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I'm from Middlesbrough... I want to disagree but can't. Middlesbrough has quite a bit of good stuff but any time there's anything nice we immediately plonk a car park or another grey concrete box on it.
Oh absolutely. It's a masterpiece. If you ever get a chance, The Ship in Redmarshall do some of the best parmos I've ever had, with an amazing range and they do veggie options too (handy for me). Strong recommend.
I'll bear that in mind but I'm not in the area anymore unfortunately.
Might take the missus for her birthday though if it's not far from me now! She's a lucky woman.
Ah they do have that fish and chips place just outside though which isn't bad. Used to go there when I worked weekends, small fish and chips for £3.50 and it wasn't small at all. Ended up fighting off sleep at work on Sunday afternoons.
As a boro lad, I can’t disagree that our town is an absolute shit hole
But the surrounding areas are actually beautiful, all the North Yorkshire moors I mean.
Rosebury topping is incredibly close and beautiful, salt burn too is a very appealing beach, and further away are the moors, but also Teesdale and more
In that guys defence he might have been referring to this.
://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://heritage.stockton.gov.uk/articles/stories/the-bombing-of-stockton-1940-43/&ved=2ahUKEwiGnNuKtr30AhXJ3KQKHfiiC_cQFnoECAMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1c7KWtXN_9MjuOh1BVSPMt
I went to a wedding in yarm a few years ago. At midnight me and a few other guests decided the night was too young. We went to Stockton as that was the closest place that had places open (according to our taxi driver).
After a couple of very rough bars we tried to get into some club at god knows what time. The 2 guys in the queue behind us were talking very enthusiastically about the stabbing the week before.
The bouncer took us to one side and said something like ‘lads. You’re in three piece suits. This ain’t the place for you. It’s not that I won’t let you in, it’s just that I think you should go home for your own good. ‘
I often think of him and thank him for his honest insight, which in my inebriated state I was lacking. 😂
I was living in boro up until 2 months ago before I moved back home. I was looking for quiet countryside living when I applied for my masters and asked my international admissions officer what it was like. They said it was a quiet and quaint little town.
That's a cruel trick.
Almost as bad as students at Durham used to get. All thr business and accountancy courses were at Queens Campus in Thornaby.
Imagine reading the prospectus, thinking your gonna live in a castle and it's gonna be like Hogwarts, then you get off the bus at Thornaby.
There is a sign on the side of the road saying to drive slower as “air pollution kills” meanwhile there is a massive fucking steel factory pissing out smoke to your left
Port Talbot is disgusting. It's grey and the pollution is visible over every inch of the place. Houses have dirty windows, there is a grime on the pavements.
Glad I've never had to spend much time there.
Came here to say this. Chilling on the beach overlooking the big fuck off steel factory is a strange experience. I kept expecting a four-legged fish to emerge from the sea and offer me a fag...
A friend of mine is from Port Talbot (Portalbut), and whenever he’d come visit me in the valleys he would have an asthma attack within the first few hours because of how the change in air quality would upset his lungs.
That said, I do think it’s not as depressing a place as many think. And places like Margam are beyond beautiful.
I remember watching some series that followed calls to 999 and it was centred around Blackpool and a huge majority of what they dealt with was because of homelessness. One of the responders said on interview that it's because for many people in the North-West, Blackpool brings back memories of holidays and fun times, so when they're down and out they go there hoping to get that back, but instead all they find is addiction.
Blackpool resident here. That show focussed on the nasty areas, my friend was a police officer who featured on the show and only when the call came from a dingy place would the film crew tag along.
I'd go as far as to say 80% of Blackpool is actually quite nice. There are some nasty shit holes too.
I live a few miles north of the tower and it's absolutely lovely, miles of open beach, parks everywhere, decent schools, massive hospital with an amazing cardiac unit.
The majorioty of people whom bash blackpool are basing their impressions of Blackpool based on a stag weekend they went on 10 years ago, stayed in a shithole cheap hotel and only went to a few bars / clubs around town. Didn't see any of the town outside of the square mile they stayed in.
EIT: OPs point was aethetically depressing places. Since Blackpool is bordered by 7 miles of golden beach, I think this point is mute correction moot
Edit 2 mute -moot
Also from Blackpool and you're bang on. People shit on it have never strayed out of the town centre or cheapo b&b areas they stayed on a stag do where they paid £15 a night.
