High street changes

You may have seen the Guardian’s report of a high street survey comparing types of business now with those in typical high streets in 2019. No point in repeating it all here (link below) but I popped my St Ann’s postcode into the search field and got some headlines for a composite of GL and WGR. Since 2019, in our area, there are:

13% more barbers and hairdressers

Twice as many amusement arcades

100% more restaurants

A third as many banks and 21% fewer cash machines

and

40% fewer bookmakers

than in 2019.

Most of this is easily observable walking around (though I hadn’t clocked the bookie reduction), but it’s quite interesting to see it quantified, and as a reflection of national trends.

Full story here:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/ng-interactive/2026/jan/28/how...