Yet Another Cycling Forum
Off Topic => The Pub => Topic started by: rogerzilla on 08 October, 2013, 07:05:42 pm
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http://uk.news.yahoo.com/lightbox/crap-towns-which-town-takes-the-dubious-honour-1381161885-slideshow/10-stoke-on-trent-just-made-it-into-the-top-ten-the-first-installment-of-crap-towns-published-in-photo-1381158187553.html
Someone has thought quite hard about these.
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I'm baffled by the inclusion of York. I can kinda understand Bradford, though I do have an affection for it.
Can't argue with No.1.
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RZ: you have my sympathy. It must have hurt, not being able to post this in the Didcot thread.
(I might start a Chipping Norton one ... )
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I'm baffled by the inclusion of York. I can kinda understand Bradford, though I do have an affection for it.
Can't argue with No.1.
Erm, yeah.
"fails to woo the public"
WTF? It is full of visitors, year round.
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Bit random isn't it?
Is it crap towns UK, or crap towns England?
I'm sure Llanelli deserves a mention.
And WHERE'S LEICESTER?
Appols to anyone from either of those two locations.
And, although I've never been a great lover of That London, I find it's inclusion just ridiculous.
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I presume locations North of the border were excluded on the basis of unfair competition.
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The inclusion of High Wycombe seems a bit random. They can't all have cycled through it at 3am, surely?
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Anyone who thinks York and London, even Bradford, belong on that list, has clearly never been to Coundon.
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Slough, Swindon, Didcot, Croydon, Eastbourne, Stevenage, Luton, Milton Keynes, Romford and a whole load of other places surprise by their absence.
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Grimsby
Goole
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West Bromwich
Stockport
Folkestone
Wigan
Basingstoke
Reading
Skegness
Saarfend
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Any list that doesn't include Leicester can't honestly claim to be a list of crap towns. It's an absolute heap. A lot of towns are crap but you don't become actively depressed on going through them like you do in Leicester.
Some say ah, it's ok, just needs freshening up a bit. It doesn't need freshening up, it needs flattening.
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I'm baffled by the inclusion of York. I can kinda understand Bradford, though I do have an infection from it.
Can't argue with No.1.
FTFY
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Basildon.
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Is there a number that is more crappiererer than number one? I Nominate Blackburn for a Special Prize if there is :hand:
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Not Darwen?
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Those nominating Leicester have obviously never been to Derby.
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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.
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Get out a road atlas and follow the A6 starting at London. There's a list as long as your atm of crap towns... ;D
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I would nominate Brighouse, the only town I know that felt robbed when the Woolworths shut, as it was the only shop that opened on Sundays and Bank Holidays.
It can't even claim to be the home of B&R brass band, that is over the river in Rastrick...
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Those nominating Leicester have obviously never been to Derby.
???
I quite like Derby. Then again, I also like Bradford. And Newport.
I suppose Leicester et al could be excluded as they're cities, but then York would have to be excluded too. :-\
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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.
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Cant see why they put York in. If I were to nominate one for Yorkshire it would be Hull, Doncaster or Castleford. I quite like Bradford.
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Worst town in Yorkshire for me would be between Dewsbury and Pontefract.
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'Technically, not a town' as in London - well I think 'technically' neither is York. Can't say I've lived there but it's lovely :-\
I'd nominate my hometown of Bedford, a crap town centred in a region of crapness. I left there running when I was 18 and have not seen anything but decline since, especially since the rather crappy city of Milton Keynes closed down half its amenities.
When WHSmith is the best shop in town you're in trouble.
(My data may be out of date there but it was by far the biggest shop in the Harpur centre when I was a lad and when I tried to go shopping there a couple of years back we gave up and went to MK on the way back to Wales)
To be fair though - Stevenage, Letchworth, Biggleswade etc nearby.... oof.
I'm impressed someone likes Newport - I suppose someone's got to.
And Birmingham... where is Birmingham? I enjoyed living there but it's not exactly seen as the apple of the UK's eyes.
Now Scotland, as Feanor rightly says - I used to live in St Andrews, pretty crappy unless you like golf but in the local neighbourhood - Dundee, Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy - but my favourite crap town north of the border would be the hole my cousins once lived in - East Kilbride. Rarely can you beat the newtowns for crappiness.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Is there a corresponding "nice towns"? Judging from the replies above I feel it might be harder to find one.
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Is there a corresponding "nice towns"? Judging from the replies above I feel it might be harder to find one.
York, Newport, London... ;)
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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.
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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!
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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.
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Runcorn. Or Warrington - like Runcorn, only bigger and, therefore, crappier.
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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
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Worst town in Yorkshire for me would be between Dewsbury and Pontefract.
That's Wakefield.
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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! ;D
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.
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Grimsby
Goole
Grimsby
Glossop
Hebden
Bridge
surely?
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Aylesbury.
