To be sick of people looking down on the town I live in?

And also, the town I grew up in was really no different to the next one on the train line, but has always been more expensive than it. Hometown does have a slightly better high street, but it's all a bit Emperor's Clothes

There are tons of towns that people get snobby about. I'm in Kidderminster. It's not the best but it's not the worst. It's near to beautiful countryside, relatively safe...it's got a few shops handy...nice canal, some lovely parks, and surrounding villages and forest nearby.

Tons more affordable than the south of the county but I get pitying looks from colleagues who live in Malvern...when Malvern too has it's issues. Malvern is lovely but Kidderminster certainly isn't terrible. Usually people are just in their bubble and don't know if they've not been.

I can't think of any situation where I'd tell someone that where they lived was a dive.

I grew up in a commuter town that has a desirable reputation, but even living there you'd experience snobbery about which part you lived in. People living within Norsey Farm bit would soon let you know 😅

Just say" there's no need to be rude.".

John Betjeman wrote a poem about Slough
His daughter apologised about it after his death.

^^

OL15?

Haha don’t feel bad, I didn’t take it personally 😂. I grew up in Milnrow, just near the lake. I do miss it, I’m only a few miles away, still technically Rochdale but not.

It does get a bad rep and has been in the news for lots of the wrong reasons, doesn’t mean it is all bad like you say.

Nobody would disagree that Slough (pronounced Sloff) is a shithole.

I’m guessing Herne Bay ( although I’m guessing if it was a seaside town you’d have mentioned that )

I feel bad now for dissing my home town. Live and work in Rochdale, it’s got some lovely areas, close to Pennines, and some not so good areas like lots of other places. lots more positives than there used to be.

Actually I just looked and it’s more like 450k.

It makes no difference to us though, we had to move to fucking Dudley to be able to afford anywhere, 170k was our absolute limit for a 3 bed house for our family. That was 5 years ago, and thank god we bough then, as even here would be unaffordable for us now, prices have gone up so much.

£350k isnt expensive for 3 bed house though

I don’t know why everyone keeps mentioning Slough. I grew up there and left 20 years ago. The tiny 3 bed house I sold for 160k is now going for 350k +

I certainly wouldn’t call Slough affordable, you must all have a lot more money than me, I could never afford to move back!

Yes, people don't want to live where I live. Mostly because the main population is I dian/Pakistani/Bengali. But the local schools are amongst the best performing, the local teens are extremely polite, it's generally a safe area even in the evenings, and the local secondary school gets many straight 9s and A*. My own dc is going to Warwick
to study maths, a friend of his is off to LSE, another to Imperial, a couple of students to Oxford and three to study medicine.
I love living here!

I’ve not minded driving around Liverpool either.

Ha ha. The area around the Knowledge and Georgian quarters is OK, but the one way systems in the centre are awful. I drove round them several times when I moved DD to a flat share from student halls. It isn't something I want to repeat in a hurry.

@HeronPond you’ll have a great time.

@RampantIvy I love the city too. It has more life in it on an average weeknight than other cities I’ve spent time in on a weekend. I’d been thinking about having a weekend away in London with friends for my 40th ever since I’d done that for my 21st. In the last 2 years I’ve said I want to go to Liverpool instead for my 40th. It has everything I want (and more); like @Crikeyalmighty I’ve found it very friendly and from experience it’s easier getting there and back by car even if the journey is longer than it is to London. I’ve not minded driving around Liverpool either.

I really dislike the phrase, "down south", as though it is all one place. It sounds dismissive as though who says it thinks themselves superior somehow. Also ignorant - the south east is very different indeed from the south west.

I live in the Midlands, (originally from the south), but also known as the Peak District which isn’t shitty at all. Reasonably priced property too😊

@PoisedGoldBiscuit we live in Bath and it’s 12 minutes on train to Chippenham - it’s not amazing but is fine and for anyone wanting a new 3 or 4 bedder with good motorway links, train link , supermarkets and at a ‘relatively ‘ sensible price I think it actually has a lot going for it - I think a lot of incomers is changing the demographic too and is actually improving- and very easy and cheap just to go into Bath if you want a bit more

@RestlessSparrow I get that too - we live in Bath but have council estates and some pretty grim areas that rival anything I experienced back in Mansfield where I am from - and in Bristol I’ve seen way worse - but I got used to hearing the ‘they get everything ‘down south’ - it really isn’t the case in fact the opposite. Outside of London it’s much harder to get state funding in many cases in the south -

@Sladuf1 we love Liverpool too - have been a fair few times with our business - found it incredibly friendly too

I’m there next weekend and looking forward to it!

I agree. DD is in Liverpool, and I'm always finding excuses to visit her. I love the city.

I was once in a Dept store lift in Liverpool where a similar conversation was going on. Someone piped up "I've been thrown out of better places than this".

I could never understand why some people had such silly opinions about Liverpool when I was growing up. Chances are they’ve never visited. I keep finding reasons to visit i.e. booking concert tickets when I could see the band/singer closer to home. I think there’s something for everyone there.