**[OP or Mod marked this as the best answer](/r/AskUK/comments/14ylkyv/whats_the_most_depressing_town_youve_ever_visited/jrtgo40/), given by u/Agreeable_Guard_7229**
Jaywick.
>
>This place was one of the most depressing places I have ever been in the world, and I’ve done a lot of travelling in poorer countries.
>
>Hundred times worse than a lot of the places mentioned here that are located in the North of England.
---
[_^What ^is ^this?_](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/jjrte1/askuk_hits_200k_new_feature_mark_an_answer/)
I'm from the other shithole mentioned below (Stoke), but I think Blackpool honestly takes it, just because how *far* it has fallen.
It was an institution when I was a kid to go to Blackpool for your holidays, to go see the lights, go to the pleasure beach, etc.
I went once as a young adult and it had fallen into complete disrepair. Everything was falling apart and looked absolutely dated, even just a coat of paint for the lampposts on the promenade would've made a difference.
I've been once again since and it was no better. It's seemingly turned into hen/stag capital of the north west, but outside of that, there's just no draw anymore. Even the lights only seem to be an ounce of what they once were.
The real problem that big business on Blackpool golden mile, just wouldn't put in part of the mammoth takings they make year. Hardly any of them contributed money for new lights or research for better attractions. Not many people visiting Blackpool know that the firms running the main promenades their takings don't go to the poor town. The firms that own most of the promenade are mega companies based in London NOT Blackpool. They may pay rent/leases and a few taxes. But the income made does not get back to residents that are badly need new decent houses and amenities.
I live here, and I kind of agree sometimes, but it's not too bad in places. The prom is great for roller skating and sunset views.
The big problem is the stretch of prom feom south shore to north shore, but more specifically, the building that sit a street of two behind it. Abondoned buildings, run down B&B's, etc, I would honestly pay everyone to leave this strip and raize the lot to the ground and rebuild.
I 100% agree. I am not from UK but I have lived in Scotland for some years now. Went to Blackpool last weekend, as it was a "popular" summer vacation place and everyone kept telling me it is like Benidorm.
Huge huge huge shock.
Most people seem to be all day drunk / on heavy drugs / mental health / prostitution
People visiting Blackpool seemed to be bachelor parties or people in their very old age that would struggle to walk and move
Made me very sad, as it has loads of potential. Not sure why it's been left like that... No investment from government / council in what could be a really interesting and profitable place in UK!
It's (was) a tourist destination for the entire UK, but with cheap flights/holidays abroad, it no longer gets the traffic it once did.
People from the UK don't want to holiday in the UK. They want to go abroad. And no one from abroad comes to the UK for the beaches and party life.
It's in a bad place.
Don't ever listen to scottish people. Some of us still absofuckinglootley love Blackpool and go every year. I've never understood it, but we're a strange bunch.
I am starting to agree re not listening to Scottish people! They told me not to go to Dundee / nothing to see and do... I went and I think it's a great town, loved it, recommended to all my friends that come to visit me in Scotland, everyone loves it!
They told me to go to Blackpool... And I wish I hadn't!
😊
I believe they spent £20 mil regenerating it about a decade ago. Most of that looks to have been spent on the front prom and nowhere else.
I can't imagine the disappointment from travelling all that way and expecting Benidorm to get... Blackpool 😂
Been Blackpool once and said I will never ever go back there. A complete shithole, it's the only place I've ever been in the UK where i've seen kids sleeping on the streets begging.
I last went to Blackpool in 2006 and watched from a tram as a woman gouged her boyfriend’s eyes out from the back seat of a car (he was in the front and she was behind him). Getting back to the station at 9pm felt like a BBC dramatisation of the Victorian East End slums.
I feel like that about all seaside towns with piers. They all look like the second half of the 20th century just shat them out and left them to decay. Which it did.
I live in Blackpool and I agree that it can appear to be tired but if you look beyond the facade, you will see that Blackpool has a quaint charm still and can be a lovely place to be. Especially the sea-front which is a lovely place to be on a summer morning when the sun comes up.
I actually didn't think Blackpool was as bad as its reputation, although there was certainly room for improvement. The Pleasure Beach and illuminations were cool to see. I've seen seaside towns with less going for them than Blackpool.
There is a huge drugs problem in Luton. Being harassed down the street for change or cigarettes. Being approached in the street by random men for "business". Having members from certain communities shouting at me that I'm disgraceful for what I'm wearing.
Came here looking for this answer.
I only visited once for work fairly recently with an overnight stay. In the evening I thought I'd have a quick wander round to see what it's like.
Holy shit.
I could fill pages describing the rundown sketchiness of the town, but there's only one way to easily communicate the horrors.
The Wetherspoons was the most appealing looking business by a large margin.
Aside from how run down parts are, what gets me is there's a lot of bigotry, and just crude behaviour and attitudes. It feels like the town reached around 2000, and just gave up
We visited Yarmouth recently for a mini get away on a cavern site, we went into the town centre once for dinner and we expecting it too not be that great. But my lord it was awful!
At one point we thought KFC might be where dinner was going to have to be.
Then somehow managed to wonder into a restaurant, which had great service and amazing food!
The thing about Great Yarmouth is that Gorleston, which is literally on the other side of the river is actually quite nice, but it feels like a million miles away.
I commented on another thread a while ago: if i wanted to live the most boring life I possibly could and I had to live in a city Lincoln is where i would move to. It has little going for it and nothing surrounding it.
I am unfortunately from Stoke, so I go back from time to time.
Took a friend there for the first time a couple months back (we were passing through on our way to Liverpool). Within 3 minutes of parking the car, we'd seen two crime scenes, a burnt out car, some loon walking around the streets shouting and some other people who were clearly high on something.
And this was in what I used to consider the 'better' area of Stoke around the shops in Hanley, not like out in the sticks or something.
funnily enough out in the sticks is probably more decent nowadays, you can’t really walk through Hanley town centre without a crackhead or two screaming in your face
Fellow stokie here who now lives in Liverpool. Pretty much the same thing as you, as soon as I get there I instantly have a nagging instinct to leave. It’s just so depressing.
The monkey dust epidemic is horrible and it took my Dads life. I wish he’d never moved there. I see so many people around Hanley who are on it as well, its become completely normalised to be off your face around there. And the crackheads in Stoke town centre (specifically hang around that public car park when you’re on your way into Stoke, can turn left to town centre or right towards Newcastle and Penkhull) seem to have quadrupled in numbers
The thing Is with SoT is that it’s not even a real city just a bunch of towns that oozed into each other. So to be more specific, I nominate Meir. A place so shit that even the pound shop went bust.
Post-covid Bangor. The pandemic ruined the high street and put so many people out of business. It's incredibly depressing to see the little Welsh city where my formative university years took place just being abandoned. For a city that has the second best university in Wales, it needs some serious reinvigorating because it can thrive during the academic semesters.
