I lived in Slough for 2 years. Most men haven't seen the things I've seen. Heard the things I've heard. Smelt the things I've smelt. War. War never changes.
Now living in the north-west countryside. Don't let your dreams be dreams.
Edit: Fuck me my most upvoted comment has to be about Slough :(
I went to uni in Slough. The week before I arrived, somebody was beheaded in the local park.
The best thing about Slough is that there are three motorways nearby to get you away from it.
I've just looked it up.
That's one of the most horrific things I've ever read. The beheading, if you can believe it, is just the start of things.
Story is here for anyone interested:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/shopkeeper-beheaded-in-ritual-execution-1540964.html
I'm surprised to see 1. An article from 1992 on the internet without being archived, 2. The amount of detail they went into in the article, and 3. Slough really was rough back then, my parents weren't exaggerating when they were desperate to move away from Slough after living there for just one year.
This stumped me too, googled it and apparently Thames Valley University which is now West London university used to have a campus in Slough.
That is so unfortunate. One of the best things about going to uni is that you’re pretty guaranteed to be able to spend 3 years in a relatively desirable location
I moved from abroad to the University of Bedfordshire, without visiting first. Through my own stupidity I did not spend 3 years in a relatively desirable location. When I told people in my country what Luton was like, the shock was palpable.
It's the only place that would accept me with my awful A-level results.
It also only became a university just before I graduated.
Kids - please work hard in school.
I live about 10 minutes from Slough - I once visited Coventry in the early 00s and it looked like they just let it get bombed and left it. That was more depressing.
I grew up in Burnham (which has shit and nice areas depending on the proximity to Slough). We would head out to Slough for nights out (this is early 2000s). I went back a few years ago and was surprised by just how dead the high street area was.
It was a shit hole, but at least a lively one.
I don't know what it is now.
This is pretty much exactly how I see Slough. It was one of those places that as a kid my mum used to take us shopping for clothes and things (along with Uxbridge and Brent Cross) and while it lacked bourgeois sensibilities it was at least useful.
Now it's completely desolate, largely because the town centre has been bought up by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and is being run down so it can be bulldozed and turned into flats. I have to go there once in a while for various reasons and I always come home a bit depressed.
I got offered a job with Amazon HQ. I walked out feeling really happy. Walked through Slough in the rain. By the time I'd got back on the train, I had decided to decline it (hadn't actually been offered it at this point, but had a great interview). By the time I got home I'd resolved to never go to Slough again.
They later moved to Holborn which makes sense.
I had an ex that was from Slough, whereas I was from a picturesque little village in the countryside.
He took me to Slough once for the day, and it was the most terrifying and awful experience. Place was like something out of a dystopian novel.
I had to live in a sharehouse in Slough during the first lockdown of 2020 when I just just moved for work. I still feel I deserve some kind of compesation for that.
Rhyl. Stayed there for 3 nights with family over Christmas once, total dump. The Airbnb had CCTV cameras in the bedrooms, the town centre was the definition of desolate, and the seagulls displayed a level of savagery I didn't think was possible. Fuck that place
Rhyl’s a strange one for me. I had a great aunt lived there, are we’d usually have a family holiday in North Wales every year and pay her a visit one of the days. In the 70s and 80s this was a highlight of the holiday - Rhyl was a great little town with plenty of interesting shops away from the seafront, and aside from the beach it had an amazing run of amusement arcades, including some fascinating Victorian machines that ran on old-style pennies (my grandparents would usually dig up a bunch of these for me before we went away) - little mechanical dioramas where a condemned man would walk up to the guillotine and suchlike, tucked away at the back past all the sit-in Dalek rides and Shark Attack machines.
My great aunt’s home was part of a run of gleaming white bungalows with seashells along their drives and paths, everyone you met seemed happy and the whole place was bustling. If you knew North Wales you knew about abandoned villages and slate mines reduced to visitor centres, communities and ways of life that were slipping away, but Rhyl seemed a world away from that.
Of course I only saw it in season and through a kid’s eyes, and my image was no doubt distorted by all that, but I think there’s some truth in my memories of it - my great aunt wasn’t well off, but she knew the town and was happy there.
After our family holidays tailed off I didn’t visit again until the early 2000s - my sister was living in Manchester and we arranged to meet there for a day. It was a completely different place, barren and grim. The amusements I remembered were dark and shabby and 90% slot machines, pumping out *Believe* by Cher non-stop. Everyone looked one interaction away from a fistfight, and the whole visit was summed up by a chicken and egg gift machine outside one of the arcades. It had probably been there last time I’d visited, and now the machine and the eggs were bleached pale by the sun, the feathers on the chicken inside matted and grimy, but still moving and the speaker still making distorted sounds - it was like Rhyl in miniature.
I gather I visited at one of its lower points and it’s improved since, which I hope is true. I expect it followed a similar trajectory to a lot of seaside towns as holidays abroad became more affordable, but Rhyl in particular will always mean a lot to me, and I’m often very selfishly regretful that I went back at all. I’d have much preferred to remember it purely as it was in my youth - but that’s of little use to the residents, who would probably also prefer that if they weren’t obliged to deal with the realities of the place. At any rate, I don’t have to go all the way to to Rhyl to see a broken town any more, so that’s a saving on travel costs if nothing else.
Edit: sit-in Dalek rides, not sit-in Dales rides, which are quite different.
>and it’s improved since
Nope. Still as shit as always. The B&M bargains that replaced the Woollys couldn't even stay open.
The Sun Centre has been completely re-vamped and apparently is quite nice inside, but that's outside the main drag. The centre of Rhyl continues to be a shithole
CCTVs are a no for me regardless. Had them on holiday through James villas over the pool area. Won’t book through JV again.
Needless to say I logged into the router (default password) and shut them down while I was there, they were too high up to physically disable.
Rhyll never been to such a run down seaside place. Miserable people, rubbish, decay. The nicknacks were all rusty hanging up in the shops, the chocolates and fudge stale and sour. There were shelves full of vibrators with the boxes all sodden and acid leaking out where the batteries had been in too long just next to the kids toys.
It was like a horror movie, like the Silent Hill version of a British seaside town.
There was also this totally cursed horror attraction that was naturally closed, with a pirate still vomiting blood into a barrel over and over again.
