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Photos of Salford taken 14 years apart go viral as people can’t believe how different it looks

By Tom Evans on 29th March 2022 in News

Two photos taken in Middlewood Locks have gone viral this week with people shocked at the changes over the past decade.

The photos, taken 14 years apart, show the gentrification and renovation that Salford Quays has undergone.

The tweet has received 37,000 likes and had 2702 retweets. There has been a lot of praise for the change in Salford’s scenery, but also a great deal of criticism.

Twitter user @steviebw wrote: “Looks great, hope it’s the same in 20 yrs”.

Another user @mekonmcfc said: “To be fair the middlewood locks development is pretty smart”.

However, not everyone is best pleased by the changes. Many people believe that the rise in suburban buildings in the area has been a detriment to the people of Salford.

Salford 2022 vs 2008, incredible pic.twitter.com/SY9IPnJYYg

— Harry Gray (@HarryHamishGray) March 24, 2022

Complaints have included suggestions that people who grew up in Salford can’t afford to live in these modern style apartment blocks and that it’s unfair on people who have spent their whole lives in the area.

Jen Holt on twitter wrote: “I’m from the Salford on the right. I’ve just moved back to a neighbourhood just outside Salford because us locals have been priced out of the Salford on the left”.

Another user, Anthony Williams said: “These type of buildings are popping up in every nook and cranny of every already, overpopulated concrete Jungles”.

The main problem seems to be the lack of green space that the renovation has left in the area.”One a barren urban landscape, the other with space and wildlife” one person complained. Another writing “New housing needs to be built but eliminating Green Space is highly debatable”.

The road shown in the photos was once the setting of a 2009 Ian Brown music video, “Stellify”.

From the music video you can see that, as much as the area had not become a suburban landscape at the time. Calling it a greenspace seems to be quite generous and the space wasn’t being used for anything.