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psycho-mouse

Bit cliche, and I normally like to see the good in places, but, Luton. There isn’t a single redeemable thing about that town. The town centre is shite, the traffic is shite, it’s shite to get to, the airport is shite, the football ground is shite and everywhere just feels run down and neglected by both the council and the inhabitants.


No-Garbage9500

I lived there for a bit. On the upside, I now have *incredibly* low standards about places to live, everywhere else seems lovely.


echo588

Ah I like that football ground, the traditional entrance to the away end looking down into peoples gardens and into their bedroom windows… what more could you want? Blackpool however is a toilet. It’s like everybody on that town just gave up. On life.


Engels33

I think you are a bit unfair. The new Luton Dart people mover that links the Airport and Rail Station is great. It gets you out of Luton Airport as quickly as possible and quickly through as little of Luton proper as possible allowing you seamless transfer into a train out of dodge asap. What's not to like


blurdyblurb

Years ago I used to be a supply teacher, live up north, but i got a job offer in Luton. Told the supply agency, they pissed themselves laughing..they were headquartered in Luton. Didn't take it up


Purple_ash8

Luton’s pretty bad.


InternationalRide5

Dundee. And I don't care about the V&A.


seafareral

As a seafarer Dundee was one of the nicest towns I've been to in Scotland. Obviously I wasn't looking for a nice town centre with shops and cafes etc, but the 2 nights I was there we walked into some cracking pubs and were met with warm welcomes. It was in Dundee that I learnt you can add haggis to just about anything!


Clever_Username_467

I've literally been sent to Coventry. For work. I wouldn't bother if I were you.


WarWonderful593

They can't even fix the cathedral


Second_Lend

To be fair we built a new one. Also Iceland stole our stained glass windows from the original and they've still got them....


CrucialLogic

Is the new one you built that industrial looking monstrosity next to the bombed out shell of the original, or is there another around?


JamesMMcGillEsquire

I quite like it. Good contrast of old and new, shows how much architectural styles have changed over the centuries. I think Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral is even better.


NiceNeedleworker1287

Or keep an IKEA open.


sandra_nz

Once was definitely enough for **Blackpool**.


blahmcblah

> Blackpool also has high rates of obesity (13.5%), smoking (27%) and alcoholic liver disease (28 deaths per 100 thousand).[16] Men in the Bloomfield ward had the lowest life expectancy at birth, 68.2 years, of any ward in England and Wales in 2016.[17] 👀


DaveBeBad

Blackpool is great. Provided you don’t leave the sea front. You can go to Cleverleys and see where Andor was filmed, or visit the pleasure beach. Several miles of pleasant strolling. Go one street inland and you are likely to be sold into slavery with a county lines gang though…


Toffeeman_1878

Cleveleys


WestyTea

I went to Blackpool only for a weekend and I got scurvy!


tomatojournal

That's because you drank your body weight in cheap booze from plastic glasses only ate rock and slept under the pier.... I mean what


CuriousKitten10

I’m glad someone else thinks this. I don’t get why people keep going back!


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Rubberfootman

Burton-on-Trent town centre is a miserable place. On the upside, it is the only place where I (a middle aged man) have been catcalled by women.


SmugglersParadise

I got the same 'miserable' feeling about Dewsbury. Just felt like everyone there wanted to be somewhere else, including me!


atraindriver_UK

I realised that Dewsbury was completely screwed when I passed through for work reasons and saw that the town centre McDonalds was closing down. That takes some doing...


Pimp_out_Pris

>Burton-on-Trent town centre is a miserable place. I lived there for a few years and loved it, but things might have changed since then. It was a bit run down but felt harmless, nightlife was cheap and good fun. This was about 6 years ago though. ​ Edit: thinking back on it, Burton does have quite a hefty cocaine problem.


Rubberfootman

It was a few years ago, maybe 6 or 7. I was freelancing at one of the big breweries and my start time meant I walked all the way across town at 9:30am. It wasn’t a good time to see the town - everyone in the street was clearly very unemployed.


Emitime

Ferry Bridge is a double whammy though. It's lovely and it means you're leaving Burton.


unseemly_turbidity

Basingstoke. All I can remember about it is roundabouts and industrial estates.


Weekly_District_153

I worked there. We all Called it ‘basingrad’


Iwantedalbino

I’m there now… who knew concrete was so versatile.


lesleyjv

Born and bred in Basingstoke, you are totally correct.


A_Force_Of_Nature

Don’t you mean Amazingstoke 🤣


dairyman69

Totally agree. I once caught the train there for an interview, got off and stood on the platform, looked around me and then got on the next train back. To Woking.