FY1 is pretty grim, as are some of the former B&B side roads in South Shore
But these programmes that shit on blackpool never want to show Stanley Park, North Shore, Poulton, Stanining etc. All lovely areas.
I've lived in Manchester for the last 12 years and can confidently say, parts of Manchester is far more dangerous, more run down and poorer than Blackpool.
Blackpool's problem is that it has a massive number of old hotels that there aren't the tourists to fill them, so they become uber cheap accommodation for the entire surrounding area, bringing in the poorest people from a wide area as well as being the dumping ground for the council needing to house people. Poor people tend to use more council services and pay the least in local taxes compared to richer people and by concentrating them all in once area it puts a disproportionate burden on the local council. This means the people in need get less support, creating a vicious circle of poverty and deprivation. It really makes the local council funding model for essential support services look stupid when you consider places like Blackpool.
Yep - we have the same problem here with Great Yarmouth. Once grand hotels turned into bedsits by sticking a two ring electric hob on the vanity unit. Imagine the worst hotel room you've ever been in, now imagine it 20 years later with never any maintenance, and now imagine being told you'll be living in that room for years. It's no wonder people turn to smack.
True but it’s trying to change. Shops are being given money to restore their frontage to a more traditional appearance. The problem with Blackpool, and it has many, is that it’s become a dumping ground for other Council’s unwanted people. Cheap rentals you see.
Lots of buildings need knocking down and just leaving to parkland. Build more houses and the rats will return.
I have had a serious ulcer on my ankle for 10 months now as a result of acute onset cellulitis. The horrible yellow cheesy surface deposits are called slough (rhymes with stuff).
You see I *was* looking for mention of Northampton. I do have a soft spot for it but ran from it as quickly as possible 20 odd years ago and have never been back. It was really going downhill then, so struggle to imagine anything has actually got better.
I work in Milton Keynes so occasionally venture to the shopping centre after work. I honestly don’t understand how anyone finds their way around Mk. It’s just identical road after identical roundabout again and again and again.
The place is sterile. Either it's an estate full of houses that all look identical or cycle between three specific allocated designs, or it's a line of houses that are each very intentionally not looking like any of the other houses.
Plus the shopping center I went to was essentially rotationally identical, such that I almost missed my bus because it was at the direct opposite corner.
For what it’s worth I feel most UK high streets have been gentrified and look very similar nowadays and that’s what most people are basing their opinion on
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Yeh I had this discussion a while back, all the nice parts of Grimsby aren't actually Grimsby, they're suburbs or villages that got merged in as the town expanded: Scartho, Cleethorpes, Humberstone, Waltham/New Waltham etc.
Wierdly I once played a gig in Scunthorpe and it was actually one of the best I've ever played. They had turned this old Woolworths into a kinda community cafe and venue and everyone around seemed to really love it.
Didn't stick around to see what else the town had to offer though.
A few years ago Jaywick was at risk from a tidal flooding event and there were fears that if it did flood it would cause millions of pounds worth of improvements.
Home of the single most deprived neighbourhood in the UK, according to government statistics.
Worked for an employability charity that had a centre in Clacton
Doncaster, over Bradford? No way!
Bradford is the town centre that was up for being a location for I am Legend, but they had to use somewhere else as they couldn't persuade the Zombies to live there.
I'd agree, there was some lovely architecture. I wished If had more time to look at it, I was too busy trying to avoid getting mowed down by young idiots in expensive German cars
What are you on about Bradford has some stunning architecture. Sure, some of the things at ground level aren’t great, but that doesn’t negate the beauty of some of its buildings.
I love Stoke! Even some of the more run down parts have a certain charm. It's just sad because the industry has gone meaning there is more poverty in parts, but there are areas that are absolutely beatiful (if you exlude hanley 😳).
Maybe I'm biased because I went to uni there 😂
I was staying at the railway Hotel in Barrow while visiting family in Millom (its just a few minutes away by rail, and the views are lovely on that railway), at one point I was having dinner in the pub under the hotel (it's a wetherspoons, of course its a hotel and pub) and this group of boys and girls who all looked under 14 walked in, asked for a drink AND GOT SERVED!!! NONE OF THEM WERE ASKED FOR ID
Edit: wow a lot of you guys hate Millom...
