Best/worst places about where you live

[PopsicleHustler]

Afternoon everyone

What's the best and worst things about the area/town/street you live on

Feel free to divulge as much as you like without giving away your door number and street name. Haha.

I am from a town in Hampshire, England.

Best

1. We are one hour train or drive from london
2. I have several cafes, takeaways, corner shops, salon and the infant school on my door step.
3. The street is okay ish. Apart from my busy body neighbour.
4. Close to other busy shopping cities which is ideal for a big shopping spree.
5. Nearby villages with museums, farms and quite big parks.
6. The best chinese buffet restaurant in the world is only 4 mins drive away.
7. A fairly good hospital where I have given birth is 15 mins drive.
8. Not far from Portsmouth or Bournemouth too for trips to the beach.
9. Some very nice restaurants but far too many imo

Worst

1. Busy body neighbour literally has nothing better to do than call council for kids playing and having fun. And a lot more too.
2. The towns rubbish. We had so much shops. Now it's just boots and a billion restaurants.
3. The buses come every 4 years.
4. The senior school closest to us isn't great. Hoping it will improve. Excellent headteacher but terrible experience of bullying for my children. Looking to take him out and send him elsewhere.
5. There is no local soft play but the parks and museums make up for it.
6. To get to the big town by bus takes a decade.
7. Quite a lot of drunkards and drug addicts have surfaced throughout the last 5 to 10 years. So when you go to town you have to dodge a group of people shivering and shaking on the payment after taking whatever in a syringe and then passing out next to the curb but not on the pavement. Literally on the road next to the banks off their faces.

Looking to move by next year.

Now let's hear where you're at ladies!

I'm from a big city in the northwest
Best
The people, people who visit the city from elsewhere always say we are the friendliest and I agree
We have some beautiful buildings
We have great museums and art galleries
We have great shops, restaurants pubs etc
We have amazing buildings on the water front some of which are very famous.
Worst
Crime and anti social behaviour
Run down areas that need investment
We are looked down on by a lot of people

For all its faults I love my city and couldn't live anywhere else

Best.

1. Lots of things to do.
2. Two big libraries.
3. Always easy to get about on public transport.
4. 45 minutes to London by train. Just over an hour when driving.
5. Nice shopping mall.
6. Nice restaurants
7. Good train station with links to other nice places.
8. Nice soft play for the children.

Worst

1. Hospital isn't great.
2. Housing can be expensive
3. Looking to move as found nearby town can give us a 4 bed for what we are paying for a 3 bed and we have 4 children. So would be great for my 15 Yr old daughter to have her own room at last

4.nightlife is here is very noisy and disruptive. Live near the town so always hear when the pubs and clubs are closing.

Small market town in Bedfordshire.

Pros:
Very nice town
Friendly
Independent shops and restaurants on the high street
Lots of family orientated stuff going on
Fabulous farmer markets
Very green
12min drive to a great town

Cons
It's not london 😭 I miss london...

Best:

Wonderful people.
Cool shops.
Loads to do.
Beach.
Great parks.
Green MP

Worst:

Can't think of any! I love Brighton

Village in central Scotland

Best:
Green space
Wildlife
Easy commute to Glasgow:Edinburgh

Worst
Village mentalities (still an outsider after 25 years)
Cannabis factories

Village in Welsh Marches

Best

1. The view. 40+ miles in all directions.
2. Only 1 house visible from mine and that’s 4 miles away.
3. One shop in the village, which is better than other villages locally.
4. The deer.
5. Quiet.
6. A former pit village so not pretty enough buildings to attract tourists.
7. 6000 acre woodland plus walks.

Worst

1. No high speed internet, gas, mains drainage etc
2. NHS provision locally very poor.
3. SEND education locally almost non-existent.
4. Stupid revving motorbikes at weekends.
5. No affordable housing for young people.

The worst:

100m away from a primary school, youd think it'd be far enough....

How wrong I was....

Number of people who, 1. Think its okay to block my drive during school run. 2. Kids walking on my front garden wall.

Best:
Big house for the price

SE London suburb

Pros:
Loads of woods, green open space on our door step. We can walk for miles barely having to cross any roads
Easy links to central London
Easy to get right out into open countryside
Good schools
Great community
Lots of wildlife including owls, deer and badgers
Feels safe (at least my part does)
Lots to do for adults and children
Local high street has some great shops and restaurants
Multicultural and diverse
Decent local hospital but easy access to larger hospitals with various specialties
Our GP surgery is excellent

Cons:
Much maligned area in the press - always the scapegoat London suburb.
Some parts are very deprived / have a high crime rate
Absolutely SHIT, to the point of criminal, council who are now bankrupt due to sheer utter incompetence
Crap town centre that’s never going to get regenerated now

I live in a largeish town in Cornwall.
Best :-
Beaches 5 mins drive away
Beautiful countryside
Milder climate ( sometimes!)
Slower pace of life
Low covid rates
Low crime rates
Worst :-
Very poor county
Problems with 2nd home owners
Not so many opportunities for young people
Have to travel for theatre etc, although it’s definitely improving
Town centre dying & again have to travel for decent shops
Influx of vulnerable people moved from Northern cities so more obvious drug use etc

I live in York.

