I had the displeasure of living in Gillingham for a few years around the time you filmed this. All I can say is i'm bloody glad I moved. The houses are nice , it's just the people in them . A rough town is an understatement.
I lived in Gillingham from 1986 when I was born for 10 years. I remember when Wilkinson’s was Co op! And Pavillion Hairdressers, Gateways and going through Iceland to the bridge across where the trains pass. Fads and Wimpy have been there forever! My biggest memories of the high street are the laundrette, Ward’s, the library and the video shop opposite the library, and Matthews Jewellers was owned by my step grandad 😁
You know a High St is bad when Cash Generator moves out, Barclays too. Gillingham used to have a half decent High, there was a Marks and Spencer up till 1990. Miss the Wimpy as well.
Reminds me of when I was visiting family in a small kent town and I heard yelling, me and my father turn around and there is a big burly bloke with an England shirt. He'd come out the betting shop, kicked the sign and it fell on it's side and then he stormed off lol and left it there. I love small town England!
Yay my home town Gillingham its changed a lot do buses still go through high street I lived there till 1972 came back 73 left to move to Wales 75 lovely memories I'm coming back to Gillingham just for a weekend can't wait to see my old street an see what's gone n what's new thanks for memory it's great
This video is almost 10 years old. I will do a retake to see what has changed in the last 10 years. Most of the major chain shops in Gillingham have gone. The high street is in a very poor state. The number of nasty little rubbish shops has increased. The high street now looks very neglected.
Awe thank you even though it may be not as I know it. its still home to me even after all these years. Would you know if there any good bed an breakfasts accommodation in or around High Street gonna have a weekend down there very soon thank you
@@benolifts just shows, people are only just coming across these videos, when you planning to upload the new video, and would it be in real life or just shown through Google Maps? (like with the Maidstone one)
I'm glad I live in a town that has a nice high street with independent shops and cafes apart from a Ladbrokes, a few banks and a McDonalds opening soon.
Home & Colonial was the second supermarket in Britain after Sainsbury's. They got bought up by Allied Distribution & got renamed Allied Supermarkets for a while, then got sold to Morrisons, who sold all the old Home & Colonials so they could build more big ugly hypermarkets. Just look at Acton. 12:27 | There is a restaurant in Twickenham called "The Eel Pie Shop" because it was originally famous for selling eel pie, a delicacy associated with Gravesend (they even named an island after it) but it NO LONGER SELLS EEL PIE BECAUSE ITS OUT OF FASHION. I Hate Fashion.
Hey Beno, could you make more It's Lift Tour Time video. Also, at my local shopping centre there is a quick lift with dewhurst buttons on the inside and express or Evans on outside. I can't tell if it's original or not.
haaaaaaaaq I used to live in Gillingham during the 80's...Most of these shops I have never seen before and by the looks of things will never get to see lol !! Loved this vid...absolute loved your "tour of Gillingham high street"...haaaaa loved your descriptions...bwhaaaaaaaa !!! Enjoyed ur close ups of the poor plights of the pidgeons.....😕😕😁😁 now we're at the end of the movie "here are some burbs I did..... (burbs....burbs)...." bwhaaaaaaaaaa 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 !!!!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
*I grew up in Gillingham in the late 60's, 70's and early 80's and it was a great place to live with a thriving High St. I had a Saturday job in that Intown Bakery but it was called Cooks Pantry back then. Joanna's was the nightclub at the bottom of Canterbury St, just up from Barclays. I remember when they ruined the High St by pedestrianising it. My Saturdays were The Classic cinema and Saturday morning picture club, with pick'n'mix from Woolworths. Then off to Barnaby recordings on the corner opposite the train station. I remember the long flight of stairs down to the platform that had a slight dip worn from all the thousands of feet over the years. That modern station looks bloody awful. I left Gillingham in 82/83 and it's sad to see what it has become today.*
I will make a 10 year anniversary to this video in June and see how much has changed. Gillingham has gone downhill badly in recent years. The new train station entrance is very faceless looking. The whole of Gillingham has got very faceless recently.