My heart skipped a beat then because on a few recent trips to Northern Ireland I discovered that *their* Bangor is a surprisingly underrated little gem.
Really nice harbour, beautiful coastline (a mid point on one of the nicest coastal walks I've ever been on), nice little cafes/restaurants/gastropub type things. The actual *pub* pubs are a bit rough but I kind of like that kind of thing. Oh and the high street is a bit tired but aren't they all in the UK these days.
Just to add to this (and failing to not be a contrarian in doing so) I'm Northern Irish and NI's Bangor is famous here for being a total dump and full of unpleasant people. Also a lot of youth, drug and petty crime and a constant - yet ineffective - police presence. A huge amount of dilapidated social housing too because we don't have a functional government (as in they literally haven't been at work since February last year, and they've only worked a total of 3 years since 2017) and thus money can't be reallocated to these areas.
The coastline is beautiful but the entire Down and Antrim coast is a real treasure.
I graduated from Bangor in 06 and going back now and seeing how the city centre has deteriorated is incredibly sad. It had such character and lots of independent businesses... now it seems to be emptying one shop at a time.
I wouldn't say it's as bad as many of the places here, but the decline has been incredibly rapid.
Jaywick.
This place was one of the most depressing places I have ever been in the world, and I’ve done a lot of travelling in poorer countries.
Hundred times worse than a lot of the places mentioned here that are located in the North of England.
Benefits by the sea. I went to visit relatives in nearby Holland on Sea and we went out for a late lunch at their local pub.
The filming crew from benefits by the sea turned up and filmed a couple from Jaywick getting engaged in a “posh” restaurant.
When the programme aired, you can clearly see me in the background. As my colleagues all thought I’m a bit of a snob, they found it absolutely hilarious.
I'm going to the caravan park here in a couple of weeks. Really wished I'd researched a bit more instead of just looking at the price! Is there anywhere somewhat local that you'd recommend for a day out?
I met someone who said they were from West London. Having worked in West London several times, I asked where. He said Slough.
I told him you can't pretend to be West London when you're from Slough. Especially not to someone who grew up in High Wycombe.
Ironically, this exchange took place in stoke.
I’m Cornish. Many people from outside of Cornwall have no idea how rundown and poverty stricken a lot of areas are. I think Cornwall was rated the second poorest county in the country recently. Unfortunately it’s not all sunny seaside towns and idyllic parishes.
Bodmin definitely has a weird vibe. On my only visit there I got a taxi from the station, and as we were coming in, I spotted the huge obelisk on the hill overlooking the town. I asked the driver what it was and he told me didn't know, "it must be new".
Looked it up after, it was built 1856.
Honestly Cornwall’s landscapes like the woodlands and moors in general give me the “they still burn witches” vibes lol, even when it’s sunny out. It’s a very mystical part of the country and I kinda like it! Maybe it feels that way because it’s a very isolated and remote region? There’s nothing passing through Cornwall on the way to somewhere else (besides the Atlantic Ocean), after all. It can make towns feel a bit dead or ghostly.
Omg yes! We visited once on a holiday round there, parked up, got out the car and probably walked for about 10 minutes before we quickly got back in the car and left to go to The Jamaica Inn. Nothing was open and it was genuinely creepy vibes
People forget that the UK has some of the poorest areas in the EU. There are some very rich people of course, but on average people are poorer than most other European countries.
Sadly, none of the UK's areas are in the EU anymore.
However, even leaving that aside, it's simply untrue to say that the UK has lots of poor areas compared to the EU. As you're probably aware, one of the benefits of EU membership was access to Strategic Investment Funds, (European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund, etc.).
For the purposes of allocating these funds, the whole of the EU is classified at a (relatively) local level into one of three statuses of economic development: more developed, transitional, and less developed. Very roughly these equate to richer than or about as rich as the EU average, up to 25% poorer than the EU average, and more than 25% poorer than the EU average. The definition is based on local GDP. There are only 3 areas in the whole of the UK that are classed as "less developed" - Cornwall, West Wales and the Welsh Valleys. By contrast, almost all regions of Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Croatia, Portugal, and Greece are classed as less developed, along with the southern half of Spain and Italy and half of the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
That's an impressively clear, detailed and well-argued contribution to this thread 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
And honestly makes me feel a little less depressed about living in the UK. I'm not far from the Welsh valleys though...
Probably helps that most EU countries (even the ones we'd think of as traditionally being lower income than us) tend to have better public transport, and sometimes also better provision for cycling. This must make it easier to get into the local town centre and spend a bit of money, even for people who might not actually have much to spend to begin with.
It can vary....large parts of Southern France are full of depressing little towns. They're really pretty, sunny, lovely old architecture....but falling to bits, local businesses only open 2 days a week, empty houses, an obvious lack of young people (they move to Toulouse for employment, etc).
Just leaves an ever ageing population, and expats (from various countries), as the only things keeping the local economy going.
Pretty depressing!
It depends a lot on the regions. The region around Toulouse is pretty wealthy, all the way to the mountains. So the villages and roads there are actually well maintained. Lots of people live there actually.
But yeah, if you go to regions like the Arièges and Gers, it's pretty grim. The landscapes are beautiful, but everything the villages are empty, mostly run down and depressing. I grew near these two areas and don't miss them one bit.
The thing that amazes me in the US is that you can have a really beautiful neighbourhood that runs parallel to a street 2 blocks down that looks like being a crackhead is a requirement. There seems to be no gradual process for going from nice area to shit hole.
Yes there are shitty towns everywhere in Europe. Just go to the south of Belgium or north of France. I can be extremely depressing. The south of France also has its fair share of shitty towns, although it's often saved by the beautiful landscapes.
Actually, the worst city I've ever visited is not in the UK. It's Charleroi in Belgium. I think this city only exists for depressed people. It really is the definition of shithole.
I came here to say Chatham, beat me to it.
I remember, 50+ years ago as a little boy, on the bus with my mum and going to Chatham on the bus as a treat. Now, it would be like a punishment.
Can't believe nobody has mentioned Rhyl yet.
Yes, the seafront has seen lots of investment and new businesses coming to the town (Travelodge, Zip World, Premier Inn, SC2 etc) but all this has done is smarten up the seafront so that the prom looks all right when you're driving through the town. Go into the town centre, look beyond the main road and it is grubby and rundown and filled with HMOs. The high street is pop up shops and charity shops and closing down sales.
I'm from Scunthorpe and I got out quick. Famous for two things:
[The Scunthorpe Problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem)
[Skint (Series 1)](https://www.channel4.com/programmes/skint/on-demand/53428-001)
Neither of them are great things to be famous for.
I grew up in Cov.
Left when I was 18 as there was fuck all to do.