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Grimsby
Goole
Grimsby
Glossop
Hebden
Bridge
surely?
Hull
Scunthorpe
Rotherham
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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?
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Seems like most of the towns in Yorkshire have been mentioned now. ;D
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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.)
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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"
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Bridgwater, ffs.
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Tenbury Wells.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And just what is wrong with Glossop? (yes its gritstone and a tad busy roadwise..........)
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I grew up in Derby. The best thing to do of an evening in Derby is go to Nottingham.
I'm shocked. you grew up :o
Most people don't like the town they grew up in, they usually get over it. I moved to Derby 14 years ago, I think it's a great place and intend staying here.
I've never been to a crap town.
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I'm impressed someone likes Newport - I suppose someone's got to.
One of my friends studied at Newport Art School; after his first term he moved to Cardiff to live, because it's fifteen minutes away by train and infinitely better. He died last year; his family scattered his ashes on the river Usk where they floated for awhile; it's to be hoped that they sank before going too far.
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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.
I lived in Dewsbury for a year in the late sixties.It was unpleasant; I've heard that it's gone downhill since. I was offered a house for £75 (freehold)...
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And just what is wrong with Glossop? (yes its gritstone and a tad busy roadwise..........)
It's grim up North. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Grim_Up_North)
I must admit I'm surprised. I thought knowledge of the work of the Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu was part of the YACF cultural acquis. But then I'm not sure what Hellymedic was getting at, since the holes towns she lists are canonical but not in that order.
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It's where Sir Roderick comes from.
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Aylesbury.
I grew up in Aylesbury, & remember dancing round the clock tower in the market square wiith a few friends & a few hundred strangers at midnight on New Years Eve on a few years & getting let back into the pub afterwards, & many other pleasant experiences. What is so unrelentingly bad about it that it qualifies as a crap town?
The definition of crap town being applied here seems to be somewhere between "completely ordinary", & "not utterly brilliant". I think that to qualify as crap, a town should be outstandngly bad. Failing to be outstandingly good is not crap. I don't think the beer I had tonight was crap, just because it didn't light up my tastebuds & give me an irresistible urge to tell the entire pub I was having the most wonderful experience every time I supped a mouthful. It was nothing special, but it was perfectly acceptable, in fact rather pleasant, in an ordinary way. And I think that is probably true of many of the allegedly crap towns listed here.
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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"
I regularly taunt myself with thoughts of what it might be like to live in Swindon, it makes me feel dirty.
Yate has some good points: It has a railway station, and a swimming pool, can't think of anything else.
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Otway's from Aylesbury.
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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"
I regularly taunt myself with thoughts of what it might be like to live in Swindon, it makes me feel dirty.
Yate has some good points: It has a railway station, and a swimming pool, can't think of anything else.
It has a decent bike shop, LBS of Bikey-Mikey otp. It has the A432, a nice descending consecutive road number, along which you can speed (cos it's almost all downhill) back to Bristol at midnight after a pub ride. And the pub was probably in Chipping Sodbury, which is next door (actually it was probably in Old Sodbury, but close enough). And it's surrounded by pleasant countryside despite being very close to a conurbation of half a million people.
It's pretty much like a lot of places in fact!
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Aylesbury.
I grew up in Aylesbury, & remember dancing round the clock tower in the market square wiith a few friends & a few hundred strangers at midnight on New Years Eve on a few years & getting let back into the pub afterwards, & many other pleasant experiences. What is so unrelentingly bad about it that it qualifies as a crap town?
That was then, this is now. I've lived close top Aylesbury for the last 13 years. Yes, when you were growing up they had the "hobble on the cobbles" with John Otway, a decent club scene where the Clash played, etc. etc. But now, despite the new Waterside Theatre (which seems to show mostly tribute bands and dance shows (ok I may exaggerate bit it's not generally very cultured, and it's a bit of a depressing experience to visit IMO) it's a traffic choked London dormitory dump, with it's lovely old centre gutted in favour of '60's, then 70's then 90's shopping experiences. The stench of fried food from the "food court" in Friars Square "mall" is nauseating. It's gfrubby and litter strewn especially around the fast food places on Cambrige street, and what they've done to Kingsbury is a disgrace - the chance to create a tree-shaded central piazza with outdoor cafe areas realised as a wasteland of concrete slabs and a so-called water clock and the removal of the public toilets. They try and tart it up - boxes of bedding plants on central reservation railings, but they regularly get trashed. And of course there is the usual post-recession blight of older empty offices and factories. It is not a attractive place to visit. We live maybe 4 miles away, and almost always prefer to go the Tring, unless we need "big town" availability. We probably visit less than once a month, and for the majority of day to day stuff prefer Tring (though I do the weekly shop in Hemel, where I work - another not terribly attractive dormitory town).
On the plus side the Aylesbury Vale has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country - but I suspect the vast majority of those will be in Aylesbury itself.
