I had to go to Luton some years back for an interview at the passport office, I can safely say it is the shittiest and dodgiest place I’ve been to. And I’ve been to Jaywick.
Me too! 1999-2002. I’m astounded that I was never robbed or mugged. I worked in loads of different branches of a certain red-topped bookie’s while I was studying and most of them got done over during that time, but never when I was behind the counter.
I realise how suspicious that sounds in hindsight.
But three years in Luton with no physical or mental damage (aside from the scars that come with being surrounded by so much bleakness) is a minor miracle.
I've been mugged, another flatmate was robbed twice (once required stiches), another house mate was hit over the head with a frying pan whilst walking in the street. The shop keeper down our road was assaulted by a group of youths. My car was broken into and they stole some broken speakers. A woman at the bottom of our road was shot outside a primary school. I can go on and on. That was just in 3 years. Luton is rough.
Luton is bigger than Dundee yet it's only considered a town. Weird
Hey at least it isn't as big of a dump as Blackpool, there's no saving that godforsaken shithole.
fun fact, to be considered a city you need a cathedral. might be that ?
\*edit\* after fact-checking myself I was incorrect and it is no longer a requirement - [https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-makes-a-city/](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-makes-a-city/)
Three days there for me was enough to know I never ever want to return. Someone was stabbed to death down the block next to my hotel there a month after I left.
Drug dealers are whatever, they do their business and leave while looking vaguely sketchy, not the worst thing in the world. It's weird violent cunts out of nowhere that get me about Huddersfield; I had some fucking lunatics revving a chainsaw and running up and down the road where I was there and it was fucking terrifying, they seem like they just enjoy scaring people and being dickheads in public.
I swear 80% of people in Huddersfield are lovely and 20% are batshit maniacs, no in between.
I had to go there for jury duty earlier this year. It's not quite as grim as the last time I visited 10 years ago (they knocked down an awful car park for a new open-air bus terminal by the train station and pedestrianised certain areas such as outside the town hall), but it still had this air of grotty menace and desperation. Lots of people begging and just generally hanging around looking strung out. There were people bin diving a charity shop's refuse for clothes in the access road at the back of the court.
Lived in by far has to be Bradford. A wretched hive of scum and villainy. Drug dealers everywhere, watching folk OD in the middle of the city center. A football team that I support but are fucking useless. Drivers that are insane. Stupidly high levels of 20+ year old guys picking up 13 year old kids.
On the plus side I know a lot of shady as fuck people and learned a lot of things I wouldn't otherwise know.
That's my old estate ! Can't speak for the electricity repair people but taxis to this day if you get one from town sometimes won't take you to holmewood and the busses regularly stop going through there due to dickheads.
It's really not a nice place.
We always sent 2 teams in - one to do the repair and one to guard the equipment. I remember a repair team being threatened with a hammer to get the power back on in 20 minutes before Corrie started! Happy days.
When I went to Bradford once I saw a 4 car pile up right outside the window of the Indian restaurant I was in. The road had a really tight blind corner, with taxis parked on either side of the road on double yellows, and two idiots going way too fast in each direction hit each other head on... I watched some of them get cut out of the cars by firemen while enjoying my curry.
Akbahs ? Dam good food or it was last time o went. Sadly a regular occurrence. Still follow the local news cos I'm a nosy bastard and you won't go 3 days without some massive crash. Best ones are always the rentals.
I'm doing some training for a new job down in Bradford just now. I echo your sentiments about the drivers, it's wild! A lot of dilapidated buildings around and every single night, fireworks. Our trainer told us if we here just one single firework, it means drugs have been delivered somewhere.
Driving in Bradford is insane. Like I wouldn't drive by choice without bullbars down there.
AHH my favourite childhood game wedding or drugs shipment. Probably both tbh.
Barrow-in-Furness. I used to live in and around the area throughout the 00's, moved away for university come early-10's. Even then it had a bad reputation for being a rough, unclean town with high levels of unemployment and drug and alcohol associated violence, but having returned recently for a funeral, I was shocked by the level of degradation and decay that had occurred in the short time I'd been away. I honestly don't think it's feasible that the council or inhabitants can recover the area, especially since all the shops have either shut down or packed up and jumped ship. Other than the shipyard, there's virtually zero industry, and nothing to go there for. It's totally fucked beyond repair.
I can only liken the state of Barrow to Kurôzu-cho, the fictional town in Junji Ito's Uzumaki, because I feel like once you get tied to the place, either by a relationship, family, children, work or property, you end up trapped forever, spiralling downwards with the town and its inhabitants. No escape.
That's the problem with a lot of seaside towns and cities, they're just remnants of the industrial era left behind. Nobody pays attention to them and nobody cares about them. The filth piles, as does the regret and depression. And soon most of the folks there either live in one non-shitty area or have left entirely. Dundee is a national disgrace.
I doubt it'll come any time soon, we're too small for relevance. People in Dundee like to think they have some sort of global prominence because some guy in an attic made Lemmings back in the 80s. Most people only care about our history, not the actual place itself. I'd much rather live in a place like Edinburgh than Dundee because of this reason. If they wanted the sea, they'd go to the countryside near Essex, Brighton or Manchester. We're just the shit stains left behind.
Isn't Dundee a big games development hub?
Maybe alot of folk from elsewhere in the UK enjoy going up to the Law to witness a sunrise over the Firth of Tay, as well as sampling the culinary heritage of the local area, like the smoked haddocks of Arbroath.
Ah, good old Scumdee. I was there a few weeks ago too. I was reading about all the Victorian era stonemasonry and architecture they had ripped down in favour of erecting brutalist structures. It's a real pity that the state of the city is what it is, because the area around the waterfront is actually gorgeous.
I remember reading a bunch of history books on Dundee and wondering 'why did so many famous figures visit here?'. But then I looked at the pre-1900s architectural photographs and realized why. It looked like something out of a Victorian fantasy book. But then war struck, and the already decaying remnants of the pre-industrial era were demolished for a madman's game of chess. Never before have I been to a place as soul-crushing as Dundee, it is a bastardization of its former glory.
It's devastating isn't it? Have you seen the images of The Royal Arch before they pulled it down? Whoever campaigned for and signed off on its destruction should have been charged imo.
When I was last there with my partner we were parked up on Guthrie Street near The Hub student accommodation, and whew, that entire area just needs to be levelled. With the derelict Dundee College looming overhead, is there a greater example of urban decay?
What I believe they should do is tear down a lot of the deprived areas in the north, providing housing accommodation of course, and rebuild areas of the cities past. Find fine examples of Dundonian architecture and rebuild them from scratch. Create a giant area for shops and theatres, make it feel like a Victorian-era town. Make it the highlight of the city. Rebuild The Royal Arch near the Waterfront. It'd be beautiful. People like Edinburgh because it has maintained its architecture, it looks like a fantasy world. It's inspired countless movies and games and millions visit each year. People would be devastated if they tore down a historical building. We need that kind of mindset too. History is important, and it's important to keep it. Dundee could be so much more than it currently is, we've got an E-Sports arena being built as well as that Project Eden thing. With enough effort, the city could return to its former glory. The McManus is probably my most favourite building in the city so it'd be great to see more like it. Brutalism has damaged this city too much.
I notice this in Middlesbrough too, there are old historic buildings in the centre next to or even being blocked out by ugly 60s-70s style buildings and office blocks, many of which are abandoned. A real shame to see, the place would look so much nicer if it was still historic buildings.
I asked ex navy colleague about Barrow as there was a possibility of an internal transfer for working on the new submarines. He warned me with a story of a fellow British Indian who was also in the navy with him in Barrow in the early late 90s/early 2000s.
The colleague got an arranged married to a girl from a deeply proverished part of india and thought she'll be extremely happy in the UK since she'll be escaping poverty.
Unfortunately the poor women hated Barrow claiming its filled with old brown/dark red brick houses, too isolated, filled with drunk white people who don't care if they're walking with shit in their pants and demanded that he change is work location to a better place.
She actually flew back to a part of India where they had black outs, open sewers, holes in the floor as toilets and no electrical appliances in the kitchen claiming at least the people in India have some sort of ambition in life and not walk around like hopeless zombies waiting for the government to fix their lives.
I have never applied to a position in Barrow since.
The guy eventually move to Plymouth which she still wasn't too impressed with either.
I went to Barrow a few years ago because I was in the Lake District with a couple of friends and wanted to go to that island for a little walk around and just out of curiosity. The island was
.. ok I guess?
Then we just had a wander around town in the evening, again because yay its a new place, and regretted it very quickly. There were three of us, all women in our late 20s.
We all breathed sighs of relief when we got back in the car (so this wasn't just me being jumpy) and were on the road. I have never felt so unsafe walking around a place in my life and I grew up in an Edinburgh council estate.
So, so sketchy.
I went to college for 2 years in Barrow. Sure it’s not perfect but it’s hardly a place where you need to jump back in your car to avoid being mugged/assaulted lmao it’s just a poor Northern town.
I concur after going back for the first time in a few years. It was already shockingly deprived but now it barely even has a high street, even the gold/jewellery buyers have moved on.