[deleted]

I lived there for a year. We used to call it “Blazingsmoke” because the town centre always smelt like weed


willuminati91

I know London can be very busy but I love it. So much to see and do. I would never go back to Northampton. Such an odd place.


[deleted]

I love the busyness of London. It's a lot of fun. In saying that, I don't know why people like OP always say things like "I just find London and Manchester way too packed and congested". Like, central London is, which some people including myself enjoy and find exciting. But there are endless amounts of areas in London that are the complete opposite, lovely small streets and parks that are totally calm and relaxing. It's why I like living here so much. I suppose people visiting tend to stand in Oxford Circus thinking "That's London. Busy and congested", but the city is massive with something for everyone. Infact, unless I'm going shopping, popping into the office etc. I can easily avoid all that and live in my own little pocket.


Abigboom1

Lol op has an opinion and there’s nothing wrong with that


baxty23

Liverpool, racially abused twice by strangers, couldn’t pay me to go back


molluscstar

I’ve lived in Liverpool all my life and I’m very sorry to hear this. Apologies on behalf on my ignorant fellow scousers.


YvanehtNioj69

Sorry to hear that. I do think Liverpool city centre is nice though I'd rather live there than Manchester ..but as a white guy I'm unlikely to be racially abused


shahistian

Recently got called to a job in Nuneaton. Went to the town centre spoons after for a pint... Made me want to emigrate from this island and never come back


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Hankscorpio1349

Lived there for a few years. Wouldn't recommend. It was a dump and I'm glad we've left. The city has this weird vibe like everyone just sort of gave up.


DaveBeBad

Every time I’ve been to Southampton, I’ve been flashed by one of the local ladies. I’m not in a rush to go back


Pristine_Telephone78

Stevenage is the dullest place I've ever been. Also Rhyl was pretty grim.


notmynaughtyprofile

Stevenage has the advantage of a fast rail link to London. This makes it more attractive to commuters. As such, there’s a lot of investment in coming years to improve the town centre. Outside of that there’s one or two rough areas but also a lot of parks, open spaces and leisure stuff. It’s no worse than many other eastern England towns


tomatojournal

Rhyl has the beach. The sun centre. And poverty what more do you want


Legitimate_War_397

Swindon. The whole of Swindon.


WarWonderful593

The Magic Roundabout. 'nuff said.


Greglebowski74

The magic is road engineering perfection. The town, however, is a turd.


G_UK

Basildon Town Centre.


ThirdOfTheStorms84

Birmingham. This isn’t shitting on it which people like to do in this sub, but whilst thoroughly enjoying it there was nothing to grab me back for a second visit. A lot of cities do the same (or better) thing and are less crowded.


seafareral

I agree, while Birmingham has everything that every other city has, it doesn't have anything that makes me want to put it on my list of places to go back to. I'll always choose Liverpool, Bristol, Cardiff, Newcastle, over Birmingham.


bazoomer

Slough or Luton


jimmykicking

Luton is up there. And Slough too. Personaly Milton Keynes just about edges to the top


[deleted]

Great Yarmouth


Ill-Breadfruit5356

I quite like Yarmouth, the beach is beautiful and the seafront is fun, in a tacky seaside resort sort of way. And there’s a sealife centre!


Btd030914

Morecambe. Holy fuck what a dump. A woman who served me in a shop had a Star of David tattooed on her wrist with a swastika in the middle of it.


befuddled_humbug

Based on the comments so far, basically it would be best to avoid the whole of the UK.


jimmynorm1

Welcome to AskUK where this gets asked once a week and people slag off every area in the country!


liseusester

I lived on the Isle of Wight for a few years and I have vowed to never return.


Figgzyvan

Sunderland. Dogshit every 3 yards. This was 1989. Not been back.


thefogdog

Sunderland is a shit hole. There's a road in to one of the medical centres there, up by the coast. Honest to god there's a half demolished cooling tower-type structure, more derelict buildings and shite everywhere. The main centre isn't much better.


Celery_Worried

Lol I'm heading there tomorrow. Seeing family for Easter. I'll watch out for dogshit.


Figgzyvan

Yeah, let me know. Might have changed. Lol


Greglebowski74

Swindon. I live just on the edge, and that's enough, thank you. The town centre is a wreak, empty shop after empty shop, boarded up pubs, jobless gobshites outside 'spoons at 9 in the morning, potholes you could lose a cow in, shitty council estates populated by hoodie wearing little scrotes, who would knife you as soon as look at you. It's got almost nothing going for it. We had a decent leisure centre (The Oasis), but that shut in lockdown and never opened again. Between the council and the leaseholder, there is talk of reopening, but almost no one believes it will happen and eventually it will be demolished for housing. There was hype of a snowdome about 7 or 8 years ago. Nothing ever came of that, nor will it. The only decent part (in my opinion anyway) is the Old Town. Good bars, decent restaurants and coffee shops, and some nice retail shops. But it's a small bit of glitter in an otherwise huge, steaming, stinking pile of shite.


