EXCLUSIVE: Residents told the Express ‘if you want your nails done, and your hair cut, and your beard trimmed, you’re safe’.
A high street that’s been described as the UK’s worst has gone downhill in recent years, its own residents have admitted. Waterlooville in Hampshire, just north of Portsmouth, is a market town that was established around 1815 when returning soldiers from the Battle of Waterloo celebrated at a new coaching inn, around which the settlement grew. Locals told the Express that, today, the town is not what it was when they were younger, and they go elsewhere for their shopping.
The local authority says it has been working on a “masterplan” to regenerate Waterlooville’s town centre since 2024. This will “identify key areas of growth, future development and identify improvements to the local economy, town centre precinct and its surrounding areas”. For many locals this can’t come soon enough. “I’ve lived in the area for 20-odd years and, I must admit, it’s gone right downhill,” said Bridget Purdy, 66, a retired mechanical parts buyer. “It’s nearly all charity shops these days.”
Waterlooville has been in decline over the past decade or so, residents say. (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Bridget Purdy says Waterlooville’s high street is ‘nearly all charity shops’ (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The pensioner then recalled that she used to visit Waterlooville when she was 10 years old, and stayed to buy shoes and clothes, and then grab a bite to eat.
Ms Purdy added: “I’m only up here today because I had to go and have a hearing test.”
YouTuber, Joe Fish, recently visited Waterlooville and called it the “worst high street in Britain” after being shocked by how many closed and empty shops he found, commenting in his video: “Oh my goodness, it really is apocalyptic.”
And local resident Chris Blake, 64, who has been a nurse for 30 years, admitted: “It’s just gone desolate here, hasn’t it?”
She added that the decline has been ongoing for over 10 years.
“All the top shops have gone,” Ms Blake said. “It’s all phone shops and noodle bars, but you’re going to have them everywhere.”
The health worker also said that she has seen a “massive increase” in the number of homeless people locally, which she “never saw” as a kid.
But she pointed out that other high streets, like nearby Southsea, are purportedly in a worse state.
Friend Margaret Hills, 78, who worked as a carer for 35 years, claimed that Commercial Road in Portsmouth is also in a dire state.
She said: “We’ve got no shops, no decent shops. If you want the top shops now, you have to go to Southampton.”
Ms Hills comes into Waterlooville about two times a week, “only because there’s the bank here”, although she added that one of those had closed recently too.
She added: “Waterlooville was the place you could go. It was nice. They had shops, decent shops.
“Now shops open and, within a couple of months, they’re closing again.”
Chris and Margaret say the town used to have more to offer (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Samantha Hollands-Rawlinson is general manager at The Heroes pub (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Samantha Hollands-Rawlinson, 53, is the general manager of The Heroes pub. She said: “It’s certainly an awful lot quieter. I’ve been down here 23 years, and the market is a third of what it was back then.
“The meat man used to be opposite, and the market ran all the way up to the precinct.
“Now he’s all the way at the bottom near the bus stops, and [the market] doesn’t get to Costa, it’s that small.”
“There’s nothing,” she added. “You hear all sorts of things; rents are high. There’s no thoroughfare, and no passing trade here because of the lack of people in the precinct.”
This has affected trade, Ms Hollands-Rawlinson said. She said: “I don’t think there’s a reason majorly to come to Waterlooville.
“Houses are popping up all over the place, but we don’t see the benefit from that either.”
“It was run down,” Ian Churchill, 63, who used to work in a care home kitchen, said while enjoying a pint at the pub.
“They are trying to regenerate it, but all you’re getting is nail shops, make-up shops, but they’re no good… we want decent shops.”
“A Primark would be nice up here for the girls,” he added. “There’s nothing; there’s just small businesses.
“It’s open for six months, and once they get their grant, they’re gone again.”
Havant Council announced in 2024 that grants – ranging from £1,000 to £50,000 – are available to newly established, expanding or relocating businesses, to help with capital costs in bringing a vacant shop in Waterlooville town centre back into use.
Ian went on to claim that people shop at the nearby Asda but nobody shops in the high street “that much”.
There are empty shops in Waterlooville high street (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Ian Churchill was enjoying a pint in The Heroes pub (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
He added: “If you want your nails done, and you hair cut, and your beard trimmed, you’re safe.”
Another problem was highlighted by Hamid Asad, 33, who works in a vape shop.
He said kids aged 16 to 17 years old come into the store and try to buy products.
But, when they are told they are not allowed to have them, they swear at him.
A 25-year-old man, who works at a business in the high street, said: ” I’m not from Waterlooville, but it’s dead here.
“It’s not terrible, but it’s very quiet. I wouldn’t say you get any trouble or anything.
“I come here at half nine for work, then go back to Southampton at four o’clock.
“I literally go out the door to Greggs for lunch, and that’s it.”
Another person who worked in a shop on the high street said business was “ticking over nicely” despite the challenges.
But he added: “It can be a bit of a s****hole, but we’re in Portsmouth, aren’t we, technically?
“Waterlooville isn’t a destination place, is it?
“I don’t understand who the f*** would travel to Waterlooville rather than Gunwharf [Quays, Portsmouth’s best-known shopping centre].”
But he added that even non-locals going there “baffles” him, as he goes to London instead when he can.
Geoff Maidment sits on a bench in the high street and watches the world go by (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Geoff Maidment, 90, who used to work in purchasing for IBM, including spending three and a half years in Paris, was sitting on a bench in the high street watching the world go by, as he often does.
He remembered what the town was like before its high street became pedestrianised.
Mr Maidment, who has been a local since 1972, said: “It’s much better than it used to be, when the buses and traffic went through.
“This used to be the A3. It’s much better being a precinct. The pavements were quite narrow. It was a bit difficult walking through sometimes.”
The pensioner added that he was not aware of Waterlooville being described as Britain’s worst high street, and said: “I sit here most days… and talk to friends as they come by.
“As for shopping, I don’t do any of it so I wouldn’t know the state of the shops.”
He believes the description is a bit over the top. “It’s quite pleasant here,” Mr Maidment added.
“There are worse high streets than this. Have you been to Eastleigh?
“[Waterlooville is] generally quite a pleasant place to come and sit and have a coffee and whatever.”
But the resident, who usually walk around three miles a day, and gave up playing football when he reached the age of 60, is frustrated at locals not obeying the no cycling rule in the precinct, adding it is always adults violating the decree.
He described it as “dangerous”.
Geoff’s daughter, Susan Taylor, 52, a homemaker, said the high street is “improving dramatically”, as the council is “doing a lot of work”.
Waterlooville has become a ‘ghost town’ some of its residents said (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
A spokesperson for Havant Council told the Express: “Havant Borough Council has been working hard to regenerate Waterlooville town centre.
“[We have been] working closely with those who live, work and visit the area… to create a masterplan.
“We continue to work closely with residents, shoppers and businesses as we move forward with delivering the key elements of the masterplan.
“More recently we have installed an interactive historic arts trail through the town centre and public realm artwork.”
The council says it has been delivering the “quick wins” highlighted by its masterplan.
Officials sey these include “a successful Vacant Shop scheme, implementing a Pop Up Shop, setting up the Waterlooville Business Association, planning a number of events in the town centre and delivering a number of interventions to add colour and pride” to the town.
