It was actually quite sad.
The railway station had been moved back from the front and the original building was a mess, being converted to a mall of some description. The wonderful art deco Midland hotel was crumbling and their equivalent of the winter gardens/tower ballroom was all boarded up and quite desolate. I don't remember if there was tumbleweed but it wouldn't have surprised me.
Strangely, there was a feeling about those buildings, like they had a memory of their own. Totally ridiculous, I know, but you could just sense, you could feel, what it would have been like in its heyday. A wierd sensation altogether.
Nurse, nurse, where's my tablets.