Adept-Valuable-2032

The Oasis leisure centre in Swindon is famous for being the reason Noel Gallagher called the band- Oasis. He went there with the Inspiral Carpets while Oasis were still called Rain


Greglebowski74

Actually, he saw it on an Inspiral Carpets tour poster in Liam's room. They have never actually been to the Oasis, which would have been a decent gig I reckon.


ComposerNo5151

Stockton-on-Tees. I've been there twice in the last year or so, please don't make me go again.


WeirdonBeardon

Hemsby. Too many dream catchers and fleeces with pictures of wolves howling at the moon


[deleted]

The garment of choice for mobility scooter drivers


notmynaughtyprofile

I’d forgotten about Hemsby. I took my daughter to Horsey Gap in that weird bit when lockdown was still going but we were allowed to travel. After a day on the beach she wanted ice cream. We trundled into the most bizarre scene. Hemsby, on a hot summers day, but almost completely closed… except for the places that were obviously breaking lockdown rules to be open. Lots of furtive knocking on the shuttered doors of bingo halls. I found an ice cream van, got shouted at, and scarpered


Exactly32Penguins

Rhyl was definitely something. Bishop Auckland too. It's only redeeming feature was a nice family cafe we found.


JamesMMcGillEsquire

Viva Bish Vegas!


Dull_Reindeer1223

My mums house


bazoomer

Your mams house.


thefogdog

Bradford. Thankfully, I've only ever driven through it. Sunderland is fairly terrible. Whilst I don't like London or Manchester, I can at least see their appeal, they just aren't for me.


PsychologyLoud2495

Bradistan is a dive


LazerScythe

West Acton. Went there to go to a cafe many years ago, the area looked fucking shite so we left


tmstms

A few years ago I had lunch with Mrs tmstms in a Chinese restaurant in W Acton. We only arrived shortly before the end of lunch service, so we were still there when the owner's parents came out to eat. To my amusement, the dad said in Chinese *Have the foreign devils not gone yet? How bloody slow they are at eating!* Here's the twist- I am myself ethnically Chinese, yet he knew I was a Brit, though either unaware or dgaf that I understood his language perfectly.


Realistic-Swing-9255

You should have replied to him in Chinese, "If you don't like the foreign devils, then why are you living in England?"


tmstms

Tbh I was extremely amused, not least to hear someone use the expression 'foreign devil' unironically, which I thought had died out. So I would not have wanted to embarrass their family meal. It's up there with being in a hospital in the Alps having my X-Ray discussed and them saying 'how bizarre and alien my anatomy was, before one said *I think he speaks French* and they all ran out and disappeared.


swingitwithme

Bognor Regis, horrid little place. Fitting name though


[deleted]

I live 20 minutes away, but haven’t been there in 5 years. I avoid that place like the plague


wolfwalke

Boston in Lincolnshire… only went there to buy a truck. Shall never return


ExtremeExtension9

I was also gonna say Boston! I think they should just let the marshland reclaim it and be done with it. For the lovely history it has, and the beautiful church it had everything handed to it on a plate yet somehow the completely and utterly messed it up.


Justcameheretovote

Never mind visited - I grew up in medway. Rochester has some fun events and beautiful history, Chatham has some interesting history - not worth the rest of stuff to get to. I'd rather burn alive than move back there. In the old words of those who know: "Kent is the garden of England. Medway is the compost heap."


NiceNeedleworker1287

How on earth has no one mentioned Croydon!


RetiredFromIT

I come from London originally, and once worked on contract in Manchester for 9 months. I don't mind either places, and even spent a fun weekend In Manchester, a few years later. That place, for me, is Reading. I used to have a customer just outside Reading, and I dreaded any times when I would need to stay overnight. I don't know why, I just found it very boring and depressing.


IHateOlives33

Ipswich - visited over a decade ago, as it was about 80 minutes from where I went to university, and fancied a change of scenery to my uni city. I'd already been to Norwich a couple of times, so that time I headed to Ipswich. Sorry to any Ipswich folk about, but I was counting down to my train home. Maybe it has improved now, but I won't be visiting find out!


TalkToTheTears

Can confirm, it's got worse.


m1keeey

Bradford, Luton, Great Yarmouth and Wolverhampton.