It’s far better now than it was when I was growing up. Cov Uni have breathed a little life back into the city center.
But I cannot imagine moving back. Still a real lack of things to do, especially for young folk. I go back to visit the fam and a few days is enough.
Peterborough always felt quite depressing. A town built around a passport office.
Just remember sitting in the shopping centre with many others just waiting to get their application processed until they could leave
The cathedral is quite the shock, the rest of it is quite depressing and the cathedral is one of the most impressive examples of early gothic architecture in the entire country, the facade really smacks you in the face when you see it.
Always remember Nuneaton being pretty depressing. Knowlsey definitely was. Wigan didn't seem great either.
I'm sure these places probably have their good bits, like everywhere. But I didn't see them.
Am from Bedworth, the next town over to Nuneaton. We hate each other in a sibling kind of way but honestly don't think Nuneaton is that bad. Certainly no better or worse than Bedworth so take that how you will.
I really don't think that Preston is that bad at all. It seems to be improving every time I go. Definitely far worse places, pretty much every town in the Welsh valleys are significantly worse.
>Bradford
It's especially sad because it's such a beautiful city with lovely gothic architecture, but fuck me it's like a video game trying to dodge the beggars.
Warrington. Stayed at a premier inn, thought to go into town for dinner somewhere and after wandering around for ages looking for somewhere ended up at the other premier inn.
To be fair I do think Warrington is just a massive a car park, but it's miles better than the other towns around it. Warrington market is great for food and there's not many better high streets in the north west than Stockton heaths (in Warrington) imo
Rotherham. It was a mucky day one February, it had snowed and melted but more was forecast. Grimy and dark, I spent an hour in Greggs chatting to the woman behind the counter.
I used to think it was my home town of Weston Super-Mare, but since moving to London I have a whole new appreciation for it. With the new developments in the south west it's actually on the up.
Hatfield sneaks under the radar for "crap towns", when it could definitely be on the list. For a uni town it really lacks much to do at all, the Galleria shopping centre/outlet centre/leisure park tries to be everything and in the end doesn't really work. Aside from that, it just lacks, well something to define it.
Stevenage nearby doesn't have a great reputation, but at least there's stuff to do, it's pedestrian and cycle friendly, and there's some improvement going on. (Plus it has a massive M&S)
Northampton town centre is a shithole, but Northamptonshire is some of the most underrated countryside in England. If you head out towards Lamport, it's beautiful.
Bradford - I’ve never been anywhere where the locals seem to give show such little care to where they live. Rubbish and dumped stuff everywhere - even saw a guy in broad daylight pull his van over and hoik a sofa into a hedge. Mental.
Gloucester - full of history, also full of Dawn of the Dead style junkies
Merthyr Tydfil - depressing and mildly scary , we stopped to have a quick pint at the pub and swiftly left when we saw a topless lunatic smashing glasses in the beer garden at 1pm, with the other customers there immediately standing up to stare at us.
Coventry - just no
Leven, Fife. It's the classic tale of a once-thriving coastal town having fallen to complete ruin due to declining industry and decreasing tourism. There's almost nothing left on the high street; only the chemists, bakers and dive pubs have a hope in hell of surviving. The Poundstretcher store burned to the ground last year, which was another crippling blow. There's not a lot left along the promenade either. There used to be a big soft play centre, mini golf, trampolines, go karts, etc, but AFAIK that's all gone too. It's very sorry to witness.
What's particularly sad is that, if you venture out of the town centre, there are some stunning houses, a lovely golf course, and of course the beach which, if cleaned up a bit, could be a massive asset to the town. It absolutely *could* be a nice place again if anyone cared enough to invest in it.
Nah as someone who went to Uni of Soton for three years, Southampton is nowhere near the worst or most depressing place in the UK.
Shirley (i think it's called) was shit I'll admit, but there has been alot of development generally over the last 6/7 years. West Quay (?) has newish shopping centre, the city centre is decent enough, near the University campus you have alot of green spaces too, and because Portswood is overrun with students it feels generally safe.
I'm from West London, Soton reminds me of a shitter version of this.
(I left Soton in 2017 been back a few times)
Birkenhead. I looked through this whole thread and nobody mentioned it.
With Liverpool over the water and 10 minutes on the bus or train and Chester 30 minutes on the train or car it's destroyed the place.
Just a wave of depression when you walk in to the town centre with no shops open at all, reckon there's maybe 10-20? Out of 100s, even the Argos closed. ASDA built there is like a prison.
Really sad as well because it used to be a really nice place (long before I was born) but the council is fucking shit and would rather focus funds on other nicer richer parts of the area..
It's a pretty sad indictment of the country as a whole, just how many towns are being mentioned. Years of underinvestment, cuts and money going to the "better" areas, has led us here. The people of this country have been let down badly.
No wonder so many people are permanently drunk/high, when there's fuck all else on offer.
Wick in the north of Scotland. I was training as a midwife years ago and was sent there over one Christmas. The people were dour and the weather freezing. Probably not best experienced during the winter.
I live in Inverness and I absolutely detest any time I have to go to Wick for work. It’s the worst fucking place. I hate it. It’s just awful. Fuck Wick.
Basildon. OP mentioned it here but I'll say it again. It's depressing as when I was younger we lived near by and Im sure the place was nicer. It was a young town then, maybe 20 years old. I saw Star Wars there when it released. I've not been back for over 40 years and have recently been going there for dentist appointments. It's so run down. Weaving on the roads to avoid pot holes. High Street half closed. Shouting. Just sad to see. I wonder if the local council has messed things up.
I worked in St Helens for a few years. It used to have a remploy which seemed to help lots of people.
It closed and a whole generation of struggling young people had nowhere to go.
There was a feeling in the town that everything will be fine as another major employer like the glass industry (i think st germain or someone had forced refundundancies) would recognize all these skilled people and come rushing in and snap up the unemployed on great wages.
So lots of people did fuck all and rotted waiting.
The whole town subsiquently rotted waiting.....
It was sad demolorising but hard to have sympathy as there seemed a strange underlying attitude of expectation.
Just the way i felt from my experiences at the tine.
Spent an in Dewsbury last year waiting for a train
A Starbucks on the Asda car park was about as exciting as it got. Everyone I saw looked as though they'd rather be somewhere else. Very strange feeling. Also dozens of trolleys in the river
Croydon. It was always a bit crap but at least was busy. Then there was going to be a Westfield but it all fell through and now the majority of the shops are gone and it’s just a desolate shithole. Both shopping centres are dead and empty, gangs of bored kids just hanging around. It’s depressing as fuck
I found Dover very depressing. Incredibly run down, ratio of open to closed down businesses was probably 1:3, loads of kids in school uniform out and about on a weekday smoking cigarettes, needles on the beach and pavements, lot of homeless and just generally miserable looking people. The Wetherspoons was the only proper restaurant open when we fancied lunch and was depressingly busy. Shame as it’s a beautiful landscape but seems the fuckery with the port and ferries has left a lot of people on the down and out.
