I had the displeasure of living in Gillingham for a few years around the time you filmed this. All I can say is i'm bloody glad I moved. The houses are nice , it's just the people in them . A rough town is an understatement.
I lived in Gillingham from 1986 when I was born for 10 years. I remember when Wilkinson’s was Co op! And Pavillion Hairdressers, Gateways and going through Iceland to the bridge across where the trains pass. Fads and Wimpy have been there forever! My biggest memories of the high street are the laundrette, Ward’s, the library and the video shop opposite the library, and Matthews Jewellers was owned by my step grandad 😁
Yay my home town Gillingham its changed a lot do buses still go through high street I lived there till 1972 came back 73 left to move to Wales 75 lovely memories I'm coming back to Gillingham just for a weekend can't wait to see my old street an see what's gone n what's new thanks for memory it's great
This video is almost 10 years old. I will do a retake to see what has changed in the last 10 years. Most of the major chain shops in Gillingham have gone. The high street is in a very poor state. The number of nasty little rubbish shops has increased. The high street now looks very neglected.
Awe thank you even though it may be not as I know it. its still home to me even after all these years. Would you know if there any good bed an breakfasts accommodation in or around High Street gonna have a weekend down there very soon thank you
@@benolifts just shows, people are only just coming across these videos, when you planning to upload the new video, and would it be in real life or just shown through Google Maps? (like with the Maidstone one)
I'm glad I live in a town that has a nice high street with independent shops and cafes apart from a Ladbrokes, a few banks and a McDonalds opening soon.
Reminds me of when I was visiting family in a small kent town and I heard yelling, me and my father turn around and there is a big burly bloke with an England shirt. He'd come out the betting shop, kicked the sign and it fell on it's side and then he stormed off lol and left it there. I love small town England!
You know a High St is bad when Cash Generator moves out, Barclays too. Gillingham used to have a half decent High, there was a Marks and Spencer up till 1990. Miss the Wimpy as well.
*I grew up in Gillingham in the late 60's, 70's and early 80's and it was a great place to live with a thriving High St. I had a Saturday job in that Intown Bakery but it was called Cooks Pantry back then. Joanna's was the nightclub at the bottom of Canterbury St, just up from Barclays. I remember when they ruined the High St by pedestrianising it. My Saturdays were The Classic cinema and Saturday morning picture club, with pick'n'mix from Woolworths. Then off to Barnaby recordings on the corner opposite the train station. I remember the long flight of stairs down to the platform that had a slight dip worn from all the thousands of feet over the years. That modern station looks bloody awful. I left Gillingham in 82/83 and it's sad to see what it has become today.*
I will make a 10 year anniversary to this video in June and see how much has changed. Gillingham has gone downhill badly in recent years. The new train station entrance is very faceless looking. The whole of Gillingham has got very faceless recently.
Home & Colonial was the second supermarket in Britain after Sainsbury's. They got bought up by Allied Distribution & got renamed Allied Supermarkets for a while, then got sold to Morrisons, who sold all the old Home & Colonials so they could build more big ugly hypermarkets. Just look at Acton. 12:27 | There is a restaurant in Twickenham called "The Eel Pie Shop" because it was originally famous for selling eel pie, a delicacy associated with Gravesend (they even named an island after it) but it NO LONGER SELLS EEL PIE BECAUSE ITS OUT OF FASHION. I Hate Fashion.
My grandparents used to live here in the 60's & 70's, it wasn't up to much then, but now it looks just bloody awful and depressing from this footage. Thankful to have emigrated nearly 50 years ago.
haaaaaaaaq I used to live in Gillingham during the 80's...Most of these shops I have never seen before and by the looks of things will never get to see lol !! Loved this vid...absolute loved your "tour of Gillingham high street"...haaaaa loved your descriptions...bwhaaaaaaaa !!! Enjoyed ur close ups of the poor plights of the pidgeons.....😕😕😁😁 now we're at the end of the movie "here are some burbs I did..... (burbs....burbs)...." bwhaaaaaaaaaa 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 !!!!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
It was actually quite nice in Gillingham high street during my growing up years as a teenager in the 70s. The street wasn't pedestrianised back then. I remember it was always quite a busy little place with lots and lots of shoppers. There were two record shops in Gillingham high street where I went on Saturdays to buy um,..records, or vinyl as you younger kids call them now. But ever since the high street got pedestrianised (was it the 80s?), then things went down hill very quickly. The place is now a shit hole.
