[Archived] ...and You Thought Blackburn Was Bad ! ! !

[Plastic Head]

I'll start you off this one. Nominate others as you wish.

Taken from the LET....

"A council report slammed the town as being a remote location with a dead heart, a high level of social deprivation and a declining population with crime and drug abuse issues.

It is fair to say that there are a large number of issues that need to be addressed.

The report claimed the town had a poor self image, poor external image and a lack of role and identity.

It is a town without open spaces, trees, insufficient car parking, poor pedestrian environment, poor traffic circulation, poor access from surrounding residential areas, empty shops, poor quality of shopping."

Apart from that it's a hoot! And the town is question is...

Bacup

[gumboots]

stoke on Trent. It doesn't even really exist. Hanley has the town centre.

[Ritchie]

Rhyl - an absolute disgrace of a town.

As for round here - Nelson, Colne and last but certainly not least, Accrington.

[JC4LAB]

Poor old Hull seems to get it in the neck a lot...Never been

[gumboots]

  Ritchie said:

Rhyl - an absolute disgrace of a town.

As for round here - Nelson, Colne and last but certainly not least, Accrington.

Not a very nice place Rhyl although we did have some good off season holidays based there.

[philipl]

  JC4LAB said:

Poor old Hull seems to get it in the neck a lot...Never been

Hull is fantastic, seriously.

Stanley, County Durham would be my nomination in the UK.

For elsewhere in the world, the barrios in Guyaquil Ecuador are terrifying and there are plenty of places in central China which are unspeakably grim.

[Grabbi Graeme]

I was actually in Rhyl on Saturday with the kids, not much there now just some rides on the front and a few amusement arcades, certainly gone downhill over the last few years.

I did work there briefly in early 90's and it wasn't too bad, quite a good night out as well back then.

[Rovermatt]

NI has its fair share of utterly grim locales:

Antrim - The same town where two young soldiers were brutally murdered a couple of months back, Antrim is an evil, occluded rat hole that offers absolutely no redeeming qualities other than an enormous shopping outlet. Avoid at every possible cost.

Millisle/Ballyhalbert/Ballywalter/Portavogie - Too small to be classed individually, these four fishing villages are located on the North Sea side of the Ards Peninsula. Millisle (affectionately known as 'Shankill-on-Sea') is the holiday destination for every self-respecting North and East Belfast loyalist who isn't a drug dealer. It's like a Rangers-shirt bedecked version of Margate except without the sunshine and thriving gay scene. As you make your way down the peninsula towards Ballyhalbert, Ballywalter and Portavogie the brows become more furrowed, the curtains twitchier, the accents more Scottish and the Orange arches more weathered. An absolutely terrifying part of the world.

Bangor - A once grand seaside town in prosperous North Down, Bangor and its people are far too smug for their own good considering the majority of it is a chav and spice boy-infested suburban nightmare whose dim residents view a trip 20 minutes down the road to Belfast as some sort of homeric pilgrimage.

Newtownards - The sort of place where the sun is only allowed to shine for a couple of days each year, Ards (as in 'Ards Borough Council STILL says "NO!"') is a grim reminder of just how sh!t Northern Ireland used to be. With huge swathes of the town still stuck in the Ulster of the 1960s, it's no wonder every person you see there looks so p!ssed off. Ards's most notable resident was local nutcase solicitor Blair Mayne who played rugby for Ireland and co-founded the SAS. In 1955 he got wasted in one of the towns many bars and drove his sports car into a lorry, killing himself.

Portadown - There are few places in the world scarier than Antrim but Portadown joins Kabul, Baghdad and Detroit as one such place. A deeply violent and sinister town, summer visitors are greeted by over three miles of bunting, paramilitary and Union flags and general 'outsiders not wanted' grafitti on the dual carriageway leading in. The location, of course, of the infamous Garvaghy Road riots between the Orange Order's assembled riff-raff and local residents in the early to mid 90s, Portadown has little to recommend it.

[b12_simon]

  gumboots said:

stoke on Trent. It doesn't even really exist. Hanley has the town centre.

For me too. Stoke tops my table of the worst places I've ever visited. Sunderland's not far behind, both edging Burnley, parts of Blackburn and parts of London.

Edit: I'd forgotten Stocksbridge - a small steel town outside Sheffield that I've only ever passed through. For all I know it could be wonderful but passing through robs me of the will to live.

[Sandiway Blue]

  Plastic Head said:

I'll start you off this one. Nominate others as you wish.

Taken from the LET....

"A council report slammed the town as being a remote location with a dead heart, a high level of social deprivation and a declining population with crime and drug abuse issues.

It is fair to say that there are a large number of issues that need to be addressed.

The report claimed the town had a poor self image, poor external image and a lack of role and identity.

It is a town without open spaces, trees, insufficient car parking, poor pedestrian environment, poor traffic circulation, poor access from surrounding residential areas, empty shops, poor quality of shopping."

Apart from that it's a hoot! And the town is question is...

Bacup

Tell me about it!

[3rdpillar]

  Ritchie said:

Rhyl - an absolute disgrace of a town.

As for round here - Nelson, Colne and last but certainly not least, Accrington.

Yet LLandudno is beautiful.