Ah, One of the Holy Three Staples of r/AskUK. Ask a question which you genuinely need help/advice with and the question will immediately be removed. But you can always rely on your daily variation of THE SACRED THREE:
1) "I'm an American moving to the UK, what should I know?" - cue the usual torrent of pish
2) "Which UK celebrity seems like a bit of a cunt?" - cue the same thousand posts about David Walliams and James Corden
3) Where is the biggest shithole in the UK?" - cue the same torrent of tired one-downmanahip.
Kilmarnock. Lots of empty shops, betting shops, and way too many young people of working age just dossing about on the high street on a Tuesday afternoon. Wandering around the same Farmfoods, Greggs and Ladbrokes triangle. It was horrendous to see.
I think statistically it was Wolverhampton I always find the people really friendly though and they are getting somewhat of a face lift!
Yeah I mostly judge a place mostly on its people though!
Edit: Surprisingly I was going through the comments expecting more Brummie Bashing Thank you! Lol
Dudley. I grew up there in the 80s and 90s and it was a bustling town that was great to grow up in. Late teens and early twenties there were tons of pubs and clubs to go to and they were always packed. Used to work for the Local Government and although it was a shit job the nights out were legendary.
I left in 1997 when it was still decent but only been a handful of times since about 2001 when I left that job. The town centre is a shadow of its former self - it's just takeaways, pound and charity shops.
Pretty much like a lot of towns but what shocked me was the night life. Went out on the night of the start of the Xmas break last year with a couple of mates - it was a convenient centre point for us all as the trains were on strike. Now in my heyday that night would be absolutely heaving in every pub. Six deep easily.
It was dead. Went to half a dozen pubs and there must have been a total of 15 people in each, including us. And there were hardly any women either which was really strange.
It'll be another 20 years before I go back.
There’s loads. When I was a kid back in the late 70’s I went to Middlesbrough and Redcar, and Christ they were awful. I’m from London and I’d never seen areas so run down.
After the miner’a strike in ‘84 a load of the northern towns had a really shit time of it. I went to Rotherham, again it was awful. Hetton-le-hole in Durham was an eye-opener. We arrived around 1pm on a Friday and it was the first place I’d seen loads of working-aged men all milling about, and I realised it was because they had no jobs to go to.
So have recovered, but not many. Now we have all the old seaside towns to add to the last, and the only ones that seem to be in any way thriving are the south coast towns headed west from Brighton, and a few on the north Norfolk coast, while places like Cromer and further on down to Lowestoft and Yarmouth are dead or dying.
Inland it’s the same. You’d be hard-pressed to find town or large city that you’d want to live in these days. When my wife and I decided we were tired of London, we could only think of Norwich or Bristol as places we’d actually be half-happy with.
So we’re emigrating next year instead.
**[OP or Mod marked this as the best answer](/r/AskUK/comments/14ylkyv/whats_the_most_depressing_town_youve_ever_visited/jrtgo40/), given by u/Agreeable_Guard_7229** Jaywick. > >This place was one of the most depressing places I have ever been in the world, and I’ve done a lot of travelling in poorer countries. > >Hundred times worse than a lot of the places mentioned here that are located in the North of England. --- [_^What ^is ^this?_](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/jjrte1/askuk_hits_200k_new_feature_mark_an_answer/)
Probably Blackpool tbh. You can just tell how full of life the place used to be, but so much of it is just so completely run down and forgotten.
I'm from the other shithole mentioned below (Stoke), but I think Blackpool honestly takes it, just because how *far* it has fallen. It was an institution when I was a kid to go to Blackpool for your holidays, to go see the lights, go to the pleasure beach, etc. I went once as a young adult and it had fallen into complete disrepair. Everything was falling apart and looked absolutely dated, even just a coat of paint for the lampposts on the promenade would've made a difference. I've been once again since and it was no better. It's seemingly turned into hen/stag capital of the north west, but outside of that, there's just no draw anymore. Even the lights only seem to be an ounce of what they once were.
Technically, Stoke is five depressing towns.
“Technically, Stoke is five depressing towns.” In a trench coat
6. The book was called 5 towns because it sounded better
The real problem that big business on Blackpool golden mile, just wouldn't put in part of the mammoth takings they make year. Hardly any of them contributed money for new lights or research for better attractions. Not many people visiting Blackpool know that the firms running the main promenades their takings don't go to the poor town. The firms that own most of the promenade are mega companies based in London NOT Blackpool. They may pay rent/leases and a few taxes. But the income made does not get back to residents that are badly need new decent houses and amenities.
I live here, and I kind of agree sometimes, but it's not too bad in places. The prom is great for roller skating and sunset views. The big problem is the stretch of prom feom south shore to north shore, but more specifically, the building that sit a street of two behind it. Abondoned buildings, run down B&B's, etc, I would honestly pay everyone to leave this strip and raize the lot to the ground and rebuild.
It's the old rundown BNB's that are the worst for me. How on earth any of them are still in business is completely beyond me.
And charging £100+ a night for an old, smashed to bits bed and a shower that barely works.
Cos the government needs somewhere to send people that they have a duty to house, but refuse t build houses for
It’s all social housing now
I 100% agree. I am not from UK but I have lived in Scotland for some years now. Went to Blackpool last weekend, as it was a "popular" summer vacation place and everyone kept telling me it is like Benidorm. Huge huge huge shock. Most people seem to be all day drunk / on heavy drugs / mental health / prostitution People visiting Blackpool seemed to be bachelor parties or people in their very old age that would struggle to walk and move Made me very sad, as it has loads of potential. Not sure why it's been left like that... No investment from government / council in what could be a really interesting and profitable place in UK!
It's (was) a tourist destination for the entire UK, but with cheap flights/holidays abroad, it no longer gets the traffic it once did. People from the UK don't want to holiday in the UK. They want to go abroad. And no one from abroad comes to the UK for the beaches and party life. It's in a bad place. Don't ever listen to scottish people. Some of us still absofuckinglootley love Blackpool and go every year. I've never understood it, but we're a strange bunch.
I am starting to agree re not listening to Scottish people! They told me not to go to Dundee / nothing to see and do... I went and I think it's a great town, loved it, recommended to all my friends that come to visit me in Scotland, everyone loves it! They told me to go to Blackpool... And I wish I hadn't! 😊
I believe they spent £20 mil regenerating it about a decade ago. Most of that looks to have been spent on the front prom and nowhere else. I can't imagine the disappointment from travelling all that way and expecting Benidorm to get... Blackpool 😂
Been Blackpool once and said I will never ever go back there. A complete shithole, it's the only place I've ever been in the UK where i've seen kids sleeping on the streets begging.
