Derbys a s**t hole I want to go home

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

21 minutes ago, MackworthRamIsGod said:

Derby City Centre is the biggest sh!t hole and an intimidating place to be...the only place I have visited worse is Rhyl.

The city centre has changed dramatically over the last 20 years and its such a shame.

 

A special place.  per head of population the UK's murder capital. Bangor in Wales was also a treat.  Like St Peter's Street but miles of it.  Stoke and Doncaster are also beauties.  I've been to worse than Derby but it is s**** and even the remaining nice bit Sadlergate and Irongate have basically emptied over two years.  The last bit of art deco are the council house and bit at the top of Irongate. The remainder went with Debenhams to build something out of Escape from New York.  To be honest though, most cities and towns outside the well established tourist magnets are becoming increasingly horrific.  Last time I went from The Spot to the Market Place without the protection of glass windows was about two years ago.  The whole area is feral as all the shopping was dumped into a big grey box which a small city would never accommodate whilst keeping the rest alive .  My mate got off the bus on Babington Lane at 8 in the morning a few years ago on his way too work. Had to step over a bloke being held down by police with what looked like a mouthful of meat. Turned the corner and another bloke was walking around with most of an ear missing.  Society is going down the s****** everywhere unabated. 

 

[Crewton]

Not hard to spot the Which? members, is it?😉

Seriously, there's some major pearl-clutching going on with some people. I couldn't argue that the city centre hasn't been badly neglected in recent years (thank you, Austerity George) or that the City Council of whatever hue are responsible for some awful planning decisions since WW2, but to describe the place as "feral" is utter hyperbole. 

I still go out in the city centre at night both with mates and with the missus and the 'threat' is marginal compared to central London at midnight or somewhere like Canning Town any time of day.

[Tamworthram]

Firstly, this thread really shouldn’t be on the Derby County page. Can we move it please?

Secondly, they surveyed just short of 4,000 people. Not a bad sample size but how many of those actually stayed in Derby and also stayed in a number of the other towns and cities in order to contrast and compare? I’ve been to Bruges and might score it something like 8 out of 10. Someone else might have been to Vienna (I’ve never been to Vienna and they’ve never been to Bruges) and score it 9 out of 10. That doesn’t automatically mean Vienna is nicer than Bruges. Even asking the local residents is a bit of a waste of time. I think Tamworth town centre is a bit of a dump (not that I go in very often) which it is apart from the castle but I can’t say it’s worse than anywhere else - it’s the only town I’ve lived in for the past 30 odd years.

Finally, there doesn’t seem to be any scale for the ranking (as far as I can see). Maybe the margins are very narrow and therefore the rankings are misleading.

[jono]

It’s a universal problem. Every town and city I have visited in the last 20 years has similar issues. Over crowding, visible evidence of drug taking, waste management, the decline of retail choice and vibrancy caused by the internet age. Ludicrous parking regulations and costs. The loss of skilled jobs following de industrialisation. I suspect it’s similar in many European towns. All were once fuelled by the Wests old industrial prosperity that is no longer there. It’s a world change not a party political thing. Owners of vape shops and takeaways that drive bling filled 4x4’s from their “enterprises” 

The good bits being our lovely parks and gardens, DCFC and Potts on Babington lane. My adopted home has been good to me but I escaped to Belper last year where the biggest problem seems to be dead sheep seen in the weir and the woes surrounding the mill building. 

[Rambam]

I hate these lists. 
One list of the 15 most beautiful cities to visit in the UK actually includes Nottingham, but doesn’t include Chester, my home town. 
Chester was recently voted the prettiest city in the WORLD, ahead of Venice. 
Derby has plenty to offer, trust me. 

[Tamworthram]

10 minutes ago, Rambam said:

I hate these lists. 
One list of the 15 most beautiful cities to visit in the UK actually includes Nottingham, but doesn’t include Chester, my home town. 
Chester was recently voted the prettiest city in the WORLD, ahead of Venice. 
Derby has plenty to offer, trust me. 

That’s the thing about these lists. I quite like Chester but I’ve only been to a tiny proportion of the cities in the world (as I suspect many people surveyed have) so I can’t really compare it.