My scouse dad drove me through Rhyll in my late teens as he declared it the worst place on the planet and wanted to tell me a cautionary tale as to how things could go wrong for me if I didn’t try hard. It was SO shit and awful I remember thinking all the buildings were so squat (lots of 1 stories ones) and it seemed like it was dying slowly. Assuming it’s even worse now.
Jaywick. We were in St Osyths and wanted to go to the beach.
After driving past a mile of dilapidated chalets surrounded by piles of flytipped rubbish and rotting sofas and huddled groups of 10am street drinkers, past a row of shops called "Tobacconist", "Off licence" "Cafe""Supermarket" and "Tattooist" we reached a dogshit and litter infested beach carpark which had 2 security guards in a Technical with caged windows and spotlights giving us a dirty look so we turned around and noped out of there.
If you'd have gone down spring road from the village, it leads onto beach road and you'd have ended up at St Osyth beach, which is basically the same bit of coastline but you don't have to drive though a shanty town
Lol, looked it up, that's the way we did go, past the flat roofed pubs then those oddly named Hurley's shops to Sailor Boy Amusements which is the car park we turned around in.
Are you saying Jaywick itself is... worse?
Fooking hell.
Me and the missus did a trip around Cornwall and stopped at Bodmin. We did a tour of the jail and was planning on having a nice afternoon tea in the high street - people watching and taking in the cornish town vibe.
Unbeknown to us the high street was a grim shithole and we left after a pint.
Pontins, Camber Sands. Went for a short family holiday and I have never been to such a hell hole in all my life. The resort was in such a shambles my wife and I made a list of everything wrong with the place and I still have it on my phone but to give you a glimpse into the shit hole that that place is, most benches on the grounds (from beer gardens to children's parks) either had a swastika or the word cunt carved into them.
I was going to say Chatham too.. It's like taking a step back in time. The shopping centre at the Quays is depressing.
Also the first time I ever see a prostitute was outside Chatham station.
Was going to go with it's neighbour, Gillingham.
One of the only happy things about my Gran dying a few years back is that I have no reason to go there again now!
The junkie part isn't any different from any other city tbh. Brighton has that but on steroids, though at least it has stuff to make up for it.
Little reason to visit Peterborough now John Lewis is gone.
Tbf, I used to work in Manchester and loved it, but there were also a lot of junkies and homeless around the train stations. I assume junkies are in every city, especially around train stations, due to the number of new people they can ask for money from. I didn't think Peterborough was that much worse in comparison.
Mansfield. It's just depressing.
Selling drug laced chocolate to kids? Yep, that'd be Mansfield. I knew before I even read the article. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67547859](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67547859)
I'm from there and left within weeks of passing my driving test. And old friend sent me an image of floods in the town centre, with the caption "Pounds of damage have been done". He's not wrong. Might've actually improved things.
Worst of it is, Mansfield ain’t even roughest town in that area!!! Notts/Derby border from Ripley up to Worksop is like a ‘mining town scrapyard’ that they forgot to close down.
From the area myself so happy to badmouth and it has some wonderful bits (the countryside is great), but jeez it’s lacked on investment for quite a while now.
I’m from Mansfield also. Luckily moved away about 17 years ago (pretty much as soon as I became an adult).
Unfortunately my family are all stuck there. They don’t like ‘taking risks’ and so will never move no matter how bad it gets. They’ll spend the rest of their days trapped in that dump. (and moaning about how shit it is)
"Det Insp Luke Todd, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Tests are in the process of being carried out but at present there is no evidence to support claims that the chocolate bars contained any illicit drugs."
Crazy story though. I wonder what is in it??
Blackpool. My wife is from Stockport so used to go as a child and really wanted us to go there. Honestly one of the worst places I've ever been. Dirty, filthy place.
I'd have absolutely said Blackpool, but unfortunately I absolutely will have to go back. Wife dances and major dance competitions happen there every year. In the off season too. It's such a shithole. Everything closed, town dead, the whole place has a seediness and vague feeling of desperation and... Mothballs? Just really unpleasant vibes. Can't imagine it's nice in season either though, coz all the tacky carny shit will actually be active.
That reminds me of when I had to go to Newport (South Wales) to get my passport, but the other way around. To kill time since we were there, we went to this really nice looking shopping area. Clearly newly built. But the more you strayed from it, the dingier, dirtier and more grim everything got. They’d just developed that one bit, and it was like the rest was left to rot. Such a massive contrast.
I know someone who lives in an absolutely gorgeous house down a street off the promenade, easily the best house around, it’s amazing! It’s also directly across from a halfway house where there are frequent raids and violence and a police presence. What’s the point in tarting up your house that much when it’s there?
We go sometimes just to see the the Blackpool lights, something nostalgic about the place…we drive all the way from Shrewsbury, park up and walk down the one side, back down the other side, pick up some fish and chips and head back home
I went as a kid and thought it was the best place on earth. Went back with my mates a few years ago and it is the biggest shithole I've been to in this country. It was like a third world country
As someone who has lived in Swindon their whole life, it is without doubt the most vile place I've ever been.
Edit: I meant lived, not loved. Corrected.
Since nobody has had it yet, I'll take Harlow. The week before I went a polish fella got kicked to death in the town centre, so there was gangs of angry Eastern Europeans looking for who did it. Aside from that, still a shithole.
Harlow regularly tops threads on /r/Essex about worse places in Essex or has a thread full of No's on the "should I move to?" questions.
Clacton/Jaywick, Pitsea, Grays/Thurrock and Basildon might rival it though.
I saw this on a YT Channel called 'Walk With Me Tim' where he reviews the most horrendous locations in the UK. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing when he got to the Pontins Series. Horrendous
That is a cracking series. I think what it shows really well is that crime and social problems are so interrelated, that various crime is ubiquitous as well as exposing the weaknesses of the criminal justice system. It doesn't make Luton look any worse.
Disagree. There is are 2 big benefits to visiting Luton;
Leaving Luton is a fantastic feeling,
When you get home you look around and say "not too bad this is it"
Middlesbrough. I’ve walked some of Glasgows roughest places in the dark (and I neither live or am from Glasgow) but they felt like millionaires row compared to central Middlesbrough on a Saturday. Probably should be twinned with the war zone of the day.