So, the perception of what makes a "crap" town is a personal one, and one that IMO Aylesbury fully deserves today. Some peolple love living in the "village" of Fairford Leys. I loathe that featureless 90's housing estate with it's faux village centre. Others love living in Watermead (a construct of a housing estate around a pond - the pond to prevent flooding). We walked around it, and although built in the late 80's as a sort of Georgian pastiche, it has single glazed windows and peeling paint on cracking facades with the adjacent dry ski slope unused for several years. And this isn't a sink estate - for that we have "California", better know as Southcourt.
So, the perception of what makes a "crap" town is a personal one, and one that IMO Aylesbury fully deserves today. YMMV
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I'm impressed someone likes Newport - I suppose someone's got to.
One of my friends studied at Newport Art School; after his first term he moved to Cardiff to live, because it's fifteen minutes away by train and infinitely better. He died last year; his family scattered his ashes on the river Usk where they floated for awhile; it's to be hoped that they sank before going too far.
On could live in St. Mellons and get the best worst of both worlds I suppose ;)
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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.
Having septic tourists come up to you every summertime, asking where War-wick castle is is no joke either. I once told one, in view of Guy's Tower, that it had been sold to a Texan oil billionaire and shipped over to Houston. His wife twigged, but he was caught hook, line & sinker before I asked him to turn around. That's what passes as entertainment in my town, folks.
The University of Warwick suffers doubly because it is twixt Kenilworth and Coventry; two of the crappiest places you could ever visit. Were it not for the decent cycling, it would be insufferable.
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Holy cow! 3 pages and no mention of Rhyl :o Mind you, being limited to 'crap' is probably way too restrictive.
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Aylesbury.
I grew up in Aylesbury, & remember dancing round the clock tower in the market square wiith a few friends & a few hundred strangers at midnight on New Years Eve on a few years & getting let back into the pub afterwards, & many other pleasant experiences. What is so unrelentingly bad about it that it qualifies as a crap town?
That was then, this is now. I've lived close top Aylesbury for the last 13 years. Yes, when you were growing up they had the "hobble on the cobbles" with John Otway, a decent club scene where the Clash played, etc. etc. But now, despite the new Waterside Theatre (which seems to show mostly tribute bands and dance shows (ok I may exaggerate bit it's not generally very cultured, and it's a bit of a depressing experience to visit IMO) it's a traffic choked London dormitory dump, with it's lovely old centre gutted in favour of '60's, then 70's then 90's shopping experiences. The stench of fried food from the "food court" in Friars Square "mall" is nauseating. It's gfrubby and litter strewn especially around the fast food places on Cambrige street, and what they've done to Kingsbury is a disgrace - the chance to create a tree-shaded central piazza with outdoor cafe areas realised as a wasteland of concrete slabs and a so-called water clock and the removal of the public toilets. They try and tart it up - boxes of bedding plants on central reservation railings, but they regularly get trashed. And of course there is the usual post-recession blight of older empty offices and factories. It is not a attractive place to visit. We live maybe 4 miles away, and almost always prefer to go the Tring, unless we need "big town" availability. We probably visit less than once a month, and for the majority of day to day stuff prefer Tring (though I do the weekly shop in Hemel, where I work - another not terribly attractive dormitory town).
On the plus side the Aylesbury Vale has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country - but I suspect the vast majority of those will be in Aylesbury itself.
So, the perception of what makes a "crap" town is a personal one, and one that IMO Aylesbury fully deserves today. Some peolple love living in the "village" of Fairford Leys. I loathe that featureless 90's housing estate with it's faux village centre. Others love living in Watermead (a construct of a housing estate around a pond - the pond to prevent flooding). We walked around it, and although built in the late 80's as a sort of Georgian pastiche, it has single glazed windows and peeling paint on cracking facades with the adjacent dry ski slope unused for several years. And this isn't a sink estate - for that we have "California", better know as Southcourt.
So, the perception of what makes a "crap" town is a personal one, and one that IMO Aylesbury fully deserves today. YMMV
California isn't Southcourt, & never has been. It's the small area between the railway station & Southcourt. Can't remember what they've built on it now, but it used to be the Schwarzkopf factory. And it isn't 'California', it's California. The name dates back to at least the 1880s, decades before Southcourt was built.
BTW, I was born & raised in Southcourt. People from outside it called it a sink estate then, & they were wrong then. I've been back since (ny last visit to Aylesbury was September 23rd), & Southcourt still doesn't look or feel like a sink estate to me. People have jobs, they've tarted up their houses . . .
As for grotty places like Fairford Leys - well, think about what I wrote. Pretty standard grot, isn't it? If possession of that makes a town crap, then there are precious few non-crap towns in this country.
And the Hobble on the Cobbles started after I'd grown up. Our dancing round the clock tower was impromptu.
If you're going to hate, at least get your hates right.
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slough is not a great place either .it should feature on this list ;)
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Slough isn't crap, it's rough ;)
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Gibraltar? WTF is that about? Propoganda to put off the Spanish?