Also, beauty (or prettiness) in the eye of the beholder. If I compare Chester to some of the cities I have been to then it still wouldn’t rank as the prettiest - ranking behind Bruges, Carcasonne, Lucca and Verona without thinking too hard.

[Mostyn6]

generally all busy towns/cities that are diverse and multi-cultural are dumps.

[Ram-Alf]

I watched a programme about North Philadelphia USA last night...fcuking wow...Derby is a Paradise compared to that place, My council tax goes to South Derby's district council, I use all Derby City Council facilities 😊 

Derby is just a little tired looking, City council planning is now more focussed on building multi story blocks of apartments to pull the cash in, An eyesore...imo is the one on Victoria street so so out of place, The one on Gower street is a tip, The old DRI where there's a new development are being snapped up by buyers so they can let them, Already complaints of owners/tenants at loggerheads.

Green lane has gone down hill if you walk from the top of it 😁 drug users at the top of it, Empty shops at the bottom, Saint Peter's street to Irongate is the main thoroughfare you cant help but notice the beer swillers on the benches opposite East street.

No Derby is no sh!t hole far from it.

“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”      

 

Edited May 22 by Ram-Alf

[Stive Pesley]

26 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

generally all busy towns/cities that are diverse and multi-cultural are dumps.

I would disagree

I doubt there are many cities in the UK that aren't multi-cultural since the 1970s. They aren't all dumps. So you must be making a false correlation

And in Europe? I spent a week in Malmo last month, supposedly one of the most multi-cultural cities in Sweden and it was lovely. We stayed in Rosengard too, so it wasn't like we were shielded from the multi-cultural areas

If a city is a dump it's far more likely because of under investment and lack of long-term planning. There is probably a much stronger correlation between somewhere being a dump and poverty levels (and also quite likely a handful of very very rich property owners laughing all the way to the bank)

[Stive Pesley]

Incidentally - I live in DE1 and I visit the city centre frequently. It's better now than it was before covid, feels like things are slowly turning around, but then just last week I visited Leicester for the first time in ages and met up with a friend from London who used to live in Leicester and we were both shocked at how much it has gone downhill. I'd say it's currently a worse city centre experience than Derby

[BaaLocks]

There's a huge difference between living somewhere and going there on a short break. I think Blackpool is crazy fun for a couple of days but you couldn't pay me enough to live there. Portsmouth, with the naval museum and refurbished shopping area by the Spinaker is actually a really interesting place to visit, but again I'd live in a hundred places in the UK before it.

Undeniably, Derby suffers from inner city decline but then so does every single town or city in the country. It's our changing way of living, the influx of shopping malls and move to online purchasing. I live near Stratford Upon Avon, even they have so many closed shops it is sad to behold. If they can't make a go of the visitor economy then nobody can.

[Crewton]

57 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

generally all busy towns/cities that are diverse and multi-cultural are dumps.

Middlesbrough? Harlow? Rochester? 

Plenty of dumps that aren't diverse or multi-cultural too. What they have in common is higher levels of deprivation.

[Alph]

I love Derby. Lived here all my life. 

I like that it looks like a giant industrial unit. I wish there was more cladding. Derby gets stuff done. How long have they been messing around in Barcelona with that Sagrada Familia? Get some cladding on it, boom! Done. 

Thankfully the IntuWestfieldOn is slowly killing off all that old stuff. Cathedral quarter is soooo boring compared to the vibrant expandy foam shopping paradise and it's 10 mile shadow. 

Sometimes I go shopping in Notts or we go to laugh at their castle and boast to the locals about our new velodrome corned beef can. They have these silly things going on all the time in the square and it's just so tragic. I feel sorry for them. They'll never know what it's like to navigate the potholes into Derby town and experience the 3 light xmas turn on or even just enjoy lunch while taking in the views outside the Asbestos Rooms. In summer they have a beach. But we have a fountain all year round!! Water not included 

All cities have ran down areas. Derby doesn't. We just have area. I've lived here all my life and I enjoy the potholes as much as anyone. I have faith in our police to protect McDonalds from speeding motorists. Whether I'm in a 16 hour traffic jam because one car broke down or whether I'm taking my tools into yet another HMO, I find the smell of cannabis relaxing.