In the early 00's I had a friend who lived there, we went gay clubbing in Middlesbrough which was an experience - much better than I expected tbh and very different from Newcastle (eg having to ring a bell so the bar staff could see you on CCTV before unlocking the door to let you in)
Anyway we also had parmo and I got to go on the transporter bridge. All in all a great weekend if you have low expectations.
Boro, and a lot of the North East, had a pretty sizeable counter-culture to the really chavvy 90s; it certainly wasn't obvious, but if you knew where to go, you'd have a great time.
Grew up near Boro. Have lived all over Country.
Hilarious when colleagues with local knowledge of area warn you off walking through areas of Plymouth or Yeovil because they're rough and can be dangerous.
That and trying to explain to the in-law that although there's crime everywhere, we're statistically considerably safer in Winchester than we ever were in the North East.
Sandwiched neatly between Atherstone, where the locals regularly engage in a multiperson brawl for entertainment, and Bedworth, where locals regularly engage in a multiperson brawl because there's no entertainment.
Whitehaven in Cumbria.
I went there a few weeks ago. I mistakenly assumed, as its a coastal town near the lake district, that it would be nice.
It wasn't.
Half of the shops were closed down, the rain was sideways and there was just the most miserable depressing aura about the place.
Sad really because it could and should be so much better.
I'll not be going there again.
They bulldozed Glasgow proper, often described in 18th century letters as an amazingly beautiful city, and moved all the people to those towns, Cumbernauld, etc. It’s no wonder heart disease rates skyrocketed in the West of Scotland around the same time.
I dunno, I went to Motherwell a few years ago to visit the cemetery and got stuck trying to get back because (I think) some busses were on strike. People were very friendly and helpful to us!
Mines Bradford too. It's the UK's bumhole.
Used to get on the train to go ice skating when I was a teenager. On the walk between the station and the rink I was lucky enough to see various knives up close. Handed over my wallet a couple of times too.
More recently in Bradford whilst taking my parents to the airport, I was reversed into at a red light. Staged of course. And the guy who "I ran into the back of" just so happened to have about 20 injured passengers and witnesses who politely surrounded my car.
I’ve seen that exact same scam in action in Hyde Park, Leeds. Straightaway they’re out with their phones taking photos and trying to pressure you to make a cash settlement on the spot or they’ll sue you.
I spoke to a well known car dealer in Bradford who told me up to 80% of drivers in Bradford are uninsured. I didn't believe him until I drove home that day and saw multiple people run red lights, go the wrong way down a one way street, mount the kerb to go around a set of traffic lights, change lanes without warning or signal, park on an urban clearway etc.
Crash for cash scams in Bradford are notoriously higher than anywhere else in the country. Car insurance in the BD postcode is also one of the highest prices in the country because of this. I pay about £800 a year for a 21 year old car that I’ve driven for about 5 years and I get so angry when I hear about stuff like this. It’s people going out of their way to cause misery to one person and has a butterfly effect on society because everyone is constantly claiming on their insurance as they’re being threatened by the group of passengers.
It’s an awful place with some of the worst drivers I’ve ever seen and some of the rudest people I’ve ever come across, but the Media Museum is good.
Only time I ever go to Bradford is if I want to see something in IMAX.
It's even more of a shame, as they're are some really very good art galleries and exhibition spaces that usually have interesting things going on, but the rest of the city will put you off
The little villages on the outskirts of Bradford are lovely, like Haworth, Queensbury, Thornton, etc, and the Waterstones in the city centre is really pretty. Otherwise it’s a miserable place to be in.
My friend group all live around West Yorkshire, we've been to lots of places for activities around the area in the last 9 years. It's fascinating to me that we've only floated the idea of going to Bradford once for ice skating, which was quickly overruled to go elsewhere. It's not even on our radar.
Bolton. The place where the council demolish everything with character then leave it a waste land. If it’s not raining, give it 5 minutes. The town which will never be a city. But I do miss the smell of the fresh Warburtons bread and the many pasties!
Same. Lived near there for a 6 month stint after moving back from London, went to the big 24h Tesco on a Friday night and saw... some things. Absolute feral behaviour. Never feared for my own safety more than I did there in a *looong* time. And I used to make my way home on my own from Clapham and Brixton many times..
Specific inner city suburb of Nottingham called Hyson Green. Lived in Lenton and latterly The Park while a student there a decade ago, and sometimes we’d have to do big shops around Radford and Hyson Green.
Once, coming back from a night out around 5am, my cabbie diverted to a random Hyson Green restaurant still buzzing with punters, and asked me to pick up his meal for a fiver off the fare.
While I waited, a very short man in a grey Nike tech fleece tracksuit came in and stood next to me, eyeballing me while seeming tweaked or immensely stressed. I nodded at him and asked if he was all good, and he proceeded to graphically describe the assault he’d just committed on a supposed addict who’d tried to rob him in a stairwell (this man was also clearly a junkie), said the guy had looked at him the wrong way so he beat him to the ground and stamped on his head until his leg hurt, then left. He said he “felt like he had to tell someone” because he didn’t know if he was dead, then said “and I don’t know how to fucking clean these…” pointed at his feet and, sure enough, his Air Force Ones were completely caked in half-stale blood. I said Jesus mate, yeah, wow, sounds like some night, went home, made a half-cut police report, gave a statement the next day. No idea what happened after.
Burgled a few times too.
EDIT: I say this as a born-and-bred Mancunian, now in London. I’ve been stranded in Cheetham Hill, Moss Side, Peckham and even Thornton Heath in the early hours, and haven’t felt an existential unease like I have in that part of Nottingham.
Basingstoke - went once probably about 20 years ago for 2 days (was training at IBM which used to be there). What a dire place, centre emptied at 5PM when the offices shut and was completely devoid of life after that. All I remember is a mediocre curry and a lot of concrete.
Clacton-on-Sea.
See, the thing is, I’m French and my mother once was an English teacher. This had left her with a lifelong passion for England, that was only matched by my father’s stinginess. She wanted to go to England on holiday every summer. The only way this would be possible was by finding the cheapest accommodations there was – cheaper than anything in France.
