Just visited Newport, couldn’t wait to leave, what’s your get me outta here place?

[TheChristmasElf]

Just have just visited Newport for an appointment, we weren’t there long, toilet stop and cuppa in Asda, half hour appointment in city centre and then got lost on the way out but felt very uneasy the whole time were there. It had quite a menacing feel to it and even on the bare aesthetics of the city seemed quite run down with a lots of old closed pubs, shops etc…

I would actually go as far to say it made me feel quite unwell but I guess that would just be coincidence!!

We actually live rural Devon so not even like I’m not used to the odd lay line of two but I was quite relieved to get back on the road…

Has anyone else felt that about a place before?

Portsmouth - especially the suburban wasteland that is the bit of it on the mainland - the bit round by the cathedral is nice though

Croydon - when the nicest place to get a coffee is M&S you know you're in trouble

Bridgend just up the railway line is worse than Newport.

@FatOaf city centre - not far from the train station. Had a walk around the city centre and felt completely uncomfortable and unsafe - despite the fact it was a bright sunny day around 11am.

New York City is menancing. The culture and Fashion District are great, but the whole place is expensive, rude, and greedy. People observe much less personal space, and my country mouse accent marks me out. I don’t take a deep breath until the train is past New Haven and I’m back in New England proper.

Bodmin used to have a huge asylum, the suffering within its walls was well known about particularly by the end of the 1890s.
A number of places people have mentioned got badly bombed in WW2. I think if a place has seen a lot of suffering it somehow 'absorbs' that sadness.

Newport is a dive and I say that as someone from and living in Wales. Never have liked the place.

London for me I just remember all the times I've gone there I don't like it at all it smells awful and I've never gotten the appeal.

Also Paris I know it's not the Uk but that was somewhere I really didn't feel safe and just couldn't wait to get back home in fact ended up cutting the stay short and leaving a day early.

I guess I'm not a fan of big cities 🤣

It’s technically nice place but I find Ilkley just has a strange vibe. It’s a mix of the Victorian buildings and the looming moors. Can’t wait to leave whenever I go there.

Egham in Surrey. I was uncomfortable as the train arrived at the station and it only got worse.

Margate and Ramsgate (but always loved Broadstairs - even had a holiday home there). Walked from Broadstairs to Ramsgate recently and turned back immediately, just felt the need to leave. Rest of the people I was with had a few hours there exploring. I went back to Broadstairs.

Malvern. Those sinister, brooding hills.

<shudders>

I think I agree with @FatOaf upthread. You need to give places a chance. And people.

I've been to many of these in the UK/abroad and found something positive in all of them, and lots of nice people. I definitely have a soft spot for run down seaside places (embrace them and spend money!) and a bit of wild bleakness (like Dungeness - glorious) though, so perhaps I am an unreliable witness.

I also think it's a bit unkind and will pointlessly hurt feelings. But MN is increasingly an unkind place.

Telford - some posted that and yea - it just odd place.

I stopped outside in nearby town Wellington - work training thing and commuted in to Telford- that was lovely. Telford center is a shopping centre surrounded by roads - it's just odd and very unwelcoming from non driver.

@YfenniChristie
Totally agree about Glastonbury
Felt really uneasy there- Too many “ Egos” flying about with the New Agey lot.
In a shop there I felt so uneasy, and a short while later it was on local news that someone had been killed violently upstairs above the shop .

Liverpool, though the city is much nicer these days, I never drive through without triple locking car doors. The same when I'm in Moss Side, Manchester, the place where a guy had actually tried to open my passenger door when I was at a pedestrian crossing!

Southwell in London has a funny vibe too.

I quite like Blackpool tbh, I don't think it's rough - my son left his phone in an arcade, the operator chased after him with it. He hadn't even realised he'd left it there!

I've travelled all over the UK in my time but never been to Newport.....

My husband and brother in law were taking me to see Avebury as we approached it I insisted they turn the car around as the atmosphere was so menacing

merthyr tydfil.
Good grief.
My grandparents left this place and I had never been there so I went. Awful. I think it was the teenagers glue sniffing on a bench that cemented my impression of the place.

This thread is a mix of shit towns ( as in down at heel, desperate, dull) and eerie weird vibe places. Frankly, many places feel uncomfortable until you know them better. The feeling is in you more than the town probably!

Bristol and Derby.

Hamilton, Canada. They filmed the movie Silent Hill there. I imagine they didn't have to do much with the set. Hamilton is naturally awful.

Coventry. I wanted to go home after half a day.

Bristol? Can't believe people are saying Bristol. Love Bristol.

I felt really unsettled driving through Cambridgeshire a few years ago. I've always lived in South Wales, apart from a year in Bristol, so I'm used to always being near hills, and reasonably near the coast. I found the flatness and the distance I could see quite freaky somehow. I wonder if a few of these are linked to being in very different landscapes from 'home'.

Newport I can absolutely understand feeling like that, but I worked there for years and got to quite like it - but you have to get to know it I think.

I was going to say that when a poster mentioned East Sussex. I live in East Sussex and it's fine with the exception of Romney Marsh which is dreadful. Incredibly depressing place.

Grantham

Birmingham. I have tried to like it but I just hate it.

Weston-super-Mare is also grim.

Tebay. Lovely motorway services but the village itself is odd and oppressive.