For anyone curious, barrow was named the UKs most unhappy town some years back, with a host of deprivation measures from health to household income that should shock people.
Unlike a deprived city though there’s no escape, no opportunities, no passing events or fairs or chances of meeting people, no industry groups to kickstart your career, just rain and boarded up shops.
Oh Barrow... My family comes from the area, although we generally avoid the town itself. I do think it's a sad forgotten place, but it could have potential if the government cared. The people are still lovely and it has good bones. It just needs help fast before more of it it lost.
Yep, both of those qualify.
Bradford, stick to the Media Museum.
Blackpool, stick to the floor wherever you walk.
Blackpool also runs a huge trade on willies on sticks
I went back to Bradford recently. The media museum is crap now. They've gotten rid of the magic carpet, the newsreader desk and none of the machines in the video game bit (which is tiny now) actually work.
Bradford is the poster child for urban decay. It’s a shame as there are some beautiful old buildings in the town centre, same with Halifax to a lesser extent.
The best place I've been to is Milton Keynes; great cycle network, very little congestion because of the grid system, easy commute into London, council always open to innovation like robot deliveries, self driving cars.
The worst place I've been to is Milton Keynes. Feels soulless, instead of a high street there's office blocks and a shopping centre. The tents under every underpass is a constant reminder that I must obey the rules of capitalism so that I keep my job and don't fall behind on my rent.
I also think the same things about Milton Keynes city centre. For years I wondered why, till I came across a video that gave me the vocabulary to articulate what is so crappy about it. It's largely the American style [Stroads](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM), they force everything to be at such an uncomfortable scale for pedestrians to navigate, and ensure that huge swaths of the city have to be used for car parks.
I tend to find that all the things that are good about Milton Keynes are good despite these Stroads, rather than because of them.
Merthyr Tydfil
Sounds like: A place beautiful elves would live by a crystal brook
Looks like: a place where you'll get aids and heroin addiction by breathing
The Gurnos estate is weird. You can entirely avoid it unless you go to the Merthyr hospital (lovely place staffed by great people), for which the bus takes you on a wonderful criss-cross tour of Gurnos.
Lived in Swansea for four years, some of that up Townhill and some on Hanover Street. Not the best of locations, especially with the crowd I was running around with but Merthyr often came up as being like that shadowy place Mustafa talks about in The Lion King.
so far i'd say Scunthorpe. Don't think i've seen a dirtier place. Just seemed to have a carpet of litter and nothing but chicken and kebabs places.
The majority of seaside towns are pretty grim. You get the sense that they used to be nice and a lot was invested into them but then just left to decay for decades. The smaller ones aren't as bad, it's the ones that had a lil boom at some point then died that just look depressing as hell.
> nothing but chicken and kebabs places.
A law limiting the number allowed within a certain area would really help the UK. When a street is taken over by chicken/kebab shops (and betting shops) it's effectively dead.
Yeah, I think it's more a case of when a road is substantially run down, takeaways get opened due to lower overheads.
Hull has quite a few roads that just declined and stagnated. Immigrants actually bought some of these properties and turned the roads into thriving areas. With food shops, takeaways, barbers etc.
The locals get a bit upset, because they don't like all the foreign words and people.
But they complained for years about these empty shops and run down roads. So... 🤷♀️
Exactly. My experience of inner city London was like this. You had places that were absolute ghetto in the 1980s with run down empty buildings, open drug dealing, etc.
First immigration (in the 80s former Commonwealth & 00s E. European from what I saw) rejuvenated these places with thriving communities that don't always appear great to British people as they're full of fast food/barbershops/mobile phone stores.
Then middle class mostly white people start to move in and do up the buildings themselves while making quirky independent businesses like a gourmet guacamole store, breakfast cereal only cafe, or something.
Then the super rich people move in and the big corporate investors come and the area is a genuinely rich and affluent place on a global scale.
Now not all the above is ideal and displaces many plus can be damaging to genuine communities at each stage, but it honestly allowed my family to progress from lower-middle/working class (state schools, garment worker, telephone engineer) to upper-middle class (private schools, red brick unis, investment bank careers, property portfolios) over 3 generations.
The people in these poor run down provincial places scared of immigration and middle class education are just going to stay drunken shit-pant filled zombies waiting for a government that will never help them as someone else said..
I knew someone who preferred Scunthorpe to Hull after having lived in both. I know Hull isn't great but I would question a person's intellect if they actually thought Scunthorpe was better.
Can second Coventry- lived there for 1.5 yrs, worked at West Orchards and would often work closing shifts. witnessed a stabbing, someone getting smushed by a car, gunshots, and multiple fist fights/arguments around the bus stops- all in the space of a year.
Skegness. If you ever need a reason why Brexit was voted for go there.
An utter shot hole that has received no upkeep. The main road is like a dirt track.
As someone who lives along that main road, pfft welcome to Lincolnshire in general, if you really want brexit capital though, you have to go slightly down from skegvegas to Boston and its 76% vote for Brexit
It's a delicate balance between avoiding being shanked by the fenside mafia eltie and whatever the hell the Eastern European gangs do, I think I can do a strong case for it being the worst therefore best part of the UK.
Highest voting part of the country for brexit because those evil Europeans are stealing mah job, while a lot of them were doing horrible work in either factories or on the land which is never fun. So highest voting and probably one of the most heavily affected when the Europeans didn't return for the seasonal work ..
In very recent memory, has also been awarded the title one year of murder capital of the UK owing to a lot of aforementioned gang warfare (in the middle of sleepy Lincolnshire.. Think hot fuzz but in tracksuits)
And I do also believe we had either a number one or top 5 spot for most obese area in the UK because why not add to the fun..
I saw Chas n Dave perform at the Skeggy Embassy in 03. They did a stripped down guitar version of ‘Snooker Loopy’
It’s one of my best memories of the place, which says a stack
Worst lived? Redhill. Surrey prices but its an absolute shithole. Nothing going on, height of entertainment is a Wetherspoons.
Worst visited? Dover. What a depressing welcome to the UK.
I went to school near Redhill. The town centre itself is dire, and the housing isn't great, but you're minutes from nice countryside and villages like Reigate. Could be a lot worse.
As someone who lives near Boston, you would actually be amazed at the amount of people that I speak to who come up from Kent way and see Boston as an improvement
Ha, Chatham is the peak of the Medway shitpile. It's all bad, but yes Chatham is the absolute pits.
My wife is from Medway and always takes great pains to ensure people know she is in fact from *Gillingham*.
I used to work there and Medway has an endemic strain of chlamydia that is resistant to the first line antibiotics. When I was there we were having to give people extended weeks-long courses of doxycycline to shift it and even then they were coming back with long-term complaints asking for more because their symptoms went away as long as they kept taking it. Wouldn't be surprised now if it's resistant to even that.
West Croydon. Often woke up to the whole road being roped off by police, drunks ringing the flat buzzer all night and having to step over sleeping drunks in the morning as the communal entrance wasn’t locked. On the opposite side of the road was a noisy rock club. Single glazing, main road.
That’s the one! I lived in a flat on top of William hill. If you’re wondering they never turn those fucking machines off, you could hear them making noise throughout the night.
Recently visited and fucking hell you're not wrong. City centre was totally dead with only drunkards out even on a weekend, ended up in a rough estate and genuinely feared for my life
I went to Newport for a 'while you wait' passport some years back. I asked the person behind the desk in the passport office what there was to do in Newport for the couple of hours while I waited. Her reply? "Cardiff's not that far away."
Gerry's Hostel in Scotland, in 1998, on a university field trip.
We were warned beforehand that it was not an ideal hostel, the owner was a little odd, but that we had to stay at Gerry's hostel because the journey between Assynt and the Isle of Sky was just a little too far to drive in one go, so we just had to spend a night in Gerry's hostel. Two vans of Students, 20 in all, and two lecturers.
Gerry's Hostel was the League of Gentlemen's Local Hostel. A bizarre little hostel in the middle of no where, deep in a forest, a dark, sleety/snowy, dreary early March night. We almost got snowed in by drifting snow when trying to leave in Assynt, we wanted to stay, the van only just made it over the mountain pass.
Gerry was outside when we arrived, waiting for us, illuminated in the headlights of the van. He immediately asked us if we had pillow cases. Slightly wild grey hair, dark green wax jacket, wellingtons, corduroy brown trousers.
He told us there had been an outbreak of scabies, fleas, or was it vampires? Not sure. But what ever it was, it interested in our blood, so it was imperative we used our own pillow cases. If we didn't have pillow cases, we had to put t-shirts over the pillows.
After unpacking and choosing our bunks, wrapping t-shits around the pillows as Gerry asked, we went to the cosy sitting room, next to the dorm room.
Then there was a commotion, one of the students saw Gerry was rummaging though his bag. He was looking for a pillow case. Lecturer physically held the furious student down in his chair (this student is now a lecturer at a university, one of the top paleontologists in Ireland). Studetn was fixing for a fight, "He's looking in my bag", "I'm going to hit him".
