A man sits down with a chippy tea at Droylsden Shopping Centre. Two friends chat over a pint. A mother pushes a pram past a row of empty shops, the sound of her voice bouncing off the closed metal shutters.
This precinct used to be thriving. The square was buzzing with shops and a popular market. But following transport works, a global pandemic and now a cost of living crisis, some say the area has become a “ghost town”.
“It’s just cr*p,” Droylsden resident Bill Stewart, 67, says. “It went downhill once the market went. They’ve built some shops, but it’s not the same.