did you know that use to be a supermarket that had a lift to take you up to the car park at the back in the shop is walled up where the change rooms are you find it in the disused car park
My grandparents used to live here in the 60's & 70's, it wasn't up to much then, but now it looks just bloody awful and depressing from this footage. Thankful to have emigrated nearly 50 years ago.
good fun commentary!.....saw a lot of Gillingham high street in the late 60's..worked down strover street and dated a girl from Burn't oak terrace...that didn't end well ...it certainly hasn't improved.
OMG this place changed so much, used to live there five years ago.. now its all changed with the pawnbrokers etc...but happy to see Greggs, Tai Won Mein. SO many shops are closed..jezz
What no music/record store? We still have one. Also we still have at least one video rental store, we used to have 6 of them! I used to go to these types of stores very often when I was younger. We do have a lot of vacant stores these days.
It was actually quite nice in Gillingham high street during my growing up years as a teenager in the 70s. The street wasn't pedestrianised back then. I remember it was always quite a busy little place with lots and lots of shoppers. There were two record shops in Gillingham high street where I went on Saturdays to buy um,..records, or vinyl as you younger kids call them now. But ever since the high street got pedestrianised (was it the 80s?), then things went down hill very quickly. The place is now a shit hole.
I loved it when I was a kid living there it had great shops everyone was friendly and happy you had Blundells the toy shop activity’s for the kids during school holidays in the town centre or at the black lion or the strand but now it honestly looks so run down and delapalated I think Boris could just direct one of our nukes towards Gillingham and just put everyone out of there misery...... by the way you got a kind of Joe pasquelle vibe about ya and he live in Strood just up the road anyway great video it was nice to see my hometown again without going there lol....
@@Retrobeemer Joanna’s mate god damn you must be old lol you could at least called it the zone or something but yeah I do remember it next to the paper shop it was……
Lived in Medway areas 7 years and Gillingham would only look better if a hand grenade was thrown in the middle. The people, well, "I'll talk slowly as I know you can't think fast"!!! Just about sums it up.
Eel Pie Island is a really good cafe, good food, very clean, lovely staff and good prices. Must admit this 'video' made me laugh as the person who made it tried to make out they knew everything but knew very little and couldn't even pronounce Gilberthorpes (which is a good butchers) and also what is wrong with the Queens diamond jubilee? Yes Gillingham isn't a great high street but it is good for getting your basics or food shopping and if you want to go for a day shopping you have Hempstead Valley, Chatham and Maidstone and it isn't full of chavs and is clean x
We are Yanks who used to live in Gillingham...Tai Won Mein at 8:05 into the video was a great noodle shop to eat at...but bring your own take away container because they charge you 50p per container to take home the large quantity of noodles that you don't eat.
Medway has the cheapest houses in the southeast. I am stuck, the price of my house won't buy a house anywhere else. Once you live in Medway, it is very hard to move out.
@@benolifts Have you considered the North of England? l know houses are much cheaper in Newcastle and some other areas. Newcastle`s Tyne Bridge down by the quayside reminds me of the bridge in Cologne, Germany, near the Kolner Dom, ie cathedral. Also l heard Cambridgeshire and around there was cheaper too, and also Norwich and parts of Wales as well.
Did you know my mother in CHATHAM? Her name was...BRENDA THOMPSON. She lived at 3a MOUNT PLEASANT ( bumpy ) ROAD. You and mom, would gotten along..... JUST LIVLEY.....
+Shibehunter ZunKai Well I'm not going to eat at any of these cheap pizza places again. You just don't know what is in the pizzas. I'll stick to Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pappa Johns. What is worse than cheap pizza places is Doner Kebab takeaways. The reformed meat that goes into them is nasty. Cat food is better quality than Doner Kebabs!