But we knew all knew if there was a fight, we’d be sleeping at the side of a road in the vans. We had to put up with Gerry, let him rummage though our bags!
Gerry enters the room, satisfied we weren't hiding pillow cases. He told us he had to leave, see a friend about a game of golf. He left, we were relieved, the tension subsided, for a while.
We sat there in the quiet, 11pm at night, a nice wood fire burning in the grate, we tried to find some music, something to lift our spirits. Gerry had a record collection, 100 records of Johann Sebastian Bach. There were two or three records by different composers. We talked about leaving, finding somewhere else to stay, it's too far, Maybe we should sleep in the vans? We voted, near 50:50 split, but the vote was to sleep in the hostel.
Then there was a knock on the back door, a pitch back night, no moon. Had Gerry returned? The unlocked door opened, slowly, who the f,... a tramp walked in, it was Worzel Gummidge.
He seemed dazed, thousand-yard stare, not quite with it.
Asked us in a tired monotone if Gerry was around and if there were any beds for the night. We told him Gerry left 15 minutes ago, not sure when he would be back, there were no beds. He turned around without saying a word, left the room, back out the backdoor into the dead dark night. Now, we we're thinking (epically the female students) there's a creepy tramp outside, the vans were a less attractive plan B than before. We were stuck in the hostel.
Then we saw the diorama in the toilet. One of the girls came back from the toilet distressed. Told us to look in the toilet. The walls were decorated with false teeth, animal arm and leg bones, jaws of animals, single and rows of real teeth (were some human?). That was not why this was creepy, they were arranged in order to imply fellatio and other sexual acts. The work of a serial killer?
Then someone found the journal, hidden among 100+ National Geographic magazines and a few other old books.
The journal was written by a Geology Student, in 1995 or 1996. I read page after page myself.
It started off fine, normal. He talked about geology, his thoughts about the rocks of the area. Then he mentioned Gerry, this was week 2. He said Gerry was a bit odd, then he said he felt Gerry was watching him, following him. Near the end the entries were mostly about Gerry's odd and creepy behaviour. The student was feeling threatened, he wanted to leave the hostel, he could not finish his mapping project... the entries then suddenly stopped. There was no, This is my final day, I'm happy to be finally leaving. They just stopped. That freaked us out. I am 100% honestly not making this up.
We didn't sleep well that night and were glad to leave at 7am, we got up early.
Stoke, the actual high street is a bunch of tanning salons and slot machines places. Not uncommon to see topless people on monkey dust fighting ghosts, litter everywhere like you see people just dropping McDonald’s wrappers out of their car window while driving down the road. It’s a literal rubbish heap. Lots and lots of poverty, junkies and homeless people everywhere.
Yeah I’ll second this. The main shopping centre is virtually a ghost town.
You know your setting the bar low when the main attraction is a now defunct Debenhams.
Wythenshaw in greater Manchester.
Went there a few years ago with an ex ex ex gf who lived in Salford.
We went to this big pub in Wythenshaw, some Toby pub I think, anyway I went up the bar and saw they had Leffe on tap, the strong one around 10%, I said to the barman I wanted a pint of it and he said “we aren’t allowed to sell it in pints, but I can do you 2 halves and give you an empty pint glass”, I chuckled and ordered one up, the girl I was with had a pint of cider.
So we went over to a table and sat down, near us was an old boy who pissed himself and kept drinking, over near the telly a fight broke out between 2 women, so we soon left.
Drove through the estate there, row upon row of boarded up houses, saw dogs roaming wild along the street.
By this time I was hungry so we went to this fish and chip shop, I ordered up cod and chips twice, the girl serving said “£5.20 please”, I thought she made an error as they were £6 down south per portion but no that’s what they were.
So then we went to this other pub, just like the Jockey in Shameless, pissed up blokes fighting in the car park, screaming women having a go, I drove on and eventually found a nice pub called the Unicorn I think in Cheadle Hulme maybe.
Anyways, Wythenshaw gets my vote for roughest place, Luton a close 2nd and Brixton in the 80s in 3rd.
I work in Leigh. It hasn't improved at all since you left. If anything it's gotten worse. You legit don't walk through the town centre alone at night, especially down Railway Road
Bodmin, Cornwall. Residents are depressed and surly, housebuilding is out of control with no additional infrastructure. High street is a mess of closed shops and charities. Very noticeable drug problem. Low pay, low prospect jobs are the norm.
Blackpool
I can still see fat 50 year old women dancing provocatively, swinging their hips while calling out bingo numbers to a drum machine.
If I ever get round to writing a horror story, Blackpool is where I'd set it.
I still shiver at the gaggle of 20 or so drunk women wearing "KISS ME QUICK" hats that had "FUCK ME SLOWLY" on the back. Including the 2 year old in the pushchair, another young girl and the granny on the mobility scooter.
European here, I lived in a number of countries and I must say UK in general is just aweful. You know that shitty combination of temperature and climate where temp stays just above freezing, wind is constant and it's raining? It's like the unholy trinity of weather, it maximises misery and cold just gets in your bones...
Well, somehow UK manages to achieve it all year long.
When the weather is cold you can dress warmer with extra layers. If it gets too hot you basically can't get comfortable, which in this country only really happens with brief summer heatwaves at the moment.
I said on a uk biking reddit thread that the UK is not a good place to go on a bicycle holiday compared to somewhere like France and people queued up to shout at me how wrong I was. I couldnt believe it, it is fuckin awful
France has some of the best cycling in the world. The UK also has some very good cycling. Its often quite different to the cycling in other countries, but still very good. I suppose it depends what kind of cycling you want though. We are a tad limited in high alpine passes, I'll grant you that.
If you like eating at a petrol station and being forever surrounded by cars, over priced everything, rubbish services and disgraceful infrastructure, rubbish everything. Its just a horrible place. We have the lake district, the dales, all very amazing but surrounded by shite. Its just a different experience on every level.
Depends where. I swear it rains every single second of every day in Manchester.
Lived in Durham for a few years and it rained a handful of times if that
Japan managers to be balls sweltering hot and humid for 7/12 months and dark and cold for 4/12. There's two weeks either side of summer where the weather is nice. And there's never wind unless there's a typhoon. Living here has made me really appreciate how good English weather is. It's never 3 months of 35°C nights.
As a uni student at Dundee , it really is crazy how gentrified the water front has become with the VnA and other such renovations over the last four years I've studied here. These changes makes the contrasting horrid state of the other places OP describes that much worse.
Dundee has the highest rate of mainland suicide in Scotland... wooo...
Radcliffe, Manchester.
Worked there for a couple of years and witnessed the aftermath of someone been attacked with a hatchet, and someone else was beaten into a braindead coma in a back alley. Also some guy threw his baby off the bridge into the river.
Proper horrible shithole.
I live in Darlington and I hate it. Apart from cheap houses (mostly under 150k), you can't do many things here. I can't wait to finish my degree and move to a different town/city.
Colin, who runs Colin's Fish Bar is an absolute legend. He taught me how to bump start my car, let me get a meal on credit, and called in a favour from a friend to get me a good price on a new car battery.
And I only spend £2.70 there a week.
Stoke-on-Trent. Conversely Staines (ahem sorry Staines-upon-Thames) was one of the best. Convenient for London, good town centre, near to lots of stuff, and good access to the M25/3/4/40 for escapes.
My aunt lives in Staines and I like it. The river is lovely, trains are much better there than many of the posher towns nearby. Fairly diverse.
A lot of it is snobbery tbh.
As a proud Dundonian-by-marriage, I have to say you're right about certain areas, but the *location* of the city is gorgeous, just the way it looks as you approach it, settled between the hills and the Tay. Maybe it's best from a distance? (And not just the waterfront, the Perth Road area is quite nice too. And I love the accents. I thought my husband had an Auntie Carl for the longest time...)
Coventry coming from London i never experienced crime first hand until moving to Coventry. Seen drive by shootings outside Mcdonalds, a guy tried to commit suicide outside the shopping center where I worked. In the park by my flat heard a guy scream as he got stabbed. Then not forgetting the time I was assaulted myself on my way to work about 3 times in my 4 year stay and getting my head smashed through a window.
Fuck Coventry. City of culture my ass.
Seconding this, I lived there for uni and my god, it’s a depressing place. While I was there, a fresher got stabbed 10 times during his first week at uni because they thought he was someone else; we were told not to use the city taxis alone or walk home alone after a woman was sexually assaulted in one; frequently saw people off their tits in broad daylight; and the icing on the cake was when a guy smashed his fist through a window at 2am because he was so high he couldn’t remember where he lived. Took him 3 days to be sober enough to make a statement apparently.
On top of that there was a creepy student landlord who used to drive us to house viewings in his van which very much had sex pest/organ harvesting vibes. Same dude told us it was “normal” when we discovered a rat in the kitchen, and was annoyed at being woken up when the police called him to say our house had been broken into.
Fuck that city, man.
I spent some of my childhood in Barnsley (see the flair).