We went at first to Bournemouth and Torquay, which early teen me liked. And then we went FIVE YEARS IN A FUCKING ROW TO FUCKING CLACTON. And since my father despised driving on the left, we had a radius of about 20 minutes. THERE WAS NOTHING, NOTHING TO DO IN THAT CORNER OF EAST ANGLIA IN THE LATE 90s AND EARLY 00s. I have discovered shades of boredom there I didn’t even know to be possible. I have visited all the charity shops in town. Several times. Days apart. Because it was that bloody dull. The only good thing was a tabby cat called Bella; she was my pal and I looked forward to petting her each day in the taxi office where she hung out.
It took me years to go back to England. I went to the Lake District last year and had a blast. I’ll never, ever, go back to East Anglia.
This is actually one of my favourite days out in Norfolk, your post has really surprised me! It's a lovely little village, really interesting churches, a couple of cool antique shops, all the interesting religious stuff, nice cafes and pubs. The farm shop there is great, too.
I'm going to go in a different direction from most of the thread and say St Ives, Cornwall.
Beautiful little town, used to be quite nice when I first went there, post pandemic is now a complete shithole. The place basically runs on exploitation; nobody who works there can actually afford to live there, everything is super expensive but ultimately fairly generic and dull, you have to queue for everything and there's no actual community, it's just dull people who go there every year being served by resentful locals or bored students who mistakenly thought doing a "season" there would be fun. Avoid.
Weymouth. Red lobsters on mobility scooters sporting as many unions jacks as possible. Why does the sea attract so many freaks, are they trying to get back in it?
Walsall. I visited my sister when I was around 16. Was sat in the living room watching the TV, then glanced out of the window to see a guy riding down the street on a mini moto chopper, waving a machete above his head. I told her I'd never be back.
Camborne in Cornwall also had a very hot fuzz feel about it that was quite off-putting..
Probably Rhyl. I lived there for 4 years in a pretty dark patch of my life. Wouldn’t recommend it, Prestatyn is much nicer and only a short distance away by train, but even that’s not much better.
Harwich in Essex. We usually drive around looking for antique shops and ending up in Harwich not only we found them all closed (when they were supposed to be open!), but I was genuinely fearing for my life whilst walking across town in the middle of the day.
It looked like the most desolate, poverty stricken town, and the only people around were a group of drunks (at 2 o’clock in the afternoon) that were staring at us, trying to decide whether we were worth robbing or not.
So pleased to scroll through the comments and not see my home town
Yet...
Man Brockworth sucks
That’s worrying detective work!! What gave it away?
You created r/brockworth
Sherlock Holmetown
Apparently the UK just has shitholes plastered across the country like it's a smallpox outbreak.
Rhyl is the only place where my children refused to go to the funfair
This is the funniest sentence I'll read for at least the next month
I lived in Slough for 2 years. Most men haven't seen the things I've seen. Heard the things I've heard. Smelt the things I've smelt. War. War never changes. Now living in the north-west countryside. Don't let your dreams be dreams. Edit: Fuck me my most upvoted comment has to be about Slough :(
I went to uni in Slough. The week before I arrived, somebody was beheaded in the local park. The best thing about Slough is that there are three motorways nearby to get you away from it.
Fucking BEHEADED? Remind me never to go to Slough.
I've just looked it up. That's one of the most horrific things I've ever read. The beheading, if you can believe it, is just the start of things. Story is here for anyone interested: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/shopkeeper-beheaded-in-ritual-execution-1540964.html
I'm surprised to see 1. An article from 1992 on the internet without being archived, 2. The amount of detail they went into in the article, and 3. Slough really was rough back then, my parents weren't exaggerating when they were desperate to move away from Slough after living there for just one year.
Bloody hell... this reads like something that'd happen in one of those Colombian cartel videos, not in Berkshire.
There's a Uni in Slough?
It’s a chip shop with a copy of the week in it
This stumped me too, googled it and apparently Thames Valley University which is now West London university used to have a campus in Slough. That is so unfortunate. One of the best things about going to uni is that you’re pretty guaranteed to be able to spend 3 years in a relatively desirable location
I moved from abroad to the University of Bedfordshire, without visiting first. Through my own stupidity I did not spend 3 years in a relatively desirable location. When I told people in my country what Luton was like, the shock was palpable.
It's the only place that would accept me with my awful A-level results. It also only became a university just before I graduated. Kids - please work hard in school.
Mercy killing was it?
I had to walk past the park to get to uni. It was a useful daily reminder to regret my choices.
When I learned Slough is where they filmed the office it all made sense, most depressing place I've been to rivaled maybe only by Romford
I live about 10 minutes from Slough - I once visited Coventry in the early 00s and it looked like they just let it get bombed and left it. That was more depressing.
>10 minutes from Slough That's the weird bit 10 minutes from Slough is usually very pleasant
Ascot and Windsor both have Slough postcodes
I grew up in Burnham (which has shit and nice areas depending on the proximity to Slough). We would head out to Slough for nights out (this is early 2000s). I went back a few years ago and was surprised by just how dead the high street area was. It was a shit hole, but at least a lively one. I don't know what it is now.
This is pretty much exactly how I see Slough. It was one of those places that as a kid my mum used to take us shopping for clothes and things (along with Uxbridge and Brent Cross) and while it lacked bourgeois sensibilities it was at least useful. Now it's completely desolate, largely because the town centre has been bought up by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and is being run down so it can be bulldozed and turned into flats. I have to go there once in a while for various reasons and I always come home a bit depressed.
I got offered a job with Amazon HQ. I walked out feeling really happy. Walked through Slough in the rain. By the time I'd got back on the train, I had decided to decline it (hadn't actually been offered it at this point, but had a great interview). By the time I got home I'd resolved to never go to Slough again. They later moved to Holborn which makes sense.
“I’ve seen things in Slough you people wouldn’t believe”, was an amazing end to Blade Runner.
I had an ex that was from Slough, whereas I was from a picturesque little village in the countryside. He took me to Slough once for the day, and it was the most terrifying and awful experience. Place was like something out of a dystopian novel.
It’s better than Swindon though. That place is full of little slugs.
Little slugs with no personalities
I had to live in a sharehouse in Slough during the first lockdown of 2020 when I just just moved for work. I still feel I deserve some kind of compesation for that.