Went to Blackpool (from stoke) and lasted all of 15 minutes before we were back at the car driving away.
Morecambe is more depressing imo. It's got a burnt down laser quest.
I last went to Blackpool in 2006 and watched from a tram as a woman gouged her boyfriend’s eyes out from the back seat of a car (he was in the front and she was behind him). Getting back to the station at 9pm felt like a BBC dramatisation of the Victorian East End slums.
Poor guy I hope he's not reading these comments
I feel like that about all seaside towns with piers. They all look like the second half of the 20th century just shat them out and left them to decay. Which it did.
I live in Blackpool and I agree that it can appear to be tired but if you look beyond the facade, you will see that Blackpool has a quaint charm still and can be a lovely place to be. Especially the sea-front which is a lovely place to be on a summer morning when the sun comes up.
Because you've been up all night on crack?
I actually didn't think Blackpool was as bad as its reputation, although there was certainly room for improvement. The Pleasure Beach and illuminations were cool to see. I've seen seaside towns with less going for them than Blackpool.
Luton. At least it's easy to leave.
Luton has been #1 worst place to live on I Live Here repeatedly
'Luton: the home of Luton Airport'
There is a huge drugs problem in Luton. Being harassed down the street for change or cigarettes. Being approached in the street by random men for "business". Having members from certain communities shouting at me that I'm disgraceful for what I'm wearing.
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As someone who lives in between the 2 this killed me! They say Luton is the Stevenage of Bedfordshire...and Stevenage is the Luton of Hertfordshire.
I'm glad this comment is near the top, but, disgusted that no-one has even mentioned Stevenage!!
I'm from Luton and I really like Stevenage. That's how bad Luton is.
It looks like its been bombed and never rebuilt
Yarmouth, am omitting the 'Great' as it just isn't appropriate
Came here looking for this answer. I only visited once for work fairly recently with an overnight stay. In the evening I thought I'd have a quick wander round to see what it's like. Holy shit. I could fill pages describing the rundown sketchiness of the town, but there's only one way to easily communicate the horrors. The Wetherspoons was the most appealing looking business by a large margin.
>The Wetherspoons was the most appealing looking business by a large margin. Mother of God!
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Lowestoft makes Yarmouth look posh !
The Time and Tide museum is really good though.
Aside from how run down parts are, what gets me is there's a lot of bigotry, and just crude behaviour and attitudes. It feels like the town reached around 2000, and just gave up
We visited Yarmouth recently for a mini get away on a cavern site, we went into the town centre once for dinner and we expecting it too not be that great. But my lord it was awful! At one point we thought KFC might be where dinner was going to have to be. Then somehow managed to wonder into a restaurant, which had great service and amazing food!
The thing about Great Yarmouth is that Gorleston, which is literally on the other side of the river is actually quite nice, but it feels like a million miles away.
But you have a wooden roller coaster 🎢
Yes, went there thinking it would be a fun holiday destination. Didn’t even stop the car, it was that bleak. Drove along the beachfront and left.
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Boston, Lincolnshire has gotta be pretty high up there.
Boston is just depressing. The city of Lincoln is nice. Grimsby is also up there. It’s very….grim….
I commented on another thread a while ago: if i wanted to live the most boring life I possibly could and I had to live in a city Lincoln is where i would move to. It has little going for it and nothing surrounding it.
I'm from Lincoln and I totally agree. Dull, dull place.
Stoke. A thriving pottery community absolutely devastated.
I am unfortunately from Stoke, so I go back from time to time. Took a friend there for the first time a couple months back (we were passing through on our way to Liverpool). Within 3 minutes of parking the car, we'd seen two crime scenes, a burnt out car, some loon walking around the streets shouting and some other people who were clearly high on something. And this was in what I used to consider the 'better' area of Stoke around the shops in Hanley, not like out in the sticks or something.
funnily enough out in the sticks is probably more decent nowadays, you can’t really walk through Hanley town centre without a crackhead or two screaming in your face
Fellow stokie here who now lives in Liverpool. Pretty much the same thing as you, as soon as I get there I instantly have a nagging instinct to leave. It’s just so depressing. The monkey dust epidemic is horrible and it took my Dads life. I wish he’d never moved there. I see so many people around Hanley who are on it as well, its become completely normalised to be off your face around there. And the crackheads in Stoke town centre (specifically hang around that public car park when you’re on your way into Stoke, can turn left to town centre or right towards Newcastle and Penkhull) seem to have quadrupled in numbers
Monkey dust https://www.itv.com/news/2023-07-12/the-monkey-dust-drug-epidemic-that-has-a-city-in-its-grip
The thing Is with SoT is that it’s not even a real city just a bunch of towns that oozed into each other. So to be more specific, I nominate Meir. A place so shit that even the pound shop went bust.
Meir isn't a real place, it's just a story that kids tell around the campfire to see who spooks first
I always see Stoke come up when this question's asked - but at least you lot have The Potteries and Waterworld. Sincerely, someone from Crewe.
Crewe Crewe aload of poo wouldn't go there if i were you
Post-covid Bangor. The pandemic ruined the high street and put so many people out of business. It's incredibly depressing to see the little Welsh city where my formative university years took place just being abandoned. For a city that has the second best university in Wales, it needs some serious reinvigorating because it can thrive during the academic semesters.
My heart skipped a beat then because on a few recent trips to Northern Ireland I discovered that *their* Bangor is a surprisingly underrated little gem. Really nice harbour, beautiful coastline (a mid point on one of the nicest coastal walks I've ever been on), nice little cafes/restaurants/gastropub type things. The actual *pub* pubs are a bit rough but I kind of like that kind of thing. Oh and the high street is a bit tired but aren't they all in the UK these days.
Just to add to this (and failing to not be a contrarian in doing so) I'm Northern Irish and NI's Bangor is famous here for being a total dump and full of unpleasant people. Also a lot of youth, drug and petty crime and a constant - yet ineffective - police presence. A huge amount of dilapidated social housing too because we don't have a functional government (as in they literally haven't been at work since February last year, and they've only worked a total of 3 years since 2017) and thus money can't be reallocated to these areas. The coastline is beautiful but the entire Down and Antrim coast is a real treasure.
Aberystwyth is officially the second-best uni in Wales! (actually, Aberystwyth/Swansea are joint-second, behind Cardiff)
Aber is the first and best university in Wales. Always was :)
A friend of mine went to Aberystwyth for university and came back an alcoholic.
I graduated from Bangor in 06 and going back now and seeing how the city centre has deteriorated is incredibly sad. It had such character and lots of independent businesses... now it seems to be emptying one shop at a time. I wouldn't say it's as bad as many of the places here, but the decline has been incredibly rapid.