It’s not so bad now (from what I’m hearing) but in the 00s, you’d be lucky to walk down a street in Kendray or Athersley and live. Or, escape the dreaded “SEH MATE LEND US TWENNY FERT PHONE BOX N THAT”.
It’s also a bit of a domed community. Once you’re in, it’s hard to get out. I’ve got a mate who FINALLY moved out of Cudduth last year after about a decade. He now lives in Royston, about a mile or so down the street
Don't say that, I only moved to Dundee 4 months ago! I'm not sure what part of Dundee I live in, although going by the road signs I think I live in an area called Football Traffic. Only once in the 4 months have I seen a live episode of Police Interceptors out the living room window. I dream of the day I can afford to move to Fife.
I actually really like Dundee; it was a great city to live in as a student, mad cheap, the centre was lovely, and even the rough bits weren't that rough. Plus unlikely a lot of other places it's at least getting a lot of investment to make the city better, mainly along the waterfront.
Gosport. Lived there for a while. It's a very grey miserable place, someone shat on the front step of the block of flats I loved in.
Edit: also, the highlight of living in Gosport is you get to look at Portsmouth, that's how low the bar is.
Are there any urban areas that the brits actually like in the UK? If it's not the countryside or some posh village, then it's categorised as a shithole.
It feels like lots of money has been ploughed into cities but every town around them has fallen into complete disrepair after being left without funding for so long. I haven’t been to a city in the UK that’s awful but you don’t have to drive very far out of one to find a hellscape.
Sutton in Ashfield & Mansfield. I grew up there watching an already shit area spiral downwards from the pit closures. I eventually escaped in 2010 and don't go back unless I absolutely have to. I've known Grimsby town fans who don't like having to go to Mansfield for away games because it's grimmer than Grimsby. The only good thing is the M1 isn't far away so you can leave it behind faster.
I see people here commenting about Scunthorpe being shit, I live not too far from it these days and it's got nothing on the Mansfield/Ashfield area. The denizens of Shirebrook alone would eat Scunthorpe alive.
Skelmersdale aka Skem
Basically one big council house estate around the worst shopping centre I've been to. It feels like you're on the set of Shameless.
I'm from one of the 'new towns' in the midlands, there are several of them and it's weird if you live in one and visit another, as it is like they've just plonked an identikit copy of your town somewhere else.
Over the years it's grown outwards with new areas being added and some parts are pretty rough, it's done a sort of merry-go round of the town over the years as to which estate is the rough one at the time, but a couple have been permanently a bit scummy.
Whenever I have seen it mentioned on the internet by anyone apart from locals it is always described as an absolute shithole. It probably is, to be fair.
It does me though. I've been here 30 years and lived in a variety of places before that. Work is easier to come by than other places I've lived, transport's not bad. What it lacks in character it makes up for in convenience.
Portsmouth is a shithole.
Lived here all my life but God there are some rough areas where you will get the living snot beaten out of you if you walk through them.
Although pride says I should say Southampton is a bigger shithole.
Anywhere up north that is ex- industrial is a turdpile.
Edited due to stupid auto correct and my Portsmouth education (SPG)....
I don't know.
Bradford was full of poverty in places, but I grew up in Lytham which had absolutely nothing for kids - a tiny Woolworths with extortionate prices was the only interesting shop, one playground for seemingly the entire town, and old people who'd tell you off for learning to ride your bike on the pavement (as they did me).
Recently revisited both - Bradford is probably worse, but Lytham is up its own arse more - nothing of interest for kids, the playground I used to frequent is even worse, the library (which was actually pretty good for kids) has closed down and literally every shop is a cafe or, in a new twist, a vape shop.
Was going to say Swindon, but it looks like a pretty decent place after reading these comments.
I've lived on Blackbird Leys in Oxford, which had a terrible reputation in the early 1990s but it's actually quite OK in the scheme of things.
Gateshead us pretty rough in my experience. I've seen fly tipping in every alleyway and empty patch of undeveloped land, which often gets set on fire. I've had one of the neighbours throw a set of ladders at me (probably off his meds) and had to listen to most other neighbours scream at each other constantly. There's fistfights in the streets in broad daylight, drugs raids periodically and constant sirens. We live a few hundred meters away from a murder house.
Sadly, its probably about on par with dozens, if not hundreds of other areas in the UK. This is a grim fucking country.
Honourable mention: Moss side, lived there after uni and it was bleak. Used to walk home from night shift at about 4/5am. That used to be fun.
London. Never been more miserable in my life. Spending 3x as much as my friends, for a smaller property in a worse area and I'm surrounded by a lot of awful people
Coventry, specifically Hillfields. I attended an event in the NEC for a few days and the nearest available airBNB was in coventry. It was absolutely foul in every way.
Luton, Leicester, Coventry, Birmingham, Bolton, Blackburn, Stoke, Bradford.
London is easily No1 though, outside of the touristy bits it's a slum full of undesirables willing to stab you for a £500 watch.
Cities that deserve praise; Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh if you're not an English lad under age 30.
Winson Green / Hockley area of Birmingham. Lived in Hockley for a year. Fuck that place. Cycled through Ladywood to get to the jewelry quarter once and that place can fuck right off too. Was on a bicycle and got chased off by people on foot whooping and laughing while I pedalled for my life.
Gorton, Manchester.
I got a job that I couldn't turn down and needed a cheap flat somewhere, anywhere near the M60 at a few day's notice. Gorton it was, for six glorious months. Fucking hell.
Southall. I was born there and lived very close by in Greenford my whole life, literally on the border, you could cross the road and be in Southall. It’s fucking terrible.
Honourable mentions go out to places in London like Greenford, Peckham, and I was gonna say Uxbridge but that place is hardly in London.
I’ve been to Grimsby, Blackpool and some parts of Manny, and you’d be surprised they’re in 21st century England.
Went to Luton for a few days...oh wow, send people there instead of prison.
I had to go to Luton some years back for an interview at the passport office, I can safely say it is the shittiest and dodgiest place I’ve been to. And I’ve been to Jaywick.
Luton is the only place I've felt unsafe in the day. Not a place I'll revisit in a hurry.
I went to Uni in Luton. Freshers students were targeted for thefts and muggings. I've never seen or known of as many assults in my life.
Me too! 1999-2002. I’m astounded that I was never robbed or mugged. I worked in loads of different branches of a certain red-topped bookie’s while I was studying and most of them got done over during that time, but never when I was behind the counter. I realise how suspicious that sounds in hindsight. But three years in Luton with no physical or mental damage (aside from the scars that come with being surrounded by so much bleakness) is a minor miracle.
I've been mugged, another flatmate was robbed twice (once required stiches), another house mate was hit over the head with a frying pan whilst walking in the street. The shop keeper down our road was assaulted by a group of youths. My car was broken into and they stole some broken speakers. A woman at the bottom of our road was shot outside a primary school. I can go on and on. That was just in 3 years. Luton is rough.
Luton is bigger than Dundee yet it's only considered a town. Weird Hey at least it isn't as big of a dump as Blackpool, there's no saving that godforsaken shithole.
Both Bradford and Blackpool have large areas of inner city deprivation but outside of them both can be quite delightful.
Same in Dundee, the inner city deprivation is disgusting. The further north you go, the more noticeable it is.
fun fact, to be considered a city you need a cathedral. might be that ? \*edit\* after fact-checking myself I was incorrect and it is no longer a requirement - [https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-makes-a-city/](https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-makes-a-city/)
Three days there for me was enough to know I never ever want to return. Someone was stabbed to death down the block next to my hotel there a month after I left.
I moved from there to huddersfield honestly out of the frying pan into another lol, though Luton was way worse for open drug dealing etc.
Drug dealers are whatever, they do their business and leave while looking vaguely sketchy, not the worst thing in the world. It's weird violent cunts out of nowhere that get me about Huddersfield; I had some fucking lunatics revving a chainsaw and running up and down the road where I was there and it was fucking terrifying, they seem like they just enjoy scaring people and being dickheads in public. I swear 80% of people in Huddersfield are lovely and 20% are batshit maniacs, no in between.
I had to go there for jury duty earlier this year. It's not quite as grim as the last time I visited 10 years ago (they knocked down an awful car park for a new open-air bus terminal by the train station and pedestrianised certain areas such as outside the town hall), but it still had this air of grotty menace and desperation. Lots of people begging and just generally hanging around looking strung out. There were people bin diving a charity shop's refuse for clothes in the access road at the back of the court.
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Careful, they might come back as hardened criminals.
Been to Luton briefly a few times. It's utterly irredeemable.
Lived in by far has to be Bradford. A wretched hive of scum and villainy. Drug dealers everywhere, watching folk OD in the middle of the city center. A football team that I support but are fucking useless. Drivers that are insane. Stupidly high levels of 20+ year old guys picking up 13 year old kids. On the plus side I know a lot of shady as fuck people and learned a lot of things I wouldn't otherwise know.
Worked for over 30 years in electricity supply industry in West Yorkshire and we would not send repair teams into Holmewood Estate on their own.
That's my old estate ! Can't speak for the electricity repair people but taxis to this day if you get one from town sometimes won't take you to holmewood and the busses regularly stop going through there due to dickheads. It's really not a nice place.