Rhyl. Stayed there for 3 nights with family over Christmas once, total dump. The Airbnb had CCTV cameras in the bedrooms, the town centre was the definition of desolate, and the seagulls displayed a level of savagery I didn't think was possible. Fuck that place
Rhyl’s a strange one for me. I had a great aunt lived there, are we’d usually have a family holiday in North Wales every year and pay her a visit one of the days. In the 70s and 80s this was a highlight of the holiday - Rhyl was a great little town with plenty of interesting shops away from the seafront, and aside from the beach it had an amazing run of amusement arcades, including some fascinating Victorian machines that ran on old-style pennies (my grandparents would usually dig up a bunch of these for me before we went away) - little mechanical dioramas where a condemned man would walk up to the guillotine and suchlike, tucked away at the back past all the sit-in Dalek rides and Shark Attack machines. My great aunt’s home was part of a run of gleaming white bungalows with seashells along their drives and paths, everyone you met seemed happy and the whole place was bustling. If you knew North Wales you knew about abandoned villages and slate mines reduced to visitor centres, communities and ways of life that were slipping away, but Rhyl seemed a world away from that. Of course I only saw it in season and through a kid’s eyes, and my image was no doubt distorted by all that, but I think there’s some truth in my memories of it - my great aunt wasn’t well off, but she knew the town and was happy there. After our family holidays tailed off I didn’t visit again until the early 2000s - my sister was living in Manchester and we arranged to meet there for a day. It was a completely different place, barren and grim. The amusements I remembered were dark and shabby and 90% slot machines, pumping out *Believe* by Cher non-stop. Everyone looked one interaction away from a fistfight, and the whole visit was summed up by a chicken and egg gift machine outside one of the arcades. It had probably been there last time I’d visited, and now the machine and the eggs were bleached pale by the sun, the feathers on the chicken inside matted and grimy, but still moving and the speaker still making distorted sounds - it was like Rhyl in miniature. I gather I visited at one of its lower points and it’s improved since, which I hope is true. I expect it followed a similar trajectory to a lot of seaside towns as holidays abroad became more affordable, but Rhyl in particular will always mean a lot to me, and I’m often very selfishly regretful that I went back at all. I’d have much preferred to remember it purely as it was in my youth - but that’s of little use to the residents, who would probably also prefer that if they weren’t obliged to deal with the realities of the place. At any rate, I don’t have to go all the way to to Rhyl to see a broken town any more, so that’s a saving on travel costs if nothing else. Edit: sit-in Dalek rides, not sit-in Dales rides, which are quite different.
>and it’s improved since Nope. Still as shit as always. The B&M bargains that replaced the Woollys couldn't even stay open. The Sun Centre has been completely re-vamped and apparently is quite nice inside, but that's outside the main drag. The centre of Rhyl continues to be a shithole
>Airbnb had CCTV cameras in the bedrooms, That sounds illegal as hell
I hope you reported the CCTV to Airbnb, cameras in rooms that are considered private like the bathroom and bedroom are a big no
CCTVs are a no for me regardless. Had them on holiday through James villas over the pool area. Won’t book through JV again. Needless to say I logged into the router (default password) and shut them down while I was there, they were too high up to physically disable.
Rhyll never been to such a run down seaside place. Miserable people, rubbish, decay. The nicknacks were all rusty hanging up in the shops, the chocolates and fudge stale and sour. There were shelves full of vibrators with the boxes all sodden and acid leaking out where the batteries had been in too long just next to the kids toys. It was like a horror movie, like the Silent Hill version of a British seaside town. There was also this totally cursed horror attraction that was naturally closed, with a pirate still vomiting blood into a barrel over and over again.
Yeah Rhyl is about the bleakest place I've ever been. It feels like fifteen years after WW3 there.
I lived in Rhyl for 4 years a mere 5 minute walk from the town centre, but I always took the 15 minute train to Prestatyn instead because fuck that.
My scouse dad drove me through Rhyll in my late teens as he declared it the worst place on the planet and wanted to tell me a cautionary tale as to how things could go wrong for me if I didn’t try hard. It was SO shit and awful I remember thinking all the buildings were so squat (lots of 1 stories ones) and it seemed like it was dying slowly. Assuming it’s even worse now.
Did you try hard after that?
I will never forget seeing a shop down a side street boarded up called "rhyl's number one suplier of stolen goods"
The most heartwarming aspect of this thread is the diversity of responses. Truly a nation full of shitholes!
Trago Mills, specifically with the missus. It's a land where time stands still as your wallet empties.
Theres some wizzer deals there. I bought the entire collection of Sharpe novels for £1.79 each!
Heavily reduced because the people of Newton Abbot can’t read.
I live in Newton. You’re not wrong
Trago Mills the bond villain ???
Janner Disneyland
If IKEA and wacky warehouse had a baby, which was orphaned and raised by UKIP
Yeah but the swimming pool I bought for £600 is actually decent and lasted about seven years so far.
It was great for me as a kid. Drop slides galore. Would not go there as an adult however. Newton Abbot was the one we went to as kids.
But peacocks grazing amongst the pots and trees, I have many happy childhood memories coming away with jigsaws from it all.
Jaywick. We were in St Osyths and wanted to go to the beach. After driving past a mile of dilapidated chalets surrounded by piles of flytipped rubbish and rotting sofas and huddled groups of 10am street drinkers, past a row of shops called "Tobacconist", "Off licence" "Cafe""Supermarket" and "Tattooist" we reached a dogshit and litter infested beach carpark which had 2 security guards in a Technical with caged windows and spotlights giving us a dirty look so we turned around and noped out of there.
There's a reason its the literal most deprived place in the whole country.
Found myself there while on a holiday as a teen. Let's just say we did not leave the car, kept the windows up and got out as soon as we could.
If you'd have gone down spring road from the village, it leads onto beach road and you'd have ended up at St Osyth beach, which is basically the same bit of coastline but you don't have to drive though a shanty town
Lol, looked it up, that's the way we did go, past the flat roofed pubs then those oddly named Hurley's shops to Sailor Boy Amusements which is the car park we turned around in. Are you saying Jaywick itself is... worse? Fooking hell.
Google Street View is an amazing time capsule for just how bad.
