Not so long ago it was a beloved shopping destination for people from across Greater Manchester, but in recent years the increasing number of boarded-up shops risk it earning the unenviable label of 'ghost town.'
After a challenging few years, Bolton town centre could be set for a resurgence under radical plans to reinvent it for generations to come.
The solution, according to council bosses, is to shrink the high street and transform the town into an 'experience' destination. They hope to emulate Bury and Stockport, where councils have successfully breathed new life into tired and outdated town centres.
READ MORE: It has suffered setbacks in recent months - but big plans could change the face of Bolton in 2023
Under its ambitious £1bn masterplan, Bolton council wants to redevelop the dilapidated Crompton Place shopping centre, and build hundreds of homes, a hotel, and green spaces on various sites around the existing town centre.
The plans to overhaul the town have already started with its historic market in the process of being modernised to include a new food hall and an expanded outdoor area.
Around Ashburner Street and Black Horse Street, the sound of drills and diggers are a sign that change is on the horizon. It's a welcome sight in a town centre that has suffered a series of setbacks of late.
Bolton's high street has been hit hard by a rise in online shopping and competition from elsewhere over the last two decades.
The recent announcement that the much-loved Marks & Spencer store, in Deansgate, was set to close was only the latest in a series of bitter blows. It prompted outcry from angry and disappointed Boltonians, who bemoaned a perceived decline in the town's fortunes.
It wasn't always this way though. For decades, shoppers travelled from far and wide to visit Bolton's booming high street - home to iconic stores such as Whitakers department store and Prestons of Bolton jewellers - known to many as the ‘Diamond Centre of the North'.
According to Bolton council leader Coun Martyn Cox, the town has partly been a victim of its own success. During decades of prosperity up to the early 2000s, Bolton town centre expanded in size.
It meant that when shifting shopping habits took their toll on the high street, Bolton was hit harder than some of its neighbours. As boarded-up shops began to appear, those at the town hall took too long to identify the problem, Coun Cox argues.
"The town hall's reaction could have been quicker," he said. "They were slow to see the winds of change."
The successful development of the Middlebrook retail complex in the later 1990s, and The Rock shopping centre down the road in Bury in 2010, also gave shoppers alternatives to Bolton's high street.
There has been previously been investment in Bolton, most notably in the Market Place shopping centre, but it did little to transform the town's fortune. A redevelopment project saw the old market hall - home to a range of independent traders and quirky shops - transformed into a mall with major brands, as well as a cinema, bars and restaurants. Many Boltonians felt it was a step in the wrong direction.
During almost three decades in the construction industry, Coun Cox worked on the regeneration of a number of town centres, including Stockport. He believes there is still an appetite for town centres.
"Some got it right and some struggled with it," he explained. "There is a future for town centres, there's a big future for Bolton town centre but it's not as it was in the 70s and 80s when retail was booming."
The answer, in his eyes, is to reinvent town centres as destinations where people can go for 'experiences' with a mix of retail, housing and office space thrown in.
"This is a problem affecting every town centre," he said. "They were for so long built on the back of retail.
"What has happened is people are not going in to shop, so what are they going to be doing in the future?
"That's what you've got to work out. What you're seeing is people wanting to come to a town centre for an experience. They want to live in town centres.
"It's very hard to imagine that back in the early 90s, Manchester city centre had a population of less than 2,000. You had this movement into towns and city centres.
"Manchester and other big city centres have been successful at that. Places like Bolton, Stockport and Oldham need to do the same."
One of the main challenges to regenerating Bolton town centre is its size. Yet with a population of almost 300,000 people across the borough of Bolton, it also has a huge catchment area.
"People will still want to go out and have a drink and have a meal," said Coun Cox. "You've got to get that mix right and that's a new challenge for town halls.
"We're having to take a leadership role in regeneration because the change has been so quick and so dramatic. It does require some intervention from national and local government.
"The plans that Bolton have got make sense, they're big, they're transformative, but it will take time."