As for Wycombe, there isn't anything about Wycombe that can't be fixed by dusting off and nukeing the site from orbit. Just to be sure, you understand.
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How has this got to three pages with no mention of Wellingborough? A town so crap that only people who have had the ill-fortune to have lived in or near it have ever heard of it obviously.
In the seventies the council bulldozed all the narrow roads of old workers cottages and local, non-chain shops to erect the dazzling Arndale Centre with some shit nightclub in it's basement and a multistorey carpark across the road. The highlight of the stores in the Arndale Centre was Revolver with Boots the Pharmacist a distant second. Apparently the Arndale Centre has now been re-named The Swansgate Centre, Boots is still there, Revolver has long gone. Also present the 99p Shop, Discount Somethingorother, a number of Lo-costs and Valus and a lot of empty spaces.
One thing Wellingborough does have is parking, lots of it and it is all free. Yes, Wellingborough is so crap that the council can't even make money from the poor card river.
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Morecambe! You can buy beer there and you can.... er...! That's about it really.
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Stop it. All of these towns are homes. People live there because they want to, or they have to.
Don't be suckered in to the 'my place is better than (or even worse than) your place' shit.
What next? Crap multinationals? Sub optimal governments? Where will it end, I ask?
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Penge.
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Oh yeah. I'd forgotten Penge.
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How has this got to three pages with no mention of Wellingborough? A town so crap that only people who have had the ill-fortune to have lived in or near it have ever heard of it obviously.
Mrs Z knows Wellingborough all too well as she used to teach in Wollaston, onetime capital of the DM boot empire but now just a dormitory village for Northampton and other boring towns
I know a guy who was evacuated to Wellingborough in WWII, and actually saw the German plane drop the bomb (ithere was only one in the whole war) where McDonalds is now.
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I have taught in a Basildon school got 18 years and it has been, consistently, the most pleasant school I have taught at. When I concluded my brief written report on last year's activities with the question "Why does Ghyllgrove have so many really nice kids?" the head had tears in her eyes and glowed with pride. Mind you, she's from Merthyr Tydfil. Now there's a place...
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How has this got to three pages with no mention of Wellingborough? A town so crap that only people who have had the ill-fortune to have lived in or near it have ever heard of it obviously.
Mrs Z knows Wellingborough all too well as she used to teach in Wollaston, onetime capital of the DM boot empire but now just a dormitory village for Northampton and other boring towns.
Secondary or Primary?
I was brought up in Wollaston and attended the secondary school, I don't imgine Mrs Z is old enough to have taught me. Even when the shoe factories were still there Wollaston was a dump, the best feature of it was that it wasn't Irchester. Irchester's best feature was the it wasn't Wellingborough.
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Primary. I went there once - very old fashioned.
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;D
I didn't go to the primary, my mother didn't like the headmaster so used religion to get us into the (allegedly) best state primary in the area, it was in Wellingborough.
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Mexborough. Far worse than Dewsbury, which has one of the most popular outdoor markets in Yorkshire and a picturesque church.
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Conisborough has a castle, I suppose but that's about all...
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How has this got to three pages with no mention of Wellingborough? A town so crap that only people who have had the ill-fortune to have lived in or near it have ever heard of it obviously.
Mrs Z knows Wellingborough all too well as she used to teach in Wollaston, onetime capital of the DM boot empire but now just a dormitory village for Northampton and other boring towns
I know a guy who was evacuated to Wellingborough in WWII, and actually saw the German plane drop the bomb (ithere was only one in the whole war) where McDonalds is now.
I initially read that as "Daily Mail boot empire".
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Oh yeah. I'd forgotten Penge.
Penge isn't so bad. And if you think so you've never been to South Norwood or Thornton Heath. Penge at least still has a few shops that don't offer either an haircut or takeaway food (let's not forget the payday loan places, grubby estate agents that specialise in pebble-dashed despair, and payday loan place, and the everything for 98p shop). In fact, there was a barber in South Norwood that combined the first two options by moving their bbq indoors. Note the tense of that sentence. They're rebuilding on the site now.
(Confession time, I live on the arse-end of Crystal Palace hill, so somewhere in the hinterland that comprises Anerley, Penge, and South Norwood.)
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I initially read that as "Daily Mail boot empire".
Imagine Paul Dacre's boot stamping on a human face, forever.
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Conisborough has a castle, I suppose but that's about all...
It used to have the XL crisp factory; the best crisps ever.
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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"
I regularly taunt myself with thoughts of what it might be like to live in Swindon, it makes me feel dirty.
Yate has some good points: It has a railway station, and a swimming pool, can't think of anything else.
Yate, (pronounced yah-tay, like latte - err, that's lah-tay if you're from oop north ). It has one redeeming feature - Terry's Cycles, my local bike shop, who treat me like royalty. Anything I need gets done without fuss or need for an appointment !! Nigel, Chris and Steve rock IMHO :)
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As to Chipping Sodbury..