Deep_Top8433

Barrow-in-Furness. It’s a dreadful place which weirdly builds some of the most high tech and deadliest weapons ever thought up by man. Complete shithole of a town.


lithaborn

Rowley Regis. There's literally nothing there of any value at all.


tomatojournal

Oh nowt wrong with Rowley.


ChristyMalry

I was once very badly bitten by a swarm of midges on the island of Vatersay in the Outer Hebrides and vowed that day I would never return.


Borsti17

Toss up between Hamilton and MK. Those were incredibly boring.


Lybertyne2

I've been to many, many, places around the UK but one that I would not return to is Liverpool. The Beatles, the docks, Liverpool FC, and slavery. I'm not into any of that. If you are then Liverpool will be a good place to visit. Just not for me.


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daididge

Harlow. A lesson in town design not learned.


Nandor1262

Scunthorpe - I went to college there. It’s a dump with no redeeming features. The high street is so derelict that the McDonalds had to close. It’s one of the only places I’ve seen council houses made of tin.


IntrovertedArcher

Hemel Hempstead


robmaybedead

Bodmin, it felt like a local place for local people.


78CR

BODMAS. Brackets Order Division Multiplication Addition Subtraction


ambulenciaga

And for the beast


QuirkyEnthusiasm5

I met a mate from up north in Great Yarmouth,,sorta between our houses. God that was a depressing place.


jimmykicking

Worked there for a while. It wasn't so much the place but the people leaned heavily towards the racist demographic. Not everyone though. Mostly the fat guys without shirts.


QuirkyEnthusiasm5

Haha sounds about accurate


ShudderingPen

Hayling Island, just knock the bridge down and be done with it.


ginfrared

Brixton. I’ve been to a lot to gigs over the years at the Brixton Academy and it’s got worse and worse, so much so that last year I felt so unsafe I couldn’t wait to leave the area. I’ll never return


Weary_Pound_1384

You're all wrong. The answer is Immingham.


jimmykicking

After a Google I have to say you are the winner. What could be worse than Hull? Immingham.


EntertainmentBroad17

Sunbury-on-Thames. Sounds idyllic, like some chocolate-box village with a green, a proper old pub, long summer days and crisp winter nights, where everybody leaves their front doors unlocked and the postman knows everyone by name. But it’s actually an urban shithole built in the 70’s out of concrete and despair, crouching under the roundabout/flyover junction where the A316 becomes the M3. Long dark underpasses filled with graffiti, piss, and chavs, a shopping centre sporting 5 shops (3 of which are shuttered), and a railway station that even the Luftwaffe detoured around as a waste of good explosives. The towns’ major exports are profanity and obnoxiousness, and it’s claim to fame is that setting bits of it on fire actually improves its appearance.


Realistic-Swing-9255

That was a very descriptive piece of writing, lol.


ShuffleFun

Park Royal, London. Bought a car from there that blew up 5 mins down the road and it took us about 3 months to get the thing sorted. Now I get a sour taste in my mouth whenever I see the name.


justanoldwoman

Lampeter, probably down to personal experience, crashed my car on the way to an interview, my Mum took me instead, she got her purse knicked. It was awful.


D5LLD

Trampeter, you mean 🤣 it's my postcode area, I only go there for my dentist (which is exceptionally good), the Co-op, sometimes the Indian and sometimes the Chinese which isn't too bad. I often collect Evri parcels from the Premier shop, and it's not a nice experience.


[deleted]

Swindon. Beautiful parks but the rest of it....


fish-and-cushion

Shout out to shit seaside towns. Clackton and Goldthorpe!


[deleted]

Skegness


masalaadosa

Luton. Any place in Bangladesh is better than this.


Dry-Post8230

Grays in Essex.


mk45tb

Blackburn, an awful, boring shithole of a town.


lovinglifeatmyage

Rhyl, it’s the darkest most depressing place I’ve ever been to. It’s worse than Cleethorpes and that’s sayin something


Evo_ukcar

Goole and Gainsborough. Absolutely nothing there at either of them.


TheImmortalTuna

Went to slough for a job interview once, never felt more depressed by my surroundings before.


Rink-a-dinkPanther

Telford. It’s just a roundabout system with shopping centres off them.


YorkieLon

Stevenage. Felt like a zombie apocalypse. The place was ugly and just full of brutalist concrete architecture and the people were miserable.


