Worst Towns in the UK

[stejawh]

8 hours ago, BaaLocks said:

Bracknell, the whole town is a complete ghost town after about 7pm. And even the ghosts are wearing ankle tags.

True this.  Used to do some training courses down there and come 5 o clock everyone is driving away fast as they can

[Magicman]

Stoke 

[Van der MoodHoover]

Jaywick is truly dreadful. Me and mates nearly rented there at uni in the 80s so went back a few years ago for a nostalgia peek and it was awful. 

Hastings was very deprived when I was last there about 20 years ago. 

And some of the old mining towns in Cornwall like Camborne Redruth and St just are nasty. 

If you want grim Southern towns then aldershot should be high on your list.... 

 

[ramit]

i've seen three English towns, Scunthorpe in daylight was alright, it had a main shopping road as a recall, Grimsby i only saw through a taxi window, i wanted to stop, but the driver assured me that i was mistaken and then i ended up in Hull at the grimiest dirt floor "pub" i have ever seen or even heard of, but i had fun there, so from my admittedly very limited perusal of English towns, Grimsby gets my vote and the driver's.

We have some dreary towns over here, let me tell ya.  Spent a winter in Patreksfjörður, never ever spend a winter in Patreksfjörður.  When boats came in loaded with cod it was celebrated by heavy drinking, hell, when someone sneezed it was celebrated by heavy drinking and understandably at that, as flatland was entirely limited to the dirty strip called a town, encased by the sea on one side and a looming great mountain on the other.  The police locked themselves in every night.

[Grumpy Git]

7 hours ago, BaaLocks said:

You missed the opportunity - should have said "I'm a plasterer so I spread it about a bit"

Ah, but he won’t be as he’ll be too busy supping tea and reading The Sun.

[Boycie]

7 hours ago, ramit said:

i've seen three English towns, Scunthorpe in daylight was alright, it had a main shopping road as a recall, Grimsby i only saw through a taxi window, i wanted to stop, but the driver assured me that i was mistaken and then i ended up in Hull at the grimiest dirt floor "pub" i have ever seen or even heard of, but i had fun there, so from my admittedly very limited perusal of English towns, Grimsby gets my vote and the driver's.

We have some dreary towns over here, let me tell ya.  Spent a winter in Patreksfjörður, never ever spend a winter in Patreksfjörður.  When boats came in loaded with cod it was celebrated by heavy drinking, hell, when someone sneezed it was celebrated by heavy drinking and understandably at that, as flatland was entirely limited to the dirty strip called a town, encased by the sea on one side and a looming great mountain on the other.  The police locked themselves in every night.

Sounds like you’ve got a Grimsby in your country too?

[SSD]

20 hours ago, Alpha said:

I think Derby is a dump. Not Derbyshire but Derby is. 

I live in Alvaston btw so it's not snobbery. 

Quad ugly, velodrome ugly, city center very ugly, that fountain thing, Assembly rooms... 

I've been working in City Center and parts that used to have character are just either dead or patrolled by drunks or chavs. 

I work in places like Stoke and I think it's not massively different now. It used to be worse than Derby. 

I work in Notts and even the roughest areas I've been like Hyson Green have many nice buildings. And the actual city center is much nicer imo. 

Alvaston where I live... It's full of traffic, ugly buildings, boy racers, awful condition roads, traffic light central and HMO's. 

Definitley want to get away asap. 

I think we are in the same boat. We have been trying to move away from Alvaston for a while. I thought it wasn't too bad when I first moved here, it was convenient for work and travel into Derby and the train station. Maybe because I've been settled here for awhile, our good neighbours left a long time ago and crime in the local area since COVID has been awful. It's a shame because I always thought of Alvaston as a good working class community. Once the opportunity arises for a move, I'm getting the removal van on speed dial.

[Turk Thrust]

20 hours ago, Reggie Greenwood said:

Derby no more a dump than any other City. 
Has some great buildings all around apart from near the Derbion , especially around The Strand , Friar Gate , Sadler Gate etc 
I was in Cambridge a few weeks ago. Far more beggars and druggies there. 
Not been to Alvo for a while so can’t comment on that but. 
Notts City apart from a few streets around Hockley is much worse than Derby. 
There are some great houses on Dairy House Road , Hartington Street area but like Hyson Green you wouldn’t want to live there. 
Just think that folk get a bit snow blind to what is near to them .

I went back to Derby for the first time in many, many years. I was born there and left when I was about 27. The shock of walking down St Peter’s Street to the Market Place with fresh eyes! Buildings in terrible state (look up from the shop fronts) and the once lovely cast iron railway bridge over Friargate was in a poor condition. True though there are some very attractive city centre parts especially round the Cathedral. I used to work in the local history unit of the Wardwick library for a few years and often took visitors on walking tours pointing out buildings with their history.

[Chester40]

10 minutes ago, SSD said:

I think we are in the same boat. We have been trying to move away from Alvaston for a while. I thought it wasn't too bad when I first moved here, it was convenient for work and travel into Derby and the train station. Maybe because I've been settled here for awhile, our good neighbours left a long time ago and crime in the local area since COVID has been awful. It's a shame because I always thought of Alvaston as a good working class community. Once the opportunity arises for a move, I'm getting the removal van on speed dial.

Not lived locally for decades, but 40 years ago it was a dump!

From Moorways onwards towards the spider bridge and round there was always pretty grim. Same round Rolls Royce and over the footbridge to the Baseball Ground; very little to interest the tourist board!

[Crewton]

9 minutes ago, Chester40 said:

Not lived locally for decades, but 40 years ago it was a dump!