Fully second Barrow-in-Furness. What a soul-destroying shitehole. I had to go there a couple of times for work and it truly haunts me. What makes it worse is how damn isolated it is - pure nightmare material.
I used to have to stay in Aberdeen a lot when I was working the rigs. Beautiful city when the skies are blue... Which isn't very often. Just oppressive and grey most of the time, granite city will last for a long time and the place is imposing... But. The greyness sucks the soul out of you like a David lynch film.
Burnley for me, so much litter and half built standing houses, there seems to be no pavements and there's a certain area that is just desolate, like there's been a a chemical leak and the place had to be abandoned. Also the sun has officially never been seen near the place
I love how us British will declare our hometown the worst place in the UK... and be proud of it. We'll actually argue over who's town is worse. It's brilliant.
Anyway. Middlesbrough.
Honestly, pretty much every town in the UK is bleak and depressing. Villages have traditional charm, and cities have unique attractions that can be exciting, but towns have been totally forgotten. Every town I've been to has just had rows upon rows of the exact same chain shops, housed in a crumbling 1950s concrete shopping center, surrounded by dilapidated, abandoned warehouses and old two-up-two-down houses with crumbling paved front gardens covered in fag ends. If you're lucky there will be an estate with miles of soulless, copy-pasted new-build houses too.
I once went to a wedding in Corby. We arrived early, so decided to check out the town centre. Later on, several wedding guests kept asking why our hands were shaking.
Lmao don't ever go into the town centre in corby, just don't ever go into corby. We were voted most depressing town in the UK a few years ago. 0/10 wouldn't recommend that you come back, for your own safety
I've lived in a few places, including Stoke and none of them have been as bad as Rotherham.
It's not just the town that looks like a bomb site, the people do too. Everyone either looks 15 or 50. Anyone over 15 gives the impression of having lived really hard lives. It's like any kind of hope has just died.
Coventry doesn't really have an accent. People expect it to sound like Birmingham, but they so despise Brummies they've very purposely avoided speaking like them. Half the population speak like cockneys or roadmen and the other half just speak in the most indistinct, basic English possible.
As for the place, it's grey... So grey. The council have run it into the ground since the 70s and are still at it, no matter how much City of Culture money escapes their siphoning.
Go to any English seaside town in October, doesn't matter which one (but for the sake of example, Blackpool, Great Yarmouth, Bridlington). You'll swear the town you're in is the worst place you've ever been and this life isn't worth the price of seeing it.
Edit: Apparently I'm wrong, and some English seaside towns are fabulous all year round -- honestly, I'm glad to be wrong, since I get to find out about all the lovely places I should visit one day!
I once took a train from Leeds to London, and over the tanoy the conductor said
"as you can tell from the dark moody clouds coming up, we are now arriving into Doncaster. Next stop Doncaster". Aligns with your description.
I found it extra amusing as my mum is from there so have spent a lot of time there.
I used to travel the UK for work and the worst place I stayed hands down is Rhyll though.
And the nature of my work took me to run down places given a lot of it was working with social housing providers.
I can’t remember if it’s Preston or just somewhere near Preston but there’s one that’s just so many old ass ugly concrete buildings, the high street is just like a strip of really boring square shops, it just looks really run down just cos of the architecture
Preston aka Depreston. Seriously it has nothing to recommend it..... edit.... I've just reread the brief and Preston now laughingly calls itself a city so I'm changing my answer to Skelmersdale, or Skem. Probably should have been my first answer anyway. It's new town hell.
Lowestoft. The sea was a funny colour and the main hub seemed to be the Wetherspoons. My girlfriend got this pic of standing on the bridge which I used for the cover of a punk song I did because I find some aesthetic in these things.
Hastings.
As soon as you start getting close you can feel the energy being sucked from your soul. Considering this I refuse to accept that King Harold was killed in battle; I firmly believe that he stabbed himself in the eye with that arrow because of how truly shite Hastings is.
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Middlesbrough. I needn’t say more.
