Best and Worst Places you've Been

[KN1]

worst:

London: lots of good things such as a very cosmopolitan make-up, but an awful lot of self-important idiots who assume anybody with a regional accent is an idiot.

That's an understatement, I have relatives in North London and they live in an insular bubble of superiority. Think the area they live in is wonderful in effect like so much of London it's a crime ridden dump.

My worst places would be most of London , my best would be Highland Scotland, specifically not the Glasgow area which is pretty awful.

 

[Bletchleyite]

My worst places would be most of London

London is rather full of grim, crime-ridden suburbs once you get out of about zone 2 - certainly I'd only consider living in London if I was rich enough to live quite centrally.

 

[northwichcat]

One thing to consider is some towns which are nice to visit as a tourist lack amenities you'd expect to have in most towns so aren't as nice to live in.

Another thing is first impressions count so how you arrive makes a difference e.g. if you arrive in Huddersfield by train you're greeted by Georgian architecture, while if you arrive by car you might be greeted by less attractive old mills or a council estate on your way in to the town.

 

[KN1]

London is rather full of grim, crime-ridden suburbs once you get out of about zone 2 - certainly I'd only consider living in London if I was rich enough to live quite centrally.

Get out of Chelsea and Kensington and you're quite right, 95 % of London is not somewhere I'd ever choose to live, if I ever have to be there I always want to be elsewhere.

 

[bramling]

That's an understatement, I have relatives in North London and they live in an insular bubble of superiority. Think the area they live in is wonderful in effect like so much of London it's a crime ridden dump.

So true - sadly.

 

[bramling]

One thing to consider is some towns which are nice to visit at a tourist lack amenities you'd expect to have in most towns so aren't as nice to live in.

Another thing is first impressions count so how you arrive makes a difference e.g. if you arrive in Huddersfield by train you're greeted by Georgian architecture, while if you arrive by car you might be greeted by less attractive old mills or a council estate on your way in to the town.

A lot depends, of course, on the people.

An example local to me - Hitchin is a prosperous, tidy and relatively attractive town. However don't be fooled by the dreaming spires - the town seems to attract some real self-oriented nasty pieces of work for some reason.

 

[J-2739]

worst:
Leeds: congested, full of far too much post-war architecture and road-schemes, and home to an obnoxious set of football supporters.

OMG, I know EXACTLY what you mean! We have LOADS of them in my school who likes to cram their nonsense into my face.

:roll:

Well, I have to remind them that not only they like to pick up fights with other football fans (*cough* Leeds vs Barnsley), have the most obnoxious chants, but also lost to a team not even in their league! (Sutton.)

Sorry for the rant, guys, and I actually like Leeds a lot. We were up there last Weekend, and the high streets are hard to beat!

 

[J-2739]

UK-wise, probably Torbay is my favourite place, the whole area, or at least it used to be.

We went down to Torbay in '14. Like a tropical paradise, I thought it was....!

 

[J-2739]

I wouldn't like in London, but probably in the Home Counties, so I'm close enough.

 

[keppoch69]

This is my 47th year, & not visited London since the late 1990s because, even back then, it was too busy for me. The feel of the place had changed & did not feel my/OUR Capital city anymore. From afar, it has only become worse sadly.
I grew up in Birmingham, still have the accent & it certainly has not felt welcoming for at least half of my lifetime.
Glasgow, which has been my nearest city, or the one I resided in for 10 years in a high rise flat, has always been the sectarian dive it always was. Throwing money at a place, as was done with the Commonwealth Games, does not change the natives of a place. Edinburgh, has always felt more civilized & "continental" than the west of Scotland.
The places I prefer are the ones which take 4 or 5 hours to get to, along, mostly, single track railway, with only a few passenger services a day.
There used to be talk in the 1990s of a "2 speed Europe". I suggest this has happened to our once, blessed island stuck out in the Atlantic ocean.

 

[anti-pacer]

They're a lots of areas of London outside Zones 1 and 2 that are nice.

