to think chavy, tacky hen parties should SOD off [Edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

[CannoninD]

I’m fed up.
I’ve lived in my beautiful, respectful and historic city my entire life .... but over the last year it’s been invaded by GOD AWFUL hen parties!

20+ strong groups of horrifically common (referring to behaviour not social class) women who inflict their horrific behaviour on everybody within reach.

They’re EVERYWHERE and I know it’s not just me as there are sunbstantial concerns being raised by residents all over the city.

I counted 23 large groups this weekend (I only walked into the (small ish) city centre on Saturday morning and witnessed the following behaviour-

• Loud swearing (F and C word) right in front of/across young families and children just trying to enjoy a day out.
• Shop doors slammed in elderly shoppers faces (too busy pratting around to pay any attention).
• Stock being damaged by pratting about (and then hidden) to avoid paying.
• Horrifically vulgar and inappropriate content being loudly discussed in family areas (a garden/park area) to the point that families got up and left.
• Completely inappropriate Lingerie being worn in the street (before 2pm).
• Vomiting in the street! Whilst being jeered by the rest of the group.

Personally I would rather bleach out my own eyes than go on a hen do like this- but honestly at what point do we just call the police on these ridiculous idiots inflicting such unreasonable behaviour on families and regular people? What’s worse is, I bet back home they’re perfectly normal women. They just all get together and come away from home and behave like total arseholes!

Being in a large group and celebrating an event- does not give you a hall pass to behave like scum. 😡

Tenby used to have this trouble. The local police have tried to crack down.

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/hen-stag-parties-heading-tenby-13377972

It’s not just the destination that’s affected. It can be hell travelling on a train with stag/hen parties too. They don’t start drinking when they get there.

I was in a restaurant recently and a Muslim hen party were eating there. Bride to be had a sash on but that was it. They were all having a lovely time. I think this Prosecco culture that a lot of people subscribe to is toxic and tacky.

Does anybody actually know WHY hen parties think it is funny to walk around with a plastic penis on their heads? I cannot see anything remotely amusing about it!

Yes, unfortunately York is the new Blackpool

I went to a hen party in York and was quite impressed with the measures to manage stag and hen parties!

Eg. the train was ‘dry’ between certain hours (think this might have been due in part to some football too), some hotels/ apartments wouldn’t take bookings for single sex parties, some pubs/ bars also didn’t allow single sex parties and some that did either stipulated no fancy dress or the door staff gave a ‘friendly’ reminder on the way in about appropriate behaviour. None of this was an issue for us as we weren’t of the noisy, fancy-dress variety but it certainly meant we had a more pleasant time in the places we did go.

Your councillors are obviously trying to manage this OP, keep on at them, don’t just whinge on here.

YANBU OP, I find this behaviour disgusting and judge the idiots who partake in it. It ruins some lovely places in the UK and makes them no-go areas.
And as for the comment that these idiots support the local economy, words fail me. I’d been longing to holiday in York this year as I had such a magical time there as a child 40 years ago, but this thread has put me off, and others will be put off visiting towns that have become full of drunken, aggressive and vulgar behaviour.

Yep, this definitely sounds like York. As a pp mentioned, some of the streets/alleys just stink of wee so much, it's disgusting. If have to go into town at the weekend, I make sure I go super early, but even early afternoon is awful. Had to get a train at around 5 in the afternoon a few weekends ago, and I walked to the station. The hen parties, and a few 30th party groups were behaving terribly! Was waiting in the station for a while as my train was delayed, the groups in there were terrible! So, so drunk, fights breaking out - at least the police tried to intervene eventually.
The place just changes at the weekend, and not in a good way.

Howwudufeel we could do with learning from other cultures. They seem to know how to behave better, we're all lagging behind.

All sounds positively medieval. Nothing's really changed since the 1400s. People were complainimg about marauding youths even then.
Seriously though, it must be hard to live with - I've been on a few hen parties over the years but they've a been rather sedate in comparison.

It is common and rough behaviour though. Having sex with a traffic cone and urinating in the street is very low behaviour.

It isn't snobby to disapprove of that behaviour. Which is why, if there were enough police available, people would still get arrested for public order offences.

Thinking the OP is in any way "snobby" says so much about those who accuse her of it. It isn't snobby to actually have a level of self respect and respect for others.

Totally agree with you, OP. It's no wonder the high street is suffering. Who wants to witness that sort of behaviour?

Obnoxious
Shameful
Disgusting
Uncivilised
Abhorrent
Degrading
Uncouth

We get parties of hens and stags flying out at weekends. I can confirm that the hens are much worse than the stags. I frequently have to ask them to moderate their language and topics suitable for (loud, shrieking) conversations as there are usually small children near to them in the boarding queues. Oh, and the penis headgear? Please!! It's not big, and it's not clever. It's no wonder so many of our continental friends think Brits are COMMON and CHAVVY. In terms of hen party behaviour, i think they may be right.