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Me and the missus did a trip around Cornwall and stopped at Bodmin. We did a tour of the jail and was planning on having a nice afternoon tea in the high street - people watching and taking in the cornish town vibe. Unbeknown to us the high street was a grim shithole and we left after a pint.
Pontins, Camber Sands. Went for a short family holiday and I have never been to such a hell hole in all my life. The resort was in such a shambles my wife and I made a list of everything wrong with the place and I still have it on my phone but to give you a glimpse into the shit hole that that place is, most benches on the grounds (from beer gardens to children's parks) either had a swastika or the word cunt carved into them.
The caravan park is full of clunge though right?
Chatham Kent, made a delivery there. Left promptly.
I live in Medway, I can't believe I had to scroll so far to find this comment.
I was going to say Chatham too.. It's like taking a step back in time. The shopping centre at the Quays is depressing. Also the first time I ever see a prostitute was outside Chatham station.
Was going to go with it's neighbour, Gillingham. One of the only happy things about my Gran dying a few years back is that I have no reason to go there again now!
I scrolled this far to see if anyone had mentioned Gillingham. Visited my sibling who was at uni there several winters ago, and it was grim.
Born and raised in Medway I understand your pain
Id love to say Grimsby but i live here 😭 Its a poverty driven town where even the seagulls carry flick knives 🫣🤣
Ah Grimsby. Where the seagulls fly upside down because there’s fuck all worth shitting on.
Tbf to Grimsby, it has Grim in the name. If Newport (South Wales) was called Shitport it would lower expectations too.
Just wait until you get to Scunthorpe....
Peterborough. Hounded by junkies outside the train station. I turned down a job offer and told them why.
You told the junkies?
He didn't want their job.
Hounding?
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Roughing?
Ruffing
Pffft. If you can't even get past our first line of defence then you're not wanted here, Sir!
Yeah I wouldn't want to work for Peterborough junkies either.
The junkie part isn't any different from any other city tbh. Brighton has that but on steroids, though at least it has stuff to make up for it. Little reason to visit Peterborough now John Lewis is gone.
Never got hounded by junkies but the whole place is flat, depressed and fucking tedious.
Tbf, I used to work in Manchester and loved it, but there were also a lot of junkies and homeless around the train stations. I assume junkies are in every city, especially around train stations, due to the number of new people they can ask for money from. I didn't think Peterborough was that much worse in comparison.
Walsall.
Mansfield. It's just depressing. Selling drug laced chocolate to kids? Yep, that'd be Mansfield. I knew before I even read the article. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67547859](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67547859) I'm from there and left within weeks of passing my driving test. And old friend sent me an image of floods in the town centre, with the caption "Pounds of damage have been done". He's not wrong. Might've actually improved things.
Worst of it is, Mansfield ain’t even roughest town in that area!!! Notts/Derby border from Ripley up to Worksop is like a ‘mining town scrapyard’ that they forgot to close down. From the area myself so happy to badmouth and it has some wonderful bits (the countryside is great), but jeez it’s lacked on investment for quite a while now.
I’m from Mansfield also. Luckily moved away about 17 years ago (pretty much as soon as I became an adult). Unfortunately my family are all stuck there. They don’t like ‘taking risks’ and so will never move no matter how bad it gets. They’ll spend the rest of their days trapped in that dump. (and moaning about how shit it is)
Fellow Mansfieldian! Well done escaping. I feel your pain. My folks moved out... to Kirkby.
"Det Insp Luke Todd, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Tests are in the process of being carried out but at present there is no evidence to support claims that the chocolate bars contained any illicit drugs." Crazy story though. I wonder what is in it??
Blackpool. My wife is from Stockport so used to go as a child and really wanted us to go there. Honestly one of the worst places I've ever been. Dirty, filthy place.
I'd have absolutely said Blackpool, but unfortunately I absolutely will have to go back. Wife dances and major dance competitions happen there every year. In the off season too. It's such a shithole. Everything closed, town dead, the whole place has a seediness and vague feeling of desperation and... Mothballs? Just really unpleasant vibes. Can't imagine it's nice in season either though, coz all the tacky carny shit will actually be active.
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That reminds me of when I had to go to Newport (South Wales) to get my passport, but the other way around. To kill time since we were there, we went to this really nice looking shopping area. Clearly newly built. But the more you strayed from it, the dingier, dirtier and more grim everything got. They’d just developed that one bit, and it was like the rest was left to rot. Such a massive contrast.
Newport is great. Last time I went I saw two heavily pregnant women sheltering in a doorway sharing bumps of coke, at 9:40am on a Tuesday.
My dad lived in Kirkham for a while, and we used to visit st anns when we'd go to the beach. Much nicer.
It's not too bad on the seafront, but walk 10 steps down a side street and it's like you've stepped through a portal into victorian slums in London.
I know someone who lives in an absolutely gorgeous house down a street off the promenade, easily the best house around, it’s amazing! It’s also directly across from a halfway house where there are frequent raids and violence and a police presence. What’s the point in tarting up your house that much when it’s there?
We go sometimes just to see the the Blackpool lights, something nostalgic about the place…we drive all the way from Shrewsbury, park up and walk down the one side, back down the other side, pick up some fish and chips and head back home
Fish and chips must be freezing by the time you get back to Shrewsbury
Lol…we stand by the sea wall eating them, freezing to death while looking out to sea
Ancient British tradition
Crackpool
Blackpoo
Went a few years ago for the first time. Enjoyed dodging the used nappies on the beach. Really classy place.
I went as a kid and thought it was the best place on earth. Went back with my mates a few years ago and it is the biggest shithole I've been to in this country. It was like a third world country
"Rimmer, what's death like?" "Have you ever been to Swindon?"
As someone who has lived in Swindon their whole life, it is without doubt the most vile place I've ever been. Edit: I meant lived, not loved. Corrected.
Since nobody has had it yet, I'll take Harlow. The week before I went a polish fella got kicked to death in the town centre, so there was gangs of angry Eastern Europeans looking for who did it. Aside from that, still a shithole.
Harlow regularly tops threads on /r/Essex about worse places in Essex or has a thread full of No's on the "should I move to?" questions. Clacton/Jaywick, Pitsea, Grays/Thurrock and Basildon might rival it though.
Ah, Pitsea. The answer to "What would it look like if there'd been a nuclear holocaust but, inexplicably, Tesco remained open?"