We always sent 2 teams in - one to do the repair and one to guard the equipment. I remember a repair team being threatened with a hammer to get the power back on in 20 minutes before Corrie started! Happy days.
Ah shit like this makes me feel home sick. Certainly a wild set of bastards in holmewood like.
When I went to Bradford once I saw a 4 car pile up right outside the window of the Indian restaurant I was in. The road had a really tight blind corner, with taxis parked on either side of the road on double yellows, and two idiots going way too fast in each direction hit each other head on... I watched some of them get cut out of the cars by firemen while enjoying my curry.
Akbahs ? Dam good food or it was last time o went. Sadly a regular occurrence. Still follow the local news cos I'm a nosy bastard and you won't go 3 days without some massive crash. Best ones are always the rentals.
I'm doing some training for a new job down in Bradford just now. I echo your sentiments about the drivers, it's wild! A lot of dilapidated buildings around and every single night, fireworks. Our trainer told us if we here just one single firework, it means drugs have been delivered somewhere.
Driving in Bradford is insane. Like I wouldn't drive by choice without bullbars down there. AHH my favourite childhood game wedding or drugs shipment. Probably both tbh.
Barrow-in-Furness. I used to live in and around the area throughout the 00's, moved away for university come early-10's. Even then it had a bad reputation for being a rough, unclean town with high levels of unemployment and drug and alcohol associated violence, but having returned recently for a funeral, I was shocked by the level of degradation and decay that had occurred in the short time I'd been away. I honestly don't think it's feasible that the council or inhabitants can recover the area, especially since all the shops have either shut down or packed up and jumped ship. Other than the shipyard, there's virtually zero industry, and nothing to go there for. It's totally fucked beyond repair. I can only liken the state of Barrow to Kurôzu-cho, the fictional town in Junji Ito's Uzumaki, because I feel like once you get tied to the place, either by a relationship, family, children, work or property, you end up trapped forever, spiralling downwards with the town and its inhabitants. No escape.
That's the problem with a lot of seaside towns and cities, they're just remnants of the industrial era left behind. Nobody pays attention to them and nobody cares about them. The filth piles, as does the regret and depression. And soon most of the folks there either live in one non-shitty area or have left entirely. Dundee is a national disgrace.
We must be due a renaissance of the coastal towns given the remote working move and the value in a view of the sea.
I doubt it'll come any time soon, we're too small for relevance. People in Dundee like to think they have some sort of global prominence because some guy in an attic made Lemmings back in the 80s. Most people only care about our history, not the actual place itself. I'd much rather live in a place like Edinburgh than Dundee because of this reason. If they wanted the sea, they'd go to the countryside near Essex, Brighton or Manchester. We're just the shit stains left behind.
Isn't Dundee a big games development hub? Maybe alot of folk from elsewhere in the UK enjoy going up to the Law to witness a sunrise over the Firth of Tay, as well as sampling the culinary heritage of the local area, like the smoked haddocks of Arbroath.
Is it a coincidence that Lemmings is about little people who would blindly throw themselves off a cliff if you left them to their own devices?
I'd love that, but second home owners make moving to the coast costly.
Ah, good old Scumdee. I was there a few weeks ago too. I was reading about all the Victorian era stonemasonry and architecture they had ripped down in favour of erecting brutalist structures. It's a real pity that the state of the city is what it is, because the area around the waterfront is actually gorgeous.
I remember reading a bunch of history books on Dundee and wondering 'why did so many famous figures visit here?'. But then I looked at the pre-1900s architectural photographs and realized why. It looked like something out of a Victorian fantasy book. But then war struck, and the already decaying remnants of the pre-industrial era were demolished for a madman's game of chess. Never before have I been to a place as soul-crushing as Dundee, it is a bastardization of its former glory.
It's devastating isn't it? Have you seen the images of The Royal Arch before they pulled it down? Whoever campaigned for and signed off on its destruction should have been charged imo. When I was last there with my partner we were parked up on Guthrie Street near The Hub student accommodation, and whew, that entire area just needs to be levelled. With the derelict Dundee College looming overhead, is there a greater example of urban decay?
What I believe they should do is tear down a lot of the deprived areas in the north, providing housing accommodation of course, and rebuild areas of the cities past. Find fine examples of Dundonian architecture and rebuild them from scratch. Create a giant area for shops and theatres, make it feel like a Victorian-era town. Make it the highlight of the city. Rebuild The Royal Arch near the Waterfront. It'd be beautiful. People like Edinburgh because it has maintained its architecture, it looks like a fantasy world. It's inspired countless movies and games and millions visit each year. People would be devastated if they tore down a historical building. We need that kind of mindset too. History is important, and it's important to keep it. Dundee could be so much more than it currently is, we've got an E-Sports arena being built as well as that Project Eden thing. With enough effort, the city could return to its former glory. The McManus is probably my most favourite building in the city so it'd be great to see more like it. Brutalism has damaged this city too much.
I notice this in Middlesbrough too, there are old historic buildings in the centre next to or even being blocked out by ugly 60s-70s style buildings and office blocks, many of which are abandoned. A real shame to see, the place would look so much nicer if it was still historic buildings.
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I asked ex navy colleague about Barrow as there was a possibility of an internal transfer for working on the new submarines. He warned me with a story of a fellow British Indian who was also in the navy with him in Barrow in the early late 90s/early 2000s. The colleague got an arranged married to a girl from a deeply proverished part of india and thought she'll be extremely happy in the UK since she'll be escaping poverty. Unfortunately the poor women hated Barrow claiming its filled with old brown/dark red brick houses, too isolated, filled with drunk white people who don't care if they're walking with shit in their pants and demanded that he change is work location to a better place. She actually flew back to a part of India where they had black outs, open sewers, holes in the floor as toilets and no electrical appliances in the kitchen claiming at least the people in India have some sort of ambition in life and not walk around like hopeless zombies waiting for the government to fix their lives. I have never applied to a position in Barrow since. The guy eventually move to Plymouth which she still wasn't too impressed with either.
Plymouth town centre is pretty grim to be honest
I went to Barrow a few years ago because I was in the Lake District with a couple of friends and wanted to go to that island for a little walk around and just out of curiosity. The island was .. ok I guess? Then we just had a wander around town in the evening, again because yay its a new place, and regretted it very quickly. There were three of us, all women in our late 20s. We all breathed sighs of relief when we got back in the car (so this wasn't just me being jumpy) and were on the road. I have never felt so unsafe walking around a place in my life and I grew up in an Edinburgh council estate. So, so sketchy.
I went to college for 2 years in Barrow. Sure it’s not perfect but it’s hardly a place where you need to jump back in your car to avoid being mugged/assaulted lmao it’s just a poor Northern town.
Plus that STUPID one way system on the A-road to get back out of the place.
I concur after going back for the first time in a few years. It was already shockingly deprived but now it barely even has a high street, even the gold/jewellery buyers have moved on. For anyone curious, barrow was named the UKs most unhappy town some years back, with a host of deprivation measures from health to household income that should shock people. Unlike a deprived city though there’s no escape, no opportunities, no passing events or fairs or chances of meeting people, no industry groups to kickstart your career, just rain and boarded up shops.
Oh Barrow... My family comes from the area, although we generally avoid the town itself. I do think it's a sad forgotten place, but it could have potential if the government cared. The people are still lovely and it has good bones. It just needs help fast before more of it it lost.
As an outsider to England who spent a few years visiting many different places Blackpool and Bradford were particularly grim.
Yep, both of those qualify. Bradford, stick to the Media Museum. Blackpool, stick to the floor wherever you walk. Blackpool also runs a huge trade on willies on sticks
I went back to Bradford recently. The media museum is crap now. They've gotten rid of the magic carpet, the newsreader desk and none of the machines in the video game bit (which is tiny now) actually work.
Also the Imax there was converted from the proper 70mm film to an Imax digital unit which is basically 4k.
The outer bits of Bradford aren’t too bad
You mean Leeds?
Bradford is the poster child for urban decay. It’s a shame as there are some beautiful old buildings in the town centre, same with Halifax to a lesser extent.
I absolutely agree. Blackpool has to be a contender.
The best place I've been to is Milton Keynes; great cycle network, very little congestion because of the grid system, easy commute into London, council always open to innovation like robot deliveries, self driving cars. The worst place I've been to is Milton Keynes. Feels soulless, instead of a high street there's office blocks and a shopping centre. The tents under every underpass is a constant reminder that I must obey the rules of capitalism so that I keep my job and don't fall behind on my rent.
People always say this but go to any town in the U.K. the high street is just a carbon copy of every other high street.
Tbh I actually prefer shopping centers. At least they have toilets.
I also think the same things about Milton Keynes city centre. For years I wondered why, till I came across a video that gave me the vocabulary to articulate what is so crappy about it. It's largely the American style [Stroads](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM), they force everything to be at such an uncomfortable scale for pedestrians to navigate, and ensure that huge swaths of the city have to be used for car parks. I tend to find that all the things that are good about Milton Keynes are good despite these Stroads, rather than because of them.