I agree that a lot of London isn't great, but compare the worst parts of London cosmetically to the worst parts of most Northern cities, and they look like Beverly Hills. You rarely see boarded up houses in London, and even some of the roughest parts area kept clean.

Crime however is bad in much of London, but it is in other areas too.

Oh and by the way, I have relatives in London, and the only parts I've never been to are Erith and Isleworth.

 

[Bald Rick]

OMG, I know EXACTLY what you mean! We have LOADS of them in my school who likes to cram their nonsense into my face.

:roll:

I bet they didn't this week.

 

[J-2739]

I bet they didn't this week.

Lol, they couldn't anyway, as I'm on Easter break.

And even then, they were rather quiet on Snapchat...

 

[DarloRich]

You have a point, although none of those places I would regard as being so bad. Sure there's deprivation and a run-down appearance, but most people are still friendly and most of these places are still reasonably neat and tidy. Luton on the other hand is a filthy congested tip, and can hardly be described as deprived.

I describe Luton as a northern like town in the south.

The dominant employer has gone/is dying without replacement and so the town gets run down. It has been bypassed by other towns like MK and despite being only 45/50 minutes form London never seems to register on the radar of would-be commuters. This means it hasn't had that "gentrification" some of the other towns in the area have had.

it really is a horrid dump but it shouldn't be

*look at all the worst places, now look how many of those are in the north of England..* No surprise with some of those towns, it really is bad in some places up here!

Clearly you ( and several other posters) lack the maturity or critical thought to understand why that should be the case. Isn't it easy and clever to write long lists of crap places and chortle about how terrible they are? Please try to understand why they are like that and what caused them to decline. it wasn't always the case.

I am proud of coming from the north east and what has been done to us and our region by various ( mainly Conservative governments) sickens me almost as much as people slagging off our area. That really makes my urine boil.

As a Northerner, I agree.

It seems though that Northerners, especially those from Yorkshire will jump to its defence, without actually doing anything to look after it. I call that "talking the talk without walking the walk".

A previous post mentioned Hull's dirty streets and it not looking cared for. That's duplicated right across the North. I'm not saying the South and Midlands are spotless, but they're certainly cleaner and more looked after than the North, in most cases.

This said, a lot of the North is actually very nice. It's not all bitter and litter, grime and crime.

ARGH! litter is the least of the problems. :roll: Look behind why: lack of employment and the associated tax take coupled with savage cuts hits northern councils hardest. They have to focus on key services and things like refuse get cut to protect social services. We have bigger calls on these services than more affluent southern areas. We have higher unemployment and social deprivation, we have lower educational performance, we have a lower life expectancy etc etc. There isnt much of a history of mesothelioma and other industrial cancers in Hastings. There is in Sunderland. (breathe! rant over!)

 

[anti-pacer]

ARGH! litter is the least of the problems. :roll: Look behind why: lack of employment and the associated tax take coupled with savage cuts hits northern councils hardest. They have to focus on key services and things like refuse get cut to protect social services. We have bigger calls on these services than more affluent southern areas. We have higher unemployment and social deprivation, we have lower educational performance, we have a lower life expectancy etc etc. There isnt much of a history of mesothelioma and other industrial cancers in Hastings. There is in Sunderland. (breathe! rant over!)

I do agree with a lot of what you're saying, and although you roll your eyes at me mentioning litter (although I haven't for a while), it is a problem.

It doesn't matter how deprived a town is, it's not a licence to make it look even worse. Poverty stops you from doing certain things, granted, but using a bin is free. My point is though, Northerners are generally proud of being Northerners, yet the three Northern regions have the worst litter in England, according to Keep Britain Tidy. If we're that proud, surely our streets should be the cleanest? You rarely hear Southerners bragging and boasting about where they're from, but I see more civic pride down there.

Anyway, litter aside, you refer to Luton as a "Northern like town in the South", and I've heard people call Harrogate as a "bit of the South East up north". This annoys me. Whilst I recognise that the South is wealthier than the North, both have affluence and deprivation. We have PLENTY of affluent towns up north.

Your native North East, despite suffering the worst social problems in England, has areas of high affluence too.

