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?

Hull. In particular Bridlington

Ermm. Hull and Bridlington are entirely separate places, 25 miles apart!

Just to clarify it was the Newport in Gwent we visited yesterday (I had no idea there were so many other Newports in the UK)

To those that have commented saying that this is a nasty, snobby and depressing thread have missed the whole point of my OP.

Obviously there are more desirable places to live than others in the UK, towns that are prettier, cities with lower crime levels villages that are more inclusive than others but my OP wasn’t about that and more the personal feel of a place and the interest around how that varies depending on the person.

In my case the pull to get out of Newport was very intense, I felt like the air was very heavy and dark and I just wanted to curl up under a duvet in back seat and not come out until we had left.

We currently live in Devon, outside Plymouth on Dartmoor and I wasn’t surprised to see all 3 of these names mentioned more than once up thread…

Devon and Cornwall do have unique energies and atmosphere, some say due to the ley lines and while I feel quite a connection I can understand how others might find it heavy and oppressive.

As a further bit of interest I grew up in Edinburgh, not city centre but near enough. My DF however is from very rural Somerset and we would visit my grandparents and DF side of the family twice a year, when I say I LOVED it in the SW I mean I loved it and I’d cry inconsolably every time we left. My parents would say it’s just because you’re on holiday, everyone feels like that when they have to come home but I knew it was more than that…

I feel very nostalgic to my childhood in Edinburgh and love the city and history but like a PP said a few pages back I feel like I’m deeply connected to the SW through some force or energy from days gone past.

Tintagel is almost exclusively tourist crap. It is full of "woo woo" shops selling cheap tat, or anything labelled "King Arthur" There is actually a "King Arthur's Laundrette".
And it has the spectacularly odd Camelot hotel. Don't buy the paintings....!

( On the good side, The Old Post Office and it's lovely garden, and a super bit of SW coast path)

My family until my parents moved away , have lived in Rothwell , Northants for generations.Whenever I visit I find the place utterly creepy .

It's taken fifteen pages for someone to mention Dundee. City of Discovery 🤪

margate, we were travelling to Disney from Dover and DH decided (after hearing about it on only fools and horses) it would be nice to spend a day in Margate before travelling. It felt so awful, I felt like I was being watched the entire time.

Same for Dover really!

I used to work in Rochdale and even the name still gives me the shivers.

@Notplayingball im always pleasantly surprised by it when I come home. Granted the High street is dead but I can’t see much wrong with it.

But then I don’t live there anymore.

www.higgypop.com/ley-lines/

Someone mentioned ley lines. I mentioned caernarfon, Wrexham, the mountain range. Just checking out where leylines are there's one 104 miles long running through them all. Interesting.

Herne Bay. Got the sense that they might kill me and eat me, as I'm of an unusual demographic. 20 mins there and I turned around and caught the next train out.

Some places do have a very oppressive atmosphere. Kings Stables road in Edinburgh by the bridge and steps absolutely freaks me the fuck out every time I'm there, day or night. I have no idea why, it gives me full body shivers. Apart from that I would live in Edinburgh in a flash.

Blackpool.
Hated it the last two times I have been and not even the fresh doughnuts can lure me back.

The family wanted to go for nostalgia, on the fair etc but the place is awful. Actually not the place itself but the people who live there now. It's a whole different culture of people who have zero social skills and walk into you CONSTANTLY. Like a feral cattle market these days.

Redcar. Awful run down place with a biting wind off the north sea. Never again.

I've lived all over and in many different places abroad. Newport is right down there on my worst list. Its not about snobbery.Many deprived and run places can have a good feel to them. You get a spirit about a place. Newport has no spirit, no life and no charm. OP is spot on. I've felt so depressed living here tbh and the rain doesn't help. I'll be out of here as soon as I can.

To those that have commented saying that this is a nasty, snobby and depressing thread have missed the whole point of my OP.

It's also the case that the feeling you might get when visiting a place may be very different from what it's like to live there.