I've just looked at this AGAIN 😂😂😂😂😂😂 at the end..."while I'm doing this, here's, some burbs I did"...proceeds to belch away!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂 (incidently I used to live there)...😃 it's totally changed from how I remember.....😐😐
Shame a lot of these places are closed now.. there were some good shops among them thk like Liddelows bakery and Gilberthorpes delicatessen selling freshly made bistro rolls, fresh carved ham on the bone... ril the feckong snowflakes came along of course
LOL..."The Claim Shop". As someone who will be practising law in a few years, I have to say that name is pretty bad. It gives the legal profession a bad name...
Mate same here, was born in Chatham and raised in Gillingham lived there 2 times until I was 11 before moving to Norfolk for 3 years before moving back and living there until I was 18 (I'm now 20) Although I moved 1 month before my 19th I hated Gillingham so much like my other comment, fist pumped I know longer live there hate it!
7:38 i helped a poor bloke who got beaten up the other week gave him tissue and a drink out of me own money and the only thing the police said was scurry along now
this place is good and he just takes the micky out of things he makes them look terrible and ive been here its better than a lot of other places plus its not a dump so shut up
I had the displeasure of living in Gillingham for a few years around the time you filmed this. All I can say is i'm bloody glad I moved. The houses are nice , it's just the people in them . A rough town is an understatement.
Alistair Marsh I used to live in gilligham
I lived in Gillingham from 1986 when I was born for 10 years. I remember when Wilkinson’s was Co op! And Pavillion Hairdressers, Gateways and going through Iceland to the bridge across where the trains pass. Fads and Wimpy have been there forever! My biggest memories of the high street are the laundrette, Ward’s, the library and the video shop opposite the library, and Matthews Jewellers was owned by my step grandad 😁
I remember the video shop opposite the library it then got turned into a sports shop owned by the boxer Garry Mason …….
This is where I grew up until I was 6
Good times... good times
You know a High St is bad when Cash Generator moves out, Barclays too. Gillingham used to have a half decent High, there was a Marks and Spencer up till 1990. Miss the Wimpy as well.
Reminds me of when I was visiting family in a small kent town and I heard yelling, me and my father turn around and there is a big burly bloke with an England shirt. He'd come out the betting shop, kicked the sign and it fell on it's side and then he stormed off lol and left it there. I love small town England!
Bird casually crapping on camera haha
Yay my home town Gillingham its changed a lot do buses still go through high street I lived there till 1972 came back 73 left to move to Wales 75 lovely memories I'm coming back to Gillingham just for a weekend can't wait to see my old street an see what's gone n what's new thanks for memory it's great
This video is almost 10 years old. I will do a retake to see what has changed in the last 10 years. Most of the major chain shops in Gillingham have gone. The high street is in a very poor state. The number of nasty little rubbish shops has increased. The high street now looks very neglected.
Awe thank you even though it may be not as I know it. its still home to me even after all these years. Would you know if there any good bed an breakfasts accommodation in or around High Street gonna have a weekend down there very soon thank you
@@benolifts just shows, people are only just coming across these videos, when you planning to upload the new video, and would it be in real life or just shown through Google Maps? (like with the Maidstone one)
I'm glad I live in a town that has a nice high street with independent shops and cafes apart from a Ladbrokes, a few banks and a McDonalds opening soon.
Uphoisting Experiences by Technicalboy3000 The one in my town opened and its horrid. The fries are like rocks...
Home & Colonial was the second supermarket in Britain after Sainsbury's. They got bought up by Allied Distribution & got renamed Allied Supermarkets for a while, then got sold to Morrisons, who sold all the old Home & Colonials so they could build more big ugly hypermarkets. Just look at Acton.
12:27 | There is a restaurant in Twickenham called "The Eel Pie Shop" because it was originally famous for selling eel pie, a delicacy associated with Gravesend (they even named an island after it) but it NO LONGER SELLS EEL PIE BECAUSE ITS OUT OF FASHION. I Hate Fashion.