From Moorways onwards towards the spider bridge and round there was always pretty grim. Same round Rolls Royce and over the footbridge to the Baseball Ground; very little to interest the tourist board!

Aren't you thinking of Allenton? Alvaston starts East of the old canal. 

[Alph]

2 hours ago, Turk Thrust said:

I went back to Derby for the first time in many, many years. I was born there and left when I was about 27. The shock of walking down St Peter’s Street to the Market Place with fresh eyes! Buildings in terrible state (look up from the shop fronts) and the once lovely cast iron railway bridge over Friargate was in a poor condition. True though there are some very attractive city centre parts especially round the Cathedral. I used to work in the local history unit of the Wardwick library for a few years and often took visitors on walking tours pointing out buildings with their history.

Yeah. 

Nothing is taken care of. You leave the shopping center and it's such a ran down dump. Listed buildings left abandoned. And they add something they think it cool and modern and it's just pure ugly like the Quad or Velodrome or that stupid fountain. 

They did the river gardens project with the bus station? Yeah. It's nothing. Nothing compliments the cultural heritage of Derby like stupid tin can buildings. 

Everything outside the shopping center is being left for dead. They don't move the scum bags on that hang around. But i saw them moving a street singer on the other week. Yeah, he's the problem. 

The Assembly rooms has been an eyesore forever. The good number of towering car parks give that Welcome to Coventry feel. 

Derby does nothing to emphasise it's character. I directly goes against it. 

In Alvaston they spent a fortune. Doing what? Introducing more traffic lights, changing a parking bit around so now it interferes with a bus stop and more lanes of traffic than it did before. And stuck some pieces of steel up with motivational quotes on (I think. I never see them)

There are nice parts of Derby. I'll agree with @Reggie Greenwoodon that. But they're left to ruin, age with no love shown their way. 

The love all goes to great recycled tin can buildings. I heard them celebrating the Quad on Radio Derby once. Why? It's ugly. There's Saddlergate, Cathedral, all the Courthouse bit and the Market Hall to celebrate and give some love to. And they celebrate that. "The design is so unique". But it's ugly. 

and that Velodrome. Oh my god. The giant Tuna can. 

there's no sense of complimenting the area. Just bang up some glass and metal. 

As rough as Notts is, it's better looking overall. 

[Alph]

Look either side of it. And look at the state of that. It's about as subtle and complimentary as Kenny Burns at a free buffet. 

[RadioactiveWaste]

Town planning has a lot to answer for in the UK.

As others have said, deindustrialization has blighted many towns and communities across Britain. FWIW, 8 have tended to find that former mining areas are frequently amongst the worst hit.

With the town essentially being created to service an industry that's been gone for a generation or more, there's nothing there as a purpose for the town and community, and because these towns are located by geology and "where it would be good for a town to be" they're often quite isolated. 

For example lots of the north Lanarkshire and west Lothian towns were mining towns which have had no opportunity to regenerate themselves in the way Glasgow has, although some of the west Lothian ones are becoming "Edinburgh overspill" now due to property prices in Edinburgh. 

For saying that, Shotts is flat out the worst.

I did get daily death threats on one site in Liverpool though. But the Scouse sense of humour made it ok.

[Jimbo Ram]

15 hours ago, Van der MoodHoover said:

Jaywick is truly dreadful. Me and mates nearly rented there at uni in the 80s so went back a few years ago for a nostalgia peek and it was awful. 

Hastings was very deprived when I was last there about 20 years ago. 

And some of the old mining towns in Cornwall like Camborne Redruth and St just are nasty. 

If you want grim Southern towns then aldershot should be high on your list.... 

 

My dad was the Headteacher at Pool in Cornwall, just outside Redruth. He had a couple of stabbings at the school. Wouldn't say nasty is the word, just high levels of poverty and deprivation......

[Premier ram]

Cleethorpes one of the most depressing places ive visited , Bradford , Burnley and Milton Keynes, horrific places for different reasons

[sage]

I wish people would stop suggesting Grimsby and Cleethorpes. 

You know you're only fishing 

[TuffLuff]

…I quite like Quad

[sage]

Just now, TuffLuff said:

…I quite like Quad

I like the quad and the velodrome has grown on me. 

Too much stuff was torn down in the 50s and 60s but the recent buildings are better than the 60s rubbish 

[Alph]

Eurgh 

I don't think there's anything interesting or creative about cladding. It just looks ugly and clumsy. 

On industrial estates fair enough. 

In city centres surrounded by heritage it's garish (is that the right word?)

I think the velodrome even stands ugly next to Pride Park. Like a luring spam can. 

Exeter has it right. It has all the more modern shopping bit but it's purposely kind of played down. Like they're not obtrusive, there's nothing to catch your eye. Just compliments the old. 

The Quad and Velodrome just shout for attention. Don't look at the old buildings. Look at me I'm designed by a 12 year old who loves star wars. I'm an architectural marvel. I'm made from everything you've thrown away. I'm all shiny and break all the rules. Why would you go to Bath? That's all old boring painful hand crafted nonsense. I'm a beautiful paint splash on a canvas in a modern art gallery. I won't be ignored. 

Dump. Grimsby would be better than Derby if it was in colour

[Skin em Ted]

There are some sorry sights in Derby lately, the sad thing is that there is so much potential going to waste. The Assembly Rooms situation is nowt short of disgraceful... a huge chunk of Derby's old town heart sat lifeless and decaying like a mothballed Atlantic Wall bunker!

There are a helluva lot worse places around mind you. I'd nominate Doncaster... went for a gig there recently and spent the whole day on edge. I don't think a reformed Beatles playing a one off at the Keepmoat (including John and George) could persuade me to return.