Tuesday saw our last cheap day out on the railway and it was to Shrewsbury. Its been some time since I went there last and I was looking forward to a nose around the shops and maybe the museum and castle. After a painless journey we were off and running. There were a lot more charity shops than I remembered but, by Bilston standards their prices were in league with Harrods, as was the so called market with its super pretentious cafe, art gallery and creative design jewellery.
Officially we were out for Christmas shopping but, we didn’t get much done. There was a certain air of desolation to the town beneath its upper class appearance and elegantly dressed pensioners. A major department store had cut its floor space to about half, the other half was now HSBC and a sandwich shop. Otherwise the main streets seemed little changed, apart from a growth in the number of fast food franchises and extra charity shops.
It was when we entered the shopping centres the decline really hit home: there were empty shops everywhere and the once busy Riverside Mall was as deserted as a set of one of the Yanky zombie films. Compared to the grandeur of the old railway station building and main town buildings, the new concrete and glass monsters appeared to be a disease old Shrewsbury was doing its best to shake off. On the plus side we had an excellent lunch in an Indian restaurant that seemed to be one of the newer additions.