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. 😡

This is awful but local councils can ban drinking alcohol in public places. Trains can ban alcohol.

That might help a bit but it doesn't change the fundamental problem. I mentioned Belfast upthread and drinking in public and on trains is illegal here but you still get drunk hens staggering around behaving obnoxiously on a Saturday at lunchtime.

They also have a hateful travelling bar where you can hire this vehicle thing and everyone pedals and someone drives you round the streets, and somehow it exploits a loophole in the law.

We love to see visitors, there are loads of great bars and restaurants and you'll generally get a warm welcome. But all the locals hate that bloody cycling bus/bar thing.

Yanbu I agree it has become somewhat crazy with the amount of hen parties that like to make a big scene
I'm all for having a laugh and enjoying yourselves but at same time doing it at appropriate times

Honestly it makes you ashamed to be British.

Agree. It ruins York on a weekend; everyone I know that lives here avoids the town centre on Friday nights, Saturdays, bank holidays and race days. It's miserable and a lot of the city centre pubs are cutting eight down on it, with rules like "no inflatable penises".

What’s acceptable in a ‘party city’ geared towards behaviour like this (and with more police/facilities in place to manage it) IS NOT acceptable in a ‘Historical family orientated city’ who are crippling under the presssure

There are “party cities”? I would have thought any city has children living and visiting the city centre during the day.

As I said, Edinburgh is historical and family orientated with the attractions in a limited city centre area. We don’t swarm the streets with police for the numerous hen dos.

Just sounds very nimby and snobbish to say that your city shouldn’t have it but others should.

My first thought was Bath. It's a shame that York has gone the same way.

I used to love Bath and over the years I've had weekends there with girlfriends as well as romantic breaks with Dh. I even went there for a hen weekend once. It's not somewhere I would choose to go now as the tacky hen parties have ruined it. Perhaps I'm just getting old and miserable 😩

when her fellow BT managers are wincing through videos of her lapdancing over a defenceless homeless man.

I don't know who you know but no women I know would ever voluntarily lap dance over a homeless man .

Totally agree OP, i used to live in York and moved out to a rural area, still work in the city which thankfully Mon-Thur isn't too bad, i never come to town at a weekend now and dread visitors asking to do as it's so embarrassing, race weekends are as bad :-(

Totally agree with you OP.

Definitely an increasing issue in many of the 'nicer', more historical cities. And it's definitely hen dos which are significantly louder and more offensive and which start at 10am, never seen stag dos out and around before the evening
I'm going to get flamed for this but I really do think part of it is that the Hen parties that behave like that honestly think they're going to somewhere classy for a special and therefore it's an upmarket do. Dare I say It, they're the same people who think getting drunk on the train on the way to races is a classy day out, but again it's the same old drunken screaming women behaviour but in a posh frock.

The reality is that it's the same drunken loutish behaviour that they display down town most weekends, but in prettier surroundings with plastic willies.

Changing the setting doesn't make loutish anti-social behaviour any more acceptable.

Funnily enough, the city is swarming with children in August, we haven’t had anyone proclaiming “won’t somebody think of the children

I don’t know a single person who thinks the Edinburgh festival is well regulated. I used to live in Edinburgh and in more recent years it was an absolute nightmare, there’s been a sharp decline in what has become acceptable. I’ve been to the festival every year since I was five and for the last two years I haven’t taken my children up the Royal Mile because of the crowds, the behaviour and because there are so few police/security around.

Yeah we get it Yabbers. You're a walking talking embodiment of thinking that tolerance means never criticising anyone ever, apart from the middle class, to the point that when someone punches you in the face and pisses on your nephew you thank them for adding vibrant colour to your city.

doesn't matter where it's happening it's scummy behaviour from scummy people,but some people on here think it's okay as long it's nimby, that makes you as bad as the scummies in my book.

I see this in York too. As early as 2pm onwards. Groups of 'hens' marching through town from the station. Horrible, tacky, loud & obnoxious.

Yes this is every Saturday afternoon in York. Crowds of women from the north east, screeching and waggling giant inflatable cocks around and flashing their knickers.

I live in a coastal town that's a big hen/ stag destination and they can be pretty awful.The difference is, our city has taken steps to contain the chaos so they're not rampaging unchecked through the centre.

I feel for you, OP, it's horrible and I wish people would have more respect for the towns they're visiting and moderate their behaviour.

I wonder if the bad behaviour of many hen parties has something to do with the relative amounts of free time women get compared to men? My experience is that women don't get as many opportunities to go out with friends on the town as much when they have children as their partners so perhaps it's the rarity of the occasion for them that makes them go so utterly bonkers. Blokes are more likely to go out with their mates to watch the football etc on a regular so a stag do might be less 'special'.

Just speculating, and certainly not defending any of it!

The races are a nightmare- I agree.
However, they only happen at certain times through the year and everybody has plenty of advance notice.

It’s a messy chaotic time, with crippling traffic and disgusting behaviour BUT it’s not consistent and if you don’t like it, you can avoid those weekends whilst enjoying the city the rest of the time.

The issue with hen do’s is they’re relentless and nobody gets warning. It’s every weekend- without fail. So actual residents can’t get away from it.

Personally, if it were up to me, I’d stand a battalion on police at the train station and turn away any large group wearing fancy dress/ plastic tack/ sashes ... or carrying inflatables.

www.yorkmix.com/business/parking-costs-stag-and-hen-parties-and-business-rates-why-york-shop-had-to-close/

EXACTLY what I mentioned earlier. Toy store closed, ‘Saturdays should be our busiest days but are actually dead as families and residents are deterred by the party goers and large groups’ (parking costs too but that’s similar in every city)

😡

So yes if you own a bar you might be doing well but you’re crippling other businesses by encouraging such awful behaviour!

Until I read this thread York was top of my list of places I want to visit before I die. Now it's not on the list at all.

This is true in many places nowadays. Where I come from it has got so bad in some towns that local businesses refuse to serve them. It's all part of the anything goes culture. The more common and uncouth the better.

York is beautiful. Mid-week

CustardySergeant
It's a really nice place to visit. I love it, but I tend to visit midweek during the school holidays or Spring/Autumn weekend when the weather is nice but it's not prime hen season.
You'd be pushed to get me there on a saturday during summer these days.

I thought you sent all these folk down to us in Australia a couple of centuries ago? 

Ah we made more!

I have seemingly very normal, professional friends who are desperate for a hen weekend somewhere. The idea has never appealed to me. I don't want to get drunk enough to vomit; or wear tacky clothes, or a sash.

I'd quite like a nice meal somewhere, but I think it'd get ruined by all the expectations of inflatables and willy straws... so i think DP and I will just have a night out and invite people to join us for a normal rum, everyone going home before they are sick, no fancy dress type evening instead.

In fact, I prefer to visit most cities mid-week and have for years because you never guarantee you won't get a wedding party in the hotel you're staying in on a weekend. Add to that hen dos all day and it's sealed the deal.

Pleased to hear Norwich hasn't yet succumbed because it's one of my favourite cities and I've not been for a while.

DH was on the train to London at half seven on Saturday. There were about 15 women in his carriage who had been drinking since 7am and gradually got louder and lairier. If I started drinking at 7am I would be asleep by 11am. Surely it just wrecks your day?