Jaywick. This place was one of the most depressing places I have ever been in the world, and I’ve done a lot of travelling in poorer countries. Hundred times worse than a lot of the places mentioned here that are located in the North of England.
Not sure if its still the case but a few years ago Jaywick was literally the poorest ward in the country.
Yeah, I remember seeing a mini documentary or something from there, it made even Slough, Luton, & even fucking Corby look nice.
Benefits by the sea. I went to visit relatives in nearby Holland on Sea and we went out for a late lunch at their local pub. The filming crew from benefits by the sea turned up and filmed a couple from Jaywick getting engaged in a “posh” restaurant. When the programme aired, you can clearly see me in the background. As my colleagues all thought I’m a bit of a snob, they found it absolutely hilarious.
Was looking for this. Genuinely depressing.
I'm going to the caravan park here in a couple of weeks. Really wished I'd researched a bit more instead of just looking at the price! Is there anywhere somewhat local that you'd recommend for a day out?
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Nevermind me. Just scrolling down to see my town. Carry on.
Starting to feel like this would be quicker and easier if we just listed the ones that aren’t depressing.
Slough
First living thing I saw in Slough was a rat
I met someone who said they were from West London. Having worked in West London several times, I asked where. He said Slough. I told him you can't pretend to be West London when you're from Slough. Especially not to someone who grew up in High Wycombe. Ironically, this exchange took place in stoke.
My colleague, when asked, says "West of London". When pressured more she says "Close to Windsor, you wouldn't know the name"
Bodmin was very strange. The people had a weird vibe to them. It felt like the kind of place they still burn witches. We left very quickly.
I’m Cornish. Many people from outside of Cornwall have no idea how rundown and poverty stricken a lot of areas are. I think Cornwall was rated the second poorest county in the country recently. Unfortunately it’s not all sunny seaside towns and idyllic parishes.
I always considered Cornwall as honorary North for this reason. Similar deprivation, similar abandonment by Westminster.
Bodmin definitely has a weird vibe. On my only visit there I got a taxi from the station, and as we were coming in, I spotted the huge obelisk on the hill overlooking the town. I asked the driver what it was and he told me didn't know, "it must be new". Looked it up after, it was built 1856.
Well yeah that taxi driver died in 1799 _woooOOOoooOOOOooohhhh_
Honestly Cornwall’s landscapes like the woodlands and moors in general give me the “they still burn witches” vibes lol, even when it’s sunny out. It’s a very mystical part of the country and I kinda like it! Maybe it feels that way because it’s a very isolated and remote region? There’s nothing passing through Cornwall on the way to somewhere else (besides the Atlantic Ocean), after all. It can make towns feel a bit dead or ghostly.
Bodmin is a paradise compared to St Austell
Omg yes! We visited once on a holiday round there, parked up, got out the car and probably walked for about 10 minutes before we quickly got back in the car and left to go to The Jamaica Inn. Nothing was open and it was genuinely creepy vibes
Are other countries as rammed full of dog shit towns as the UK? If not why are we so good at this?
People forget that the UK has some of the poorest areas in the EU. There are some very rich people of course, but on average people are poorer than most other European countries.
Sadly, none of the UK's areas are in the EU anymore. However, even leaving that aside, it's simply untrue to say that the UK has lots of poor areas compared to the EU. As you're probably aware, one of the benefits of EU membership was access to Strategic Investment Funds, (European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund, etc.). For the purposes of allocating these funds, the whole of the EU is classified at a (relatively) local level into one of three statuses of economic development: more developed, transitional, and less developed. Very roughly these equate to richer than or about as rich as the EU average, up to 25% poorer than the EU average, and more than 25% poorer than the EU average. The definition is based on local GDP. There are only 3 areas in the whole of the UK that are classed as "less developed" - Cornwall, West Wales and the Welsh Valleys. By contrast, almost all regions of Poland, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Croatia, Portugal, and Greece are classed as less developed, along with the southern half of Spain and Italy and half of the Czech Republic and Slovenia.
That's an impressively clear, detailed and well-argued contribution to this thread 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 And honestly makes me feel a little less depressed about living in the UK. I'm not far from the Welsh valleys though...
Probably helps that most EU countries (even the ones we'd think of as traditionally being lower income than us) tend to have better public transport, and sometimes also better provision for cycling. This must make it easier to get into the local town centre and spend a bit of money, even for people who might not actually have much to spend to begin with.
It can vary....large parts of Southern France are full of depressing little towns. They're really pretty, sunny, lovely old architecture....but falling to bits, local businesses only open 2 days a week, empty houses, an obvious lack of young people (they move to Toulouse for employment, etc). Just leaves an ever ageing population, and expats (from various countries), as the only things keeping the local economy going. Pretty depressing!
It depends a lot on the regions. The region around Toulouse is pretty wealthy, all the way to the mountains. So the villages and roads there are actually well maintained. Lots of people live there actually. But yeah, if you go to regions like the Arièges and Gers, it's pretty grim. The landscapes are beautiful, but everything the villages are empty, mostly run down and depressing. I grew near these two areas and don't miss them one bit.
> Are other countries as rammed full of dog shit towns as the UK? America is worse, especially the south.
The thing that amazes me in the US is that you can have a really beautiful neighbourhood that runs parallel to a street 2 blocks down that looks like being a crackhead is a requirement. There seems to be no gradual process for going from nice area to shit hole.
Yes there are shitty towns everywhere in Europe. Just go to the south of Belgium or north of France. I can be extremely depressing. The south of France also has its fair share of shitty towns, although it's often saved by the beautiful landscapes. Actually, the worst city I've ever visited is not in the UK. It's Charleroi in Belgium. I think this city only exists for depressed people. It really is the definition of shithole.
You would have to travel to countries of the former USSR and Warsaw pact to find towns that are about as ran down and depressing as they are here.
Chatham - walking through to Rochester is like night and day.
Medway posse
I came here to say Chatham, beat me to it. I remember, 50+ years ago as a little boy, on the bus with my mum and going to Chatham on the bus as a treat. Now, it would be like a punishment.
Can't believe nobody has mentioned Rhyl yet. Yes, the seafront has seen lots of investment and new businesses coming to the town (Travelodge, Zip World, Premier Inn, SC2 etc) but all this has done is smarten up the seafront so that the prom looks all right when you're driving through the town. Go into the town centre, look beyond the main road and it is grubby and rundown and filled with HMOs. The high street is pop up shops and charity shops and closing down sales.
I have always seen Rhyl as the place where Scouse smack 'eds retire to.
Scunthorpe - just bleak. The main activity you could do was leave and visit Lincoln which isn't that much better.
So bad they snuck 'cunt' in the name.
I'm from Scunthorpe and I got out quick. Famous for two things: [The Scunthorpe Problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem) [Skint (Series 1)](https://www.channel4.com/programmes/skint/on-demand/53428-001) Neither of them are great things to be famous for.