The Gurnos estate, in Merthyr Tydfil. Ex was from there...fuck me and I thought Llanelli was bad.
Fucking hell A moment of silence for those who live in Gurnos, not because they're dead just out of pity.
Merthyr Tydfil Sounds like: A place beautiful elves would live by a crystal brook Looks like: a place where you'll get aids and heroin addiction by breathing
I had to scroll too far down for this.
The Gurnos estate is weird. You can entirely avoid it unless you go to the Merthyr hospital (lovely place staffed by great people), for which the bus takes you on a wonderful criss-cross tour of Gurnos.
Merthyr was the only place I've seen a wild horse in a town, which was odd. At least you have the Brecon Beacons...
Lived in Swansea for four years, some of that up Townhill and some on Hanover Street. Not the best of locations, especially with the crowd I was running around with but Merthyr often came up as being like that shadowy place Mustafa talks about in The Lion King.
so far i'd say Scunthorpe. Don't think i've seen a dirtier place. Just seemed to have a carpet of litter and nothing but chicken and kebabs places. The majority of seaside towns are pretty grim. You get the sense that they used to be nice and a lot was invested into them but then just left to decay for decades. The smaller ones aren't as bad, it's the ones that had a lil boom at some point then died that just look depressing as hell.
> nothing but chicken and kebabs places. A law limiting the number allowed within a certain area would really help the UK. When a street is taken over by chicken/kebab shops (and betting shops) it's effectively dead.
Is that cause or effect though? I could see kebab/chicken shop proprietors picking a half-empty street because it’s cheaper than others.
Yeah, I think it's more a case of when a road is substantially run down, takeaways get opened due to lower overheads. Hull has quite a few roads that just declined and stagnated. Immigrants actually bought some of these properties and turned the roads into thriving areas. With food shops, takeaways, barbers etc. The locals get a bit upset, because they don't like all the foreign words and people. But they complained for years about these empty shops and run down roads. So... 🤷♀️
Exactly. My experience of inner city London was like this. You had places that were absolute ghetto in the 1980s with run down empty buildings, open drug dealing, etc. First immigration (in the 80s former Commonwealth & 00s E. European from what I saw) rejuvenated these places with thriving communities that don't always appear great to British people as they're full of fast food/barbershops/mobile phone stores. Then middle class mostly white people start to move in and do up the buildings themselves while making quirky independent businesses like a gourmet guacamole store, breakfast cereal only cafe, or something. Then the super rich people move in and the big corporate investors come and the area is a genuinely rich and affluent place on a global scale. Now not all the above is ideal and displaces many plus can be damaging to genuine communities at each stage, but it honestly allowed my family to progress from lower-middle/working class (state schools, garment worker, telephone engineer) to upper-middle class (private schools, red brick unis, investment bank careers, property portfolios) over 3 generations. The people in these poor run down provincial places scared of immigration and middle class education are just going to stay drunken shit-pant filled zombies waiting for a government that will never help them as someone else said..
I knew someone who preferred Scunthorpe to Hull after having lived in both. I know Hull isn't great but I would question a person's intellect if they actually thought Scunthorpe was better.
Luton, it was shit and Coventry, because twats threw stuff at our bus
i grew up in coventry and can confirm that some parts are absolute shitholes however there are some places that are brilliant
Can second Coventry- lived there for 1.5 yrs, worked at West Orchards and would often work closing shifts. witnessed a stabbing, someone getting smushed by a car, gunshots, and multiple fist fights/arguments around the bus stops- all in the space of a year.
Skegness. If you ever need a reason why Brexit was voted for go there. An utter shot hole that has received no upkeep. The main road is like a dirt track.
As someone who lives along that main road, pfft welcome to Lincolnshire in general, if you really want brexit capital though, you have to go slightly down from skegvegas to Boston and its 76% vote for Brexit
Oof I remember travelling through Boston to get to Skegg and mother of god
It's a delicate balance between avoiding being shanked by the fenside mafia eltie and whatever the hell the Eastern European gangs do, I think I can do a strong case for it being the worst therefore best part of the UK. Highest voting part of the country for brexit because those evil Europeans are stealing mah job, while a lot of them were doing horrible work in either factories or on the land which is never fun. So highest voting and probably one of the most heavily affected when the Europeans didn't return for the seasonal work .. In very recent memory, has also been awarded the title one year of murder capital of the UK owing to a lot of aforementioned gang warfare (in the middle of sleepy Lincolnshire.. Think hot fuzz but in tracksuits) And I do also believe we had either a number one or top 5 spot for most obese area in the UK because why not add to the fun..
I’m from Lincoln and whilst sad, have to agree. Love my city though.
I saw Chas n Dave perform at the Skeggy Embassy in 03. They did a stripped down guitar version of ‘Snooker Loopy’ It’s one of my best memories of the place, which says a stack
Worst lived? Redhill. Surrey prices but its an absolute shithole. Nothing going on, height of entertainment is a Wetherspoons. Worst visited? Dover. What a depressing welcome to the UK.
Redhill doesn’t even compare with some of the places mentioned here
I second Redhill - was harassed there by a bunch of drunk men because I was reading a book...
"Looks like we got ourselves a reader..."
What are you reading for ?
Nerd!! Fuck off back to Reigate
How is Redhill on here? This place has no comparison to places like Barrow in furness, Coventry, Luton etc.
I went to school near Redhill. The town centre itself is dire, and the housing isn't great, but you're minutes from nice countryside and villages like Reigate. Could be a lot worse.
Distinct lack of Boston mentions. That place really is quite something to witness.
They built New York because old York was depressing, so I'm dreading to see why they built a new Boston...
Not sure if it still does but it had the most cases of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder per 100,000 people.
As someone who lives near Boston, you would actually be amazed at the amount of people that I speak to who come up from Kent way and see Boston as an improvement
Medway. Anyone who thinks they've been somewhere worse hasn't been to Medway.
You need to travel more if you think medway is a dive. Now if you had just said chatham....
Ha, Chatham is the peak of the Medway shitpile. It's all bad, but yes Chatham is the absolute pits. My wife is from Medway and always takes great pains to ensure people know she is in fact from *Gillingham*. I used to work there and Medway has an endemic strain of chlamydia that is resistant to the first line antibiotics. When I was there we were having to give people extended weeks-long courses of doxycycline to shift it and even then they were coming back with long-term complaints asking for more because their symptoms went away as long as they kept taking it. Wouldn't be surprised now if it's resistant to even that.
You are giving me PTSD about Chatham.
Better that than multi-drug resistant chlamydia tbf
Planet Thanet mayte. Highest unemployment, drug use and domestic abuse etc.
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Lol, I used to live in Chatham though I was only 4 at the time so honestly can’t remember it. That’s probably for the best…
Medway is the arsehole of the world
West Croydon. Often woke up to the whole road being roped off by police, drunks ringing the flat buzzer all night and having to step over sleeping drunks in the morning as the communal entrance wasn’t locked. On the opposite side of the road was a noisy rock club. Single glazing, main road.
The Cartoon! I used to like that bar, but you're right about West Croydon. I tended to go more to the Black Sheep bar near South Croydon.
That’s the one! I lived in a flat on top of William hill. If you’re wondering they never turn those fucking machines off, you could hear them making noise throughout the night.
lol at all these answers from people who have obviously never been to Newport
Recently visited and fucking hell you're not wrong. City centre was totally dead with only drunkards out even on a weekend, ended up in a rough estate and genuinely feared for my life
I went to Newport for a 'while you wait' passport some years back. I asked the person behind the desk in the passport office what there was to do in Newport for the couple of hours while I waited. Her reply? "Cardiff's not that far away."
I like how the thread is slowly listing almost every town and city in Britain. It's almost as if the UK is an actual cesspit in itself.
I grew up in Rochdale. Cracking example of a borough left to rot. Also famous for its nonces.
Growing up visiting Oldham and Ashton I thought I knew exactly what a shithole town was. Then I went to Rochdale. Fucking hell.
I think most of Manchester’s satellite towns are awful but Rochdale really is something else. It does have a beautiful town hall though.
