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What's the worst place you've ever been in the UK?

1000 replies

In2mindsss · 20/06/2026 22:47

Ill go first.

Morecambe. Nice views but proper creepy.

OP posts:
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8
Thepeopleversuswork · 21/06/2026 06:49

StinkerTroll · 21/06/2026 06:45

Barrow in furness is horrible, surrounding area is lovely but Barrow itself is awful

Agree Barrow is very depressing. Has been for decades, since the shipbuilding vanished.

HoppityBun · 21/06/2026 06:52

HelenaWilson · 20/06/2026 23:05

Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs, and blow to smithereens
Those air-conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town —
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week for half-a-crown
For twenty years,

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears,

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead

And talk of sports and makes of cars
In various bogus Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

But he was writing about the Slough trading estate, not the town, and about all urban expansion, He famously regretted writing the poem

Fiddlesticks1 · 21/06/2026 06:57

A holiday in Hope Cove. Depressingly boring and to cap it all a grim holiday cottage rental.

HoppityBun · 21/06/2026 07:00

Aldershot

Sskka · 21/06/2026 07:01

The Canning Town, Silvertown, Woolwich area in London’s docklands was unbelievably grim when I wandered through, but that was years ago and it might have improved now.

Blackpool is the saddest though. Particularly as I was there in a big group with friends who had loved going there as kids and were wanting to pass it on to their kids, and were really struggling against the evidence of their own eyes not to see the place as it now is.

HoppityBun · 21/06/2026 07:02

goingtotown · 20/06/2026 23:23

Edmonton
Tottenham
Ponders End
Waltham Coss
Margate
Luton

Edmonton! Yes…

PercivalP · 21/06/2026 07:04

Thatcannotberight · 21/06/2026 00:24

Falmouth? You've never been to Weymouth then, that's much worse.

Weymouth is great! We went last year and I was scared it would have turned into a dump but was clean, there’s loads to do, and wasn’t too busy. Obviously you’ve never been to Rhyl, Morecambe or Skegness..

My own choice would be Luton, only place I’ve felt unsafe as a woman in the middle of the day. And the amount of men just spitting everywhere. Eurghhh.

Backinajiffy · 21/06/2026 07:04

Helensborough. Last time I was there the bars were full of submariner’s wives on the pull while their spouses were at sea.
Oh, and someone was grievous injured in a drug fuelled tomahawk attack.

North Shields a close second.

BunnyLake · 21/06/2026 07:04

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 21/06/2026 00:23

Oh I've remembered another.

Bellshill.

Feels like nobody is there because they actually want to be, and it's just the sort of place people pass through without stopping on the way to somewhere else. Another "jesus, imagine what it must be like living here" place.

That’s probably why my dad left there in his early 20s and never stepped foot in Scotland again for the rest of his life. 😂

PercivalP · 21/06/2026 07:04

CocSoc · 20/06/2026 22:56

How do you put up with a mountain for an hour when it takes at least 3hrs to reach the top?…. Did you spend an hour at the top?

Really feel you’re overthinking this…

historyismything82 · 21/06/2026 07:06

In2mindsss · 20/06/2026 22:47

Ill go first.

Morecambe. Nice views but proper creepy.

Torquay.

AtlasPine · 21/06/2026 07:06

Whataflippincircus · 20/06/2026 23:15

Dungeness. Famous for being the UK's only officially classified desert, it features a stark shingle landscape dotted with abandoned fishing boats, distinctive wooden houses, two lighthouses, and the imposing Dungeness nuclear power stations. I felt really depressed when I went there.

I adore Dungeness. It’s a wildflower haven and so atmospheric.

I find Thamesnead to be soulless and the saddest feeling place I’ve ever visited.

ShutupLwren · 21/06/2026 07:07

IdenticalHandTwin · 20/06/2026 22:51

Bootle

My home town always makes the first page of these threads 😂
I haven’t read the rest by my mother’s wisdom led us leaving bootle to the desirable area of Birkenhead where I spent my teens. I’m going to see how long that takes to be mentioned and then ask for a trophy!

mrschocolatte · 21/06/2026 07:07

Stratford On Avon and Warwick. I’ve never felt so unwelcome. Locals are very unfriendly. I suppose that’s the flip side of tourism but I’ve never wanted to leave a place so fast.

PinkHollyhocks · 21/06/2026 07:07

Brighton
London

HelpMeGetThrough · 21/06/2026 07:08

Rotherham
Doncaster
Belfast
Glasgow

Doncaster was particularly memorable, as it’s the only place I’ve ended up in a punch up at a Premier Inn. 🤷‍♂️

WhatWouldTheDoctorDo · 21/06/2026 07:08

LordEmsworth · 21/06/2026 06:43

Chester and York are the worst places you've been to in the UK? Have you not been anywhere else?

Of course I’ve been to other places and have lived all over the UK. However, for places I’ve visited on a break/for leisure I found them really disappointing and generally didn’t get the hype. So I guess they’re the worst places in the UK I have visited on holiday.

Lench · 21/06/2026 07:09

PinkNBlueBunnies · 20/06/2026 22:54

I know this isn't in the same league as shit run down cities, but... Scafell Pike. We went in from Wasdale Head and I just got such a terrible sense of foreboding, I put up with it for about an hour then I had to leave. It just felt... malevolent? I've never felt like that outside of nightmares before. As soon as we got on the road again I started to feel better.

I know exactly what you mean about Scafell Pike. I went up on a cloudy day and could t really see in front of myself, was a very creepy place.

Mine is Guildford.

furimosa · 21/06/2026 07:14

I must have pretty low standards as I like York, Belfast & Margate.

HelpMeGetThrough · 21/06/2026 07:14

HelpMeGetThrough · 21/06/2026 07:08

Rotherham
Doncaster
Belfast
Glasgow

Doncaster was particularly memorable, as it’s the only place I’ve ended up in a punch up at a Premier Inn. 🤷‍♂️

I’ll add another one to my list. Liverpool.

HoppityBun · 21/06/2026 07:14

Witsends123 · 20/06/2026 23:50

I’ve seen Lowestoft been mentioned a few times. I live here, it is a very deprived sea side town, what part did everyone go to? Sparrows nest is a nice area, so is Oulton broad, we have a lovely beach too, town area is a shit hole I agree but this town is very safe and there’s a lot worse places out there

I went there last year, first time for many years, on the St Elizabeth Hospice hare trail. It wouldn’t be a place that I’d make a day out to, but I didn’t think it was awful. It had a sort of quiet dignity in its decline and the people were friendly. I can imagine living there quite happily and just getting on with my life.

I remember its heyday when there was a vast fishing fleet.

menopausequeen · 21/06/2026 07:15

Bradford

stillhiding1990 · 21/06/2026 07:16

Ok I love Oban, Fort William, Arbroath etc but couldn’t stand Glastonbury - even my dog who goes along with most things wanted to leave!

CoverLikelyZebra · 21/06/2026 07:17

Merthyr Tydfil

MummyJ36 · 21/06/2026 07:17

Great Yarmouth. We took the kids there for a day trip on a holiday a few years ago and the second we arrived I felt a strong “nope”. It’s not helped by the fact that when you drive in you’re greeted by a massive burned out building that also doubles as a (large larger advertised) strip club! I remember going there on holiday as a child and loving it so it was quite a surprise to feel so dodgy there. It was packed with people but the vibe was offff. It was also incredibly expensive for somewhere so run down, getting a coffee made us feel like we were back in London with the cost of it!

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