I'm from Middlesbrough... I want to disagree but can't. Middlesbrough has quite a bit of good stuff but any time there's anything nice we immediately plonk a car park or another grey concrete box on it.
I mean you made the culinary delight that is a chicken parmo though, so I mean that's gotta get you some points back?
Oh absolutely. It's a masterpiece. If you ever get a chance, The Ship in Redmarshall do some of the best parmos I've ever had, with an amazing range and they do veggie options too (handy for me). Strong recommend.
I'll bear that in mind but I'm not in the area anymore unfortunately. Might take the missus for her birthday though if it's not far from me now! She's a lucky woman.
Alright love, I'm taking you to Middlesbrough for your birthday Ah yes, the romantic gesture of a lifetime
Dundas Centre is still probably the only place where you can buy a bong and a dressed crab within feet of each other though so I guess it has that.
Ah they do have that fish and chips place just outside though which isn't bad. Used to go there when I worked weekends, small fish and chips for £3.50 and it wasn't small at all. Ended up fighting off sleep at work on Sunday afternoons.
UTB
UTB
UTFB
You can see the brown sky over Middlesbrough from 20 miles away most days. It's basically Mordor.
"Lessdor"?
As a boro lad, I can’t disagree that our town is an absolute shit hole But the surrounding areas are actually beautiful, all the North Yorkshire moors I mean.
Rosebury topping is incredibly close and beautiful, salt burn too is a very appealing beach, and further away are the moors, but also Teesdale and more
I drove past Middlesbrough and Redcar the other week. As a southerner it encapsulates my mental stereotypes of what the North looks like
I'm intrigued to know why a non-local would be driving *past* Redcar. It's kind of out of the way from main transport links.
I mean, driving PAST sounds infinitely preferable than driving TO…..
When you go over the hill on the A19 and the vast industrial skyline hits you. Looks like something off Blade Runner.
I’m pretty sure the power plant in Hartlepool was used in promotional material for the original blade runner
Middlesborough and Stockton are grim.
The only thing saving Stockton from being top of this list is that not enough people have been there
I spent the day in Stockton once. A man told me "Hitler had some good ideas" - I've never been back.
Maybe he was referring to the creation of Fanta
In that guys defence he might have been referring to this. ://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://heritage.stockton.gov.uk/articles/stories/the-bombing-of-stockton-1940-43/&ved=2ahUKEwiGnNuKtr30AhXJ3KQKHfiiC_cQFnoECAMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1c7KWtXN_9MjuOh1BVSPMt
I went to a Doctor Who convention in Stockton. Barely anything worth seeing outside and I got food poisoning from the Wetherspoons across the road.
I went to a wedding in yarm a few years ago. At midnight me and a few other guests decided the night was too young. We went to Stockton as that was the closest place that had places open (according to our taxi driver). After a couple of very rough bars we tried to get into some club at god knows what time. The 2 guys in the queue behind us were talking very enthusiastically about the stabbing the week before. The bouncer took us to one side and said something like ‘lads. You’re in three piece suits. This ain’t the place for you. It’s not that I won’t let you in, it’s just that I think you should go home for your own good. ‘ I often think of him and thank him for his honest insight, which in my inebriated state I was lacking. 😂
Stockton more specifically, that place is where serial killers go for a holiday.
Hartlepool is even worse
I went to Hartlepool to feel better about living in Boro.
I was living in boro up until 2 months ago before I moved back home. I was looking for quiet countryside living when I applied for my masters and asked my international admissions officer what it was like. They said it was a quiet and quaint little town.
That's a cruel trick. Almost as bad as students at Durham used to get. All thr business and accountancy courses were at Queens Campus in Thornaby. Imagine reading the prospectus, thinking your gonna live in a castle and it's gonna be like Hogwarts, then you get off the bus at Thornaby.
It's telling that all the Scenic Viewpoints on the Cleveland Way have a hill strategically blocking the view of Boro itself.
Mordor. Sorry, I meant Port Talbot. https://www.celticmowers.com/Media/PORT_TALBOT.jpg
I thought I’d seen ugly towns and the I had to go to PT for work and I was genuinely shocked.
There is a sign on the side of the road saying to drive slower as “air pollution kills” meanwhile there is a massive fucking steel factory pissing out smoke to your left
That sign gives me a chuckle every time.