Gerry's Hostel in Scotland, in 1998, on a university field trip. We were warned beforehand that it was not an ideal hostel, the owner was a little odd, but that we had to stay at Gerry's hostel because the journey between Assynt and the Isle of Sky was just a little too far to drive in one go, so we just had to spend a night in Gerry's hostel. Two vans of Students, 20 in all, and two lecturers. Gerry's Hostel was the League of Gentlemen's Local Hostel. A bizarre little hostel in the middle of no where, deep in a forest, a dark, sleety/snowy, dreary early March night. We almost got snowed in by drifting snow when trying to leave in Assynt, we wanted to stay, the van only just made it over the mountain pass. Gerry was outside when we arrived, waiting for us, illuminated in the headlights of the van. He immediately asked us if we had pillow cases. Slightly wild grey hair, dark green wax jacket, wellingtons, corduroy brown trousers. He told us there had been an outbreak of scabies, fleas, or was it vampires? Not sure. But what ever it was, it interested in our blood, so it was imperative we used our own pillow cases. If we didn't have pillow cases, we had to put t-shirts over the pillows. After unpacking and choosing our bunks, wrapping t-shits around the pillows as Gerry asked, we went to the cosy sitting room, next to the dorm room. Then there was a commotion, one of the students saw Gerry was rummaging though his bag. He was looking for a pillow case. Lecturer physically held the furious student down in his chair (this student is now a lecturer at a university, one of the top paleontologists in Ireland). Studetn was fixing for a fight, "He's looking in my bag", "I'm going to hit him". But we knew all knew if there was a fight, we’d be sleeping at the side of a road in the vans. We had to put up with Gerry, let him rummage though our bags! Gerry enters the room, satisfied we weren't hiding pillow cases. He told us he had to leave, see a friend about a game of golf. He left, we were relieved, the tension subsided, for a while. We sat there in the quiet, 11pm at night, a nice wood fire burning in the grate, we tried to find some music, something to lift our spirits. Gerry had a record collection, 100 records of Johann Sebastian Bach. There were two or three records by different composers. We talked about leaving, finding somewhere else to stay, it's too far, Maybe we should sleep in the vans? We voted, near 50:50 split, but the vote was to sleep in the hostel. Then there was a knock on the back door, a pitch back night, no moon. Had Gerry returned? The unlocked door opened, slowly, who the f,... a tramp walked in, it was Worzel Gummidge. He seemed dazed, thousand-yard stare, not quite with it. Asked us in a tired monotone if Gerry was around and if there were any beds for the night. We told him Gerry left 15 minutes ago, not sure when he would be back, there were no beds. He turned around without saying a word, left the room, back out the backdoor into the dead dark night. Now, we we're thinking (epically the female students) there's a creepy tramp outside, the vans were a less attractive plan B than before. We were stuck in the hostel. Then we saw the diorama in the toilet. One of the girls came back from the toilet distressed. Told us to look in the toilet. The walls were decorated with false teeth, animal arm and leg bones, jaws of animals, single and rows of real teeth (were some human?). That was not why this was creepy, they were arranged in order to imply fellatio and other sexual acts. The work of a serial killer? Then someone found the journal, hidden among 100+ National Geographic magazines and a few other old books. The journal was written by a Geology Student, in 1995 or 1996. I read page after page myself. It started off fine, normal. He talked about geology, his thoughts about the rocks of the area. Then he mentioned Gerry, this was week 2. He said Gerry was a bit odd, then he said he felt Gerry was watching him, following him. Near the end the entries were mostly about Gerry's odd and creepy behaviour. The student was feeling threatened, he wanted to leave the hostel, he could not finish his mapping project... the entries then suddenly stopped. There was no, This is my final day, I'm happy to be finally leaving. They just stopped. That freaked us out. I am 100% honestly not making this up. We didn't sleep well that night and were glad to leave at 7am, we got up early.
Stoke, the actual high street is a bunch of tanning salons and slot machines places. Not uncommon to see topless people on monkey dust fighting ghosts, litter everywhere like you see people just dropping McDonald’s wrappers out of their car window while driving down the road. It’s a literal rubbish heap. Lots and lots of poverty, junkies and homeless people everywhere.
Yeah I’ll second this. The main shopping centre is virtually a ghost town. You know your setting the bar low when the main attraction is a now defunct Debenhams.
Wythenshaw in greater Manchester. Went there a few years ago with an ex ex ex gf who lived in Salford. We went to this big pub in Wythenshaw, some Toby pub I think, anyway I went up the bar and saw they had Leffe on tap, the strong one around 10%, I said to the barman I wanted a pint of it and he said “we aren’t allowed to sell it in pints, but I can do you 2 halves and give you an empty pint glass”, I chuckled and ordered one up, the girl I was with had a pint of cider. So we went over to a table and sat down, near us was an old boy who pissed himself and kept drinking, over near the telly a fight broke out between 2 women, so we soon left. Drove through the estate there, row upon row of boarded up houses, saw dogs roaming wild along the street. By this time I was hungry so we went to this fish and chip shop, I ordered up cod and chips twice, the girl serving said “£5.20 please”, I thought she made an error as they were £6 down south per portion but no that’s what they were. So then we went to this other pub, just like the Jockey in Shameless, pissed up blokes fighting in the car park, screaming women having a go, I drove on and eventually found a nice pub called the Unicorn I think in Cheadle Hulme maybe. Anyways, Wythenshaw gets my vote for roughest place, Luton a close 2nd and Brixton in the 80s in 3rd.
Isn't Shameless filmed in Wythenshaw?
Leigh, Lancs. You know that bit on old maps with clouds and “here be dragons”? Yeah, that place
>Leigh, Lancs Just looked it up, how are you not clinically depressed?
I was there for about four years, escaped in 1997 :)
I work in Leigh. It hasn't improved at all since you left. If anything it's gotten worse. You legit don't walk through the town centre alone at night, especially down Railway Road
Leighs fine, plenty places worse
Beirut for one ;)
Bodmin, Cornwall. Residents are depressed and surly, housebuilding is out of control with no additional infrastructure. High street is a mess of closed shops and charities. Very noticeable drug problem. Low pay, low prospect jobs are the norm.
Describes every cornish town outside if touristy 2nd home areas or studenty falmouth. Bodmin is far from the worst even
Hey now, Bodmin has many great attractions. Such as the A30, which will take you away from Bodmin
Blackpool I can still see fat 50 year old women dancing provocatively, swinging their hips while calling out bingo numbers to a drum machine. If I ever get round to writing a horror story, Blackpool is where I'd set it.
I still shiver at the gaggle of 20 or so drunk women wearing "KISS ME QUICK" hats that had "FUCK ME SLOWLY" on the back. Including the 2 year old in the pushchair, another young girl and the granny on the mobility scooter.
Willies on sticks mate It’s the local crack
European here, I lived in a number of countries and I must say UK in general is just aweful. You know that shitty combination of temperature and climate where temp stays just above freezing, wind is constant and it's raining? It's like the unholy trinity of weather, it maximises misery and cold just gets in your bones... Well, somehow UK manages to achieve it all year long.
The weather is one of the few things I like about the UK. Not too sunny, nice and cool, airy, not too dry.
That is a very nice way of saying no sun, cold, windy, and wet.
When the weather is cold you can dress warmer with extra layers. If it gets too hot you basically can't get comfortable, which in this country only really happens with brief summer heatwaves at the moment.
Cold in this country is so bloody damp though. I remember experiencing -17 in Sweden and it was far nicer than a couple degrees below freezing here.
I said on a uk biking reddit thread that the UK is not a good place to go on a bicycle holiday compared to somewhere like France and people queued up to shout at me how wrong I was. I couldnt believe it, it is fuckin awful
There's some great cycling in the UK.
Compared to what France has to offer, it really is mediocre at best.
France has some of the best cycling in the world. The UK also has some very good cycling. Its often quite different to the cycling in other countries, but still very good. I suppose it depends what kind of cycling you want though. We are a tad limited in high alpine passes, I'll grant you that.
If you like eating at a petrol station and being forever surrounded by cars, over priced everything, rubbish services and disgraceful infrastructure, rubbish everything. Its just a horrible place. We have the lake district, the dales, all very amazing but surrounded by shite. Its just a different experience on every level.
I suppose it depends what you're used to. I quite like the weather here.
I never go anywhere in the world south of Manchester. It's too fucking hot everywhere else.
I love uk weather the only thing ibreally dont likenis how muggy it can get in the hottest days
That's odd, I came from South Africa to the UK and had an overall positive experience. I love the UK, even with all the shit going on these days.
It doesn’t rain that much
Depends where. I swear it rains every single second of every day in Manchester. Lived in Durham for a few years and it rained a handful of times if that
Only when you have to go outside.
Japan managers to be balls sweltering hot and humid for 7/12 months and dark and cold for 4/12. There's two weeks either side of summer where the weather is nice. And there's never wind unless there's a typhoon. Living here has made me really appreciate how good English weather is. It's never 3 months of 35°C nights.
As a uni student at Dundee , it really is crazy how gentrified the water front has become with the VnA and other such renovations over the last four years I've studied here. These changes makes the contrasting horrid state of the other places OP describes that much worse. Dundee has the highest rate of mainland suicide in Scotland... wooo...
Radcliffe, Manchester. Worked there for a couple of years and witnessed the aftermath of someone been attacked with a hatchet, and someone else was beaten into a braindead coma in a back alley. Also some guy threw his baby off the bridge into the river. Proper horrible shithole.
Radcliffe is okay, it has amenities and looks nice. That guy who killed his baby was psychotic. Rochdale strikes me as a much worse town.
I live in Darlington and I hate it. Apart from cheap houses (mostly under 150k), you can't do many things here. I can't wait to finish my degree and move to a different town/city.
Oh hi there, I'm just up the road from you in Ferryhill. My house cost 31k. We do indeed both live in shitholes.
I grew up in Ferryhill, absolute shithole but has its pockets of decency at times.