Lived in Medway areas 7 years and Gillingham would only look better if a hand grenade was thrown in the middle. The people, well, "I'll talk slowly as I know you can't think fast"!!! Just about sums it up.
We are Yanks who used to live in Gillingham...Tai Won Mein at 8:05 into the video was a great noodle shop to eat at...but bring your own take away container because they charge you 50p per container to take home the large quantity of noodles that you don't eat.
OMG this place changed so much, used to live there five years ago.. now its all changed with the pawnbrokers etc...but happy to see Greggs, Tai Won Mein. SO many shops are closed..jezz
Eel Pie Island is a really good cafe, good food, very clean, lovely staff and good prices. Must admit this 'video' made me laugh as the person who made it tried to make out they knew everything but knew very little and couldn't even pronounce Gilberthorpes (which is a good butchers) and also what is wrong with the Queens diamond jubilee? Yes Gillingham isn't a great high street but it is good for getting your basics or food shopping and if you want to go for a day shopping you have Hempstead Valley, Chatham and Maidstone and it isn't full of chavs and is clean x
I loved it when I was a kid living there it had great shops everyone was friendly and happy you had Blundells the toy shop activity’s for the kids during school holidays in the town centre or at the black lion or the strand but now it honestly looks so run down and delapalated I think Boris could just direct one of our nukes towards Gillingham and just put everyone out of there misery...... by the way you got a kind of Joe pasquelle vibe about ya and he live in Strood just up the road anyway great video it was nice to see my hometown again without going there lol....
@@Retrobeemer Joanna’s mate god damn you must be old lol you could at least called it the zone or something but yeah I do remember it next to the paper shop it was……
+Shibehunter ZunKai Well I'm not going to eat at any of these cheap pizza places again. You just don't know what is in the pizzas. I'll stick to Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pappa Johns. What is worse than cheap pizza places is Doner Kebab takeaways. The reformed meat that goes into them is nasty. Cat food is better quality than Doner Kebabs!
did you know that use to be a supermarket that had a lift to take you up to the car park at the back in the shop is walled up where the change rooms are you find it in the disused car park
Hey Beno, could you make more It's Lift Tour Time video. Also, at my local shopping centre there is a quick lift with dewhurst buttons on the inside and express or Evans on outside. I can't tell if it's original or not.
What no music/record store? We still have one. Also we still have at least one video rental store, we used to have 6 of them! I used to go to these types of stores very often when I was younger. We do have a lot of vacant stores these days.
good fun commentary!.....saw a lot of Gillingham high street in the late 60's..worked down strover street and dated a girl from Burn't oak terrace...that didn't end well ...it certainly hasn't improved.
Did you know my mother in CHATHAM? Her name was...BRENDA THOMPSON. She lived at 3a MOUNT PLEASANT ( bumpy ) ROAD. You and mom, would gotten along..... JUST LIVLEY.....
I've just looked at this AGAIN 😂😂😂😂😂😂 at the end..."while I'm doing this, here's, some burbs I did"...proceeds to belch away!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂 (incidently I used to live there)...😃 it's totally changed from how I remember.....😐😐
Mate same here, was born in Chatham and raised in Gillingham lived there 2 times until I was 11 before moving to Norfolk for 3 years before moving back and living there until I was 18 (I'm now 20) Although I moved 1 month before my 19th I hated Gillingham so much like my other comment, fist pumped I know longer live there hate it!
Medway has the cheapest houses in the southeast. I am stuck, the price of my house won't buy a house anywhere else. Once you live in Medway, it is very hard to move out.
@@benolifts Have you considered the North of England? l know houses are much cheaper in Newcastle and some other areas. Newcastle`s Tyne Bridge down by the quayside reminds me of the bridge in Cologne, Germany, near the Kolner Dom, ie cathedral. Also l heard Cambridgeshire and around there was cheaper too, and also Norwich and parts of Wales as well.
LOL..."The Claim Shop". As someone who will be practising law in a few years, I have to say that name is pretty bad. It gives the legal profession a bad name...
Shame a lot of these places are closed now.. there were some good shops among them thk like Liddelows bakery and Gilberthorpes delicatessen selling freshly made bistro rolls, fresh carved ham on the bone... ril the feckong snowflakes came along of course
7:38 i helped a poor bloke who got beaten up the other week gave him tissue and a drink out of me own money and the only thing the police said was scurry along now
this place is good and he just takes the micky out of things he makes them look terrible and ive been here its better than a lot of other places plus its not a dump so shut up