Hey Beno, could you make more It's Lift Tour Time video.
Also, at my local shopping centre there is a quick lift with dewhurst buttons on the inside and express or Evans on outside. I can't tell if it's original or not.
haaaaaaaaq I used to live in Gillingham during the 80's...Most of these shops I have never seen before and by the looks of things will never get to see lol !! Loved this vid...absolute loved your "tour of Gillingham high street"...haaaaa loved your descriptions...bwhaaaaaaaa !!! Enjoyed ur close ups of the poor plights of the pidgeons.....😕😕😁😁 now we're at the end of the movie "here are some burbs I did..... (burbs....burbs)...." bwhaaaaaaaaaa 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 !!!!👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
The cafe called chef’s delight is still there in the same spot with the same sign still serving amazing food
Hey Ben, great work! Love it.. Amber x
*I grew up in Gillingham in the late 60's, 70's and early 80's and it was a great place to live with a thriving High St. I had a Saturday job in that Intown Bakery but it was called Cooks Pantry back then. Joanna's was the nightclub at the bottom of Canterbury St, just up from Barclays. I remember when they ruined the High St by pedestrianising it. My Saturdays were The Classic cinema and Saturday morning picture club, with pick'n'mix from Woolworths. Then off to Barnaby recordings on the corner opposite the train station. I remember the long flight of stairs down to the platform that had a slight dip worn from all the thousands of feet over the years. That modern station looks bloody awful. I left Gillingham in 82/83 and it's sad to see what it has become today.*
I will make a 10 year anniversary to this video in June and see how much has changed. Gillingham has gone downhill badly in recent years. The new train station entrance is very faceless looking. The whole of Gillingham has got very faceless recently.
Great tour Ben. Bank hols are good for clearing out the crowds so you can film.
Thanks for uploading you are legend
I still live in Gillingham this day not everyone is scruffy some are done up nice would love to move but can't afford it
did you know that use to be a supermarket that had a lift to take you up to the car park at the back in the shop is walled up where the change rooms are you find it in the disused car park
I remember going Gillingham with my nan every month back in the mid to late 2000s, we stopped after about 2012, it got shit after a while.
my 99p store has been converted into poundland but it still has the woolworths feel
Choice bet is actu'ly called choices video rental but someone has removed the s and kept the old sign
My grandparents used to live here in the 60's & 70's, it wasn't up to much then, but now it looks just bloody awful and depressing from this footage. Thankful to have emigrated nearly 50 years ago.
good fun commentary!.....saw a lot of Gillingham high street in the late 60's..worked down strover street and dated a girl from Burn't oak terrace...that didn't end well ...it certainly hasn't improved.
OMG this place changed so much, used to live there five years ago.. now its all changed with the pawnbrokers etc...but happy to see Greggs, Tai Won Mein. SO many shops are closed..jezz
What no music/record store? We still have one. Also we still have at least one video rental store, we used to have 6 of them! I used to go to these types of stores very often when I was younger. We do have a lot of vacant stores these days.
gregs has a archrivel & its Cooplands there used to be 1 near my cousin but they moved as coplands moved in lol
Your right about shops closing after a small period of time, most of the shops shown in this video don't even exist anymore! :P
nice video ben! remember to do the maidstone one!
It was actually quite nice in Gillingham high street during my growing up years as a teenager in the 70s. The street wasn't pedestrianised back then. I remember it was always quite a busy little place with lots and lots of shoppers. There were two record shops in Gillingham high street where I went on Saturdays to buy um,..records, or vinyl as you younger kids call them now. But ever since the high street got pedestrianised (was it the 80s?), then things went down hill very quickly. The place is now a shit hole.
Barnaby Recordings.
I loved it when I was a kid living there it had great shops everyone was friendly and happy you had Blundells the toy shop activity’s for the kids during school holidays in the town centre or at the black lion or the strand but now it honestly looks so run down and delapalated I think Boris could just direct one of our nukes towards Gillingham and just put everyone out of there misery...... by the way you got a kind of Joe pasquelle vibe about ya and he live in Strood just up the road anyway great video it was nice to see my hometown again without going there lol....