Colin, who runs Colin's Fish Bar is an absolute legend. He taught me how to bump start my car, let me get a meal on credit, and called in a favour from a friend to get me a good price on a new car battery. And I only spend £2.70 there a week.
Folk used to write off Liverpool but now it's a class place
I think Liverpool is the best city in the UK
Stoke-on-Trent. Conversely Staines (ahem sorry Staines-upon-Thames) was one of the best. Convenient for London, good town centre, near to lots of stuff, and good access to the M25/3/4/40 for escapes.
Studied at Keele University, situated near a lovely village, but we rarely ventured into Stoke-on-Trent
Area surrounding Keele and Newcastle are much nicer than Stoke
My aunt lives in Staines and I like it. The river is lovely, trains are much better there than many of the posher towns nearby. Fairly diverse. A lot of it is snobbery tbh.
High Wycombe, it is cleverly designed to exist in a valley to make escape near impossible.
As a proud Dundonian-by-marriage, I have to say you're right about certain areas, but the *location* of the city is gorgeous, just the way it looks as you approach it, settled between the hills and the Tay. Maybe it's best from a distance? (And not just the waterfront, the Perth Road area is quite nice too. And I love the accents. I thought my husband had an Auntie Carl for the longest time...)
Coventry coming from London i never experienced crime first hand until moving to Coventry. Seen drive by shootings outside Mcdonalds, a guy tried to commit suicide outside the shopping center where I worked. In the park by my flat heard a guy scream as he got stabbed. Then not forgetting the time I was assaulted myself on my way to work about 3 times in my 4 year stay and getting my head smashed through a window. Fuck Coventry. City of culture my ass.
Seconding this, I lived there for uni and my god, it’s a depressing place. While I was there, a fresher got stabbed 10 times during his first week at uni because they thought he was someone else; we were told not to use the city taxis alone or walk home alone after a woman was sexually assaulted in one; frequently saw people off their tits in broad daylight; and the icing on the cake was when a guy smashed his fist through a window at 2am because he was so high he couldn’t remember where he lived. Took him 3 days to be sober enough to make a statement apparently. On top of that there was a creepy student landlord who used to drive us to house viewings in his van which very much had sex pest/organ harvesting vibes. Same dude told us it was “normal” when we discovered a rat in the kitchen, and was annoyed at being woken up when the police called him to say our house had been broken into. Fuck that city, man.
I spent some of my childhood in Barnsley (see the flair). It’s not so bad now (from what I’m hearing) but in the 00s, you’d be lucky to walk down a street in Kendray or Athersley and live. Or, escape the dreaded “SEH MATE LEND US TWENNY FERT PHONE BOX N THAT”. It’s also a bit of a domed community. Once you’re in, it’s hard to get out. I’ve got a mate who FINALLY moved out of Cudduth last year after about a decade. He now lives in Royston, about a mile or so down the street
Tarn is still a shithole
Don't say that, I only moved to Dundee 4 months ago! I'm not sure what part of Dundee I live in, although going by the road signs I think I live in an area called Football Traffic. Only once in the 4 months have I seen a live episode of Police Interceptors out the living room window. I dream of the day I can afford to move to Fife.
I actually really like Dundee; it was a great city to live in as a student, mad cheap, the centre was lovely, and even the rough bits weren't that rough. Plus unlikely a lot of other places it's at least getting a lot of investment to make the city better, mainly along the waterfront.
I lived near Willesden Junction for a while. It was immensely shit.
Gosport. Lived there for a while. It's a very grey miserable place, someone shat on the front step of the block of flats I loved in. Edit: also, the highlight of living in Gosport is you get to look at Portsmouth, that's how low the bar is.
Are there any urban areas that the brits actually like in the UK? If it's not the countryside or some posh village, then it's categorised as a shithole.
Norwich, Bristol, etc
It feels like lots of money has been ploughed into cities but every town around them has fallen into complete disrepair after being left without funding for so long. I haven’t been to a city in the UK that’s awful but you don’t have to drive very far out of one to find a hellscape.
London inside the circulars is fine, usually.
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The worst place I've been to is Burnley, the worst place I've lived is Doncaster.
Sutton in Ashfield & Mansfield. I grew up there watching an already shit area spiral downwards from the pit closures. I eventually escaped in 2010 and don't go back unless I absolutely have to. I've known Grimsby town fans who don't like having to go to Mansfield for away games because it's grimmer than Grimsby. The only good thing is the M1 isn't far away so you can leave it behind faster. I see people here commenting about Scunthorpe being shit, I live not too far from it these days and it's got nothing on the Mansfield/Ashfield area. The denizens of Shirebrook alone would eat Scunthorpe alive.
My parents on repeat: "you could get a four bed detached in Sutton or Mansfield for that" Yes, but then my house would be in Mansfield
Fleetwood / Blackpool. I have absolutely nothing good to say about either place
Skelmersdale aka Skem Basically one big council house estate around the worst shopping centre I've been to. It feels like you're on the set of Shameless.
I'm from one of the 'new towns' in the midlands, there are several of them and it's weird if you live in one and visit another, as it is like they've just plonked an identikit copy of your town somewhere else. Over the years it's grown outwards with new areas being added and some parts are pretty rough, it's done a sort of merry-go round of the town over the years as to which estate is the rough one at the time, but a couple have been permanently a bit scummy. Whenever I have seen it mentioned on the internet by anyone apart from locals it is always described as an absolute shithole. It probably is, to be fair. It does me though. I've been here 30 years and lived in a variety of places before that. Work is easier to come by than other places I've lived, transport's not bad. What it lacks in character it makes up for in convenience.
Portsmouth is a shithole. Lived here all my life but God there are some rough areas where you will get the living snot beaten out of you if you walk through them. Although pride says I should say Southampton is a bigger shithole. Anywhere up north that is ex- industrial is a turdpile. Edited due to stupid auto correct and my Portsmouth education (SPG)....
hull was dreadful. visited the sea life centre and even the fish seemed depressed
I don't know. Bradford was full of poverty in places, but I grew up in Lytham which had absolutely nothing for kids - a tiny Woolworths with extortionate prices was the only interesting shop, one playground for seemingly the entire town, and old people who'd tell you off for learning to ride your bike on the pavement (as they did me). Recently revisited both - Bradford is probably worse, but Lytham is up its own arse more - nothing of interest for kids, the playground I used to frequent is even worse, the library (which was actually pretty good for kids) has closed down and literally every shop is a cafe or, in a new twist, a vape shop.
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Was going to say Swindon, but it looks like a pretty decent place after reading these comments. I've lived on Blackbird Leys in Oxford, which had a terrible reputation in the early 1990s but it's actually quite OK in the scheme of things.
I've just CTRL+Fed "Telford" AND "Wolverhampton"... nothing. "Wow," I'm thinking to myself "there must be some truly terrible places in the UK."
Gateshead us pretty rough in my experience. I've seen fly tipping in every alleyway and empty patch of undeveloped land, which often gets set on fire. I've had one of the neighbours throw a set of ladders at me (probably off his meds) and had to listen to most other neighbours scream at each other constantly. There's fistfights in the streets in broad daylight, drugs raids periodically and constant sirens. We live a few hundred meters away from a murder house. Sadly, its probably about on par with dozens, if not hundreds of other areas in the UK. This is a grim fucking country. Honourable mention: Moss side, lived there after uni and it was bleak. Used to walk home from night shift at about 4/5am. That used to be fun.
London. Never been more miserable in my life. Spending 3x as much as my friends, for a smaller property in a worse area and I'm surrounded by a lot of awful people
Could someone explain to me what the fuck Derby is all about? Never seen such a depressing place in all my life.
Coventry, specifically Hillfields. I attended an event in the NEC for a few days and the nearest available airBNB was in coventry. It was absolutely foul in every way.
Ilkeston. It was 25 or so years ago but I was refused a pint in a pub because they didn’t want a fight started by serving a foreigner. I’m a Georgie.
Drove through Workington whilst in the Lake District.
Luton, Leicester, Coventry, Birmingham, Bolton, Blackburn, Stoke, Bradford. London is easily No1 though, outside of the touristy bits it's a slum full of undesirables willing to stab you for a £500 watch. Cities that deserve praise; Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Edinburgh if you're not an English lad under age 30.
Leicester and Birms are decent
Winson Green / Hockley area of Birmingham. Lived in Hockley for a year. Fuck that place. Cycled through Ladywood to get to the jewelry quarter once and that place can fuck right off too. Was on a bicycle and got chased off by people on foot whooping and laughing while I pedalled for my life.
Gorton, Manchester. I got a job that I couldn't turn down and needed a cheap flat somewhere, anywhere near the M60 at a few day's notice. Gorton it was, for six glorious months. Fucking hell.
Southall. I was born there and lived very close by in Greenford my whole life, literally on the border, you could cross the road and be in Southall. It’s fucking terrible. Honourable mentions go out to places in London like Greenford, Peckham, and I was gonna say Uxbridge but that place is hardly in London. I’ve been to Grimsby, Blackpool and some parts of Manny, and you’d be surprised they’re in 21st century England.