Englands Most Depressing Towns

[Garry AKA Pod]

Frankly I'd rather buy a house in Chernobyl, it's up and coming mind, regeneration.

It does have it's own fairground. (Well, Pripyat does)

[Horridbloke]

Like you get the signs you're now entering 'Catherine Cookson Country', perhaps Gloucester council could spend some of the money they're spending on wallpapering empty shop windows with some new signs that inform visitors they're now entering 'Fred West Country'.

I permanently moved there in Dec 2007. Eight weeks later I permanently moved away again.

[Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz]

I think you confused Westdene with Whitehawk. Westdene is an affluent area. Mainly detacted property.

Moulsecoomb, Whitehawk, Bevendean, Hollingdean and Coldean are best avoided.

No I didn't - used to live there - just up from the Stadium - a suburban hell of the worst order!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whitehawk - remember peering down from the race course and realising that almost every patch of grass was covered in mounds of litter (back in the 80s this was).

[barabbas]

Hastings is the worst place I've ever semi-lived. One night a guy was walking along a row of shopfronts headbutting each window and it actually seemed to me a not abnormal thing to be happening there. Fresh blood on the pavements every morning. Run-down atmosphere took me back to the 80s. Warrior Square in St Leonards lives up to its name too.

[mitchbux]

Ponty! Ponty's great!

It wasn't great when I lived there 89-91. Has something changed?

My brother lives in the other Ponty. I should add that to my list

[deadman]

I've lived in quite a few places around the country and concur with a lot of your suggestions.

My list in no particular order:

1. Coventry

2. Bridgend (Wales but had to put it in)

3. Porth (Wales again)

4. Margate

5. Ramsgate

6. Thornaby (Nr. Middlesbrough)

7. Birmingham

8. Bishop Auckland

9. Carlisle

10. Glasgow (Scotland I know but can't abide the place)

[ItsColdUpHere]

Coventry

Dagenham

Blackpool

Burnley

Oldham

Chatham

Swindon

Portsmouth

Birmingham

Luton

Plenty more such as Stevenage & Chatteris, what are your top 10 worst?

You obviously haven't been to my home town, Consett.

Massive unemployment, massive benefit fraud, pound shop central, ugly fat women, windy and cold most of the time.

It used to be horrendously violent when i went out drinking in the 80's, but I think the population can't even be bothered to fight now.

It was once to be one of the cheapest places in the country for housing though. There was a reason for that...

* Edited for speeling

[River Man]

7. Birmingham

Now I agree there are plenty of horrible places in Birmingham, but the city centre is now quite interesting, and the place does have some soul. Victoria Square is stunning, a real piece of civic beauty. (Although I hate the new BUll Ring).

But even if you don't like the city centre, it has lots of fantastic bits. Edgbaston, for example, one of the nicest and prettiest suburbs in the country - and just a mile from town. How many othe rplaces listed here have houses like this half a mile from the city centre:

http://search.knightfrank.com/brm090035

http://search.knightfrank.com/brm090035

http://search.knightfrank.com/brm080327

Harborne, Moseley and especially Bournville, the first garden suburb. And then there's the Jewellery Quarter.

It's not paradise, I'd admit, but there are far, far worse places to be.

Agree on Cov though - see my post earlier, I think part of the sadness is it used to be a place full of medieval glories

[River Man]

HOw about places that aren't shit?

Norwich

York

Bath

Edinburgh

Oxford

Cambridge

Kensington and Chelsea

Hampstead and Highgate

St John's Wood and Primrose Hill

Westminster

Ludlow

Lewes

Shrewsbury

St Ives

Warwick

I could go on... just a prelimiary list

[Guest X-QUORK]

You do know the connection between Gloucester and your avatar right?

No I don't, is it Jason's home town?

[Guest X-QUORK]

Deleted.

[Jessica Rabbit]

Bracknell, Luton and Slough get my vote.

[Guest X-QUORK]

Leigh, the only place I've ever seen three generations of the same family pregnant at once.

Now that's funny. Cheers for the chuckle.

