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?

Newport was the suicide capital of the UK when I was in my late teens but I've only ever done a transfer at the station.

Rochdale is the most depressing place I've been to, particularly Heywood.

Paris too felt more unsafe there than any other place I have been to here and abroad. Got lots of hassle on the streets to by men. Just me and my 13 year old dd. Horrible

Oh yes I was just thinking that if we are talking about foreign places too then I would add Paris. All my memories are of getting endless hassle from men. And a smell of drains.

Casablanca - felt unsafe.

Ipswich town centre in the evening is a bit unsettling for some reason.

Dundee

I hate Brussels. This is a bit outing but I was involved in a Eurostar accident just outside the city. It was minor (?) terrorism - someone had laid breeze blocks and steel reinforcing across the tracks. We sat on the tracks for 8 hours in total.

Eurostar staff were interminably crap and would only sell you food if you had Euros (no cards or GBP). Then food ran out and they refused to cater at all!

I also needed to visit the police on Ascension Day which was a comedy in and of itself, it took 4 police stations til once deigned to open the doors and shouted at me.

There's 3, Newport Shropshire

stayed in a deadful B & & in Fort William, so that was offputting.

I get this - something to do with the sky there? It feels huge and somehow oppressive.

I found Bristol very very creepy when I went there the first time.

Portland

I’d be very happy to live in Deal, lovely place, bustling high street, great indie shops characterful seafront, its own castle, what’s not to like?

"I think if a place has seen a lot of suffering it somehow 'absorbs' the sadness"

As said upthread. This applies to a lot of the places mentioned but others are just grotty and unloved and the victim of bad government policy.

I absolutely agree regarding Newport, I felt really really unsettled there. Shame as some of the surrounding countryside is beautiful.
I’ll add:

Stockton on Tees
Great Yarmouth
Newcastle under Lyme

My closest city is Derby and I often feel uneasy in the city centre; since the big shopping centre was built the centre has become more and more derelict and it’s just a bit… menacing.
However I used to live in Paris and didn’t feel unsafe there at all, even though I lived there alone in my mid 20’s didn’t know anyone until I moved there. I also absolutely love Bristol, so I guess it’s all about perception!

Slough

Scunthorpe. Went there to start a support group for people with a disability...so I was travelling alone....but travelled all over the UK on my own. I was booked into what seemed to be the only hotel...I went for a walk, it was a Sunday and everything closed...but bullbars on all the shops...even the charity shops...this was early 2000's.....maybe 2008.....never went back.

Mmmm, Bradford, I don’t live a million miles from it, but I hate it, despite working there in a happy job for ten years. It’s always grey and makes me feel depressed as soon as I cross over the boundary into that BD6 postcode.

funnily enough I have a very soft spot for Middlesbrough and I can see some people hate it. Yes it has its issues, but I found even the struggling people were friendly there, DS spent three happy years at Teesside Uni and we all have nothing but affection for the place. Rather live there than Bradford.

Slough

High Wycombe, where I grew up , a horrible place .

I agree about Middlesbrough. It's not a lovely place, but generally the people are remarkably warm and friendly which elevates it. I've been in 'locals'' pubs there and been made to feel like I'm there every night.

Another call for Fort William - always depressing (and I'm originally from the Highlands). Conversely, I love the surreal flatness of Dungeness and the Marshes.
Monaco is a soul-less hell-hole.

JohnBetjeman, is that a name change in honour of the thread?

I didn't enjoy the time I spent in Morecambe.

Paris.

Laughing really hard at this. It's my home town and I agree. I got out of dodge young. I've been happy just 9 miles along the road in Glasgow for over 30 years- the best city ever. Mind you, the Kilpatrick Hills are right beside Clydebank and are beautiful.

It's nowhere near as God awful as Rhyll- never, ever again, I thought I was in a Simon Pegg movie set in the 80s. Awful. Stunning stuff around it, but as a place it's dire.

Portland

Yes, that is a very strange place. Odd vibe.

I think the most malevolent place abroad was Barbados - I absolutely loved some of it and would return in a heartbeat but we hired a car and visited some of the less touristy areas and the hostility from the locals was intense. I had a group of young girls openly mocking my accent in a restaurant and a van full of men shouting sexist abuse when I was at the Mall🤣 I would probably just stick to the tourist areas next time!

Oh the road up through the borders going to Scotland is one of my favourite drives, mainly because of the lack of other traffic.