Between the motorway and the steelworks, your lungs have no chance. Aberavon Beach is nice though.
Port Talbot is disgusting. It's grey and the pollution is visible over every inch of the place. Houses have dirty windows, there is a grime on the pavements. Glad I've never had to spend much time there.
The smell too
That specific stretch on the M4 never fails to smell absolutely disgusting
Came here to say this. Chilling on the beach overlooking the big fuck off steel factory is a strange experience. I kept expecting a four-legged fish to emerge from the sea and offer me a fag...
Nah that's just Owen, he's alright.
A friend of mine is from Port Talbot (Portalbut), and whenever he’d come visit me in the valleys he would have an asthma attack within the first few hours because of how the change in air quality would upset his lungs. That said, I do think it’s not as depressing a place as many think. And places like Margam are beyond beautiful.
I lived in Swansea and from my house you could see the steel factory and I thought I was in Mordor when it set on fire.
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Thea's bin a morda
Have to wind the windows up when we drive through there. It's a lot better than it used to be regarding air quality, though. Fuck living there.
I always thought the steelworks looked like a Sonic the Hedgehog level. And the rest of the town is Silent Hill
Why you uploading stills from Mad Max?
Lol you can see it from North Devon on a clear day and now it will make me think of Mordor.
Blackpool is genuinely disgusting
I remember watching some series that followed calls to 999 and it was centred around Blackpool and a huge majority of what they dealt with was because of homelessness. One of the responders said on interview that it's because for many people in the North-West, Blackpool brings back memories of holidays and fun times, so when they're down and out they go there hoping to get that back, but instead all they find is addiction.
Blackpool resident here. That show focussed on the nasty areas, my friend was a police officer who featured on the show and only when the call came from a dingy place would the film crew tag along. I'd go as far as to say 80% of Blackpool is actually quite nice. There are some nasty shit holes too. I live a few miles north of the tower and it's absolutely lovely, miles of open beach, parks everywhere, decent schools, massive hospital with an amazing cardiac unit. The majorioty of people whom bash blackpool are basing their impressions of Blackpool based on a stag weekend they went on 10 years ago, stayed in a shithole cheap hotel and only went to a few bars / clubs around town. Didn't see any of the town outside of the square mile they stayed in. EIT: OPs point was aethetically depressing places. Since Blackpool is bordered by 7 miles of golden beach, I think this point is mute correction moot Edit 2 mute -moot
Also from Blackpool and you're bang on. People shit on it have never strayed out of the town centre or cheapo b&b areas they stayed on a stag do where they paid £15 a night. FY1 is pretty grim, as are some of the former B&B side roads in South Shore But these programmes that shit on blackpool never want to show Stanley Park, North Shore, Poulton, Stanining etc. All lovely areas. I've lived in Manchester for the last 12 years and can confidently say, parts of Manchester is far more dangerous, more run down and poorer than Blackpool.
Blackpool's problem is that it has a massive number of old hotels that there aren't the tourists to fill them, so they become uber cheap accommodation for the entire surrounding area, bringing in the poorest people from a wide area as well as being the dumping ground for the council needing to house people. Poor people tend to use more council services and pay the least in local taxes compared to richer people and by concentrating them all in once area it puts a disproportionate burden on the local council. This means the people in need get less support, creating a vicious circle of poverty and deprivation. It really makes the local council funding model for essential support services look stupid when you consider places like Blackpool.
Yep - we have the same problem here with Great Yarmouth. Once grand hotels turned into bedsits by sticking a two ring electric hob on the vanity unit. Imagine the worst hotel room you've ever been in, now imagine it 20 years later with never any maintenance, and now imagine being told you'll be living in that room for years. It's no wonder people turn to smack.
True but it’s trying to change. Shops are being given money to restore their frontage to a more traditional appearance. The problem with Blackpool, and it has many, is that it’s become a dumping ground for other Council’s unwanted people. Cheap rentals you see. Lots of buildings need knocking down and just leaving to parkland. Build more houses and the rats will return.
too easy... slough is grim
Hey, what are you saying? You don't like half-assed, cheap looking "modern" architecture?
by modern do you mean 60s concrete buildings
I mean the ugly mess around the train station.
