Steve Bough is a Falmouth University lecturer who moved from Newquay to Luton for University back in the 90’s. He had described his living experience as “a world of different” in comparison to how he grew up by the beach, where he could look out the window and decide to go surfing. “It was a real shock, growing up in Cornwall with all the greens, blues, the sea and the open space to concrete. Whenever I go to cities like London, I just think, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of concrete.’” Steve grew up overlooking Crantock Beach, located in Newquay. He then decided to move away for university, in hopes of experiencing something new.
Walking through Falmouth University, by Angelina Ortega.
“But I wanted that, I wanted that change. I had not really had city life.” Despite sharing anecdotes on how he used to live next to a safehouse housing ex-prisoners, he describes his time positively. “I had an absolute blast and I miss it fondly.” Steve took a Media degree at the Bedfordshire Polytechnic University. He spoke highly of his course, which was his gateway into Journalism. It was what familiarised him with other areas like radio and film, which he was interested in as he liked film and editing. He has now become an external examiner for the University of Bedfordshire. “It’s quite ironic that I’ve gone 30 years on, teaching. I now oversee their Journalism programme as an external examiner.”
We discussed his social experience during his time studying. “I used to get hammered a lot for different things. This was back in the days of raving so I used to go to raves a lot. I lived in a house with somebody who was a DJ, so he got me into it and we would do it together.” He then shared how they would go into London and attend numerous parties. I asked him about the differences in prices when he did all the travelling. “We used to jump the tube; this was 30 years ago when the world was totally different and you could get away with it.” On top of the late partying and socialising, he was still attending lectures. “I’d probably turn up to lectures half-cut, or with no sleep, or sometimes you just wouldn’t see me.” After partying all night, Steve would sometimes stay up and have a cooked breakfast at the Arndale Centre, now commonly known as Luton Mall. He shared that he would sometimes turn up to the lecture ‘bombed’, or not turn up at all. “I see it here when I sometimes see people turn up and it’ll be like ‘it’s okay, I’ve been there!’”
Steve lived in the centre of Luton; he lived near an area called ‘Wardown Crescent’, a large park area just outside of the town centre. “I didn’t really like Luton. I thought Luton was quite rough, but there was a roughness that I quite liked about it. There’s a place here called Cambourne, and Cambourne’s really rough. There’s lots of teenage pregnancies, poverty, homelessness, drug abuse. It’s bleak, but I quite like it because it’s earthy, it’s Cornish, it’s true. There’s a rawness about it which I really like.” He continued to share the hardships of living in Luton, revealing that he had been mugged and someone had threatened to beat him up. “I had my Sony Walkman on and this guy came up to me and said, “Gimme your fucking walkman!” And I just went ‘no’. This was in the middle of town in the afternoon and then he just walked off. One time, I was on the phone and these three lads wanted to beat me up for being on the phone until I apologised. They were pissed; pissed and nasty. It was around 11 o’clock, I was talking to my girlfriend and they were like, “What the fuck are you doing?” I’ve still got those memories of them and they said, “You got to apologise!” I hadn’t done anything, I was only on the phone, but I apologised to them because they would beat the shit out of me and I didn’t want that to happen at all.”
In 2021, it was published that white people make up around 98% of Cornwall’s population in comparison to Luton, which had a 54.8% population identifying as non-white. I asked Steve about the cultural differences he experienced living in Luton. “Oh, it was brilliant. Going to Luton was completely different and I had friends from every walk of life; I get on well with people so I’d just talk to anyone. I had loads of friends: boys, girls, people from different countries. It was really multi-cultural, things I didn’t experience in Cornwall, so it was brilliant.” He covered how blatant racism and homophobia was during this time period and that this outlook had then changed significantly over the last 20 years. “It’s much more inclusive now. People said nasty things on television, racist things, homophobic things. But it seemed the way of the world because people liked that, so the world is a better place now. The university of today is a much better place for inclusivity and hopefully student life.”
Steve became very close with many people when he made the move from Newquay to Luton, sharing that some of them had even attended his wedding. “As soon as I got to University, I had loads more friends. It was lovely, they used to come to Cornwall and we would have a party. I used to take them surfing, take them to the beach. It was a different side of things, the social side was brilliant. I think Luton really opened up a world of dance music and possibility. There was more opportunity for me in Luton because it was so close to London, more than there was in Cornwall and that’s the reason I left. I think Luton, because of that media course, then opened up the world of Journalism to me. I’ve had an amazing time, I’ve done lots of amazing things and met amazing people. Luton was hanging out with a lot of people like me, and I liked that.”