«This place might look bad but it’s not»: Middlesbrough residents hold onto hope after week of violence
Nine people have died in events police link to organised crime in Grangetown and South Bank on Teesside. Residents speak of fear, deprivation and fading opportunities, but also of a community that refuses to be defined by violence.
Nine people have died in a series of events that police are linking to organised crime in an area of Teesside already shaped by deprivation and fading opportunities. Yet amid the fear and grief, residents of Grangetown and South Bank in Middlesbrough are insisting that their community should not be judged by the violence of the past week alone.
«This place might look bad but it’s not, the people are good people», one woman said, before turning to her young daughter and asking: «Is this place bad?» The girl shook her head vigorously. It is a difficult thing to say, the woman acknowledged, given the week’s events in the two neighbouring communities.
The deaths, which police are treating as linked to organised crime, have shaken a part of Teesside that has long struggled with economic decline. Grangetown and South Bank were once thriving centres of the steel and chemical industries that defined the region. Their closure and contraction over decades have left behind high unemployment, empty shop fronts and a sense among many residents that opportunities have passed them by.
Local people describe a week of fear, with police cordons, forensic teams and a heavy presence of officers on streets that are normally quiet. The incidents include a crash on the A66 and a house fire, both of which police are investigating as part of the same pattern of criminal violence. The scale of the loss — nine lives — has left the community in mourning and searching for answers.
Yet those who live here are pushing back against the narrative that their home is defined by what has happened. Community leaders, church groups and ordinary residents have spoken of a place where neighbours still look out for one another, where children play on the streets and where solidarity runs deep. «We are not blind to the problems, but we are also not blind to each other», one resident said.
The area’s history is one of resilience. Grangetown grew around the iron and steel works that once employed thousands, while South Bank was shaped by the shipyards and chemical plants along the River Tees. The industries brought workers from across Britain and Ireland, creating tight-knit communities built on shared labour and mutual support. That heritage, residents say, has not disappeared even as the factories have closed.
Local authorities and police have promised a thorough investigation and have appealed for calm. They have also acknowledged the wider context: poverty, lack of investment and the erosion of public services have made communities like Grangetown and South Bank vulnerable to criminal exploitation. Tackling the violence, they say, will require more than policing alone.
For now, the immediate task is mourning. Vigils have been held, flowers laid and tributes paid to those who died. But the woman with her daughter spoke for many when she insisted that the community’s character is not defined by the worst week in its recent memory. «Bad things happen everywhere», she said. «But here, people still care. That is what I want my daughter to know.»