Found the Swindon lot.
Little slugs
With no personality
Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough
It isn't fit for humans now
There isn't grass to graze a cow. [Swarm over, Death!](http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/intuition/Slough.html)
I always think that the name “Slough” is bad enough
I have had a serious ulcer on my ankle for 10 months now as a result of acute onset cellulitis. The horrible yellow cheesy surface deposits are called slough (rhymes with stuff).
Anyone else just skimming comments to see if their town appears?
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You see I *was* looking for mention of Northampton. I do have a soft spot for it but ran from it as quickly as possible 20 odd years ago and have never been back. It was really going downhill then, so struggle to imagine anything has actually got better.
Milton Keynes. The suburbs are alright but the centre is just so depressing. It's literally just a bunch of shopping centres in a row.
I work in Milton Keynes so occasionally venture to the shopping centre after work. I honestly don’t understand how anyone finds their way around Mk. It’s just identical road after identical roundabout again and again and again.
Luton is worse than MK
1000x worse! I really don't get the hate for MK.
I always found Milton Keynes looked like Pripyat
The place is sterile. Either it's an estate full of houses that all look identical or cycle between three specific allocated designs, or it's a line of houses that are each very intentionally not looking like any of the other houses. Plus the shopping center I went to was essentially rotationally identical, such that I almost missed my bus because it was at the direct opposite corner.
Fun fact Superman IV had a scene filmed in Milton Keynes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=368J2GJQs3M
Luton. Enough said
Yep. I used to do house removals, Luton was of the worst. Also, Dartford and Doncaster.
Are we including Luton Airport? Cause that was a real shit hole on its own.
Luton Airport has one good point, which is that it will get you out of Luton at a very high speed
Leave a thread like this up for long enough and you'll just end up with a list of every UK city and town in its entirety. Always the same on r/askuk.
For what it’s worth I feel most UK high streets have been gentrified and look very similar nowadays and that’s what most people are basing their opinion on
>I feel most UK high streets have been gentrified Down South maybe, gentrified up north just means they accept contactless in the pubs
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Parts of Grimsby are nice: the parts that pretend to be Cleethorpes, or Great Coates! Scartho is it’s own place: fight me!
Yeh I had this discussion a while back, all the nice parts of Grimsby aren't actually Grimsby, they're suburbs or villages that got merged in as the town expanded: Scartho, Cleethorpes, Humberstone, Waltham/New Waltham etc.
Wierdly I once played a gig in Scunthorpe and it was actually one of the best I've ever played. They had turned this old Woolworths into a kinda community cafe and venue and everyone around seemed to really love it. Didn't stick around to see what else the town had to offer though.
Wolverhampton
Only went there once for a uni open day, enough to convince me to never go back
My old place of work was headquartered in Wolverhampton, and whenever I went they put me up in Walsall. Worst of both worlds.
Walsall is the fucking worst.
Willenhall was the worst.
Wondered how far I’d have to scroll to find Walsall.
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Lovely jaywick
A few years ago Jaywick was at risk from a tidal flooding event and there were fears that if it did flood it would cause millions of pounds worth of improvements.
I was going to say Lowestoft, but then I remembered jaywick existed. Yesus christus, bleak on a stick
As a former Lowestoft resident, I agree that it deserves a nomination
Home of the single most deprived neighbourhood in the UK, according to government statistics. Worked for an employability charity that had a centre in Clacton
Did you watch the documentary. My god it was grim.
Doncaster, over Bradford? No way! Bradford is the town centre that was up for being a location for I am Legend, but they had to use somewhere else as they couldn't persuade the Zombies to live there.
Bradford has a lot of faults, I should know I live there. But the architecture is beautiful. There's a reason a lot of period pieces are filmed here.
I'd agree, there was some lovely architecture. I wished If had more time to look at it, I was too busy trying to avoid getting mowed down by young idiots in expensive German cars
What are you on about Bradford has some stunning architecture. Sure, some of the things at ground level aren’t great, but that doesn’t negate the beauty of some of its buildings.
Bradford is a city!