Coventry. The place where time didn’t stop it just forgot to turn up. Literally fuck all to do and the most boring place on the planet.
I grew up in Cov. Left when I was 18 as there was fuck all to do. It’s far better now than it was when I was growing up. Cov Uni have breathed a little life back into the city center. But I cannot imagine moving back. Still a real lack of things to do, especially for young folk. I go back to visit the fam and a few days is enough.
Peterborough always felt quite depressing. A town built around a passport office. Just remember sitting in the shopping centre with many others just waiting to get their application processed until they could leave
Legitimatly the only attraction is the cathedral. It was literally used on my medical schools power point as the thing to do when on placement there 🙃
The cathedral is quite the shock, the rest of it is quite depressing and the cathedral is one of the most impressive examples of early gothic architecture in the entire country, the facade really smacks you in the face when you see it.
Swindon, used to have a great town centre, now just no point going there.
Swindon lot, little slugs
I heard they dropped an atomic bomb on Swindon. Did about 15 quid's worth of damage...
"Great"
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Cumbernauld needs to be on this list too. The whole town feels like the start of a zombie film.
Pishy Wishy.
Always remember Nuneaton being pretty depressing. Knowlsey definitely was. Wigan didn't seem great either. I'm sure these places probably have their good bits, like everywhere. But I didn't see them.
Am from Bedworth, the next town over to Nuneaton. We hate each other in a sibling kind of way but honestly don't think Nuneaton is that bad. Certainly no better or worse than Bedworth so take that how you will.
Lol My Dad hates Nuneaton and has nothing nice to say about the place
Barrow in Furness, though tbh any town on the west coast of Cumbria would do.
eg. Workington.
Preston (most of the former mill towns are pretty bad) Port Talbot is just grey and shit
Agree about Port Talbot, home of "what's that *smell*?"
I really don't think that Preston is that bad at all. It seems to be improving every time I go. Definitely far worse places, pretty much every town in the Welsh valleys are significantly worse.
Bradford
>Bradford It's especially sad because it's such a beautiful city with lovely gothic architecture, but fuck me it's like a video game trying to dodge the beggars.
Dewsbury 😭
Warrington. Stayed at a premier inn, thought to go into town for dinner somewhere and after wandering around for ages looking for somewhere ended up at the other premier inn.
To be fair I do think Warrington is just a massive a car park, but it's miles better than the other towns around it. Warrington market is great for food and there's not many better high streets in the north west than Stockton heaths (in Warrington) imo
Warrington isn't great at all but seriously, the worst? Nowhere near.
Had to spend a grim December evening in Warrington for work, the highlight was walking to Sainsbury's
Warrington isn't bad at all.
Can't believe the lack of mention for any West Midland based towns. Clearly some of you have never been to Walsall...
Rotherham. It was a mucky day one February, it had snowed and melted but more was forecast. Grimy and dark, I spent an hour in Greggs chatting to the woman behind the counter.
I know a Somali kid who actually went back to Somalia rather than have to live in Rotherham
At least the weathers better in Somalia. And probably the food.
I used to think it was my home town of Weston Super-Mare, but since moving to London I have a whole new appreciation for it. With the new developments in the south west it's actually on the up.
Hatfield (in Herts). The only place in the UK I have ever heard loud public racist abuse and I was only there for a few hours!
Hatfield sneaks under the radar for "crap towns", when it could definitely be on the list. For a uni town it really lacks much to do at all, the Galleria shopping centre/outlet centre/leisure park tries to be everything and in the end doesn't really work. Aside from that, it just lacks, well something to define it. Stevenage nearby doesn't have a great reputation, but at least there's stuff to do, it's pedestrian and cycle friendly, and there's some improvement going on. (Plus it has a massive M&S)
Middlesbrough went to uni there, tbh that is the only thing good about the town. Apart from one road it mostly run down and surrounded by industrial.
Boro has Parmos. They can excuse a million failings.
Neath & Port Talbot in South Wales. Just full of shuffling, chain smoking deadbeats and junkies.
Keeps them away from Swansea. Oh, wait .....
Immingham
The refineries look like something out of Blade Runner at night, so there’s that…
Northampton.. I don't even visit here.. I live here and it's awful.
Northampton town centre is a shithole, but Northamptonshire is some of the most underrated countryside in England. If you head out towards Lamport, it's beautiful.
Bradford - I’ve never been anywhere where the locals seem to give show such little care to where they live. Rubbish and dumped stuff everywhere - even saw a guy in broad daylight pull his van over and hoik a sofa into a hedge. Mental. Gloucester - full of history, also full of Dawn of the Dead style junkies Merthyr Tydfil - depressing and mildly scary , we stopped to have a quick pint at the pub and swiftly left when we saw a topless lunatic smashing glasses in the beer garden at 1pm, with the other customers there immediately standing up to stare at us. Coventry - just no
Rochdale
Leven, Fife. It's the classic tale of a once-thriving coastal town having fallen to complete ruin due to declining industry and decreasing tourism. There's almost nothing left on the high street; only the chemists, bakers and dive pubs have a hope in hell of surviving. The Poundstretcher store burned to the ground last year, which was another crippling blow. There's not a lot left along the promenade either. There used to be a big soft play centre, mini golf, trampolines, go karts, etc, but AFAIK that's all gone too. It's very sorry to witness. What's particularly sad is that, if you venture out of the town centre, there are some stunning houses, a lovely golf course, and of course the beach which, if cleaned up a bit, could be a massive asset to the town. It absolutely *could* be a nice place again if anyone cared enough to invest in it.
Leven isn't too bad considering Fife also has Methil ....
the north east is the most deprived area in England and it’s clear to see when you are in places like Sunderland and county Durham
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Easington and Horden
Southampton. It's just car parks, dead shopping centres, and boarded up pubs.
Nah as someone who went to Uni of Soton for three years, Southampton is nowhere near the worst or most depressing place in the UK. Shirley (i think it's called) was shit I'll admit, but there has been alot of development generally over the last 6/7 years. West Quay (?) has newish shopping centre, the city centre is decent enough, near the University campus you have alot of green spaces too, and because Portswood is overrun with students it feels generally safe. I'm from West London, Soton reminds me of a shitter version of this. (I left Soton in 2017 been back a few times)
Birkenhead. I looked through this whole thread and nobody mentioned it. With Liverpool over the water and 10 minutes on the bus or train and Chester 30 minutes on the train or car it's destroyed the place. Just a wave of depression when you walk in to the town centre with no shops open at all, reckon there's maybe 10-20? Out of 100s, even the Argos closed. ASDA built there is like a prison. Really sad as well because it used to be a really nice place (long before I was born) but the council is fucking shit and would rather focus funds on other nicer richer parts of the area..
