To ask for your experiences with Bath/strange atmospheres

@CalliopeCat, a friend of mine used to visit Halifax frequently out of necessity and she found it quite grim and threatening.

@Oliversmumsarmy where abouts in the US was this? I feel the same in Miami, been going there every year since I was a baby and have family there and I always cry when leaving which I never do anywhere else I have such sadness like a homesick feeling when I eventually get home.

I love visiting Bath and know people who love living there. I don’t think they pretend anything about it, they just enjoy it.

Paris yes! My mum and I went for a city break there once and we were both in tears within hours. The day we left was Bastille Day and we really struggled to get to the airport because road blocks kept being put up in our path. The second time I went with my husband, we were on a train which pulled into a quiet part of the station, turned off it’s lights and closed the doors. We had to cross a track to get out. There wasn’t even an announcement! Weird vibes.

No I dont think its terrible that some people like Bath. I'll say it AGAIN, I think its great. Enjoy what you want to enjoy. Views and country hills, no problem. I think its just very pretentious when people claim its multicultural. It just isnt. Its fine that it isnt, it just isnt for me personally, but its the pretending that it is. It is very pretty in some places. It does have some nice places to visit and eat but the pretending that its things it isnt is just very unnecessary. As I said a civic IS a good car. It delivers a reasonable spacious, economical hot hatch, good mpg etc. But why if you have one why pretend that is handles like a BMW or its as cosy as a merc? Then when a real BMW pulls up, you're glancing at it like its the same. This is the pretend nonsense that Bath revels in. If there wasn't any of that then its fine.

Have you looked at Astrocartography. It is where your natal chart is put onto a map of the world and the influences different places have on you.

I have never felt at home in this country. Things never seem to go right.
My Astrocartography chart says everything North of Leeds will end in disappointment (I was born North of Leeds) and south of Leeds people will stab me in the back.
It couldn’t be more true.

However many years ago Dp and I were travelling in the US

We stopped in a seaside town that was a little bit seedy and were warned not to go near our hotel window after a certain time as we were likely to be shot. Was also warned not to leave the hotel after dark

Dp was terrified but I loved the place. It was like I had come home.

I really wanted to buy a place and move there. We could have afforded a huge house I felt so calm and so right being there.

When I discovered astrocartography I clicked on the town and it is one of the luckiest and nicest places I could live.

Only problem is it is now a hugely popular area and one of the houses we could have afforded is now many millions of dollars.

We live on the outskirts of North London and I avoid Hampstead at all costs.
I find it really creepy and it gives me the heeby jeeebies. I will sit in traffic on the Finchley Road rather than go through Hampstead

Knitting addict. The city centre is beautiful you say. Great shops, lots of history. Ok. But why dont people address the business rates putting so many of these great shops out of business? What about the homeless problem? The drug problem? You love history, ok. But would people in Bath be capable of discussing Bath's historical role in the slave trade? Bath abbey has more monuments for slave traders than anywhere in the UK apparently and the architects in Bath were bankrolled with slave money. Now before you get upset and "he's attacking us.. blah blah blah" Please dont. Dont you think this is an interesting fact? William wilberforce lived in Pultney street. Wouldn't it be interesting to learn more about the social and economical conflict that might have occurred as a result. There could be lots if people interested to learn what was going on with prolific slave money makers in Bath being met by Wilberforce. Any mention of that in Bath's historical tours or mention of that being part of Bath's history? All I hear is the Romans built this, the Georgians built that. Jane Austin lived here. Maybe it wouldn't interest you, maybe it would, but it could interest others?

I get it username, you don't like Bath and think it's terrible that some people do. I don't really understand that attitude. You live where you like to live and I'll live in Bath, so you don't have to. Isn't it great that there are so many different choices of places to live and that we can CHOOSE for ourselves. I know, what a novel concept.