Bolton council has drawn up a masterplan detailing its ambitious plans for the town centre, which include the regeneration of six major sites.
Work to build more than 200 homes, green spaces and shops on the old bus station site, in Moor Lane, is already under way while a scheme to build 167 homes on a former car park in Central Street, off Deansgate, is due to begin this month.
The town's library and historic market are also in the process of being modernised, while a new pocket park is being created on the former site of the Odeon cinema in Ashburner Street. The completed Elizabeth Park - named in honour of the late monarch - will feature seating areas, picnic tables and a performance space.
A total of 352 homes have also been earmarked for a site next to the River Croal to the north-east of the town centre. To pave way for the proposed development - known as Church Wharf - Bolton Council purchased a number of derelict properties on Bank Street and Manor Street, including the former Wharf Foundry. Demolition is almost complete and it is hoped that construction work on the development will begin later this year.
Meanwhile, Manchester-based developer Capital & Centric recently announced plans to build homes on various plots of land around the Bradshawgate area. The firm - which is also working with the council on plans to regenerate Farnworth town centre - said they planned to create ‘Neighbourhood Bolton’, and were bringing forward plans for the first few areas on 6.2 acres of brownfield sites.
However, less progress has been made on the most high-profile site - Crompton Place shopping centre. The council purchased the site in 2018 and plans to demolish it to make way for 46 new retail units and a 110-room hotel, along with a 300 space car park, offices and more than 150 homes.
The £250m project was due to begin in late 2021, but hit a snag when the two developers involved - Chinese giant Beijing Construction Engineering Group International (BCEGI) and Liverpool real estate firm Granite-Turner - pulled out of the project in October of that year.
The plans were dealt a further blow the following month when the council lost out on £16m in government 'levelling-up' funding after missing the deadline for submitting its bid as its email was too big to send.
In another crushing blow, a further bid for levelling-up funding to bring a hotel and conference complex to the town centre, and make improvements to Market Place, was rejected by the government this month.
While the council is yet to find a new backer for the Crompton Place scheme, Coun Cox vowed that the development would 'definitely happen'.
After years of talk and plans being unveiled, Coun Cox said the signs of work going on around the town centre were a cause for optimism.
"If you come back here in 18 months time, you will see lots of cranes, lots of diggers, lots of development going on," he said.
"It's at that moment that it becomes real for people. We can talk all day about designs and concepts and planning permission but until people see action on site, it's not happening."
He said: "People have such fond memories of Bolton when it was a retail destination that they think 'bring that back'. There is no way we can bring that back.
"That was there because you had private businesses investing in buildings to turn them into shops because retail was growing at seven or eight per cent a year.
"The futures of town centres are different. It's going to involve people living and working in the town centre, it's going to be a mix of experiences like bars, restaurants and coffee shops and some retail. The town centres that get that right will be the successful ones.
"The pessimism that there's no future in town centres is missplaced. Time and time again, towns like Bolton have regenerated themselves.
"Manchester is a classic example. It was not a place you could imagine going living in and bringing up a family. Now, people don't give it a second thought."
However, the regenerations plans are heavily reliant on government funding.
"It's fundamental because the change has been so rapid and the transformation needs to be significant," Coun Cox explained. "You are going to need a level of government intervention to pump-prime that."
He has previously expressed his ‘deep disappointment’ over the decision and vowed to make known his disquiet ‘at every level of government’, including in an upcoming meeting with Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove.
"It was frustrating," he said. "We will express our disappointment but we're not going to get embittered," he said.
"We've got a huge amount to do. While we keep bidding for new money, we're going to get on with some of those projects."
He added: "The people of Bolton have been very patient regarding the town centre. They've had a number of knock backs. Covid hit us hard. We had to really pause everything.
"I'm grateful that they've been patient but it's now time for us to stop talking and start delivering.
"Anybody that goes away, if they come back in five years they will see a transformed town centre. Much different than what it was previously, but Bolton town centre has got a very very good future in front of it."
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