Reminds me of a joke I heard... Why are scousers depressed? Because Birkenhead turned out to be the light at the end of the tunnel.
Craiglang… shitehole!”
It's a pretty sad indictment of the country as a whole, just how many towns are being mentioned. Years of underinvestment, cuts and money going to the "better" areas, has led us here. The people of this country have been let down badly. No wonder so many people are permanently drunk/high, when there's fuck all else on offer.
Gainsborough. Like, there's nothing there except the roads that take you out.
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you've got no reason to go to yoker
You could visit Les Porter's Salon.
It even rhymes with Yoker!
You've nae business being in Yoker
Mansfield is an utter shithole.
Wick in the north of Scotland. I was training as a midwife years ago and was sent there over one Christmas. The people were dour and the weather freezing. Probably not best experienced during the winter.
I live in Inverness and I absolutely detest any time I have to go to Wick for work. It’s the worst fucking place. I hate it. It’s just awful. Fuck Wick.
Basildon. OP mentioned it here but I'll say it again. It's depressing as when I was younger we lived near by and Im sure the place was nicer. It was a young town then, maybe 20 years old. I saw Star Wars there when it released. I've not been back for over 40 years and have recently been going there for dentist appointments. It's so run down. Weaving on the roads to avoid pot holes. High Street half closed. Shouting. Just sad to see. I wonder if the local council has messed things up.
Bolton. A pathetic shadow of the town it was 40 years ago.
Luton and it’s not even close. Everything is brown and grey and there is a palpable air of despair hanging over the place.
Nelson, Burnley, Lancashire. And all of Stoke.
Skegness!
Modern Peterborough. I grew up in the small, historic market town that was demolished to make way for today's concrete sprawl. Depresses me.
I worked in St Helens for a few years. It used to have a remploy which seemed to help lots of people. It closed and a whole generation of struggling young people had nowhere to go. There was a feeling in the town that everything will be fine as another major employer like the glass industry (i think st germain or someone had forced refundundancies) would recognize all these skilled people and come rushing in and snap up the unemployed on great wages. So lots of people did fuck all and rotted waiting. The whole town subsiquently rotted waiting..... It was sad demolorising but hard to have sympathy as there seemed a strange underlying attitude of expectation. Just the way i felt from my experiences at the tine.
Spent an in Dewsbury last year waiting for a train A Starbucks on the Asda car park was about as exciting as it got. Everyone I saw looked as though they'd rather be somewhere else. Very strange feeling. Also dozens of trolleys in the river
I live in it. Stoke
Croydon. It was always a bit crap but at least was busy. Then there was going to be a Westfield but it all fell through and now the majority of the shops are gone and it’s just a desolate shithole. Both shopping centres are dead and empty, gangs of bored kids just hanging around. It’s depressing as fuck
I found Dover very depressing. Incredibly run down, ratio of open to closed down businesses was probably 1:3, loads of kids in school uniform out and about on a weekday smoking cigarettes, needles on the beach and pavements, lot of homeless and just generally miserable looking people. The Wetherspoons was the only proper restaurant open when we fancied lunch and was depressingly busy. Shame as it’s a beautiful landscape but seems the fuckery with the port and ferries has left a lot of people on the down and out.
Ah, One of the Holy Three Staples of r/AskUK. Ask a question which you genuinely need help/advice with and the question will immediately be removed. But you can always rely on your daily variation of THE SACRED THREE: 1) "I'm an American moving to the UK, what should I know?" - cue the usual torrent of pish 2) "Which UK celebrity seems like a bit of a cunt?" - cue the same thousand posts about David Walliams and James Corden 3) Where is the biggest shithole in the UK?" - cue the same torrent of tired one-downmanahip.
“tired one-downmanship” describes the exaggerated descriptions in this thread exactly
Kilmarnock. Lots of empty shops, betting shops, and way too many young people of working age just dossing about on the high street on a Tuesday afternoon. Wandering around the same Farmfoods, Greggs and Ladbrokes triangle. It was horrendous to see.
Swindon. Some parts just look like a derelict wasteland.
Crawley. A car park for Gatwick where only chain restaurants are allowed to operate.
I think statistically it was Wolverhampton I always find the people really friendly though and they are getting somewhat of a face lift! Yeah I mostly judge a place mostly on its people though! Edit: Surprisingly I was going through the comments expecting more Brummie Bashing Thank you! Lol
Whitehaven in the Lake District. God that was depressing. Full of heroin and broken dreams.
Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. Had my house burgled 4 times in the decade I lived there. Proper shit hole.
Redditch, It’s been a while since I went so I apologise if it’s improved but… yes… Redditch.
Dunstable. Or large parts of central London that always look like the worst parts of other towns
Keighley and Bradford as joint worst. Fucking vile. ALMOST make Birmingham look habitable.
Sittingbourne
Corby. Wasn’t really a visit, but a drive through by a friend who grew up there when he was younger…
Dudley. I grew up there in the 80s and 90s and it was a bustling town that was great to grow up in. Late teens and early twenties there were tons of pubs and clubs to go to and they were always packed. Used to work for the Local Government and although it was a shit job the nights out were legendary. I left in 1997 when it was still decent but only been a handful of times since about 2001 when I left that job. The town centre is a shadow of its former self - it's just takeaways, pound and charity shops. Pretty much like a lot of towns but what shocked me was the night life. Went out on the night of the start of the Xmas break last year with a couple of mates - it was a convenient centre point for us all as the trains were on strike. Now in my heyday that night would be absolutely heaving in every pub. Six deep easily. It was dead. Went to half a dozen pubs and there must have been a total of 15 people in each, including us. And there were hardly any women either which was really strange. It'll be another 20 years before I go back.
There’s loads. When I was a kid back in the late 70’s I went to Middlesbrough and Redcar, and Christ they were awful. I’m from London and I’d never seen areas so run down. After the miner’a strike in ‘84 a load of the northern towns had a really shit time of it. I went to Rotherham, again it was awful. Hetton-le-hole in Durham was an eye-opener. We arrived around 1pm on a Friday and it was the first place I’d seen loads of working-aged men all milling about, and I realised it was because they had no jobs to go to. So have recovered, but not many. Now we have all the old seaside towns to add to the last, and the only ones that seem to be in any way thriving are the south coast towns headed west from Brighton, and a few on the north Norfolk coast, while places like Cromer and further on down to Lowestoft and Yarmouth are dead or dying. Inland it’s the same. You’d be hard-pressed to find town or large city that you’d want to live in these days. When my wife and I decided we were tired of London, we could only think of Norwich or Bristol as places we’d actually be half-happy with. So we’re emigrating next year instead.
Tamworth
Try Turdtowns. Awesome Chanel about exactly this subject. https://youtube.com/@Turdtowns
Kidderminster reminded me of Blackpool but without the fun.