During a recent visit, David Leafe discovered that Slough, Berkshire, once his childhood home in the 1960s, has drastically changed over the years.
He found deserted shopping streets, vacant units, an omnipresent smell of cannabis, and appalling public toilets.
The town’s reputation has taken a hit, with it being labelled as the UK’s ugliest town in 2023 by a national newspaper and voted Britain’s most miserable town last year in a poll by property website Rightmove.
David spoke to locals, including John Hughes, a 67 year old who has run his baked potato stall on the High Street for the past 34 years.
Mr Hughes shared some shocking observations after seeing “locals do unthinkable things in public”: “The other day I saw a man defecating just around the corner. And my friend who runs another stall saw a couple having sex in the road just along from Boots – and this was in broad daylight.
“There are toilets in the shopping centre but people wee up the doors outside all the time. It’s like they just can’t be bothered to go in and nobody does anything about it.”
This is a far cry from the thriving town of the 1960s, which boasted bustling retailers, including a branch of department store Suters. Today, Slough appears to be in a state of decline, with hoardings concealing empty shop units.
As David weaved through the town centre, escaping the pervasive scent of cannabis, he encountered Ken Fletcher, a retired quarryman.
The 78-year-old shared his dismay with the state of the local High Street, commenting: “It’s heartbreaking to see the High Street like this because when you came here on a Saturday afternoon years ago it was so busy that you could hardly move. Now it’s really grim. We’d rather drive to places like Bracknell. That’s a good shopping centre.”
According to the Daily Mail, Slough continues to battle homelessness and crime.
The town saw a shocking surge in shoplifting incidents in 2024, reporting 1,196 cases—a significant jump of 51 per cent from the previous year.
This strains the already stretched resources of Thames Valley Police and the Slough Borough Council, which notably declared bankruptcy in 2021 after discovering a disastrous £100 million shortfall in its finance.
The likelihood of any major redevelopment in the heart of Slough seems bleak, especially since much of the area is owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) following its acquisition of the Queensmere and Observatory Shopping Centres in 2016. ADIA has yet to execute supposed plans for reviving the space with fresh businesses, shops, and homes.
Local baked potato stall owner, Mr Hughes, expressed that without his dedicated customer base, his business would be in dire straits, stating: “We’re still earning a good living because we know the locals but I wouldn’t fancy starting up a business here now.”
Britain’s most unhappy town, it appears, has a significant task ahead to shed its notorious label. Much like the lingering scent of cannabis in the town centre, reputation is stubborn – and takes time to fade away.