Is Oldham town centre really ‘dead’?

Oldham town centre is dead. At least, that’s what comments online seem to say. Scroll down under any story or Facebook post regarding what was once the borough’s thriving centrepoint, and you’ll quickly stumble upon a disgruntled resident claiming the town is ‘beyond saving’ or that they’ve ‘not been there for years’.

But visit the centre on a sunny day during the summer holidays – and there are definitely still some signs of life. Shoppers dodge in and out of clothes and bargain shops, families bribe their youngsters with Nando’s or chippy teas to endure uniform-buying expeditions and elderly women double-fisting shopping caddies make a sharp beeline for the Tommyfield Market.

Oldham is a far cry from its market town hey day, when according to locals ‘bus loads of visitors turned up outside the Tommyfield in hunt of a bargain’ and ‘the streets were filled with throngs of people’. But compared to last summer, the town is showing some slow signs of recovery in footfall, according to businesses.

The question is just – is it enough to save a dying town?

“I love Oldham actually, I live nearby and come here often,” Letina, 48, tells the M.E.N. Sitting on a bench with a big bag of food shopping from the Tommyfield, she’s waiting for her son to pick her up – a regular habit of hers, she says. “But I’ve been here 18 years and I have noticed a lot of the shops closing down, for example in the Spindles shopping centre. There’s things I now have to go all the way to Manchester for – and actually I’d much rather stay here for them.

“But then they’ve made the town centre a lot greener with new parks recently, so there’s good changes and bad.”

Walking from Market Street to Yorkshire Street, the signs of the decline in shopping culture are clear: dozens of shuttered up shop fronts punctuate the high street. Some of them look as though they’ve been closed for a very long time. On a day at the end of the summer holidays, when the weather seems forever threatening to rain, the streets do look forlorn and empty.

“It’s definitely a lot less busy than it once was. We barely come – we’re only here today to get him a uniform,” Matthew Clarke (pictured above with   son Joe and auntie Lisa Woodallsaid), pointing at son Joe, who smiled sheepishly.

“A lot has gone,” the 45-year-old continued. “There’s more takeaways than shops now. But there’s also a lot of new buildings, they’re trying to bring a lot of new projects into the town centre, so I think we’re at a bit of a cross-over stage. But you still need the shops to get people out their armchairs.”

The Oldham dad believes it’s to do with changing shopping habits and everything going online.

He said: “It’s hard because people say they want a high street, but then it’s so much easier just to sit at home and order something online. If it wasn’t for things like the uniform, which we couldn’t get online, we’d have no reason to come.

“And the younger generation don’t come out of their bedrooms. This one spends all his time in his bedroom – he’s only been on two outings this whole summer. Used to be when we got our pocket money we’d come straight to town. Now he gets it transferred onto his Monzo and he spends it all online.”

But Joe spoke up to defend himself against this allegation.

“I want to play out more,” he said. “But none of my friends will come out. It’s because they’re scared.”

His mum, Hayley Clarke, nods – there’s been a lot of crime incidents in their area recently, making parents more reluctant to let their kids go into town unattended, she explained.

And it’s not just the kids. Lisa Woodall comes into town at least twice a week with her friends. But her older mates are often reluctant to make the journey.

“For the elderly, it’s also about safety,” the 51-year-old said. “There’s all these reports of crime – guns, stabbings, theft – so they stay inside because they feel frightened.”

For others it’s not the lack of shopping that’s a problem.

“There’s nothing here to do!” A group of frustrated 19-year-olds told the M.E.N. The three of them, Natalia, Silver and Stefan were perched on the steps outside Nando’s outside the Old Town Hall. They said they were only in the town centre because they ‘live ten minutes away and have nowhere else to go’. All three agreed that Oldham was thoroughly ‘dead’.

“We want something to do – an arcade maybe, like in Manchester,” Silver said. “Some of us can’t always go all the way to Manchester just to have some fun.”

“Yeah, or even some clubs,” Natalia chimed in.

“Clubs? What do you mean clubs?” Silver chided her. “This is 2025!”

Echoing their words on a street around the corner was 39-year-old Lee Platt (pictured above) who was on his way to Heron Foods as he waited to pick his daughter up from a nursery nearby.

“There used to be loads of pubs and clubs in Oldham,” he said. “Then again they were all sh*t so maybe it’s a good thing they closed down.
“There’s just not enough on offer here. There’s more in Manchester so people go there. Bring a Footlocker to Oldham, I promise you, the people would come.”

One of the criticisms regularly levelled at the town online is the over-abundance of takeaways and vape shops instead of retail offers like clothes and big brands. But one 25-year-old local, Osama, 25, said he travels to Oldham specifically for the food.

“I love the takeaways. I lived here for 12 years but we’ve now moved to New Moston. But we still come here for the food,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s that bad in Oldham. It’s small, but if you stay in the town centre it’s fine. Maybe further out it gets a bit rough.

“They’ve been making it all green. This part used to be all concrete in the past, now it’s quite pretty.”

Osama went on to speak about the tensions that are said to exist between different communities in the town. “I don’t even think that’s as bad as people say it is. I see much worse diversity problems in other towns, here people just kind of get on with their lives and tolerate each other – even if they might grumble about it.”

Oldham’s council boss Arooj Shah told the M.E.N. that she ‘looks back fondly on the town’s past’ and acknowledges it has been fundamentally changed by ‘tastes and technology’.

But coun Shah added: “Oldham’s town centre is in a period of change, and that change is starting to take shape. You can already see how much more green and pleasant it is, more shops and venues like the Egyptian Rooms have opened up, and we have fantastic events on all throughout the year that get great footfall.

“This is only the start. Soon the new Market will be open, giving a new lease of life to traders who are beloved in our town. We also opened the J R Clynes building recently, which looks absolutely incredible and will soon start being used as a community space.

“A green and thriving town centre is what our residents deserve, which is why we have been making bold decisions to transform it. For people who haven’t seen it, they should come see the transformation for themselves and join us in being as excited for the future as they are proud of the past.”

But as the shops pull down their shutters for the evening, Market Street rapidly empties of its last remaining stragglers. According to some, the town centre is slowly moving in the right direction – but it seems there is still a long way to go.