All this said, I do agree with a lot of your points, although we'll agree to disagree on litter. It bugs me, it doesn't you so much. That's the beauty of individuality I guess.

 

[DarloRich]

My point is that emptying the bins is cut as are the bins themselves - in mk we have ride on sweepers to keep the streets clean but at home the council staff who would drive them have been sacked to save money - I haven't seen one for ages. Of course that is no excuse for chucking waste on the floor but it happens everywhere - northern councils have less money to spend picking it up

As for affluence in the north east - I doubt it not compared to the south!

 

[anti-pacer]

My point is that emptying the bins is cut as are the bins themselves - in mk we have ride on sweepers to keep the streets clean but at home the council staff who would drive them have been sacked to save money - I haven't seen one for ages

As for affluence in the north east - I doubt it not compared to the south!

We have mechanical sweepers here in Wakefield.

As for North East affluence, well "compared" to the South East affluence up there is much less. However, there is some. Look at Wynyard, Darras Hall, Ponteland, Gosforth, Morpeth, for example. Even parts of Middlesbrough are pretty affluent, and I've seen plenty of nice parts of Darlington. You come from a nice town in my opinion.

 

[DarloRich]

We have mechanical sweepers here in Wakefield.

As for North East affluence, well "compared" to the South East affluence up there is much less. However, there is some. Look at Wynyard, Darras Hall, Ponteland, Gosforth, Morpeth, for example. Even parts of Middlesbrough are pretty affluent, and I've seen plenty of nice parts of Darlington. You come from a nice town in my opinion.

There are isolated pockets of course but overall affluence is much lower than further south and even the most expensive houses there are the price of normal family homes in the south east

 

[J-2739]

We have mechanical sweepers here in Wakefield.

As for North East affluence, well "compared" to the South East affluence up there is much less. However, there is some. Look at Wynyard, Darras Hall, Ponteland, Gosforth, Morpeth, for example. Even parts of Middlesbrough are pretty affluent, and I've seen plenty of nice parts of Darlington. You come from a nice town in my opinion.

There are isolated pockets of course but overall affluence is much lower than further south and even the most expensive houses there are the price of normal family homes in the south east

I think the economic gap in the South-East is wider than the North-East, and even Yorkshire (and quite comparable to the West Midlands and the North-West). That's why the south appears richer, but can actually be just as bad any Northern town (the Medways look pretty grim from what I've seen on photo's).

 

[anti-pacer]

I think the economic gap in the South-East is wider than the North-East, and even Yorkshire (and quite comparable to the West Midlands and the North-West). That's why the south appears richer, but can actually be just as bad any Northern town (the Medways look pretty grim from what I've seen on photo's).

You mention the North West and I agree.

Look at Merseyside. One of the many places I've lived is Waterloo, Liverpool. If you don't know it, it's a very mixed suburb with a whole range of housing from a couple of council tower blocks, terraced housing (some small, some large), and some large detached houses. Less than 2 miles to the north west is Blundellsands, which is very wealthy. Footballer territory basically. A mile to the south is Seaforth, an area of deprivation, close to the northern end of the docks.

Merseyside generally is a tale of two halves. Grotty, rough council estates and cheap terraces, right through to millionaire areas, and not just one or two. The Wirral and Sefton boroughs are probably the biggest examples of the wealth divide in Merseyside.

Greater Manchester is another example of the massive wealth gap, and where I grew up in Colne, Lancashire, it was the same.

 

[Cambus731]

Favourite places;
Perth, Norwich, Chelmsford, Somerleyton. Maidstone

least favourite places;
Stevenage, Hartlepool, Dunfirmline

 

[backontrack]

The Wirral and Sefton boroughs are probably the biggest examples of the wealth divide in Merseyside.

Because of Merseyrail, obviously.

Worse ones - UK places beginning with R.

Best ones - Ronda, Spain and Lucca, Italy

Rochester's not too bad. What about Richmond, in the Yorkshire Dales?
Ravenglass? Roxburgh? Ripon? Ross-on-Wye? Rye? Rothbury? Redruth? Ringwood? Reston? Renfrew? Roybridge? Ruthin? Rhuddlan? Rhayader?

