a bit of gang conflict between the 2 areas.
I have actually, I know several people who live there and was shown around by two friends on the day. Do you ever ask questions before assuming things? Thought not.
So where is that in the video? Fed up of stupid RU-vidrs coming to our own town and showing a biased view. Despite being poor in these areas the communities are incredible despite the struggles they face.
How does it fell living in a dodgy place like that? What do you think, what kind of people feel good there? If you meet anyone who says: i feel good here, this place is alright, then you met the problem itself. I live in Kingshill, and i tell you man, this is a bloody tatty place. Crackheads and junkies all around, violence, drug dealers, everything gets stolen. I have to call the police for something almost weekly.
May I suggest you look into the framerate you use to shoot your videos? There is an excessive amount of stuttering which is pretty annoying. This should be the by-product of framerate conversion. If you do your final encode at 60Hz, make sure you shoot at 60Hz and so on. I hope this helps! :)
Thanks. It is annoying, I agree and I have tried to resolve it. We use three different cameras, and the editing software does throw out some errors. I haven’t checked what frame rate all devices record in actually, I’ll see if I can at least sync them.
For your information, Eastcott is pronounced Escott and Walcot was a Council house estate started in the 1960's as a London overspill estate and was always a bit run down. I know as I was born in Old Walcot which was a 1930's private estate. Do I got the Swindon anymore, no I don't
Swindon is such a beautiful place, really. I just hate the fact that it will stay ‘empty’. What do I mean by that? I heard that the town centre is dead and there are no shops or anything like that. Someday, when I grow up, I want to see it with my eyes but this will happen in merely 5 years or so. The persons who are going to read this and live there/ ever visited Swindon: What places do you recommend to go to and what not?
I grew up in Old (west) Walcot and i think its perception here, is skewed by being grouped with Central South, because Old Walcot was much better than New (east) Walcot, and Park South. The Queens Drive divide between the two is freaky.
Modern day Slums ... NOT the properties. ... but the way people. accept to live and look after their home n Neighbourhood.. Well. done Swindon ...Mind you I see that the local council. has a weed management program while they sit on their arse n earn over 80 thou a year ..
With the caveat that I left Swindon 22 years ago........ It's not pronounced Eastcott, rather Estcott. However it's not even referred to as Eastcott but rather Old town. Never felt particularly dangerous, not like some of the estates begining with a p anyway. A little scruffy perhaps but never dangerous. The idea that statistically it's got the highest crime rate in Swindon now seems bizarre to me. Much has obviously changed since I've been away.
3:48 Ahhh good times. I once spent a hot summers day with a mate frisbeeing assorted floppy discs and CDs we found in a skip onto the roof of that permanently abandoned church.
Lived in Swindon for 35 odd years now. It's never been a cultural hub, it has to be said, but I'm growing tired of seeing videos painting the place as if it's the worst place ever - it really isn't. Sure, there are bad areas, but this is the case in almost every other town throughout the UK. Try visiting Bournemouth these days, a premier seaside resort and see how run down it's become! I could spend a day filming areas in Swindon that would paint an entirely different picture. This video and others like it, are just sensationalism.
At 3.10 you talk about people being proud of being English as if they shouldn't be. Swindon might be a bit boring but there are loads of places in the world far more dangerous/dirty etc..
Yes I have to say the alleyways in Swindon are absolutely appauling makes me sick we are suppose to have a local MP who was born and bred in Swindon but I don't like her I hope there is a way back for Swindon
@@ukexplored If you're thinking of going in the near future ﹰI highly recommend Beeston , Holbeck , Harehills lane and Armley ( particularly Armley town street) , for an insight into new lows in deprivation. 🙂
Been living near the area for 5yrs and not seen any crime, poverty or danger on the streets, not sure where your getting your stats from? If your looking for a high crime area in Swindon try somewhere beginning with P 😂
I’ve done videos on the he P’s as well 😀 the stats are from either the census data or official police stats, but of course they only tell part of the story. Glad to hear you’ve not had any problems. Maybe you’re in the eye of the storm? 😂 In all seriousness there is good and bad everywhere, even down to street level. Sounds like you live in a nice spot 👍
How about the councils or gov Making use of themselves and making public broadcasts on NOT littering They need to start closing roads for cleaning and collecting dumped rubbish The public will soon get the message
They can pick up rubbish from the streets, but the biggest issue is people don’t look after their houses, and install a kicked in UPVC door as their garden gate
I don't wonder, to be honest. Swinetown, like most places across the UK, are being run into the ground deliberately. It almost seems like the future will be returning towns to Dickensian standard. Britain is supposedly a first world country (laugh), but from personal experience when I've visited towns up and down the land, you see more and more social deprivation and ever increasing march of crime. Councils couldn't give a shit, and the central government has all but left these places to nature. All that matters now is sustainability and the green agenda. The old order of things has come to an end. It's all about worshipping the environment. Fuck the human misery being created right in front of your eyes....
If your going to make a documentary on a specific area make sure you know the area, most of your comments and pictures was the parks area not Walcot and Walcot West is all private - so please talk to locals and get your facts right first.
(I'm really glad that someone has exposed britain for what it's getting,having bad government for year's and some bad decisions over time which is the cause for some our country being like it is.But also people have forgot how to respect each other and are very selfish,being very judgemental to other's.Take a good look at other europian countries they have problems too...."but look how clean their streets are",no fly-tipping etc; what the hell is happing to our country.....(drugs and drink are one issue that comes to mind).
You were quite a way over, in fact you actually went all the way over to the other side of Park North. I wouldn't trust Google maps, they don't split the areas up correctly. When I lived in Park North and got a taxi, they always showed up at the wrong place if the driver used Google maps. For some reason Google is also showing Park North as part of Walcot, which it isn't. Walcot ends at Buckhurst Field.
