What do you think is the worst city centre in the UK and why?

[OneLilacHedgehog]

So many cities have gone downhill since COVID. But which is the worst?

I'm not white.

Some places do not seem like the UK anymore.

Just like if I was to go to Japan to an area in a city that demographically and culturally looked like Wales, it would seem like I wasn't in Japan anymore.

Why is that racist?

It's a shame to hear that Leicester has gone downhill. I liked it when I did my post-grad there in 2002. It seemed interesting and vibrant.

Birmingham is horrible.

Birmingham was rough in the late 80’s and early 1990’s. There used to be armed police at New Street because of the IRA. It’s always been a place where you needed to be vigilant I think it got better over a quarter of a century as the working classes got more wealthy but (sorry but true) with immigration and organised crime any gains have been in parallel to a managed decline.

I love Bath too (although not the parking)!

No but the station is only a short walk from the centre, and much easier and quicker for me to go by train.

Unfortunately I think we are heading the US way, where cities - once destinations and mixed communities - are now abandoned by those who used to live there and visitors.

Where I live - in a suburb of a city - there is mass building, and the buyers all seem to be fleeing what up to ten years ago was a reasonable place. Now the city centre is horrible and the areas surrounding it are run-down and full of undesirables.

I work in Durham

It's worth visiting for a day. The "Palace Green" and Bailey areas are definitely worth a wander around. They are stunning. The Cathedral is also beautiful and free to enter. There are some stunning walking options along the river.

But there's not much else to do. The city centre has lots of empty shops and no decent restaurants. Outside of term time it's a ghost town. But in term time it's crowded and you can't visit the Castle. In term time at night, the city centre is ruined by obnoxious, entitled students.

I'd recommend visiting for a day outside of term time. If you stay overnight, don't expect a brilliant evening meal.

I have a German friend who studied English at university. He had to choose somewhere in the UK to spend a year. Everyone else on the course picked places like Oxford, Cambridge, London and so on. My friend chose Wolverhampton because it was where Black Sabbath came from. He still goes back there sometimes.

How can they not know what they think and why?

I lived there for 3 years when I met someone from the area ( early 90s) I loathed it - to be honest I hated all the West Midlands with very few exceptions, just seemed to be warehouses, scrapyards and motorways and a few odd fields described as countryside - and the insistence they were the friendliest people in the UK - nah , I actually found London friendlier to be honest.

@snurtifier, Black Sabbath are from Birmingham not Wolverhampton. Half the original line-up are from Aston.

@Crikeyalmighty , I can understand how you feel. Birmingham has some very nice parts but it does feel like one huge industrial estate at times.

Derby, had to visit for a specialist vet visit a couple of times. I wouldn't visit for any other reason.

It has a huge Park and Ride car park that we always use when visiting.

Yep I’ve been to the nicer bits too - it’s not all awful by any means, but I personally struggled to feel any warmth towards it - possibly because I had no connection to it at all

Thinking about it the worst town centre I've been to recently was Swindon. The walk from the station into the centre felt slightly post-apocalyptic. Empty office blocks left to rot in a wilderness of vape shops and takeaways.

I don't know Birmingham but it's vast. I stayed there for a weekend once and it was in a really nice area. Popping in to Ikea in Wednesbury or working in Smethwick or something doesn't give an impression of loveliness.
I think if you live there, you live in a village not a city IYSWIM. (cf I might think of myself living in Ealing not London)
If you visit somewhere, chances are it will be a lot better than the reality of living there.

Bristol has a good reputation and bits of it are really nice but when you've lived on a dull vast housing estate and worked in a large industrial unit and it rains pretty much every sodding day it is far from lovely.

I don't find Swindon bad but the walk from the station is a bit eerie.

I love Bath but there is something eerie about it.

(I don't live in Ealing, it was just a random pick. I could have said Fallowfield not Manchester or Walsall not Brum or whatever.)

I can't be bothered to read all the replies, it's all subjective.

I just came here to say that Luton, although IMO definitely grim, is not a city.

Like Dorset, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, Rutlandshire, Northumberland and Surrey, Bedfordshire has no cities. Some other counties probably don't either.

I think thats already been said ….usually has when you dont read the thread though!

Has anyone mentioned Birmingham yet?😁

I don't think so 🤔😄

Birmingham's not a city....

<runs.... >

@Sidebeforeself ,it hasn't other than "Leominster, Maidenhead, Luton, Slough, Hounslow..? Some of you need to learn what a city is and therefore what a city centre is."
(For my sins, I said it was. I've never been there AFAIK. I can't criticise it)

It's just so easy to pile on the same places, and it is usually the same ones - Luton, Slough, Swindon, Blackpool, Croydon...
I don't think some of the posters have even been to them.

Why post something you know isn't true?
The pointing out that somewhere isn't a city is because some of them are nothing like a city.

Somewhere like Guildford could be mistaken for a city - it even has a cathedral, somewhere like Maidenhead or Staines couldn't.

I think @EarthlyNightshade was joking?

It wasn't funny.