No-one has to apologise for being white or middle aged or well off, rich or super rich. Its the "lets talk our selves UP " at every opportunity that I just find so annoying. Then they want to quiz others. Should I join in wax lyrical about my family? Why should I? I dont have to do that to have a normal conversation anywhere else in the UK. If I dont then theres this awkward "well you dont seem useful to me so goodbye" attitude.

The Scilly isles, particularly Agnes are very Wicker Man, but it's that closed, slightly off-beat, watching outsiders thing.
Bath is one of the places I've lived the longest. Aside from personal heartbreak and the tragedies of students drowning in the river too often, it's always been a positive place for me.

Knitting addict its not whiteness. I dont know how many times it needs to be said. its the PRETEND diversity. Not sure how you make that out as inverted snobbery. I really dont care who has what but when I have conversations thats all im met with.
How could it possibly be inverted snobbery when my own family members are multi millionaires?

I had this in Bath!!!

I had a full-on panic attack and just felt 'not there' for the whole time I was there. There were quite a few 'alternative' types around, and for some reason, it really freaked me out. Jugglers and people with dreadlocks and violins... the whole experience was other worldly and I felt full of fear and dread.

Just to add, I lived in London and worked in the music industry at the time, so was used to strange people. It was just Bath. No idea why really.

I live in Bath too and I love living here. I don't think it's anything to do with it's "whiteness". I love it because:

The city centre is beautiful.

There are great shops.

Lots of history. (I love history)

Great food.

Lots of lovely places within easy reach.

Beautiful countryside.

Lots of art galleries. (love art too)

It's also ridiculously busy at weekends, in the summer and at Christmas and the local government hate car drivers with a passion, so there are downsides.

We walked around the local cemetery recently and there were a huge number of graves with non English surnames, which seems to suggest that other cultures having been making their home in Bath for a long time.

We've moved around a lot and even lived in a small town that was a lot more "white" than Bath is, but I'm happiest here than I've ever been.

Having said that I could very happily live in Bristol too, which is much more multi cultural. We know it well because our daughter lives there and I love it's buzz, but the traffic is worse than Bath and I just couldn't take it.

I have to say that your inverse snobbery is showing username and you sound a bit ridiculous.

My roots are firmly working class, but I'm not going to apologise for being a middle aged, middle class (sort of), art loving history buff who happens to find Bath lovely and not at all weird.

Geepipe, I grew up not too far from Bidston Hill, don't live there now though. So I knew it reasonably well. It has an interesting history, supposed to be very old. Druid connections? There's a rock carving there of some sun goddess and some spooky stuff on the rocks - I can't really remember it tbh, haven't lived there for decades. Never encountered anything weird there myself that I can recall

She's dismissive because, like most residents in Bath, she and they are not interested in other peoples opinions or perspectives. They wouldn't be able to acknowledge another opinion. Our country's democracy has been built on discussion with everyone weighing in. But in Bath its just shut down conversation. If anything is controversial, just dont talk about it and pretend it never happened. Maybe its this "sweep everything under the carpet" vibe people can feel. Anything focused so excessively on prettiness on the surface and image is what might be unsettling. Nothing wrong with aesthetics, but there must be substance too.

TSwift Username didn't say it was 'too English' at all.

Also, you are entitled to your opinion but I'm not sure why you are so dismissive of people's experiences because they don't align with your own. in the parts of the thread I have read there is no mention of ghosts (I have probably read about two thirds of it). in fact, posters have been looking at very rational explanations such as topography and radon gas levels, also psychological factors such as the liminality theory.

It seems that a good deal of us experience 'the willies' in some places not others, and it is an interesting thread drawing parallels between these places and emotions and looking for reasons why.