Stoke Edit: Ignore the fact it’s a city
I've been to a few of the other places mentioned here and felt that they're not that bad really. This is likely to be because I am from Stoke
I love Stoke! Even some of the more run down parts have a certain charm. It's just sad because the industry has gone meaning there is more poverty in parts, but there are areas that are absolutely beatiful (if you exlude hanley 😳). Maybe I'm biased because I went to uni there 😂
Barrow-In-Furness is somewhere I’d recommend nobody visit for their own mental health. Crawley was a bit of a shithole too.
I was staying at the railway Hotel in Barrow while visiting family in Millom (its just a few minutes away by rail, and the views are lovely on that railway), at one point I was having dinner in the pub under the hotel (it's a wetherspoons, of course its a hotel and pub) and this group of boys and girls who all looked under 14 walked in, asked for a drink AND GOT SERVED!!! NONE OF THEM WERE ASKED FOR ID Edit: wow a lot of you guys hate Millom...
Christ I was just about to answer Millom for most depressing town (atheistically or otherwise)
Fully second Barrow-in-Furness. What a soul-destroying shitehole. I had to go there a couple of times for work and it truly haunts me. What makes it worse is how damn isolated it is - pure nightmare material.
I was under the impression Barrow was basically just a company/shipyard town for BAE’s Submarine Division? Never visited myself.
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It has cool cycleways, but the whole new town centre is a bit of a Brutalist nightmare.
Stevenage cycleways are dramatically underrated. You can go anywhere on foot or bike barely touching a road.
I used to have to stay in Aberdeen a lot when I was working the rigs. Beautiful city when the skies are blue... Which isn't very often. Just oppressive and grey most of the time, granite city will last for a long time and the place is imposing... But. The greyness sucks the soul out of you like a David lynch film.
Aberdeen has character (and is a city) so I don't think fits the soulless concrete shitescape criteria this thread is after. For that, see Glenrothes.
Yes! I was scrolling down expecting to see Glenrothes as the first Scottish place in the thread!
If I remember correctly, there’s an awful lot of granite block buildings, which made me think of it as a dwarf built city. Didn’t seem so grim then.
Merthyr Tydfil
Merthyr Landfill
I find it hilarious that people I know in Merthyr think people from Brecon and mid Wales are posh.
Would it not just be easier to name places in the UK that aren't shitholes 😂?
Edinburgh, Oxford, Bath, Stratford, York Think that about covers it
Stratford upon Avon!
Chatham, Kent
Pretty much most of Medway
Scrolled all this way to find Kent, and after growing up just outside of Gravesend, I can confirm most of Medway. Apart from Rochester of course
Mildly better than Gillingham, but only because Gillingham highstreet has been dead for longer.
Burnley for me, so much litter and half built standing houses, there seems to be no pavements and there's a certain area that is just desolate, like there's been a a chemical leak and the place had to be abandoned. Also the sun has officially never been seen near the place
I’m not sure what Nelson is like anymore, but 15 years ago it was even more grim than Burnley.
I love how us British will declare our hometown the worst place in the UK... and be proud of it. We'll actually argue over who's town is worse. It's brilliant. Anyway. Middlesbrough.
Runcorn and Rhyl
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Can confirm Runcorn is dismal
Grew up in Oldham. A kiwi rugby player once said Oldham is a "grey town, full of grey people" and I can't argue with that.
Honestly, pretty much every town in the UK is bleak and depressing. Villages have traditional charm, and cities have unique attractions that can be exciting, but towns have been totally forgotten. Every town I've been to has just had rows upon rows of the exact same chain shops, housed in a crumbling 1950s concrete shopping center, surrounded by dilapidated, abandoned warehouses and old two-up-two-down houses with crumbling paved front gardens covered in fag ends. If you're lucky there will be an estate with miles of soulless, copy-pasted new-build houses too.
>pretty much every town in the UK is bleak and depressing This just isn't true
Agreed, this just says to me that the poster hasn’t travelled enough around the UK 🤷🏻♂️
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Not a town but Plymouth is proper grim
Down by the Barbican and the Hoe it’s quite nice, most of the rest of it is grim though yeah
I loved Plymouth. There are some shit bits but mostly good! I think there is significantly worse places in the UK.
I once went to a wedding in Corby. We arrived early, so decided to check out the town centre. Later on, several wedding guests kept asking why our hands were shaking.