Anyone remember Tony Hancock corrupting the name? He came up with Sodding Chipbury, Sipping Chodbury and Sopping Chidbury. Then Chopping Sidbury ....
Were there more?
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Yebbut, Conisborough is the other side of the River Don from Mexborough, therefore it is a completely separate place.
I agree that it is a very striking example of a Norman castle and much overlooked.
When I worked down there one of our office staff talked about a Hyacinth Bucket character who insisted that she lived in Dene Abbey , when everyone else knew that it was Denaby.
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Have we had Keighley yet?
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Middleton was a borough in its own right, until 1974 when it came under the control of the cosmic centre of the universe - Rochdale.
If there is a brightest star in the universe then Rochdale is furthest from it. Notwithstanding the residence of the totally awesome Peter OTVP, who doesn't actually originate from there so he's excused, Rochdale has no redeeming features whatsoever. Not a sausage, bugger all. Even the MOJ decided it was so far gone that they had to close the Magistrates Court, despite the fact that they still ahve to heat, light and pay the lease on a building that's got concrete cancer and, probably, asbestos too.
I don't want to run down Middleton too much, my bike shop's there too but you'd be forgiven for looking at the place (don't bother with Google earth - it's about 8 years out of date) and wondering how such a supporating boil of a place could justify a Tesco the size of a small town, in addition to a 40 year old shopping centre that's probably 60% unoccupied (Fuck knows, I haven't been in it for 19 years) a bus station that wasn't so much built as congealed and about as much derelict property as a salivating developer could wish for. My home town has been corrupted and sold down the river by the dishonest and greedy bastards that claimed to represent the local populace. Anybody remember Poulson?
BTW The recession is most definitely still here. The Daily Heil needs to look a little further than the Home Counties for its barometers.
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Stop it. All of these towns are homes. People live there because they want to, or they have to.
Don't be suckered in to the 'my place is better than (or even worse than) your place' shit.
Yebbut Paul, many folk have nominated somewhere they live or have lived in. I nominated my town, Warwick, because it is so interminably dull. Unless you like mainly characterless coffee shops or are on the crest of the current antiques wave, you will be bored shitless here. That's not saying it's an unpleasant place to live, it isn't, just very, very dull. In my view, that makes Warwick crap.
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Rochdale has (or had - I hope they're still going) the fun bunch of folks who are M6 Theatre Company.
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I remember Poulson.
One of the worst architects of all time. It can be argued that he (and others, including councillors and their officials) did more damage than the Luftwaffe.
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Swindon is actually not that bad. It's just a dull commercial town with a slightly pikey populace and no Pret or Waitrose ;-)
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How about a Towns That Aren't As Bad As You think Thread?
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Swindon is actually not that bad. It's just a dull commercial town with a slightly pikey populace and no Pret or Waitrose ;-)
Swindon has Big Plans too. I've seen them.
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Oh yeah. I'd forgotten Penge.
Penge isn't so bad.
Never been. I was just trying to cut through some of my sickening righteousness.
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Stop it. All of these towns are homes. People live there because they want to, or they have to.
Don't be suckered in to the 'my place is better than (or even worse than) your place' shit.
Yebbut Paul, many folk have nominated somewhere they live or have lived in. I nominated my town, Warwick, because it is so interminably dull. Unless you like mainly characterless coffee shops or are on the crest of the current antiques wave, you will be bored shitless here. That's not saying it's an unpleasant place to live, it isn't, just very, very dull. In my view, that makes Warwick crap.
I think it's all extremely personal. I have fond memories of Birmingham, where I grew up happily.
I have terrible memories of Lancaster, where I spent an almost friendless year on the dole.
My perception of either could be quite different if my circumstances had been different, and that would have nothing at all to do with any quality of the town.
My previous point being that, without any set criteria, it's all a bit subjective.
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I don't want to run down Middleton too much, my bike shop's there too but you'd be forgiven for looking at the place (don't bother with Google earth - it's about 8 years out of date) and wondering how such a supporating boil of a place could justify a Tesco the size of a small town, in addition to a 40 year old shopping centre that's probably 60% unoccupied (Fuck knows, I haven't been in it for 19 years) a bus station that wasn't so much built as congealed and about as much derelict property as a salivating developer could wish for.
Sounds an awful lot like West Bromwich...
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I was homeless in Morecambe & Lancaster, but I am still fond of the latter.
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Re Middleton:
I attended De La Salle College which was (it closed ages ago) on the outskirts of Middleton. Used to be Hopwood Hall. Lovely place in spacious grounds, plenty of woodland and a chapel based on Liverpool Met. Its now a further education college.
One thing I have Middleton to thank for is my first taste of Speckled Hen in the Old Boar's Head (http://www.oldeboarshead.co.uk/).