Yeah, we went wrong in downtown Orlando once and it was very scary indeed. Gangs of kids on the street staring hard at us driving past just trying to find the way out! I get that we were in their territory but still...
People who have said Morecambe -- I went to Lancaster University more years ago than I care to count and Morecambe then was a nice, respectable seaside place where families came on holiday. A bit more upmarket than Blackpool. It was clean, fairly lively and with quite a bit to do. Went back there about eight years ago on a nostalgia trip and was very saddened to see how depressed and depressing it all was. Almost deserted, shops boarded up and nothing going on at all, even the revamped art deco Marine Hotel wasn't doing much business.
For me as a southern softy it was a grim illustration of the economic north/south divide. Lancaster was similar, I'm afraid. It used to be a thriving historic county and market town but was a shadow of its former self. Glad to leave, but very sad too.

Oooh good thread .

I lived in Cardiff for a while (which was lovely) so had to pass through Newport often. Not a great place but then there is Celtic Manor there which is really lovely.

Stoke on Trent definitely. It's an absolute hole. Perhaps there are nice parts to it, but I haven't seen them. It's just horrid. I feel like I'd be majorly depressed if I lived there.

I don't know the name but I also went through a Welsh village once in a miming area that was just awful. Huge heaps of coal behind the houses, Aberfan style. Just got such a bad feeling, couldn't leave fast enough.

Redruth in Cornwall. Beautiful place generally but Redruth feels quite desolate and the big estuary/harbour isn't nice.

I don't like soulless new build areas either. Some can be well done but most of the David Wilson type estates with virtually no back gardens and the houses rammed together are awful too.

There are places that get a lot of hate that I like though. I was surprised how nice some of Birmingham is. Lots of regeneration in the city centre, lots of nice restaurants and bars and some truly stunning properties in Edgbaston.

I once went to Motherwell in Scotland for work and the tiny bit I saw of that was lovely. When I voiced this to my taxi driver he laughed his head off and insisted Motherwell was shite so perhaps I only saw a really good bit!

I also live just outside Nottingham, in one of the 'naice' areas. It gets a lot of bad rep but I think it's a lovely city. There are some beautiful buildings, a lovely square in the centre and some great independent shops and restaurants. It's a lot better now one of the monstrous 70s shopping centres that used to dominate is knocked down and gone, but it's actually a really nice little city!

petty sure i must have been to the same pub!
same experience

although i have been to an Irish pub in Edgware, same attitude.
dh pretended he knew someone and the pub started talking again!

Ooh yes!! Agree with that! Although the one time I went to Malvern there was very very bad flash flooding and I got stranded on a farm with an extremely creepy farmer so that probably influence the feeling

Llangollen in North Wales. A pretty ‘tourist town’ on the outside, but one that has very seedy underbelly when you look under the surface. People talk about Wrexham down the road being rough and menacing, but quite honestly I find Llangollen worse. With Wrexham what you see is what you get, least it doesn’t try to be something it’s not.

Nobody lives in Newport for the town centre as it’s pretty grim. However, the houses are cheap, the transport connections to Cardiff, Bristol and the Midlands are great and the scenery is fantastic.

Another vote for Stoke on Trent. Such a weird and depressing place.

Also Weston-super-Mare.

OTOH I bloody love Brighton, so much so we have a flat there as well as our 'proper' home . I especially love it midweek when it's not too crowded and its quirkiness can really shine. Last week I went to Pret at about 8.30 on the morning and queued behind a man dressed in Dr Martens, fishnet tights, a parka and a pink tutu. Only in Brighton!

I’ve just read about the owner of the Camelot hotel. Very odd indeed!

The passport office is in a very run down part of the city and on a grey day it looks particularly awful . Newport city centre isn’t the best but there is lovely places close by . I was shocked how dirty Bristol was by the cathedral and I also was surprised to see run down parts of Cheltenham so I think this post is a little unfair .

For me, it wasn’t how ‘run down’ Newport is (most city centres are run down and dirty now, sadly), it was the general vibe. It had quite a menacing and desperate air. I have been to the passport office but have also been to many other parts of the city and I felt the vibe all over.