Best things about my neighbourhood/street:

• Wonderful sense of community
• Lovely neighbours who I'm genuinely friends with
• Beautiful local park with lots of brilliant dogs
• Area is steeped in history; we have an 18th century windmill and a 1950s cold war bunker within a mile
• Houses on my street are very characterful but also very versatile
• Two local high streets (one cheap and cheerful, one more wanky and pretentious) within a mile or so

Worst things:

• Some of the neighbours are insane (on my street there is the mad alcoholic antiques-collector over the road, and the drug dealers a few doors up but there is also the local chatterbox dog walker who will stop anyone/everyone to monologue at them for 20 minutes at any opportunity)
• Parking is a nightmare (I don't care, I don't drive)
• Houses are all terraced which means that bins/recycling boxes have to be taken through the house each week which is irritating

Best
Very green area
Plenty of shops around
Playground for DS and school on short walking distance from our home
Only 30 minutes away (by train) from the centre of a huge city

Worst
It’s rather boring here sometimes
Living in very close proximity of a river so risk of flooding in case of extreme weather

Small town in Yorkshire

Best:
Our road/area is lovely. Lovely people. Catchment for great schools.
Several bars and a few restaurants within walking distance.
Choice of 4 supermarkets only 10 mins drive away.
Small community who all tend to talk to each other.

Worst:
2 hours drive to get to the coast.
Not loads of jobs without driving into the nearest city.
As it’s a small town and limited houses in the catchment area for the best schools, property prices seem to be shooting up even though it was once quite an inexpensive place to live.

Best

A mile from the sea
Five miles from a small city with a theatre, but sadly, diminishing shops
Between two big shops g centres and a hour and a half on the train to London.
Plenty of supermarkets etc within a five minute drive and smaller shops in easy walking distance
Buses every ten minutes
Excellent neighbours and a pleasant environment, with walks, parks and a lake nearby.
Good restaurants and takeaways
Countryside, as well as sea close by
Good hospital nearby

Worst

Too many people because it’s the seaside
Nearest small town is dreadful
Parking
Disappointed with GP and dental surgeries this last 15 months.

Large town outside manchester
best
Access to lovely countryside where I live, not so good if you live in the south of town.
12 miles from a big city with reasonable but expensive rail and bus links.
Lots of supermarkets within 10 mins drive - 1 lidl and 3 Aldis as well as all the others
Good motorway network 40 mins to Southport, bit more to Blackpool, an hour to the lakes, dales if you set off early.
Reasonable house prices but expensive considering town centre is a dump and schools generally mediocre
Worst
Town centre - huge decline, 1 in 4 empty shops, probably more now. Town of 200,000 has an M and S, rest are shut - debenhams, top shop, BHS ; mainly charity shops, nail bars and cash convertors. A very famous jewellers, been there 100 plus years with the town's name in its title, shut the main shop but left the branches in Leeds and Guildford open - obviously not affluent enough
Few nice independent shops, cafes
Leave and tory voting despite years of neglect and underinvestment.
A certain snobbery and wariness of people who are different, certain areas are no go 'dodgy' rundown council estates and looked down upon, some schools are a m/c ghetto and the best secondary in town is only open to church goers offspring of sharp elbowed m/c types
Many never seem to move away so it's difficult to become part of established friendship groups who all went to school together
A lot of bling
Things often mentioned on here to join and make friends (WI, book clubs, rambling groups) are often full of older retirees, no problem with that but they tend to stick to their own too.
Can't wait to move tbh, but sadly my lovely victorian terrace with huge garden would be way over budget in my home county over the pennines

@Scoose

I'm from a big city in the northwest Best The people, people who visit the city from elsewhere always say we are the friendliest and I agree We have some beautiful buildings We have great museums and art galleries We have great shops, restaurants pubs etc We have amazing buildings on the water front some of which are very famous. Worst Crime and anti social behaviour Run down areas that need investment We are looked down on by a lot of people

For all its faults I love my city and couldn't live anywhere else

As a born and bred Manc I vouch that Liverpudlians are the friendliest people in the UK. I love Liverpool!

