Nowhere sums up the decline of the British high street quite as graphically as Burslem.
Once a thriving, mega-rich market town, it is now so dominated by boarded-up buildings that there seem to be more empty storefronts than occupied ones.
It may also be the grandest place you’ve never heard of, containing 27 listed buildings and as many blue plaques as there are open shops.
The small Stoke-on-Trent town’s stunning architecture stemmed from the 18th and 19th centuries when the area’s Pottery industries dominated the globe.
Now parts of it are so derelict they make you wonder whether you’ve slept through an apocalypse.
As Terry Cotes, 72, who has lived in the area all his life, observed: ‘The only banks now in Burslem are food banks.
‘Everything has closed and deteriorated. The market has been gone for decades now.’
Everyone over the age of 50 remembers a bustling town.
Jim, 74, recalled: ‘When I was a clay delivery driver in the 1970s your greatest fear would be a drop off in Burslem because the place was rammed.’
But by 2019, Burslem had a higher percentage of empty units than anywhere else in the UK.
Burslem is one of the UK’s emptiest high streets. Pictured: The entrance to the once thriving Indoor Market on Keates Street
By 2019 the market town had the highest percentage of empty units compared to anywhere else in the UK
A former pub next door to the Post Office lies shuttered up and derelict, with scaffolding over it
A boarded up building is surrounded by fencing, while a building at the end of the street can also be seen covered in scaffolding
The George Hotel, on Waterloo Road, was once ‘the place to go’ in Burslem for a special occasion such as a wedding, but is now used by asylum seekers and homeless families
Culturally, the change is stark.
Terry pointed to the George Hotel, built in the 1920s and close to the town square.
‘My wife and I had our wedding reception at the George. It was a lovely hotel – the place to go in Burslem for a special occasion.’
Not anymore.
The hotel still has distinctive features – a cabinet in the lobby showcasing the china cups that made the Potteries famous and a drawing room with plush leather sofas, but that is where the chic ends.
An online search says it is ‘permanently closed’, there is no-one on reception, and a sign next to the desk lists a selection of local soup kitchens and food banks.
Locals say that for over a decade it had been a refuge for those with drug and alcohol issues, but is now mainly used by asylum seekers and homeless families.
Terry Landis, 60, visiting the cobblers opposite, said: ‘I have seen that building over 20 years now and in that time the curtains have never been cleaned.
‘The frames look like they could fall out at any minute and most of us think it’s a blessing that it is now used by refugees.
‘Before that it was alcoholics and druggies. There’d be an ambulance out every day, often twice a day and the clientele scared everybody off.’
For years, Stoke-on-Trent, which comprises six towns of which Burslem is known as the ‘Mother’, became synonymous with monkey dust, a powerful and cheap hallucinogen.
Former pottery worker Shelley Bond, 62, visiting the Post Office across the road, said: ‘It’s true. I was frightened to bring my grandchildren into Burslem.
‘You don’t want them to see people in that state. You don’t want to have those conversations.
Marilyn Mountford, on Queen Street, told MailOnline the local area has ‘gone to the dogs’
The former Burslem School of Art, once stood here. It was constructed in the early 1900s
Another row of boarded up shops on the high road. The area was once a bustling market town
Pictured: Ruins of the historic Burslem Sunday School on Wesport Road. Now it lies abandoned
Residents told MailOnline of how the town, which dominated the Pottery industry, went into decline after firms moved production to Indonesia. Pictured, men sat on the side of the road
Two men sat on a bench in Market Place. The area was hardly busy when MailOnline visited on a weekday afternoon
‘This was a buzzing little town but in the nineties the decline became really rapid.
‘The pottery firms moved production to Indonesia – chasing a profit as they do and now there’s not much left.’
Next door to the Post Office, which sits opposite the spectacularly grand old Town Hall, is literally carnage.
It was once the Grade II listed Leopard Hotel, serving punters since the early 18th century.
It was where the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution – Josiah Wedgwood, James Brindley and Erasmus Darwin met for a pint in 1765 to discuss the building of the Trent-Mersey Canal.
Fast forward a quarter of a millennia and along came Covid.
The Leopard then morphed from a pub into a cannabis farm and, in January 2022 it was ravaged by a mysterious fire, for which there has been no official explanation.
Now it stands derelict, held up by scaffolding and masked by ugly boards.
Plans were submitted last year to turn it into a string of shops with flats above but they have now been withdrawn and there was little optimism locally.
‘As far as we are aware there is nothing at all happening with the Leopard,’ said the sub post-mistress next door.
And no wonder, the four shops next to the Leopard have been boarded up for so long few can remember what they once were.
Oh how different it once was. The area was gifted the perfect combination for making china and pottery – a rich clay soil, coal and woodland.
And during the 18th century, as Britain cemented its control over the Indian sub-continent and tea became the national drink, the Potteries provided the cups and saucers.
In addition, Pottery patterns were used to redecorate the Houses of Parliament after a fire destroyed much of it in 1834.
It gave the area a rich artistic tradition and at the heart of that history is Queen’s Street where the vast, gothic Wedgwood Institute sits with stone carvings representing each month of the zodiac.
It was built from public subscription in 1863 incorporating what remained of Wedgwood’s original Brick Works from a century before.