[finallysold]

i dont think that hounslow is that bad. but i dont live there and only go once in a while for shopping on sundays (free parking). feltham has has the regeneration (i.e. new shopping centre and flats) and the new flats are already losing any sheen they had.

some of the places i liked in the uk are hay on wye. spent a few days on holiday there and enjoyed it. some parts of cornwall were really beautiful. again dont know how it is to live there.

some of the supposed nicer areas in london like finchley and west hampstead were amongst the worst places to live for me. expensive places to rent next to council houses and also extremely crowded with traffic bottlenecks. my home got burgled twice there in a matter of weeks and also later learnt that the house was burgled many times before i rented it.

[Guest X-QUORK]

signs that inform visitors they're now entering 'Fred West Country'.

Right! Stop it you lot! Just spat my coffee onto the monitor!

[Harbour Lad]

Spot on observations re Hastings and St Leonards. Absolute hellhole. Hailsham is a rough as a badgers ar$e as well.

[HAIR BEAR CRUNCH]

Oh come off it , most depressing towns in England very high on the list is wales .

[LazyPeon]

The festival of roundabouts that is Basingstoke.

Hard to say the word without sounding like Marvin the paranoid android.

Does anyone actually live there? I know there are lots of people there but is anyone alive?

[SpewLabour]

You obviously haven't been to my home town, Consett.

Massive unemployment, massive benefit fraud, pound shop central, ugly fat women, windy and cold most of the time.

It used to be horrendously violent when i went out drinking in the 80's, but I think the population can't even be bothered to fight now.

It was once to be one of the cheapest places in the country for housing though. There was a reason for that...

* Edited for speeling

I thought everybody in Consett went into Durham to either fight the people from the other satellite towns who had come for a punch up, or to randomly beat up students. Well, thats what they seemed to do in the late 80's, that is.

In fact, it may well have been you who planted one on me outside the Chinese takeaway on Claypath for no reason ...!

[profitofdoom]

I thought everybody in Consett went into Durham to either fight the people from the other satellite towns who had come for a punch up, or to randomly beat up students. Well, thats what they seemed to do in the late 80's, that is.

In fact, it may well have been you who planted one on me outside the Chinese takeaway on Claypath for no reason ...!

One to consider..Gt.Yarmouth. Not only bad but remarkable because people actually pay to go there as well.

[deadman]

A product of NE culture unfortunately.

It was the same for me growing up in Darlington. I thought it was the norm.

Thank God my kids don't have to go through it like I did.

[SpewLabour]

One to consider..Gt.Yarmouth. Not only bad but remarkable because people actually pay to go there as well.

I think the worst place in the UK I've ever been to would be Redcar. Park up by the pleasant beach which has a really run-down seafront, wind down the window, and you get assaulted by the worst smell you could possibly imagine. And then your eyes are drawn to the steelworks......

[ExecutiveSlaveBox]

A product of NE culture unfortunately.

It was the same for me growing up in Darlington. I thought it was the norm.

Thank God my kids don't have to go through it like I did.

I think the further North you go in Britain the worse this sort of thing gets until it peeks in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Absolutely terrifying places for a night out .

For the list I really can't believe no ones mentioned Billingham. Grey Stalinist architecture to the back drop of Europe's largest chemical complex.

On the other hand I feel really sorry for Coventry being on. Used to live there back in the day and they seemed like pretty nice people really. I've seen pictures of it before the bombers rolled in and it would have put Warwick down the road to shame. It's a real pity how it is now.

[deadman]

I almost put Billingham in, but Thornaby got the award instead.

Coventry is awful. I felt sad visiting it. Nuff said.

[Guest X-QUORK]

I agree with Great Yarmouth being on the list, it takes tacky and rundown to new levels. Shame really, as Norfolk and Suffolk are lovely counties.

To the person who suggested Banbury, I lived there for five years and whilst it does have a rough estate or two, the town isn't that bad, a bit boring and provincial, but not hellish. It has a great live music scene for folkies, good transport links and beautiful countryside in all directions around. That siad, the Kraft factory on the edge of town is an eyesore and can make the area stink of instant coffee when the wind's in the wrong direction.