Remember Bakers model shop just down from Joannas.
@@Retrobeemer Joanna’s mate god damn you must be old lol you could at least called it the zone or something but yeah I do remember it next to the paper shop it was……
does anybody know who this is?
In what way are the staff unfriendly at the bike shop?
I never felt welcomed in that bike shop. Surprised it's still going.
Lived in Medway areas 7 years and Gillingham would only look better if a hand grenade was thrown in the middle. The people, well, "I'll talk slowly as I know you can't think fast"!!! Just about sums it up.
Eel Pie Island is a really good cafe, good food, very clean, lovely staff and good prices. Must admit this 'video' made me laugh as the person who made it tried to make out they knew everything but knew very little and couldn't even pronounce Gilberthorpes (which is a good butchers) and also what is wrong with the Queens diamond jubilee? Yes Gillingham isn't a great high street but it is good for getting your basics or food shopping and if you want to go for a day shopping you have Hempstead Valley, Chatham and Maidstone and it isn't full of chavs and is clean x
Someone sounds very defensive.
its run down, low brow, unimaginative, filthy, neglected, and overrun with shops that attract the lowest rungs of society.
The royals should be hung from convenient lamp posts.
We are Yanks who used to live in Gillingham...Tai Won Mein at 8:05 into the video was a great noodle shop to eat at...but bring your own take away container because they charge you 50p per container to take home the large quantity of noodles that you don't eat.
hunterdon they had them even before yanks had them you prat have yanks got bathrooms yet?
I have no idea how Tai Won Mein stays open. Only been there once, there were no other customers AT ALL. Felt self conscious. Never been back!
Medway?
Yes Medway is in Gillingham United Kingdom 👍
😎
The co-op in the shopping Centere closed down because it catched fire
Take a shot everytime Beno comes across a CASH FOR GOLD shop!
Includes: Cash Generator as it is CFG too!
11:18 Pigeon poos
Me: He ate too much
I use that bank but it is NOT my local branch because I live somewhere else 14:45
4:14 that’s now a Costa coffee
gillingham kent or dorset?
Andrea 1:17
11:15 sums up Gillingham very well
Have you thought of moving somewhere nicer ??? l was thinking of moving here but your video saved me a lot of travel time and money so Thanks !
Medway has the cheapest houses in the southeast. I am stuck, the price of my house won't buy a house anywhere else. Once you live in Medway, it is very hard to move out.
@@benolifts Have you considered the North of England? l know houses are much cheaper in Newcastle and some other areas. Newcastle`s Tyne Bridge down by the quayside reminds me of the bridge in Cologne, Germany, near the Kolner Dom, ie cathedral. Also l heard Cambridgeshire and around there was cheaper too, and also Norwich and parts of Wales as well.
Your voice seems to mess up when you say "news"
NEWS!!!!!!!!
Did you know my mother in CHATHAM? Her name was...BRENDA THOMPSON. She lived at 3a MOUNT PLEASANT ( bumpy ) ROAD. You and mom, would gotten along..... JUST LIVLEY.....
+Shibehunter ZunKai Well I'm not going to eat at any of these cheap pizza places again. You just don't know what is in the pizzas. I'll stick to Pizza Hut, Dominos and Pappa Johns.
What is worse than cheap pizza places is Doner Kebab takeaways. The reformed meat that goes into them is nasty. Cat food is better quality than Doner Kebabs!
do a house tour please please please beno!
I don't like pizzas
I want to come with you when you go to doncaster
Beno ewww
Beno when I see a gambling shop I kick the gambling shops window
I feel i went on some kinda tour, hope it didn't cost me Much lol
Oh dear. If I hadn't been to Gillingham before, I might not want to go there now. Fortunately I kinow better.
