Middle class towns

[midnightmoon8]

We drove home from holiday yesterday and passed through Marlborough where we made a lunch stop to break our journey. What a fabulous town! Everything about it felt so upmarket; the shops, smart people, etc. Where have you been that felt so 'posh'?

A warning about Marlborough; people from the school call anyone from the town who isn't fantastically wealthy, plebs and proles.

I was really shocked.

@GoatWoman I assume you mean the College when you say Marlborough school? We find most (not all) of the College students rather stuck up and obnoxious. And they're just as banned from entering most of the shops in packs as the St John's Academy (our state school) are.

I've lived here on and off most of my life, it's upsetting to see the change from a fairly standard Wiltshire market town to a wealthy retirement complex. Many people brought up here will never be able to afford to live here. Meanwhile there are constantly vacancies for shop workers, cleaners, carers and most NMW jobs. And just try getting an appointment with the GP! Last time I wanted a non urgent it was seven weeks.

Frodsham, wow that's where I'm from. Know what you mean, but actually feel comfortable living somewhere less middle class now.

I could say Edinburgh. Most of the schemes are on the outskirts, so when you are fairly central you could be forgiven for thinking it's thoroughly middle class, if not in fact poncier.

Bamburgh
Harrogate
Hexham
Grasmere
Durham (city centre)
York

Yarmouth (IoW) is very middle class but I think that is because it is so small. If you want to do a “proper food shop”, you have to go to the supermarket in either Freshwater or Newport.

I know Lewes quite well (I grew up in Brighton). Yes, I would say that it is quite middle class. It is also quite cliquey. It used to be really hard to but a family house there because they were all sold before they went on the market. A friend who lives there said that she would always try to sell to a Lewes family rather than an outsider. Plus the pavements are so narrow (and parking there is a horror).

Sevenoaks is quite middle class, partly because quite a few people move there if they expect their children to pass the 11+. Also narrow pavements.

Dorchester

Peterborough

Sydney's North Shore and Eastern Suburbs.

I remember driving through a wide boulevard-type street in Chesham once and musing on the apparently uniform poshness of the town. Only to then see a woman come out of a house and literally tip the contents of what looked like a bathroom bin directly onto the otherwise pristine road.

I was flabbergasted. You don't see that sort of thing around my more humble environs.

Oh, and I've lived in Leamington Spa as a student, and it certainly has its grot spots, pretty though the housing stock in the town centre is.

Harpenden is completely horrific

Basingstoke has a Waitrose these days. It is not a measure of poshness.

Dorchester isn't that mc, either. Just go round Victoria Park or old (real) Poundbury.

And Basingstoke Waitrose has scales that weigh the self scan shopping because there's enough people who'd try and steal it.

In depth research between my friend

Haslemere

Henley upon Thames. V mc and v white

Dorchester or "Dorch" as a gaggle of identikit women referred to it.

Peterborough

Sorry to get political but this thread upsets me. There are lots of places that deserve to be lovely towns but the money and investment just isn't there. We visited Durham for the first time last week. It was so pretty but, the usual story from the Midlands upwards, a good proportion of the shops were either charity shops or closed down and to let. My home town in the Midlands is the same - potential to be really attractive but no investment, town centre is hollowed out, new businesses try then just seem to fail. Visited Chichester last year and it's like a different world.

a good proportion of the shops were either charity shops or closed down and to let
That's the same across the board, even places that epitomise 'Middle Class', like Tunbridge Wells have boarded-up shops and a plethora of charity chops.
You call for investment, but no one would be stupid enough to spend money on opening new shops, we just don't use them like we used to. Our town centres need to shrink back to the size they were 20 years ago, convert the excess to much needed housing and breath some life into them.

I met someone who came from Beverly. I’ve never been there.

And Basingstoke Waitrose has scales that weigh the self scan shopping because there's enough people who'd try and steal it

Don't all self scan tills weigh the shopping? Or do I obviously shop in places where potential thieves live? Probably, because our Asda has just installed cameras on the self scan tills and you do your scanning while looking at your own face and the items you're scanning. Designed to cut down on the incidences of people putting everything through as potatoes, carrots, onions and bananas, I expect.

Our town centres need to shrink back to the size they were 20 years ago, convert the excess to much needed housing and breath some life into them

Totally agree with this. Vicious circle of reduction in public transport, more people using cars, easy free parking at out of town shopping centres and restricted and expensive parking in town centres.

Getting into the city centre is slow and expensive, while we have two retail parks and a large shopping centre nearer to us.

Dartmouth and Salcombe, Devon

I'm at Buxton, Ipswich and Peterborough.

My list would include Aldeburgh, Southwold, Richmond, Leyburn, Pickering, Bakewell, Cowbridge, Lavenham, Melrose.

Not sure if this has already been posted, but this is probably the most 'official' way to look at whether areas are deprived or not:

Indices of deprivation

Definitely Petersfield. Also Midhurst and Petworth locally. I love them!

Agree with Lymington too, it was used as ‘Middenham’ in Unforgotten for context

We live in a ‘naice’ MC village near these. Not MC enough though I wish it was Emsworth but we can’t afford it