"Crap Towns" returns

[The_Mikey]

Worst town in Yorkshire for me would be between Dewsbury and Pontefract.

Visited Dewsbury once, and I would have to agree,  worst town in Yorkshire.  Even the banks of the Calder was festooned with all kinds of rubbish, so I couldn't escape the dreadfulness of the place by spending time near the river.

[ian]

I can't bring myself to hate Derby (I'm an Erewashian). It's just a non-place. Everyone went to Nottingham. Leicester does have an unparalleled ability to sap the soul. I think they built it above some kind of vortex. The entire city feels like it's trying to climb out of the 1970s and failing.

London is always going to elicit strong opinions. I'm not sure I could live in a provincial town these days. Streets full of pregnant ten year olds pushing prams and chugging B&H like dying steam engines, the evenings awash with flotsam and jetsam from the inevitable rash of Wetherspoons, like a tsunami of puke has blasted through.

Of course, it's really part of London, but there's Tottenham. The worse place in the universe. I rest my case.

[PhilO]

I grew up in Derby.  The best thing to do of an evening in Derby is go to Nottingham.

Mention of Stanley reminds me that Hartlepool, Billingham and Sunderland all have claims on the list.

London's still safely top, mind.

While I grew up just north of Nottm and would choose Derby for a night out anytime*. I have many fond memories of nights in the Flowerpot.

Mind you, I generally dislike populous places, so my opinion of anywhere is largely based on size. Can't abide londinium, Manchester, Leeds, etc, and much prefer the smaller places.


* although 12 years after moving to South Wales I realise this view is bound to be rather out-of-date.

[nicknack]

Is there a corresponding "nice towns"? Judging from the replies above I feel it might be harder to find one.

[caerau]

Is there a corresponding "nice towns"? Judging from the replies above I feel it might be harder to find one.

York, Newport, London...

[red marley]

I have a real affection for Leicester, in which I lived for 10 years.

In its favour:

It is, or is about to become, Britain's only plural city (no single ethnicity in the majority). It has come a long way since the 1970s when the NF had a strong base there. I've not lived in a city that is so at ease with itself multiculturally as Leicester.

Loads of really good south Indian veggie restaurants.

It's got a train station right in the centre making it easy to get in, out and round the city without a car.

Highfields and Spinney Hill (where I used to live) have some really interesting Victorian residential architecture and house prices are actually affordable by mortals.

There's some great cycling in the immediate surrounds, especially to the east.

The two large universities help to keep it culturally rich and vibrant without it being dominated by posh young things having fun with the family money.

It has only one major football team which avoids the crap rivalry you get in other similar sized cities.

The Durham Ox.

David Attenborough.

[CAMRAMan]

I've only visited Leicester once, so I'm hardly the best judge, but it left a favourable impression. The centre is big, compared to Coventry - which really is crap, the market is right in the centre - always a good sign, and the Criterion pub sold good food and ale. The venue for the gig I went to was dire though. Great gig, but newly opened and feet sticking to the carpet. No!

[Bledlow]

The inclusion of High Wycombe seems a bit random.  They can't all have cycled through it at 3am, surely?

Being from Aylesbury I'm prejudiced against High Wycombe, but it isn't that bad. When Mrs B worked there she quite liked it.

[bikenrrd]

Runcorn.  Or Warrington - like Runcorn, only bigger and, therefore, crappier.

[Deano]

Basildon should certainly feature.  The worst place I've ever been, though, is Stanley in Co Durham.  Main feature is a bowling alley on top of an Asda and it seems to be completely lawless.

They have a great Christmas tree, mind. At least, they would have, if they dared use it.

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/stanley-christmas-tree-taken-down-4399045

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Worst town in Yorkshire for me would be between Dewsbury and Pontefract.

That's Wakefield.

[Deano]

Mention of Stanley reminds me that Hartlepool, Billingham and Sunderland all have claims on the list.

Funnily enough, all those places (plus Bowburn and possibly Thornaby or even Middlesbrough) are on my proposed Easter Arrow route for next year. Crap Towns Tour!

I don't think any of them are that bad - none of them are unrelentingly crap. Billingham's the closest to that (it does have the Forum in its favour and that's about it), mainly cos all the folks with any cash live in Wynyard.

Doncaster, now - there's a dump.

[HTFB]

Grimsby
Goole

Grimsby
Glossop
Hebden
Bridge

surely?

[rafletcher]

Aylesbury.

[hellymedic]

Grimsby
Goole

Grimsby
Glossop
Hebden
Bridge

surely?

Hull
Scunthorpe
Rotherham

[hellymedic]

I spent four happy years in Leicester and thought it OK (not wonderful) on those occasions I returned more recently.

Nobody has mentioned Harlow. Where is Mr Larrington when you need him?

[nicknack]

Seems like most of the towns in Yorkshire have been mentioned now. 

[Paul]

I was going to join this debate, but felt I needed to understand the criteria first.

I can't find any. None. Not the number of independant anythings, food awards, reported crime, 'community' involvement. Nothing. Selection seems to rely entirely on what that section of the 'general public' who had nothing better to do at the time thought in that moment.

I see. I won't get too exercised about it then.

(And Derby's okay. It took me a while, but I really like it now. Enough good eating and drinking for me. Really good art centre and cinema. Loads of brilliant cycling on the doorstep. Good tolerance of cyclists: far better than my experiences in Birmingham and Nottingham, anyway.)

[Vince]

I was trying to think of crap towns west of Swindon and was about to give up then remembered Yate, poetically described by Cudzoziemiec as "the would-be Milton Keynes of the west, but without either the charm or the facilities"

[rogerzilla]

Bridgwater, ffs.

[clarion]

Tenbury Wells.

[CAMRAMan]

Apart from the castle - which is Tussauds-owned, so costs an arm and a leg to get in - Warwick is fairly crap. The centre is full of coffee bars, idiots and pigeons - far too many. Were it not for the decent availability of good ale, it would be properly crap. As it is, I'll leave that to Kenilworth.

[Kim]

Warwick deserves bonus crappiness points for hiding the castle behind an enormous hedge, in case it accidentally brightens up the town.  Also, for putting its university in Coventry.

[ian]

I've been told that evil scientists have figured out a way to condense and crystallise the miasma that surrounds Tottenham. This substance, in it's pure most foetid form, is called Edmonton. It's like plutonium but without the happy-go-lucky warming personality. It's the place where kebabs go to die.

I'm trying to remember Derby. It's like a blur in my mind, like someone has been rubbing it in an effort to make it clearer and failed. Nottingham's chief claim to desirability was that wasn't Derby, of course. I'm not falling for Leicester being nice. Ever notice how trains sit in the station for an age? That's because they lose the will to live too. It's the vortex.

Yate is a bit Boschian, though with more discarded supermarket trolleys.

Good lord, is everywhere awful? I'll stand up for Sheffield. Sure the city centre is now all pawn shops and payday loans, and Meadowhall hangs off it like a vampire, but hey I like it. And someone messed with my memory and made parts of Liverpool look posh. Manchester is still poo though. It's not cool, it's Manchester.

[Canardly]

And just what is wrong with Glossop? (yes its gritstone and a tad busy roadwise..........)