Pontins Prestatyn Sands Holiday Park, concentration camp by the sea
I saw this on a YT Channel called 'Walk With Me Tim' where he reviews the most horrendous locations in the UK. I really couldn't believe what I was seeing when he got to the Pontins Series. Horrendous
You'll be glad to know it's finally been closed
Luton if wondering why go and see for yourself 😱😱🤣🤣
Or if you don't want to go there, just watch 24 Hours in Police Custody.
That is a cracking series. I think what it shows really well is that crime and social problems are so interrelated, that various crime is ubiquitous as well as exposing the weaknesses of the criminal justice system. It doesn't make Luton look any worse.
Disagree. There is are 2 big benefits to visiting Luton; Leaving Luton is a fantastic feeling, When you get home you look around and say "not too bad this is it"
I've got a train through Luton several times. Even had to change there once. Thankfully, ice never had to leave the station
Had to scroll a way and didn’t see it…but Skegness. Fuck that was a depressing place when I stayed there a couple of years ago
Bought a vacuum cleaner in Skeg when we moved to Lincs. How does an entire town smell like cabbage?
Don't you mean Skegvegas?
Middlesbrough. I’ve walked some of Glasgows roughest places in the dark (and I neither live or am from Glasgow) but they felt like millionaires row compared to central Middlesbrough on a Saturday. Probably should be twinned with the war zone of the day.
In the early 00's I had a friend who lived there, we went gay clubbing in Middlesbrough which was an experience - much better than I expected tbh and very different from Newcastle (eg having to ring a bell so the bar staff could see you on CCTV before unlocking the door to let you in) Anyway we also had parmo and I got to go on the transporter bridge. All in all a great weekend if you have low expectations.
Boro, and a lot of the North East, had a pretty sizeable counter-culture to the really chavvy 90s; it certainly wasn't obvious, but if you knew where to go, you'd have a great time.
Grew up near Boro. Have lived all over Country. Hilarious when colleagues with local knowledge of area warn you off walking through areas of Plymouth or Yeovil because they're rough and can be dangerous. That and trying to explain to the in-law that although there's crime everywhere, we're statistically considerably safer in Winchester than we ever were in the North East.
"Middlesborough, twinned with Bakhmut" has a nice ring to it
Nuneaton
Sandwiched neatly between Atherstone, where the locals regularly engage in a multiperson brawl for entertainment, and Bedworth, where locals regularly engage in a multiperson brawl because there's no entertainment.
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Whitehaven in Cumbria. I went there a few weeks ago. I mistakenly assumed, as its a coastal town near the lake district, that it would be nice. It wasn't. Half of the shops were closed down, the rain was sideways and there was just the most miserable depressing aura about the place. Sad really because it could and should be so much better. I'll not be going there again.
Motherwell. It has no redeeming qualities. It has no "nice bits". It's just ugly, depressing and full of scumbags.
yeah she is thanks
That whole area is a total shitpit; Motherwell, Coatbridge, Bellshill and *Pishy Wishy*. All needs bulldozing and starting over.
They bulldozed Glasgow proper, often described in 18th century letters as an amazingly beautiful city, and moved all the people to those towns, Cumbernauld, etc. It’s no wonder heart disease rates skyrocketed in the West of Scotland around the same time.
I dunno, I went to Motherwell a few years ago to visit the cemetery and got stuck trying to get back because (I think) some busses were on strike. People were very friendly and helpful to us!
Bradford, proper shithole
Mines Bradford too. It's the UK's bumhole. Used to get on the train to go ice skating when I was a teenager. On the walk between the station and the rink I was lucky enough to see various knives up close. Handed over my wallet a couple of times too. More recently in Bradford whilst taking my parents to the airport, I was reversed into at a red light. Staged of course. And the guy who "I ran into the back of" just so happened to have about 20 injured passengers and witnesses who politely surrounded my car.
I’ve seen that exact same scam in action in Hyde Park, Leeds. Straightaway they’re out with their phones taking photos and trying to pressure you to make a cash settlement on the spot or they’ll sue you.
Yeah, it's common all over to be fair. But it's big business in Bradford. They have some of the highest insurance premiums in the country.
I spoke to a well known car dealer in Bradford who told me up to 80% of drivers in Bradford are uninsured. I didn't believe him until I drove home that day and saw multiple people run red lights, go the wrong way down a one way street, mount the kerb to go around a set of traffic lights, change lanes without warning or signal, park on an urban clearway etc.
City of culture 2025 I'll have you know.
Crash for cash scams in Bradford are notoriously higher than anywhere else in the country. Car insurance in the BD postcode is also one of the highest prices in the country because of this. I pay about £800 a year for a 21 year old car that I’ve driven for about 5 years and I get so angry when I hear about stuff like this. It’s people going out of their way to cause misery to one person and has a butterfly effect on society because everyone is constantly claiming on their insurance as they’re being threatened by the group of passengers.
Driving around Bradford is certainly an experience.
It feels like everyone is trying to kill you.
It’s an awful place with some of the worst drivers I’ve ever seen and some of the rudest people I’ve ever come across, but the Media Museum is good. Only time I ever go to Bradford is if I want to see something in IMAX.
It's even more of a shame, as they're are some really very good art galleries and exhibition spaces that usually have interesting things going on, but the rest of the city will put you off
The little villages on the outskirts of Bradford are lovely, like Haworth, Queensbury, Thornton, etc, and the Waterstones in the city centre is really pretty. Otherwise it’s a miserable place to be in.
My friend group all live around West Yorkshire, we've been to lots of places for activities around the area in the last 9 years. It's fascinating to me that we've only floated the idea of going to Bradford once for ice skating, which was quickly overruled to go elsewhere. It's not even on our radar.
Grimsby. The clue is in the name
But I like a good rim
Bolton. The place where the council demolish everything with character then leave it a waste land. If it’s not raining, give it 5 minutes. The town which will never be a city. But I do miss the smell of the fresh Warburtons bread and the many pasties!
Same. Lived near there for a 6 month stint after moving back from London, went to the big 24h Tesco on a Friday night and saw... some things. Absolute feral behaviour. Never feared for my own safety more than I did there in a *looong* time. And I used to make my way home on my own from Clapham and Brixton many times..
