Editing Hartlepool (section)

===Postwar period===
[[File:Admiralty Chart No 1628 Hartlepool Bay, Published 1962.jpg|thumb|left|1962 chart of Hartlepool and the Bay, showing the infrastructure before the closure of the steel works and the filling-in of several of the docks]]
[[File:OSM Hartlepool.png|thumb|2021 Map of Hartlepool]]
After the war, industry went into a severe decline. ''Blanchland'', the last ship to be constructed in Hartlepool, left the slips in 1961. In 1967, Betty James wrote how "if I had the luck to live anywhere in the North East [of England]...I would live near Hartlepool. If I had the luck".<ref name="Northumberland p95">A kingdom by the sea : an exploration of Northumberland, Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire James, Betty. p95</ref> There was a boost to the retail sector in 1970 when [[Middleton Grange Shopping Centre]] was opened by [[Anne, Princess Royal|Princess Anne]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hotel-on-sale-to-test-the-market-1-4502108|title=Hotel on sale to 'test the market'|website=hartlepoolmail.co.uk|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528012216/http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/local/hotel-on-sale-to-test-the-market-1-4502108|archive-date=28 May 2015}}</ref> with over 130 new shops including [[Marks & Spencer]] and [[Woolworths Group plc|Woolworths]].

Before the shopping centre was opened, the old town centre was located around Lynn Street, but most of the shops and the market had moved to a new shopping centre by 1974. Most of Lynn Street had by then been demolished to make way for a new housing estate. Only the north end of the street remains, now called Lynn Street North. This is where the Hartlepool Borough Council depot was based (alongside the Focus DIY store) until it moved to the marina in August 2006.

In 1977, the [[British Steel Corporation]] closed its Hartlepool steelworks, with the loss of 1500 jobs.<ref>The Times 13 December 1977 p23</ref> In the 1980s, the area was afflicted with extremely high levels of unemployment, at its peak consisting of 30 per cent of the town's working-age population, the highest in the United Kingdom.<ref name="The Times Saturday pg. 1">Hartlepool to lose 630 steel jobs (News) The Times Saturday, 15 January 1983; pg. 1; Issue 61431; col C</ref> 630 jobs at British Steel were lost in 1983, and a total of 10,000 jobs were lost from the town in the economic de-industrialization of England's former Northern manufacturing heartlands.<ref name="The Times Saturday pg. 1" /><ref>The Independent (London) 23 February 1992, Sunday Britain 1992 / The view from here: Hatchet job only half the story; Peter Mandelson, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Hartlepool, defends the town's image</ref> Between 1983 and 1999, the town lacked a cinema and areas of it became afflicted with the societal hallmarks of endemic economic poverty: [[urban decay]], high crime levels, [[narcotics|drug]] and alcohol dependency being prevalent.<ref name="Independent 1992-02-23" />

Docks near the centre were redeveloped and reopened by [[Queen Elizabeth II]] in 1993 as a marina.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/duke-edinburgh-hartlepool-lookback-visits-20354783.amp|title=Duke of Edinburgh in Hartlepool - a lookback at his visits to the town|date=9 April 2021 |access-date=8 July 2022}}</ref> The accompanying [[National Museum of the Royal Navy, Hartlepool|National Museum of the Royal Navy]] opened in 1994, then known as the Hartlepool Historic Quay.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/15-pictures-of-historic-quay-fun-1886266?amp|title=From belly dancing to royal visits: 15 pictures of Hartlepool's Historic Quay and HMS Trincomalee|date=23 February 2020 |access-date=8 July 2022}}</ref>

A development corporation is under consultation until August 2022 to organise projects, with the [[Government spending in the United Kingdom|town's fund]] given to the town and other funds. Plans would be (if the corporation is formed) focused on the railway station, waterfront (including the Royal Navy Museum and a new leisure centre)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/plans-multi-million-pound-leisure-24583884.amp|title=Plans for multi-million pound leisure centre look set to be approved|date=25 July 2022 |access-date=25 July 2022}}</ref> and [[A178 road|Church Street]]. Northern School of Art also has funds for a TV and film studios.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://planetradio.co.uk/tfm/local/news/ben-houchen-reveals-new-plan-to-transform-centre-of-hartlepool/|title=Ben Houchen reveals new plan to transform centre of Hartlepool|access-date=8 July 2022}}</ref>

On 2 August 2024 [[Far-right politics in the United Kingdom|far-right]] activists and others [[2024 United Kingdom riots|attacked]] police, threw stones at a mosque and looted shops after anti-immigrant misinformation was spread on social media.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/czx66dkx3wlo Protests reveal deep-rooted anger, but UK is not at boiling point] BBC News, Mark Easton, 5 August 2024</ref>