Exactly. This is what Tswift and residents in Bath dont want to acknowledge. Tswift why didnt you just move to another part of London if you had a problem with your neighbours. But yet you panicked and ran away, to Bath, where its all nice and safe, which co-incidently is what everyone I've spoken to in Bath says "Its so safe here, I feel so safe. I like Bristol but its too edgy" What they really mean is that it isnt white middle class enough. If you want it to be all white, all middle class, then fine but please stop pretending its diverse.
Yes the monied up thing. The problem with that is the speed in which people want to take themselves up. Why do they do it? The wealthiest people I know are stealthy as it gets when talking about money, but these Bath residents? Just cant help themselves. Why? Its pretty to look at but ugly in conversation. They heavily look down on those with less but act morally superior to those with more.

Another one for Teignmouth in Devon, went there as a kid and felt like I'd been there before and constantly felt upset, cried every day we were there and just felt "sad". Never been back.

My Nan hated Brighton, she went in the 60s and had what she describes as a flashback. She could see herself in rags holding onto the black railings outside a house on the seafront and felt an overwhelming sense of hunger as if she was starved. She never went back as she said it gave her the "willies" of course my Grandad thought she was nuts.

Unfortunately @MsTSwift you are proving the case every time you post. It sounds like you moved from a parochial village, couldn't cope with "edgy, grimey" London so lived to a parochial town.

And all this rugby on the Rec shite

@usernameusrnme you've really hit the nail on the head totally. I really struggled when I lived there. I have a natural reaction to that whole monied middle class thing. I hated it then and I hate it now. And that is the essence of Bath. It's all about being white middle class.

I hung around with artists and musicians but I never clicked with them. Most of them were from elsewhere but they had ended up in Bath. They were all surface too. I spent the entire time I lived there feeling like an outsider. And I've lived in plenty of cities.

It's not about it being woo either it goes deeper than that. It's about the attitude and fake ness. I'm not surprised I had a breakdown there, it makes sense.

And visiting recently I was shocked at the monoculture. I live in a typical London boroughs. It's not grimy or edgy. It's diverse and has its share of poverty. And milsom street on a Saturday was a sea of white faces.

Anyway @usernameusrnme you're far more articulate than me but yes it's a horrible, small minded, monoculture. And you can feel that when you're there.

I live quite close to Bath (about 15 miles), whenever I go there I get a headache and feel quite "down". I reckon it's because the centre is so narrow that I feel a bit hemmed in. It doesn't take much for it to get crowded. There just seems to be a slightly un-nerving atmosphere about the place that I can't quite put my finger on.

London is a grimy city? No, its not a grimy city. Its a diverse city. Belgravia, Harrow, Highgate, Kensington, Knightsbridge etc are not grimy. It has a range. The major difference is if you live in an in area in London which someone like yourself would call "grimy" or that other laughable word "edgy" (which basically means more working class and poverty than middle class) no-one will hold it against you. I've not met one person who would open their mouth and start slating the types of people who live in Hackney for example, as being people to stay away from. Behaving like that would be laughable. But in Bath that is just normal behaviour.

@cherrypavlova do we share a mother in law?

Its the pretend attitude thats annoying. Just feels like everyone you talk to is auditioning for a play or some kind of method actor. Coupled with the arrogance and "we know everything attitude" that seems so prevalent. All of that without mentioning the class snobbery that is so apparent. Its just too small, too gossipy and too fake.

Tswift. Nothing wrong with Bath being very English. Did you actually read the post properly? There is a problem with people who live there claiming its very multi cultural when it isnt and saying theres lots different cultural things on offer. Just isnt the case.
Residents in Bath defend it like grown adults arguing about their favourite football team and its just so tribal and silly. Bath is for people who are willing to trade fun and interesting for somewhere pretty and safe but want to claim they're not boring at the same time. Kind of like trading your sports car you bought when you were young in for a family car like a civic. Nothing wrong with that but please stop using every opportunity to tell people how sporty your civic is when it isnt.

And I’m sorry all this “I got a bad feeling” is abit bonkers - nothing to do with Bath it just makes no rational sense - but then I don’t believe in ghosts supernatural etc