Oh and Mandy Jones is from Rochdale, so it can't be that bad.
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I don't want to run down Middleton too much, my bike shop's there too
Is that Chris Paulson's? If not is it still there? Great shop in the early 80's.
Edit: Sorry I've just remembered CP is/was in Rochdale :facepalm:
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Rochdale has (or had - I hope they're still going) the fun bunch of folks who are M6 Theatre Company.
Aye, they are still there.
Happy (mainly) memories...
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Well, an inexplicable list which does not feature:
Harlow
Bridgwater
Leicester
Reading
Merthyr
Telford
and of course
Newmarket
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Stop it. All of these towns are homes. People live there because they want to, or they have to.
Don't be suckered in to the 'my place is better than (or even worse than) your place' shit.
Yebbut Paul, many folk have nominated somewhere they live or have lived in. I nominated my town, Warwick, because it is so interminably dull. Unless you like mainly characterless coffee shops or are on the crest of the current antiques wave, you will be bored shitless here. That's not saying it's an unpleasant place to live, it isn't, just very, very dull. In my view, that makes Warwick crap.
I think it's all extremely personal. I have fond memories of Birmingham, where I grew up happily.
I have terrible memories of Lancaster, where I spent an almost friendless year on the dole.
My perception of either could be quite different if my circumstances had been different, and that would have nothing at all to do with any quality of the town.
My previous point being that, without any set criteria, it's all a bit subjective.
Totally subjective. Solihull is seen as a desirable place to live, but I think it's up its own arse and dull - and. I was born there!. Birmingham is slagged off constantly, but the true Moseley and the true Kings Heath (not estate agents' boundaries) are vibrant, multi-cultural places that would be great places to live. I spent a miserable three months in Wrexham and hate the place, but it MIGHT be OK. All coloured by my own biased judgements.
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Some crap towns are actually great because they are so crap they are interesting. Sharpness, on the banks of the Severn is really crap, but has a certain decaying soviet atmosphere about it.
Swindon, Reading, etc obviously, are just crap,
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I've lived in both Moseley and King's Heath. Both were fun and incredibly vibrant and a great place to live.
But that was many, many (some more manys) years ago.
We need an update from a current resi.
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I have friends living in both parts, Basil, and they love them. Now, if they would only reinstate the railway station in Kings Heath...
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Well, an inexplicable list which does not feature:
Harlow
Bridgwater
Leicester
Reading
Merthyr
Telford
and of course
Newmarket
I thought I mentioned Harlot upthread. Leicester's not that bad. https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=76598.msg1574641#msg1574641 (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=76598.msg1574641#msg1574641)
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Totally subjective. Solihull is seen as a desirable place to live, but I think it's up its own arse and dull - and. I was born there!. Birmingham is slagged off constantly, but the true Moseley and the true Kings Heath (not estate agents' boundaries) are vibrant, multi-cultural places that would be great places to live. I spent a miserable three months in Wrexham and hate the place, but it MIGHT be OK. All coloured by my own biased judgements.
I think the advantage that Mosley and King[']s Heath have over Solihull (and Sutton Coldfield, for that matter) is that they aren't in advanced stages of denial over being in Birmingham, and are therefore free to get on with making the most of being part of a big city.
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Sutton Coldfield is more up its own arse than Solihull and has never got over the '74 boundary changes. Mind you, Solihull was blessed with Chelmsley Wood at the same time.
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Well, an inexplicable list which does not feature:
Harlow
Bridgwater
Leicester
Reading
Merthyr
Telford
and of course
Newmarket
I thought I mentioned Harlot upthread. Leicester's not that bad. https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=76598.msg1574641#msg1574641 (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=76598.msg1574641#msg1574641)
Ah, you did. well it was worth mentioning again!!
My experience of Leicester is limited to (a) driving there and then around and around trying to get out again, (b) not seeing one tree or plant in the whole city centre and (c) de Montfort University.
I would also submit for consideration:
Brandon
Thetford
Stowmarket
In fact the only way to do this properly is for people to nominate towns from their local area, which could then be voted on to a set of decided criteria. Not sure what these would be, but perhaps: number of Tescos, independent shops, shop closures/number of vacant units in high street, general attitude of council, cleanliness, atmosphere, leisure activities or lack of them, cycling facilities (keep it relevant), community organisations...
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Yeah, I like Leicester. And, though my heritage is Black Country, I have a certain vague fondness for Birmingham*. In particular, I seem to remember some rather pleasant times visiting Handsworth.
* fwiw, I don't think New Street is such a bad station. There are a great many worse - noisier, dirtier, less accessible, worse signed, and even (New Street's speciality) windier. It's not the most fun place to be spending time, but hey - it's for passing through.
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Birmingham as a city might be great, but I honestly can't think of any station as horrible as New St. Perhaps we need a new thread, "Crap railway stations" and of course "Pleasant stations"?