 

[backontrack]

BEST: York, Edinburgh, Orkney (pretty much all of it really), Cockermouth and much of the Lake District, as well as various other towns in Cumbria (I quite like Maryport actually), Conwy, a good slice of the Highlands, Hadrian's Wall.

WORST: Every rose has its thorn, and while there is some lovely architecture in other parts of town, and, what with the Creative Quarter and the new seafront plans, the town is improving, the bus station in Folkestone literally smelled like sick the last time I was there. When most people say that, there's at least some element of hyperbole. But not here. I don't blame the person(s) responsible - we're all human - but it had a kind of acrid, burning quantity that stung the back of the mouth, like rotting sick. It's quite hard to describe, so I suggest you go there and experience it for yourself.

 

[anti-pacer]

Because of Merseyrail, obviously.

That's hard to agree with or disagree. Merseyrail is very extensive and covers a lot of Merseyside, wealthy and poor.

Heswall is affluent but not on the Merseyrail network.

 

[bramling]

My point is that emptying the bins is cut as are the bins themselves - in mk we have ride on sweepers to keep the streets clean but at home the council staff who would drive them have been sacked to save money - I haven't seen one for ages. Of course that is no excuse for chucking waste on the floor but it happens everywhere - northern councils have less money to spend picking it up

As for affluence in the north east - I doubt it not compared to the south!

Regardless of affluence or the like, if I had to choose between going on holiday for a week in Darlington or Luton, I'd choose Darlington hands down, or Sunderland for that matter. At least with the northern places one can be in beautiful countryside within a 5-minute drive, and generally most local people are warm and friendly. In many supposedly nice south-east places people would trample over a dying body in the street if it got in their way.

 

[backontrack]

That's hard to agree with or disagree. Merseyrail is very extensive and covers a lot of Merseyside, wealthy and poor.

Heswall is affluent but not on the Merseyrail network.

It was a joke, actually, but it does raise an interesting question. Much of the network covers the most affluent parts of Merseyside.

And actually...

 

[anti-pacer]

Regardless of affluence or the like, if I had to choose between going on holiday for a week in Darlington or Luton, I'd choose Darlington hands down, or Sunderland for that matter. At least with the northern places one can be in beautiful countryside within a 5-minute drive, and generally most local people are warm and friendly. In many supposedly nice south-east places people would trample over a dying body in the street if it got in their way.

I live on a busy main road in Wakefield. A couple of weeks ago an elderly lady was crossing the road when her carrier bag of shopping split. Whilst she was scrambling all the bits she had dropped together, vehicles weaved round her with THREE beeping their horns at her, and one even shouting abuse at her.

Trust me, there's plenty of selfish people up here. I helped her in the end. It turns out she's 83!

I've generally found most Southerners very pleasant, and out of all my friends, my Southern ones are the ones who I'd turn to first in a crisis.

 

[bramling]

It was a joke, actually, but it does raise an interesting question. Much of the network covers the most affluent parts of Merseyside.
[/URL]

Yeah like Seaforth, Kirkby and Ellesmere Port?! But yes the point does largely stand, to be fair.

 

[anti-pacer]

It was a joke, actually, but it does raise an interesting question. Much of the network covers the most affluent parts of Merseyside.

And actually...

A smiley face would have helped.

I'm not disputing that Merseyrail does cover a lot of affluent areas. Freshfield being a perfect case in point, but there are few areas of Merseyside outside of Liverpool that aren't close to a rail line.

Heswall as I mentioned before isn't on the frequent Merseyrail network, served instead by the Borderlands line, but has grown into a reasonably sizeable town with plenty of wealth.

That said, I would certainly agree that the network has probably had the wealth effect on the Sefton Coast.

 

[Parallel]

5 best places in the UK (no order) IMO: Aberystwyth, Exeter, Cardiff, Worcester and Weymouth.

5 least favourite: Bargoed, some areas of Bristol (Including Severn Beach) Blackpool, Port Talbot, Gloucester.