It became an art school, then a library and now it, like many other buildings in Burslem, is on English Heritage’s At Risk Register.
A former councillor Alan Dutton quipped: ‘You could fire a canon up Queen Street and there’d be no danger of hitting anyone.’
The original pottery kilns can be seen towering over the town. They are known locally as the ‘Three Sisters’
An empty office building on Keates Street. A short walk through the town centre reveals that more shops seem to be shuttered than open
A Boots lays empty in a rundown building. Along the road also sits an empty letting agent, a courier shop, an insurance broker and a takeaway
A grand architectural building left in disrepair. The store beneath is boarded up while the apartments upstairs can be seen degrading
A blue plaque at the George Hotel. The historic town is dotted with many blue plaques owing to its rich history
That’s not quite true – there is an art centre opposite the Institute, a butchers open one day a week, a barbers operating under a Trusted Autos shop front and a Polski Slep supermarket.
Explore further and, according to local gossip, there’s a swinger’s club but the overwhelming impression is emptiness.
Gone is the Boots along with a letting agent, a courier shop, an insurance broker and a takeaway.
And, although the sign is still there, it is decades since the huge indoor market was open.
Marilyn Mountford, 72, said: ‘I heard they had £1.25 million to do this street up. I’m told it’s going to be tree-lined.
‘But it’s been like this for years. The place has gone to the dogs. All we hear is talk of what they are going to do to but nothing happens.
‘Businesses cannot afford the rents so the shops are empty and their doorways are full of rough sleepers.’
Pointing to another imposing 19th century building, she added: ‘That was a cannabis farm. Now there’s some foreign chap wants to do it up into flats and but he can’t afford the standards the Council are after.’
Burslem born Steve Cleveland 78 said: ‘This place used to heave with working people. What has happened in the last 20 or 30 years could make you weep.’
Some old buildings have survived.
On Cleveland Street is the snooker club with the same stain glass over its entrance that it had when it opened in 1914.
‘We’ve got eleven full sized tables, nine of which are the originals from 1914,’ said manager Trevor Scragg, 43, ‘and 845 members.’
He worked all hours to revive it after Covid but he admits the local area is a problem: ‘We have a lot of homeless people on the street and a lot of recent arrivals and it doesn’t help the area.
‘We have got such a lot of history to be proud of from the brick kilns to Robbie Williams.’
Art gallery owner Amanda Bromley says the statue of Lemmy, the lead singer of rock band Motorhead could ‘save’ the town’. She said: ‘We are becoming a global destination for rock fans’
Pictured: A large Lemmy statue stands tall in Market Place. It is said the statue brings in visitors
Pictured: The Baines Shop on Queen Street. Another building sat in complete disrepair
Another empty office building on William Clowes Street. The windows have been boarded up
Owner of Burslem Snooker Club, Trevor Scragg, says a high number of homeless people and ‘recent arrivals’ hasn’t helped the area
Robbie spent his earliest years in Burslem’s Red Lion pub, run by his parents, before moving just up the road to Tunstall.
The angel atop the old Town Hall is said to have inspired his greatest hit.
That pub, said to have been serving drinks since the 15th century, now has sold signs on the hoardings and is set to be turned into flats.
But now hope has arrived in Burslem from beyond the grave in the shape of another music icon – Lemmy, lead singer of heavy metal legends Motorhead.
Unlike Robbie, Lemmy, real name is Ian Fraser Kilmister, was Burslem born and bred and in May of this year his statue was erected in the town square.
Now the words, ‘Lemmy Forever’ stretch out across another abandoned architectural wonder.
The Queen’s Theatre, with its marble staircases and art deco interior, was originally built in 1911 as a new town hall.
But when Stoke-on-Trent gained city status in 1925, it was transformed into a theatre which has been unused since 2014.
Now plans are afoot to turn it into an event space with 850 seats, room for 1,200 standing, a café and a Rainbow Gar and Grill.
Amanda Bromley, 58, who runs the Barewall Art Gallery opposite, says it could save the town.
‘Lemmy’s statue was designed by Andy Edwards who did the Beatles in Liverpool,’ she said.
‘It is a beautiful piece of work and since the statue went up we have seen people coming here from all over the world.
A woman walking past yet another closed business with a large ‘To Let’ sign
Another rundown building on Westport Street, right beside the Burslem Sunday School
Queen Street, by the George Hotel, looking close to empty on a Tuesday morning
‘We are becoming a global destination for rock fans. Two days ago I had an Ozzy Osbourne impersonator from Japan in the shop.
‘Motorhead’s management company in Los Angeles are involved and that theatre is a sleeping giant.
‘People are calling this place Burslemmy. His legacy could save this place.’
There are other signs that the area’s luck may be about to change – the local football team, Port Vale were promoted last year to League One.
Sitting next to the statue, retail worker Rob Hassall, 62, was sceptical.
‘Don’t get me wrong,’ he said, ‘rock music has a very big following and I would love to see something in that place.
‘There’s been talk of Slash from Guns n Roses, another Stoke lad, coming to play.
‘Perhaps things are changing. Port Vale is very important to the area, it’s where the biggest of the markets used to be and they’re on the up.
‘It would be great but as for Lemmy saving Burslem, I’ll believe it when I see it.’