Yanbu. It's tacky and naff. I hate our alcohol fueled culture. I'm not sure what could be done other stop large single sex groups booking accommodation and get the police to deal with inappropriate behaviour.

This makes me sad. I was looking at bringing my 2 children up to York for weekend (DD will be 3 in June, DS 6 months) as I like showing them historic places while they're still little (mainly my daughter) so that she knows how to enjoy it as she grows up. A little bit of history, a little bit of shopping and we've all had a lovely time. We've done Bath and Liverpool and Chester and Bristol and Stratford upon Avon so though York would be a good idea for a weekend like my birthday in October. Wouldn't want drunk people knocking them over or shouting at each other while we're trying to have lunch or anything

Of course YANBU, surely it would class as anti social behaviour at that time of day in particular. Sounds hideous.

Train drinking is so grim.

I think that stag parties are just as bad. Prague was absolutely ridden with drunk Brit stag parties (and drunk Germans too) when I was there. Ditto Edinburgh and on a train once (the endpoint was Edinburgh, I disembarked before) the conductor kindly moved me to first class and helped me retrieve my luggage from under a giant cooler full of beer that the stag party had dumped on top of it. In all three cases, the party members were wearing giant fake tits making sexual comments about women and swearing.

We're in a very popular seaside town for hens and stags and it seems to be managed well with only certain bars/clubs that locals wouldn't touch with a barge pole allowing in big groups ie. hens and stags. They're confined to a couple of streets. The other pubs and clubs refuse entry to gaggles of women and men as policy which keeps them away from the rest of us. Every single bar in the city centre or late night venue in the city has to have a door man or woman as part of their licence on weekends and all week in the summer/Xmas etc. and there's a no glass policy outside too for city centre bars.
Seems to work well. I've never had to trip over a vomming stag or hen, I'm aware they're around as you see them piling down to the seafront from the station dressed like idiots in costumes but they cause less disruption.
Used to live in Dublin and it wasn't managed well there at all, full of drunken loutish Brits everywhere in every bar it seemed...
You should ask your local council what they're putting in place to manage this - you can't be the only one fed up of it.

Borlotti: “Those of you calling op a snob clearly have no idea what it's like having to live with this in your city”.

I suspect those calling the OP a snob are those that take part. They have to come from somewhere.

We visited York every year with DC; they loved museums, etc. Gave up a few years ago though after being there on a Saturday night. Ate in Pizza Express seated near stag do. They were all dressed in silly costumes. Polite though and no noisier than anyone else. DS2 delighted when Spiderman high fived him and even more so when came back from toilet and announced he'd had a wee next to Buzz Lightyear! All good but on walk back to hotel, only around 8pm, we had to make our way through group after group of hen parties. Shocking language and one woman almost pushed DS2 (then 5) into road . Unlike the stags, no consideration for families and our DS who had no idea what was going on and were frightened. Next morning area was a mess, vomit in street, etc. Never been back and always enjoyed York until then.

Move to Norwich Op....we get none of that chavvy behaviour there.

Gosh, I went to York about 15 years ago and thought it was lovely and had been planning on returning soon now the kids are older. Think I'll give it a miss now.

I was reading this open-mouthed thinking 'York isn't like that at all, we had an awesome time when we went at Easter and saw none of this!' And then I remembered that we went Wednesday to Friday. It was perfect. DD said she wanted to live there when she grew up. So sad to hear it's a nightmare at weekends.

Can i just throw in that is isn't the exclusive behaviour of British stags/hens. We were lucky enough to be on what I assume was partaaay floor of Caesars in Vegas. The American hens gave the UK ones you're describing a proper run for their money and won hands down. The men were steaming and just fell down.

I think you are perfectly right to be disgusted by the behaviour you describe. I also don't think its you're job, as a rightly disgusted person, to be the one that has to mount a one woman campaign to sort it out.

I do think that the MP, mayor, heads of emergency services and chamber of commerce should be pulling out their collective fingers to sort this. IME lots of smaller hotels/B&B's wont tolerate large single-sex parties, but they find a way round this by using Premier Inn and Travelodges. There are tonnes of visitors to our historic cities every weekend. bath would absolutely not collapse tomorrow if stags/hens were discouraged.

Move to Norwich Op....we get none of that chavvy behaviour there.

It's probably just a matter of time.

YANBU.
I’d much rather your attitude OP and be labelled a snob, than the ill mannered inconsiderate and thoughtless slobs annoying everyone as they trash your city.