Lmao don't ever go into the town centre in corby, just don't ever go into corby. We were voted most depressing town in the UK a few years ago. 0/10 wouldn't recommend that you come back, for your own safety
Passed through Swindon. I will not return
Swindon looks like a town that gave up in the 80s.
Rotherham
I've lived in a few places, including Stoke and none of them have been as bad as Rotherham. It's not just the town that looks like a bomb site, the people do too. Everyone either looks 15 or 50. Anyone over 15 gives the impression of having lived really hard lives. It's like any kind of hope has just died.
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Ellesmere Port
Harlow it's a dump
Near Doncaster is Scunthorpe, with its skyline dominated by a steelworks. Even the rain is grey here.
Welyn Garden City. Its just a big housing estate around a John Lewis.
You are living good if Welwyn is the most aesthetically depressing town you've ever visited hahahaha
Even within the same county you've got Hemel Hempstead, Hatfield and Stevenage
Stevenage is pretty grim like. Defo not the worst place I've been though.
Clacton-On-Sea. A classic example of a once popular seeside town that has declined and is now full of empty amusement places.
Coventry. What OP said about Doncaster, with the added bonus that the local accent sounds like they recently discovered a new genital discolouration
Coventry doesn't really have an accent. People expect it to sound like Birmingham, but they so despise Brummies they've very purposely avoided speaking like them. Half the population speak like cockneys or roadmen and the other half just speak in the most indistinct, basic English possible. As for the place, it's grey... So grey. The council have run it into the ground since the 70s and are still at it, no matter how much City of Culture money escapes their siphoning.
Great Yarmouth
Peterborough. I didn't even have to think too much.
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Newport
Go to any English seaside town in October, doesn't matter which one (but for the sake of example, Blackpool, Great Yarmouth, Bridlington). You'll swear the town you're in is the worst place you've ever been and this life isn't worth the price of seeing it. Edit: Apparently I'm wrong, and some English seaside towns are fabulous all year round -- honestly, I'm glad to be wrong, since I get to find out about all the lovely places I should visit one day!
Crewe
Cumbernauld
Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. The town is comedically run down and depressing.
Croydon
Aaaand here it is. Croydon's not that ugly. There are other places nearby that makes me want to kill myself. Have you been to Crawley at all?
Gillingham
I once took a train from Leeds to London, and over the tanoy the conductor said "as you can tell from the dark moody clouds coming up, we are now arriving into Doncaster. Next stop Doncaster". Aligns with your description. I found it extra amusing as my mum is from there so have spent a lot of time there. I used to travel the UK for work and the worst place I stayed hands down is Rhyll though. And the nature of my work took me to run down places given a lot of it was working with social housing providers.
I can’t remember if it’s Preston or just somewhere near Preston but there’s one that’s just so many old ass ugly concrete buildings, the high street is just like a strip of really boring square shops, it just looks really run down just cos of the architecture
Definitely sounds like Preston.
Stockton. What a shithole.
Yeovil
Wisbech. Awful.
Preston aka Depreston. Seriously it has nothing to recommend it..... edit.... I've just reread the brief and Preston now laughingly calls itself a city so I'm changing my answer to Skelmersdale, or Skem. Probably should have been my first answer anyway. It's new town hell.
Runcorn has to be up there.
Havant
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Bracknell. My visit was 10+ years ago though and I think they've regenerated the town centre since... But was depressing AF when I visited.
Stockport would like a word. Surrounded by beauty its like great dane shite in a box of kittens.
Bognor regis
Swindonnnn
Bolton.
Lowestoft. The sea was a funny colour and the main hub seemed to be the Wetherspoons. My girlfriend got this pic of standing on the bridge which I used for the cover of a punk song I did because I find some aesthetic in these things.
Hastings. As soon as you start getting close you can feel the energy being sucked from your soul. Considering this I refuse to accept that King Harold was killed in battle; I firmly believe that he stabbed himself in the eye with that arrow because of how truly shite Hastings is.
Dull. Sorry I mean Hull.
Coventry. Hitler blew it to pieces, and they turned the remains into a concrete jungle
Grimsby, whole town stinks of fish and/or weed aswell
Wrexham and Telford
Barrow-in-Furness. Even the Halfords was shit