McDonald's (closed), Gosport - 1 January 2020

Former McDonald's, 57-59 High Street, Gosport.

It is nearly eight years since I started documenting the state of retail and commercial business in Gosport. I have visited High Street, Gosport from time to time, not always taking photographs and it has wearied me. Businesses there have not fared well.

This is representative of the uphill struggle faced by Gosport. The large McDonald's, of all businesses, closed in November 2018. One might imagine McDonald's to be nearly omnipresent but, inexplicably in my opinion, the company decided that the opening, also in November 2018, of their 24hr restaurant at Gosport's Brockhurst Gate Retail Park was sufficient reason to close the town centre location. I would argue that there is a clear case for both as there is some distance between the two, the closed restaurant in a pedestrian zone and the new site more easily accessed by car. The result is that Gosport's dreary High Street has to endure another stark facade for more than one year.

TZ70_P1010652CE