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.