  Rovermatt said:

NI has its fair share of utterly grim locales:

Antrim - The same t......... ................assembled riff-raff and local residents in the early to mid 90s, Portadown has little to recommend it.

After that damming report, I would like you to post the Best of NI please Or I wont be able to sleep at night knowing these pleaces exist without redemption.

[Rovermatt]

Most of Northern Ireland is great. Belfast, Derry, Fermanagh, south Down, north Down, the north Antrim coast, the internal Ards Peninsula... I could go on.

[brian_gallagher85]

  Rovermatt said:

NI has its fair share of utterly grim locales:

Portadown - There are few places in the world scarier than Antrim but Portadown joins Kabul, Baghdad and Detroit as one such place. A deeply violent and sinister town, summer visitors are greeted by over three miles of bunting, paramilitary and Union flags and general 'outsiders not wanted' grafitti on the dual carriageway leading in. The location, of course, of the infamous Garvaghy Road riots between the Orange Order's assembled riff-raff and local residents in the early to mid 90s, Portadown has little to recommend it.

I hear there is a vacancy in the Northern Ireland tourist board

While we're on the subject of NI towns, I'd like to throw Newbuildings into the mix - it's the scariest place I have ever been to in Ireland, thankfully I'm only ever driving through it. It's like a smaller scale version of Portadown, where even the locals' relatives are "welcomed" with a birage of stones, bottles and golf balls

I love this little stat - 0% were from a Catholic background and 100% were from a Protestant background - in a town that is about a mile from the largest catholic area in the whole of NI.

Blackpool is also lovely

Derry is fine, just stay the hell out of the Waterside!!!!

[Rovermatt]

  brian_gallagher85 said:

I hear there is a vacancy in the Northern Ireland tourist board

While we're on the subject of NI towns, I'd like to throw Newbuildings into the mix - it's the scariest place I have ever been to in Ireland, thankfully I'm only ever driving through it. It's like a smaller scale version of Portadown, where even the locals' relatives are "welcomed" with a birage of stones, bottles and golf balls

I love this little stat - 0% were from a Catholic background and 100% were from a Protestant background - in a town that is about a mile from the largest catholic area in the whole of NI.

Blackpool is also lovely

Derry is fine, just stay the hell out of the Waterside!!!!

I'm rarely in Derry (the city or the county) and thus I've never been to Newbuildings, but such villages are ten a penny here.

[lockers]

  Rovermatt said:

Bangor - A once grand seaside town in prosperous North Down, Bangor and its people are far too smug for their own good considering the majority of it is a chav and spice boy-infested suburban nightmare whose dim residents view a trip 20 minutes down the road to Belfast as some sort of homeric pilgrimage.

Having lived in Bangor for most of my life I should disagree with it...but to be honest I cant pick fault with it at all

[Plastic Head]

  philipl said:

Stanley, County Durham would be my nomination in the UK.

I was there last week. Not good.

Blyth and Ashington are very grim also.

South Shields is good though.

[Rovermatt]

  lockers said:

Having lived in Bangor for most of my life I should disagree with it...but to be honest I cant pick fault with it at all

I have a couple of good friends from Bangor, but they never leave the place. It's weird.

[Drummer Boy]

  Ritchie said:

Rhyl - an absolute disgrace of a town.

As for round here - Nelson, Colne and last but certainly not least, Accrington.

A bit harsh on Colne and Accrington to lump them in with the unmitigated cesspit that is Nelson - they're not the epitome of high living but Nelson takes the concept of "dump" to a whole new level. Even the (many) rats travel in groups!

[Ritchie]

  Drummer Boy said:

A bit harsh on Colne and Accrington to lump them in with the unmitigated cesspit that is Nelson - they're not the epitome of high living but Nelson takes the concept of "dump" to a whole new level. Even the (many) rats travel in groups!

I can see where you're coming from - Nelson really is rather bleak. Mind you, I think that Keighley is worse than Nelson!

[Plastic Head]

According to the BBC

THE 10 WORST TOWNS

1-Luton

2-Windsor

3-Sunderland

4-Glasgow and Edinburgh

6-Clapham

7-Bath

8-Nottingham

9-Corby

10-Middlesbrough

Have to say Luton is somewhere I have never been......I believe it has some "similarities" to Blackburn.

Can't see why Windsor would be second? Or why Glasgow and Edinburgh would be lumped together. Edinburgh is OK innit?

The trip to Celtic Park a few years ago with Rovers certainly opened my eyes to Glasgows delights.

[Rovermatt]

Central Glasgow is brilliant and not in the least bit scummy. The outlying areas tell quite a different story however. I was at Celtic Park a couple of times this season; the area round the ground is really quite shocking.

[jamiebrfc]

Stoke on Trent is all of the towns within the city and Stoke-upon-Trent is the town known as Stoke (where the train station and old footy ground are). Stoke the town is a bit grim but the city on the whole is ok, particulatly Hanley which is a great night out and has a massive shopping centre. Not saying its the Garden of Eden but I can't think of anything Blackburn has that Stoke doesnt.

[Iceman]

Cape Town

[broadsword]

Shepshed.

Known as the "ashtray of the Midlands".

Not nice at all.

[Tom]

Swansea is about the worst place in the UK I've visited.

Blackpool is also a place i hate on a weekend when the thousands descend.