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 know they are different. I have worked in one of them and seen what poverty does. I have visited both since childhood and witnessed the decline. Alnwick is just somewhere I would love to live as it's so different to the places I have grown up knowing.
Stoke is also impacted by poverty - great theatres but declining fast - see also Newcastle UL, Crewe and Northwich for rapid city centre decline (despite artisan markets and new food courts the pull is just not there with the out of town shopping)

see also Newcastle UL, Crewe and Northwich for rapid city centre decline They aren't cities.

So the correct answer appears to be all of them.

I don't think anyone has mentioned St Albans. Probably because it's quite nice.

Somebody did three days ago - but only to say that they like it!

I haven't been to 34 of the cities in the UK. There are 76.
Some I know well or have been there many times. Others I visited just for a day, afternoon or a couple of nights.
Some I haven't been to since pre-internet times so I don't think an opinion based then counts.

I know - I said that in my original post. I replied about the decline in Stoke on Trent and added local towns to add that it may be a regional thing.

True.

I think Manchester is fabulous. My son moved there for work earlier this year and the city centre is lovely. Some of the suburbs aren't, but that's the same with any large town or city.

I used to go clubbing in Birmingham in the 90s, you lot a mad for a party in Birmingham 😁
Had some amazing nights there.

Dream day out!

As is Dunblane.

Glasgow city centre is a fucking disaster now.

😂

Oh really, I was there in August and thought it was ok, lots of noise from the building works but it was fine for shopping and far better than reading or Coventry

Lancaster.
I dont understand how a city with 2 unis can feel so downbeat.
What do the students there do?

It was a very lovely historic city with old buildings and a cathedral - then Hitler destroyed the city, with raids every single night and the old buildings were burnt to th ground. It was rebuilt with concrete and lack of any type of style

Were you visiting for the first time? I worked in the city centre for years and it was really busy and vibrant, had great shops and a good atmosphere, so the contrast is brutal to me, especially Sauchihall street which is bordering on derelict now. The antisocial behaviour around St Enoch is way worse now too. And obviously the fires haven't helped. There was the recent one at Central but the loss of the Art School and the ABC are incaculable.

The Clyde walkway linking the city to Glasgow Green used to be a pleasant place to eat lunch or exercise and it just feels incredibly dodgy now too.

Swansea, Coventry and Ipswich. Real shitholes.

I went last year for the first time and really liked it.

Same i was really pleasantly surprised by glasgow

That waterfront in Ipswich has just dragged everything out of the town centre. I don't know why it's done that when there is something similar in Norwich which hasn't had the same effect.

Good, genuinely. It was a lot better a decade ago though. But seeing it new is always amazing with the architecture.

It was my first visit

I'm not aware of the fires and I walked along the Clyde and it seemed pleasant.

I really couldn't see any problem with the city, especially if you compared it to the likes of Coventry which is lacking in soul, a concrete jungle and a "ghost town" derelict shops.

My home town (well, where I live now, not where I was born) used to be very nice - and often featured in the best places to live in the UK lists.

Its town centre is now full of the usual vape shops etc and is Chavsville with eg people revving their motorbikes all night and driving them the wrong way down one way streets.

As I also have noisy neighbours, I'd like to move. But there is a fear I'd be moving out of the frying pan.