To nominate as the country's worst town centre....

[moogster1a]

...Rochdale.
Good God it's a god forsaken place. There appears to be half a dozen payday loan shos, a few poundland things and some mobile 'phone shops.
It's got so bad that even maccy d's has shut down.
It's only redeeming feature is that Gabbots farm is still clinging on.

Fayrazzled - fair point about St Helens having an M&S, however it always seems to be full of cast-offs they presumably can't sell in any of their other branches. Also many of the 'townsfolk' (as they are invariably referred to in the local paper) seem to think the M&S trollies are for communal use and you often see them trundling round the opposite end of town with them. Can't say I've noticed people doing that in any other town, crap or otherwise.

Bishop Auckland
Newton Aycliffe- had the misfortune to work there for a few years and the town centre is awful, soulless, awfulness.
Southampton - used to be lovey but last time I went the massive shopping centre has turned the high street into a mass of temporary and pound shops. All the little independent shops have gone too and the other two city centre shopping arcades are like ghost towns.
I'll join in the Swindon bashing too...

Can I put my vote in 4 Dumpstable pls, and definately Luton. I wonder where I come from????? Says she who moved 2 Australia....
Dunstable has lost lots of trade and shops and is only a town if passing through on the A5, and bypassing the M1. It's a complete ghost town.
As 4 Luton, it's like a concrete jungle, and loads of places boarded up. If you got off a plane at the airport and saw the town, you'd probably want 2 get back on that plane and never return, thinking it was a nightmare!

Peterborough - the only good thing about the place is the high speed train OUT!
Plumstead SE London - makes Woolwich look well to do and classy but infinitely nicer than Peterborough.
Pontyprydd(sp?) - really odd as all surrounding towns are really nice so it kinda just doesn't "fit" where it is on the map.

Another vote for Immingham. My mother comes from there and couldn't get away fast enough when she left school!

Still got family there and I have to say I cannot think of anything vaguely positive to say about it- is a total hole. Have been going there since the 70's and it doesn't seem to have changed much. Just got bigger and crapper.

YY to Grimsby as well.... I used to live about halfway between Lincoln and Grimsby and insisted DD was born in Lincoln as there was no way I wanted Grimsby on her birth certificate!!

And don't even get me started on Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.....

Birkenhead has an M&S. I once saw one middle aged woman throw another middle aged woman out through the door and proceed to start fist fighting outside

Basildon- grim in the extreme

RHYL HAS ONLY ONE L.

Rhyl is ell

Who cares?

This is all so

In a lot of these towns (particularly the Northern ones) the boarded up shops and Pound Shop/Cash Converter/Burger joint set up isn't a sign of the current economic blight, it's a sign of the blight of the eighties that never left. The recession must be news to a lot of people that live in these towns as the boom passed them by completely.

I spent a lot of time in Skelmersdle when married to ex husband and it was so grim. Really awful, and this was at the height of the boom years. I understand why health outcomes are so lousy in these areas. If I had to live there I'd want to drink myself insensible.

Yes, those I mentioned from back home are all ex mining communities.... Never recovered from the mine closures

:o moogster

That's sadly true, Wasabi.

Luton depresses the hell out of me. Miserable fecking place. And, speaking as a Northerner in exile, it feels so pathetic that a town should be such a dump when it's down South, within an easy commute of London.

Not so much a town - but district of north london - namely Burnt Oak.

Once a friendly markety community where actually you could buy anything you wanted. Now, a deprived, dirty run down area where you can have your hair cut, buy a bowl of oranges, a week's worth of crack cocaine and a telephone calling card to Ghana all in one squalid shop.

How can every shop selling fruit make a living? Rows and rows of all the same fruit in bowls on tables in street, multi cultural clashes, crime and squalor. Disregarded by local council in favour of prosperous neighbours.

The likes of St helens has suffered because of the closer of Ethel Austin's and TJ Hughes etc, it has a knock on effect on the market etc. Also the retail park slightly on the outskirts has Next etc. St Helens used to have really good butchers.
Now that we have B&M and Wilkinsons in Liverpool, i don't venture upto St Helens anymore.

Coventry looks an awful lot like East Berlin (before regeneration).

West Bromwich (my home town) and Rotherham (a place I once worked) both equally grim. I love the place I live now and am glad it hasn't made it on the s*it list :)

Many seaside towns are very sad - once thriving places now closed down and empty apart from the boom months.

Lowestoft is one of these, gorgeous beach and a few nice cafes but nowt much else. Also Clacton and surrounding areas.

Oh and Therford. Lovely lovely forest - awful town.

I mean Thetford

Bracknell seconded.

Selby is bad but not in the same league as
Spennymoor,
Billingham,
Peterlee
and
Castleford
All truely depressing, cash converter, boarded up remants of towns.

I am 31. You? Wonder if we were at school together...

I don't know whether I move to shitty towns or they become shitty when I move there,
either way I have managed to live in
Bradford - dear God
Rotherham-even worse
Mitcham/Tooting-hell on earth
Bracknell-I couldn't even FIND the town centre for 6 months when I lived there!
Peterborough - the pits!
Thankfully where I live now is lovely ( and I'm keeping quiet about it in case you all move in and lower the tone of the place!)