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?

Birmingham hands down - I used to love it. Now petrified to walk through the city centre in broad daylight. Thank God I don’t live/work there any more.

There are nice bits though. By the river - the coi carp. Fountains.

I feel so sorry for Bradford, the buildings are beautiful. Leeds has it's problems but there is more footfall and it is more upbeat and bustling. Plus I love the Corn Exchange, Armouries and Tiled Hall Cafe in the Art Gallery 💗

I don't think it is a ridiculous thing to say.

When I saw the thread title I thought actually there aren't many cities I'm really that familiar with. Some that I have been to it was so long ago i have no idea of what they are like now.
But. If the OP had asked about run down towns then I could name quite a few miserable towns.

I no longer live in the UK, but I was really disappointed by the deterioration in Salisbury last time I was there. On the one hand there is the beautiful and timeless Cathedral and Cathedral close, which thankfully seems to be being maintained, but on the other hand the rest of the town is really shabby with litter and traffic jams everywhere.

My perception was that the historic market square seemed to have mainly vape shops, barber shops, and charity shops in it. Most of the long-established independent stores, pubs, and high street names seem to have gone.

I know the Russian poisoning incident was a disaster for Salisbury and it doesn't seem to have recovered from it. Maybe I'm just looking at it through rose-tinted glasses because I spent a lot of time there when I was young.

I’ll be forever grateful we had the ability to move away a few years ago, everyone I know who is still there is desperate to do the same. The nice Birmingham is forever lost.

My DDs have a longstanding tale about Doncaster being the worst place they’d been to after their train broke down there.

Not a city but Ipswich is grim

Hounslow is an absolute dump now. Full of nail bars, barbers, squatter shops and betting shops. . It was going downhill before the pandemic,but it's even worse now. I honestly think there are only 3 shops in the entire place that I bother going in nowadays.

I asked my colleague today what his plans were after his wedding and he said ‘just going to Bangor’ so I’d have assumed it was a nice honeymoon weekend away

Surely it’s not even a town, let alone a city.

Leominster was a bit grim.

As a Londoner, I can say, it has declined massively in the last ten years.

Around Euston is totally shocking. There is a huge encampment of tents outside University College Hospital.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tent-village-london-rough-sleepers-warren-street-camden-b1258635.html

There are probably worse ones, but I don't vibe well with Liverpool. I know there's some nice buildings but it doesn't feel relaxed.

See where I grew up must be a shithole because I moved here ten years ago and I adore Truro 😁

I think Cardiff is lovely. The castle. Bute park. Roath park. The Victorian arcades with cool independent shops and the big shopping centre with the chains . River boat down to the bay. Big chain restaurants and lots of independents. Great gin bars and cool cocktail bars. Small enough to get around easily but big enough for lots to be going on. Penarth with the pier. Great weekend break.

You get people with vulnerabilities and without homes in all cities.

Agreed on Cardiff, it seems to do lots of things right.

Salisbury.

My Muslim friend was racially abused there. We were literally just climbing out of the car.

We didn’t even have both of our feet on the pavement.

Don’t hold back @SpottyAlpaca
I love Leicester personally,

Agree with Liverpool, love it and the people. Also like York and Cardiff. They all feel safe as well and all have such interesting histories. I like Brighton for the most part but that is looking especially tired these days when I think back to how it was when I was a kid 30 ish years ago. Maybe I’m misremembering it.

I love Preston. They’ve spent quite a lot of money doing up the market area which is nice. Fishergate looks good with the pedestrianisation and the Winckley Sq/ Avenham Park / Harris are incredible and right in the city centre. The shop choice is fairly poor but I think that might start to improve as people seem to want to head back to high streets because online clothes shopping has become so overwhelming and utterly shit.

I was in Leicester today. The Highcross is starting to fill back up which I think is important. Hollister is opening soon and there’s a lovely new Mango. It’s a shame the outdoor shopping streets have gone downhill bit but there are still some quirky little shops around Silver Street.

The more places that are named and it's not downing a place if you see it with your own eyes/live there it shows it's a nation wide issue .

Silver Street and that older part are lovely.

That’s so sad. How do we have people flying short distances in private jets, owning several
massive homes etc and also this? Any one of us could end up in dire straits and in need of housing.

The question is ‘what do you think’, hence its subjective.