@PopsicleHustler

Afternoon everyone

What's the best and worst things about the area/town/street you live on

Feel free to divulge as much as you like without giving away your door number and street name. Haha.

I am from a town in Hampshire, England.

Best

1. We are one hour train or drive from london
2. I have several cafes, takeaways, corner shops, salon and the infant school on my door step.
3. The street is okay ish. Apart from my busy body neighbour.
4. Close to other busy shopping cities which is ideal for a big shopping spree.
5. Nearby villages with museums, farms and quite big parks.
6. The best chinese buffet restaurant in the world is only 4 mins drive away.
7. A fairly good hospital where I have given birth is 15 mins drive.
8. Not far from Portsmouth or Bournemouth too for trips to the beach.
9. Some very nice restaurants but far too many imo

Worst

1. Busy body neighbour literally has nothing better to do than call council for kids playing and having fun. And a lot more too.
2. The towns rubbish. We had so much shops. Now it's just boots and a billion restaurants.
3. The buses come every 4 years.
4. The senior school closest to us isn't great. Hoping it will improve. Excellent headteacher but terrible experience of bullying for my children. Looking to take him out and send him elsewhere.
5. There is no local soft play but the parks and museums make up for it.
6. To get to the big town by bus takes a decade.
7. Quite a lot of drunkards and drug addicts have surfaced throughout the last 5 to 10 years. So when you go to town you have to dodge a group of people shivering and shaking on the payment after taking whatever in a syringe and then passing out next to the curb but not on the pavement. Literally on the road next to the banks off their faces.

Looking to move by next year.

Now let's hear where you're at ladies!

Are you in Hythe?

I live in a town 12 miles north of Manchester.

Good - semi rural, village feel, lots of independent businesses, cheaper houses, nicer people (I moved from South Manchester recently, everyone says hello where I live now. It really stood out to me when I moved), good town centre, easy to get to Manchester.

Bad - terrible town planning (roads through main town) gridlocked at rush hour.
I can't think of much, yet. I'm new to the area and I love it, so far...

Village in Bedfordshire

Best:
Lovely village school
Rural location
Nice pub
Friendly people
5 mins in the car from a small town
45 mins on the train from London
Lots of lovely countryside walks

Worst:
Everyone knows your business
Only 1 shop
You need a car as there's no bus service

Best:
Minutes away from green spaces in all directions
Well served for shops, theatres, museums etc
Good hospital nearby

Worst:
Seems to attract uptight, overly competitive types - lots of "keeping up with the Joneses"
The above leads to a skewed sense of what's important in life - like living in a bubble sometimes
Parking is horrific

Village close to a commuter town in Essex.

Best:

1. Lovely coast very near. Great to jump in the car and be on the beach in 10 mins.
2. Train to London every 15 mins and journey time is less than an hour
3. Lots of nice villages within walking distance
4. Fab local pub
5. Amazing local primary school
6. Village super friendly with very strong sense of community.

Worst:

1. Commuter town itself is grotty - shabby and neglected. Over-developed - tons of new housing but local infrastructure hasn't kept pace
2. Pretty rough at times
3. Town centre shopping options have gone steadily downhill over the past 5 years
4. Secondary school options are rubbish.

Best

On the coast with two lidos and open water swimming.

Moors, Devon and Cornwall on the doorstep.

Excellent water sports and aquatics provision.

Very good regional theatre.

Friendly city.

Lots of pubs and restaurants

Our neighbourhood is within walking distance of seafront and city centre.

Worst

Appalling transport links to ‘up country’ and a long way to get to an airport

Lack of career opportunities

Poverty and deprivation

Awful city centre shopping

Disregarding the worst. The bests sound really good and some of you sound like you live in some really nice places. Must be lovely living near the sea.

Best
15 minutes drive to the sea
Lots of open countryside and woods
The weather - honestly, it seems to have its own microclimate
Decent schools
Worst
Traffic to get to the coast in the summer. An hour plus last week
Lack of cultural diversity
Poor public transport
Death of our high street and weekly market
Insular nature of the residents
History of voting Tory
Appalling health care provision

Brighton:

Best-
open mindedness, lots of lefties, sense of community, close to the seaside and the countryside, my 'hometown' so parents and some school friends live here.

Worst-
House prices, hard to park anywhere, and a big drugs scene.

There is a lot of homelessness but I don't consider it a negative of the town as I know a lot of homeless people come here because there is a lot of outreach work for them (DBro used to be a St Johns ambulance volunteer).

Best

Safe area with beautiful unique houses
Good solid neighbours
4 supermarkets within 5 min drive
Very good schools
Quiet pace of life

Worst

1. 5 miles to nearest city and no high street shops at all (local shops only)

Not very much to do except walks etc

But making the most of it.