Dd101_Tma01

This essay is going to reflect changes on what I remember of my street from my childhood in the 1980s and how my street differs from that of City Road. Brandon Shopping Centre is the main shopping area of Motherwell. Brandon Shopping Centre is a pedestrian only area. This is totally different to City Road which has heavy traffic at most times of the day. This is just one of the major differences between Brandon Shopping Centre and City Road, the other areas of difference I will cover will be shop types, cleanliness, mobility, day and night use and the people who shop there. Motherwell was once the steel production capital of Scotland. [1](Wikipedia) this meant until the closure of Ravenscraig Steel Works in 1992, Motherwell was a wealthy town. I grew up in Motherwell and have noticed a lot of changes to the shops we have now to the shops we had in the 1980’s. In the 1980’s Motherwell had department stores and popular retail stores e.g. Bairds, Goldbergs, Woolworth, John Menzies, Burtons, and Thorntons. This meant you didn’t have to travel to Hamilton or Glasgow to get what you needed, everything was there and convenient. The only store to survive now from the list I gave is Burtons. Motherwell has recently had an influx of charity shops, pound shops, pawn shops, payday loan shops and cash for goods shops. These seem to have taken over our town centre as a new one seems to open every few months. There used to be competition for supermarkets too, Gateways, (which became Somerfields then Asda), Scotmid and Templetons. Now we only have Asda, which has now moved to bigger premises and is now a superstore, but it is the only supermarket in Motherwell, there are 2 frozen food stores, Farmfoods and Icelands. The main shopping area itself is well kept, there are street cleaners always to be seen, rubbish bins are never over flowing, street lights are always working and there are never any loose paving’s, all shops have double doors and are all on one level, so there are never any problems for wheel chairs and prams. There is a place to hire out mobility scooters for the less mobile and there is seating almost every 200 yards. There are also public toilets that are staffed, kept clean and sanitary. During the day, mainly between 9am and 5pm you will see many people in Brandon Shopping Centre, not as many as the 1980’s though as a lot of people now shop in Hamilton or Glasgow. Motherwell is more diverse now than in the 1980’s. In the 1980’s you wouldn’t normally see anyone in Motherwell town centre that wasn’t Scottish or white. This has changed now as Motherwell is now more ethnically diverse. There are a lot of Polish, Black and Asians now in Motherwell. There are no ethnic shops or cafes in the main shopping area unlike in City Road. [2](Making Social Lives DVD 1) After 5pm Brandon Shopping Centre is like a ghost town as all the stores are closed and there are no pubs or clubs on the main precinct, so all you see are people passing through the town centre to get to other places or going McDonalds to eat. This seems to be totally different from City Road as it seems to be busy all times of the day and evening. There is a very good bus and train service that serves Motherwell Town Centre. You can visit Motherwell easily from any of the surrounding towns i.e. Wishaw, Bellshill and Hamilton. One of the good things about Brandon Shopping Centre is there are a lot of listed buildings, so although the shop names and window displays have changed the area itself has a good mix of modern and dated but well kempt, I think this adds to the character. I think one of the unusual aspects of Brandon Shopping Centre is although there are no flats above shops, unlike those seen on City Road. There is a 17 floor multi story tower block that sits above some of the shops, this I have never seen anywhere else, this in my opinion makes Brandon Shopping Centre unique. This assignment has helped me see my street in a different way, when you live in an area you take a lot of details for granted and you don’t see a lot of things that make your street unique but also share similarities to other streets and you also notice people more too. Word count 752 58% Self-reflection I have enjoyed looking at my area and noticing things I took for granted before, it has opened my eyes to my surroundings. I found it difficult to actually get started as I wasn’t enjoying the reading and I found DVD boring at first, but then I slowly got into it. ----------------------- [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherwell [2] Making Social Lives DVD 1, 2009, Open University, scenes 2, 3 and 6