Some people say a lot of the money invested in Derby has offered no improvements for years. To those people I say where were you when they spent a few mil changing the exit/entry points to parking in Alvaston? 

We went to P'boro not long back. Didn't expect much and after a nice stroll around the Cathedral and sitting out having some food in the square I thought about how I miss the 20ft rings that "symbolise Derby like Big Ben symbolises London"

[jono]

49 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

I would disagree

I doubt there are many cities in the UK that aren't multi-cultural since the 1970s. They aren't all dumps. So you must be making a false correlation

And in Europe? I spent a week in Malmo last month, supposedly one of the most multi-cultural cities in Sweden and it was lovely. We stayed in Rosengard too, so it wasn't like we were shielded from the multi-cultural areas

If a city is a dump it's far more likely because of under investment and lack of long-term planning. There is probably a much stronger correlation between somewhere being a dump and poverty levels (and also quite likely a handful of very very rich property owners laughing all the way to the bank)

I think you’re right in your first statements but the lack of long term planning and investment rather depends on having the cash. Which as a nation we don’t have anymore. This has little to do with the current crop of property people but much more to do with the fact that we don’t have industry that exports thus binging real money in to the economy. How we resolve that in the face of competition from outside the old western sphere, who don’t have our welfare systems tolerance or “kindness” I don’t know. 
 

Think this topic needs to go to the pub ?

[BaaLocks]

1 hour ago, Mostyn6 said:

generally all busy towns/cities that are diverse and multi-cultural are dumps.

Pretty loaded comment but let's discuss.

Causality? Correlation? Coincidence? Migrant populations naturally move to places where manual labour is going to be available. Places where factories and manual labour is prevalent tend to be less affluent but not because migrants work there. So, like so many cases where diverse communities are highlighted, it is the reasons behind that drive the correlation and they are not the cause.

Also, I agree with @Crewton - go to Whitehaven, Hartlepool or Scunthorpe and you'll see somewhere far from diverse and pretty undesirable as a location.

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

3 hours ago, Crewton said:

Not hard to spot the Which? members, is it?😉

Seriously, there's some major pearl-clutching going on with some people. I couldn't argue that the city centre hasn't been badly neglected in recent years (thank you, Austerity George) or that the City Council of whatever hue are responsible for some awful planning decisions since WW2, but to describe the place as "feral" is utter hyperbole. 

I still go out in the city centre at night both with mates and with the missus and the 'threat' is marginal compared to central London at midnight or somewhere like Canning Town any time of day.

From London Road to the Market Place is feral.  I cross the Railway bridge onto Midland Road regularly.  A few weeks ago I witnessed someone stooped in the rain, off their tits, taking a s*** on the pavement opposite the Midland Hotel, another pale shadow of what it was. Also had the pleasure of seeing a heavily pregnant woman in just a bra being carried up St Peter's Street at 5pm by two blokes screaming her head off and also off her tits to match the ones on display.  Derby city Centre is feral

[Premier ram]

Might be a dump but it’s our dump. LOVE DERBY

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

10 minutes ago, Premier ram said:

Might be a dump but it’s our dump. LOVE DERBY

We all do.  That's why I get pissed of with unnecessary deline. Some of it's socio-economic but a large part is appalling planning, lack of spending and general disregard.  When did you last see a plant in a tub since they closed the glasshouse at Markeaton or actively repairing a pavement other than putting a large block of tarmac in a hole in place of a slab.  If you compare the look of the city centre from mid 90's to now it's frightening.

[Stive Pesley]

5 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

When did you last see a plant in a tub

There were lots of plants in tubs last summer, all down Irongate

They removed them for the winter, but I guess it's easier to imagine that you haven't seen them and you just want to have a moan

That's the Derby way! 😂

[Gee SCREAMER !!]

2 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

There were lots of plants in tubs last summer, all down Irongate

They removed them for the winter, but I guess it's easier to imagine that you haven't seen them and you just want to have a moan

That's the Derby way! 😂

That the best you can do rather than have a proper debate.  Short hand s*** housing.  I'll leave it with you . Enjoy your walk round the river gardens but keep your stick handy to fend of the local wildlife Stevie Wonder.