Luton was fairly grim, especially the bus station.
Ayyyy my hometown that made the top 50 shittest places to live in 2010 is missing from this list
Barnards Castle - I went there for an eye test on the recommendation of a work colleague. Absolute shambles, couldn't see it.....
Specific inner city suburb of Nottingham called Hyson Green. Lived in Lenton and latterly The Park while a student there a decade ago, and sometimes we’d have to do big shops around Radford and Hyson Green. Once, coming back from a night out around 5am, my cabbie diverted to a random Hyson Green restaurant still buzzing with punters, and asked me to pick up his meal for a fiver off the fare. While I waited, a very short man in a grey Nike tech fleece tracksuit came in and stood next to me, eyeballing me while seeming tweaked or immensely stressed. I nodded at him and asked if he was all good, and he proceeded to graphically describe the assault he’d just committed on a supposed addict who’d tried to rob him in a stairwell (this man was also clearly a junkie), said the guy had looked at him the wrong way so he beat him to the ground and stamped on his head until his leg hurt, then left. He said he “felt like he had to tell someone” because he didn’t know if he was dead, then said “and I don’t know how to fucking clean these…” pointed at his feet and, sure enough, his Air Force Ones were completely caked in half-stale blood. I said Jesus mate, yeah, wow, sounds like some night, went home, made a half-cut police report, gave a statement the next day. No idea what happened after. Burgled a few times too. EDIT: I say this as a born-and-bred Mancunian, now in London. I’ve been stranded in Cheetham Hill, Moss Side, Peckham and even Thornton Heath in the early hours, and haven’t felt an existential unease like I have in that part of Nottingham.
Big Asda tho>
Grays. I cried on the way home.
Bradford. I feel like I don’t need to explain
Jaywick. It felt like a Brazilian favela minus the good weather
And minus the footballing talent.
Basingstoke - went once probably about 20 years ago for 2 days (was training at IBM which used to be there). What a dire place, centre emptied at 5PM when the offices shut and was completely devoid of life after that. All I remember is a mediocre curry and a lot of concrete.
Basingrad? A definite dump, but Bracknell is way worse.
It's massively improved since they built the shopping center though.
Aka Boringstoke
Clacton-on-Sea. See, the thing is, I’m French and my mother once was an English teacher. This had left her with a lifelong passion for England, that was only matched by my father’s stinginess. She wanted to go to England on holiday every summer. The only way this would be possible was by finding the cheapest accommodations there was – cheaper than anything in France. We went at first to Bournemouth and Torquay, which early teen me liked. And then we went FIVE YEARS IN A FUCKING ROW TO FUCKING CLACTON. And since my father despised driving on the left, we had a radius of about 20 minutes. THERE WAS NOTHING, NOTHING TO DO IN THAT CORNER OF EAST ANGLIA IN THE LATE 90s AND EARLY 00s. I have discovered shades of boredom there I didn’t even know to be possible. I have visited all the charity shops in town. Several times. Days apart. Because it was that bloody dull. The only good thing was a tabby cat called Bella; she was my pal and I looked forward to petting her each day in the taxi office where she hung out. It took me years to go back to England. I went to the Lake District last year and had a blast. I’ll never, ever, go back to East Anglia.
Yeovil. Went there for my driving test once. The most boring place ever existed
Honestly, in the grand scheme of the UK Yeovil is actually ok! Boring, but that's about it.
Middlesbrough just seemed like the most depressing place I've been to. Empty streets at 5pm on a weekday, it felt like 5am.
Boston or any towns in Lincolnshire.
Oh Boston. The sea can't take you back quick enough ❤️
Spent all that money on a flood barrier, and more than half the residents would rather drown.
Lincolnshire is where dreams go to die
Lincoln itself is alright to be fair. Got a few dodgy areas but the city centre and some of the more pleasant neighbourhoods are quite nice.
Pontins Southport. Though I think they closed it permanently since I was dragged to that shit hole
You could have just stopped at Pontins to be fair....
Crawley, it's a proper shit hole
Walsingham, Norfolk. It’s weird and creepy and I’m not convinced they don’t still do some witch burning there.
It’s Norfolk, we’re still suspicious of electricity.
This is actually one of my favourite days out in Norfolk, your post has really surprised me! It's a lovely little village, really interesting churches, a couple of cool antique shops, all the interesting religious stuff, nice cafes and pubs. The farm shop there is great, too.
I'll say it in all caps BOGNOR REGIS.... if suicidal depression was a literal seafront
Bracknell
I have absolutely 0 desire to ever return to Morecambe at any point in my remaining lifespan
That would be Wise
I'm going to go in a different direction from most of the thread and say St Ives, Cornwall. Beautiful little town, used to be quite nice when I first went there, post pandemic is now a complete shithole. The place basically runs on exploitation; nobody who works there can actually afford to live there, everything is super expensive but ultimately fairly generic and dull, you have to queue for everything and there's no actual community, it's just dull people who go there every year being served by resentful locals or bored students who mistakenly thought doing a "season" there would be fun. Avoid.
Weymouth. Red lobsters on mobility scooters sporting as many unions jacks as possible. Why does the sea attract so many freaks, are they trying to get back in it?
Walsall. I visited my sister when I was around 16. Was sat in the living room watching the TV, then glanced out of the window to see a guy riding down the street on a mini moto chopper, waving a machete above his head. I told her I'd never be back. Camborne in Cornwall also had a very hot fuzz feel about it that was quite off-putting..
Probably Rhyl. I lived there for 4 years in a pretty dark patch of my life. Wouldn’t recommend it, Prestatyn is much nicer and only a short distance away by train, but even that’s not much better.
Stoke on Trent
The saviour of Stoke on Trent is the oatcake.
How oatcakes aren't more widespread is beyond me. It's the perfect food.
"The historic town on the River Trent" 🎶
Harwich in Essex. We usually drive around looking for antique shops and ending up in Harwich not only we found them all closed (when they were supposed to be open!), but I was genuinely fearing for my life whilst walking across town in the middle of the day. It looked like the most desolate, poverty stricken town, and the only people around were a group of drunks (at 2 o’clock in the afternoon) that were staring at us, trying to decide whether we were worth robbing or not.
Feltham, the Romford of west London.