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Interesting how Mordor Central manages to be cold and windy while simultaneously choking you with diesel exhaust, though...
It's losing a lot of its 'charm' in the refurb.
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I have just remembered one, which I will NEVER forget (though my mind had, obviously, tried it's hardest to push it away), that is Old Swan.
IIRC, not strictly a town on its own, but part of the Liverpool conurbation. Even the Water works has a 10' high spiked fence around it. The only town I have driven around with the car doors locked and not making eye contact with ANYONE. Hateful, hateful place.
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Yeah, I like Leicester. And, though my heritage is Black Country, I have a certain vague fondness for Birmingham*. In particular, I seem to remember some rather pleasant times visiting Handsworth.
* fwiw, I don't think New Street is such a bad station. There are a great many worse - noisier, dirtier, less accessible, worse signed, and even (New Street's speciality) windier. It's not the most fun place to be spending time, but hey - it's for passing through.
I was there not long ago and the completely new bridge / waiting area / food and coffee area was opened (just). It is so much better than before. Nice loos. Fab range of food n coffee. Nice lifts. The platforms are still crap, but who cares? You walk over them to the train is all....
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* fwiw, I don't think New Street is such a bad station. There are a great many worse - noisier, dirtier, less accessible, worse signed, and even (New Street's speciality) windier. It's not the most fun place to be spending time, but hey - it's for passing through.
I was there not long ago and the completely new bridge / waiting area / food and coffee area was opened (just). It is so much better than before. Nice loos. Fab range of food n coffee. Nice lifts. The platforms are still crap, but who cares? You walk over them to the train is all....
https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=70917 refers.
My take on it is that there's been a much-needed improvement in the lifts and electronic info displays. Pretty much everything else is retail-related bling. Oh, and the bike parking's still crap, and they've been partially-arsed about disability access. Some of this is likely to improve when the refurbished front entrance opens in a few years time.
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Swindon station is quite good, except that there's not much indoor waiting space if it's very cold and the WH Smiths is particularly seedy (but they always are).
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Swindon station is quite good, except that there's not much indoor waiting space if it's very cold and the WH Smiths is particularly seedy (but they always are).
That always made me laugh. Imagine a WH Smith suit arriving at 'Swindon- this is Swindon' and walking past the seedy station shop en route to hail a taxi to go to the big distribution centre and offices.
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Nobody mentioned Plymouth, or Camborne ???
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Re Middleton:
One thing I have Middleton to thank for is my first taste of Speckled Hen in the Old Boar's Head (http://www.oldeboarshead.co.uk/).
I'm very pleased that you mentioned that. As a child born in the 1950s and growing up in Manchester, I was always enthralled to be visiting Middleton, often on Sunday afternoons, and sometimes staying there for few days. It seemed a wonderful place, but this view was primarily down to this pub
(http://jwlees-pubs.s3.amazonaws.com/80/oldeboars-banner__large.jpg)
of which my grandfather was the licensee.
Its labyrinthine interior was a wonderful playground, with several rooms and sitting areas, the bar of course, the long room , the upper room, the snug with its walls stained deep tobacco brown, the fisherman's room, only opened on special occasions, replete with glass cases featuring the famous catches. There was a discreet lounge behind the bar, partly partitioned off for privacy into which some customers would be invited, and also gave the opportunity for private parties after hours. During opening on busy evenings, a team of cream-jacketed waiters would take customers' orders and convey their drinks from the bar. At the time, it was a free house. Mostly Tetleys beers, I recall. At age 7, pulling pints seemed a terrifically adult thing to do. I remember my grandfather telling my father one day that Matt Busby and some of the United players had been in the previous evening. I was awestruck.
The living accommodation was similarly maze-like and included Dick Turpin's Room, in which the famous highwayman was reputed to have rested during his ride to York. Even at 7 tears old, it was easy to see that he would have been seriously off route if he had done so.
My grandfather retired to a bungalow near Southport in the early 1960s but he was pleased that the new licensee was a good friend, a former landlord of the Gardeners' Arms (not that far away) and kept in touch. By the mid-1960s the fish in the fisherman's room had deteriorated and been removed, Tetleys beers had done likewise and JW Lees beers had been introduced.
Thanks for the excuse to reminisce.
Chris
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I dreamed last night (among other things) that I walked from Crumpsall to Middleton (as I used to do when I was working there), then carried on out of town to the North, up ?Rochdale Road
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Oh yeah. I'd forgotten Penge.
Penge isn't so bad.
I've never been, though the few times I've passed through it hasn't seemed so bad. On the other hand, it does sound like an unpleasant lower-limb disease.
You can just imagine a Victorian doctor solemnly intoning 'I'm most terribly sorry madam, but your husband has contracted a bad case of Penge.'
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For a while there was an Italian tailor's shop in Oxford proudly named after its owner, Bruno di Penge. I never had the heart to tell him that it wasn't a name to associate with the epitome of style.