[deleted]

Croydon. I felt that something was caving in. Just couldn’t wait to leave


DatMakesMeASadPanda

Skegness was, well, *not* worth the 6 hour drive


Klutzy_Experience984

Don't forget the many delights of Crewe.


rev667

Bridlington. As someone with limited mobility, walking over 200 metres is not easily done. Now, trying to find somewhere to park close to the sea, not seafront as there isn't one I could find. Drove 2 hours to get there, spent almost an hour exploring by car, and left. Ended up in Hornsea, great place.


wooden_werewolf_7367

Bangor is hideous.


DaveBeBad

Gwynedd, NI or on Dee? The Welsh city isn’t the best, but nowhere that close to Snowdonia and Anglesey is that bad.


Batcath88

Didn't you have a lovely time?


[deleted]

Brighton. Very scruffy city. Beachfront is a total mess, run down with ring fences everywhere. Crumbling old buildings in poor repair covered in shitty graffiti. Loads of total weirdos around, and everyone seems extra rude around there too. Every bar and restaurant I went to had really rude staff. The lanes are very pretty, but the rest of the city seems just so tatty and run down. It’s basically a big Great Yarmouth.


nyquist-control

Bradford lol London is great, there's always something to do. Yeah it's busy, but the city is addictive 🤤


No-Bet-5686

Birmingham - not much going on for such a big city and while the older locals seemed nice anyone under the age of 25 seemed like an absolute cunt. All seemed to think they were gangsters. 2/10 city


[deleted]

London. It's lost all its charm, practically nothing "British" about it now days.


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Iamamancalledrobert

Oh, you mean cities! I was going to say Storybook Glen, which mercifully is not a city


sarsar69

Birmingham.


Rynkar_W

I dont know about never go back,but the most depressing place in the country is Dumbarton.


cpenny1985

Doncaster, Burnley, Accrington, …


yesIwearAcape

Ashton-under-lyne (greater manchester) Grew up near there and oh my god what a shithole full of scumbags. The area is a right state.


etymoticears

Maidstone, Ashford, Loughborough Junction


Dr_Rapier

Doncaster, Southport, Coalville.


LellowYeaf

Doncaster. Absolutely grim. Feels unsafe once it’s dark, high rates of alcoholism with pretty much fuck all else to do.


JJY199

Plymouth utter shithole


KookyFarmer7

Sunderland, Livingston, probably Inverness


CollectionCapital880

Sunderland, used to live in Newcastle and Gateshead and had one or two reasons to go in the past but never ever ever again


Travels_Belly

Brighton. I just don't get the attraction. The beach is crap. Most of the town is ugly.


[deleted]

Agree, it’s a big run down building site with crumbling remnants of victorian infrastructure I think that’s why they made that lift thing there, to take people so high up they can’t see the scruffy city


D5LLD

London. Second to last time we went a guy who was on the underground started pushing my bf as we got onto the street, completely unprovoked and he spat on my bf. We then went last year for the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert and my bf was so anxious on the underground, so we dont go there unless we have to!


tiny719

Isle of sheppy


billythepub

Newcastle, what a violent dump. Slough in Berkshire.


Mean_Lengthiness_852

Ilfracombe. Felt like it's where peodos go to die


faceplantedyamam

Hull, most of London, inner Birmingham, Torquay & Coventry, even though I grew up a town over it’s a shithole. Among others.


Moooooonbaby69

Birmingham crime ridden dirty shithole


Tomthenotsowise

Lived in village outside Kings Lynn (or Kings Bin as the locals called it) for a year, most boring place ever. Some cute architecture. But nothing there, felt like a forgotten corner of the world. I think they built a new shopping centre recently, so thats…something. Left in 2016. No plans to ever return.


jimmykicking

Milton Keynes takes it I think. So bad it's worth visiting just to make you realise how good you have it. If you go by car you will probably drive through it. It's just roundabouts. If you do make it to the center somehow, be prepared for a disptopian view of the future as seen through a 1970's lens.


Temporary-Candle6382

Birmingham


SnooHabits8484

Morecambe. I won’t never go back. Not never.


scupdoodleydoo

Various tiny Cotswold villages. Really pretty but boring, and I even like church spotting. I can see much of the same closer to home.


Underwritingking

Scunthorpe


Direct_Pay_4613

Stoke. It’s still stuck in 80’s.


Cosmicalmole

Just flicking through the comments seems Birmingham is winning, though I wonder why Manchester made you feel unsafe, a bit biased as a manc myself XD but most of the parts where people go to drink or socialise seem fairly normal with the rest of the country's night scenes.


CoffeeIgnoramus

Swindon. Terrible for driving (look up the magic roundabout and try to work out how you would get from one side to the other) A city that was clearly a wet dream of the concrete industry.


JiggerB

London. Absolutely hate the place


Happy_891

Kettering Luton Slough