Daniel Roy I live there...
hey beno go to ulswater street in Liverpool plz
I finally found my hometown on yet woooooo
12:35 *Bill Stickers will be prosecuted* "Who ever he is" Haha lol :P
4:21 cute fluffed up pigeon
I've just looked at this AGAIN 😂😂😂😂😂😂 at the end..."while I'm doing this, here's, some burbs I did"...proceeds to belch away!!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂😂 (incidently I used to live there)...😃 it's totally changed from how I remember.....😐😐
Shame a lot of these places are closed now.. there were some good shops among them thk like Liddelows bakery and Gilberthorpes delicatessen selling freshly made bistro rolls, fresh carved ham on the bone... ril the feckong snowflakes came along of course
Where’s all the people
I Miss Woolworths
Me too, I used to steal from there.
It’s not just that wimpy it’s all of them!
11:18 Lol the bird has a shit 😅
Gillingham High Street with Keira, Swan and Margarete
LOL..."The Claim Shop". As someone who will be practising law in a few years, I have to say that name is pretty bad. It gives the legal profession a bad name...
and i agree with mcdonalds because when everywhere else is shut, they're always open!
02:39 I would NEVER eat pizza at that place
I see not much has changed since the 90s still a dump and i can say that because i grew up there
Mate same here, was born in Chatham and raised in Gillingham lived there 2 times until I was 11 before moving to Norfolk for 3 years before moving back and living there until I was 18 (I'm now 20) Although I moved 1 month before my 19th I hated Gillingham so much like my other comment, fist pumped I know longer live there hate it!
I'm eat pizza hut dominos and also pappa johns in marikina
the chinese tai won mein is actually really nice and clean, Real nice chinese food
hey be no don't come to Liverpool the lifts are cheap (Otis gen 2)
I'm annoyed of them I like oronas beter pleas respond
plz
I went to Liverpool a few weeks ago
you did cool
i didn't see you :)
:)
7:38 i helped a poor bloke who got beaten up the other week gave him tissue and a drink out of me own money and the only thing the police said was scurry along now
June 8 was when I ██████ into existence. It's also when this video was uploaded.
specsavers in the uk? Lol
who are u
I don't think you understand the works has books for children.
WTF is an "Off License"?
EDIT: Google tells me its a place to buy booze. Makes sense to see so many given all the other crap in the area :)
Did He said peacocks
I live in twydall
Pizza hut donimos pizza papa johns
🍕🍱🍗🍟
I live in they'd all
Cash for gold shops are good actually because they sell outdated stuff
Tai won mein is EPIC
11:16 HaHaHa ;D
Urgh the div's place Southern Belle pub
its like maidstone lots of chavs about and your views are the same as mine... too many pawnbrokers, too many betting shops, too many banks!
and tell me when your coming
ok
Coming where?
Pizza Plus is closed
+ElevatorsInScotland Wow. I didn't know that.
If u think this is bad u should see Rotherham
good I saw them at at the Skegness
i thought kent was a wealthy area
Most parts are in kent. Medway is not one of them haha
Naa gillingham is poor af
Every county has areas like this
co-op pharmacy !!!!
Yay I'm 30000 sub
this kid is jokes
15:21 Replaced into the stupid generic!!!!
this place is good and he just takes the micky out of things he makes them look terrible and ive been here its better than a lot of other places plus its not a dump so shut up
why am I watching this shit?
'you're borvingggg'
Gillingham is a bit of a hole isn't it
;D
pigeons 😀
Chavam hahahahah😹😹😹😹😹
I bet Oasis Cafe has a 0 hygiene rating
GonzYeahGonzo Most of the cafes and pizza places look poor for food hygiene, plus most of them bulk out their food with starch.
At least TGF Pizza has a 3 rating. It scores a 5 (good) for hygiene, a 10 (fair) for the structure and a 10 (some) for hygiene management.
full of homeless people now bro
why do you waste your time