Though, as the man said, the delights of Penge are highlighted by having Thornton Heath next door.
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Oh yes.
http://www.swingingheaven.co.uk/swingers-forum/viewtopic/187682.html
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Oh yes.
http://www.swingingheaven.co.uk/swingers-forum/viewtopic/187682.html
Oh no. Really, if there's an antidote to sex you'll likely find it in a Thornton Heath car park (I don't think there are any parks and if there are, I wouldn't go in them after dark).
I dunno, Penge sounds rather Victorian grand to my ears. Then again, Victorian ailments always sounded rather better than I'm sure they were. The kind of thing you'd catch getting your trousers off in a Thornton Heath car park, I'd imagine.
It does suffer from the borough edge problem, where the outer boroughs don't much care for the crusty inner edges – the people there are mostly poor and didn't vote for them anyway. Same for Croydon with Thornton Heath, Borough Green, South Norwood etc. They got a huge rump of posh folks further south paying the bills (yes, even much of Croydon is actually relatively affluent and even downright posh and rural in places – notable exception being New Addington which is just peculiar).
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Otway's from Aylesbury.
Good old Otway.
Not seen him for a while, I was one of his Abbey Rd backing singers. ;D
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Other than ducks, it is literally the only thing I know about Aylesbury.
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I dreamed last night (among other things) that I walked from Crumpsall to Middleton (as I used to do when I was working there), then carried on out of town to the North, up ?Rochdale Road
You took the wrong turning. My bike shop is just off Market Place, about 100 yards from the Assheton Arms. ;D
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Nobody mentioned Plymouth, or Camborne ???
Cambourne! :sick:
Almost everybody smoking fags, too fat to walk without walking sticks or riding mobility scooters and buying pasties.
It's like Earlestown.
Widnes, Blackpool, Burnley, Prescot, Bridgewater, Taunton, Wigton, Carlisle, just off the top of my head.
The list is endless really. I don't find the U.K to be a particularly nice place overall to be honest.
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Cambourne used to have a very large bike shop when I was down there, so it can't be that bad.
Redruth is worse. There was an old TV advert that showed a woman calling her man on a mobile from various places in the UK. When she said she was in Redruth she was travelling down an escalator. WTF? If they had an escalator in Redruth, the locals would start worshipping the magic stairway to heaven.
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Cambourne used to have a very large bike shop when I was down there, so it can't be that bad.
It's now probably a shop selling second hand mattresses or something equally as depressing.
It does have the Cambourne Deli though which is a nice little Deli, Sandwich shop.
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Otway's from Aylesbury.
Yeah. So's Wild Willy Barrett. They hung around with a bunch which included older brothers of people I was at school with.
He used to empty my parent's dustbin.
All three venues up to 1984 have been demolished, although the 1975-84 venue was brand new in 1975.
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Cant see why they put York in. If I were to nominate one for Yorkshire it would be Hull, Doncaster or Castleford. I quite like Bradford.
I can - despite living in one of the more 'desirable' suburbs of York (Copmanthorpe, for those who know it) the fact remains that if you're not a visitor/tourist, the council just don't give a shit. The city's motto should be "Welcome to York. Bring money!"
Someone, I forget who, described York as 'Medieval Disneyland' - they were more right than they could possibly imagine.
Every time I go to Hull I find myself wishing that the Luftwaffe would finish what they started about 70 years ago (ditto for Donny - nothing wrong with the place that an orbital strike wouldn't fix)
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Sounds like York suffers from a similar curse of tourist stardom to Bath, just about four centuries earlier. I'd imagine Florence, Bruges and so on are afflicted too.
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Sounds like York suffers from a similar curse of tourist stardom to Bath, just about four centuries earlier. I'd imagine Florence, Bruges and so on are afflicted too.
That, and a city council that a) doesn't give a shit about the people who live here, and b) couldn't find its collective arse with an atlas.
The only reason I've not moved to either Leeds or (horror of horrors) back up to County Durham is that I need to get a bunch of stuff done on the house before I can even think about selling it.
It wasn't so bad when I first move up here ('94-ish) - now, I'll only venture into town if I absolutely have to, otherwise I take my business to Leeds.
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Having lived in both York and Leeds (and Selby, which, interestingly, Fulford, a suburb of York is), I can say I prefer York. By a very long way.
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Having lived in both York and Leeds (and Selby, which, interestingly, Fulford, a suburb of York is), I can say I prefer York. By a very long way.
Ditto, though I haven't lived in either Selby or Fulford :)
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This town should finish off this topic.
Clacton-on-Sea
It really is the end of the universe
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Surely not. The best excuse for a take of delay on the Bristol to Amsterdam flight was due to 'congestion over Clacton'.
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Surely not. The best excuse for a take of delay on the Bristol to Amsterdam flight was due to 'congestion over Clacton'.
If that's not the title of a Half Man Half Biscuit song, it bloody well should be :)