Biggest Shithole in the UK

[DickieDonkey]

Am retiring soon so want to relocate away from the rat race but everywhere I consider away from the Home Counties seems to be regarded as a dump. Money goes further away from the SE, I thought about Norfolk which is within reasonable distance of civilisation but my friends think that it is backwards/racist. Is it true that Lincs/Cambs/Norfolk is best avoided. AIBU to move?

Don't move to North Wales. It's awful. Seriously. Especially Rhos-on-Sea.

I didn't say that I

don't enjoy art, theatre, dance, music, sport, shopping, fashion, history, monuments, architecture, design, food, drink, politics, royalty, commerce, science, technology, academia, medicine, rivers, parks, bridges, cathedrals, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, wildlife, or any of the other infinite variety of diversions that can be found here.

I do (most of them anyway - Royalty you can keep ) but, amazingly, all ARE available outside London- but without the smell, the noise, the FILTH - gods! London is incredibly dirty, and the the unrelenting soul crushing stupendous pressure of millions of people all crammed in together. Many of them sharing the common delusion that they are at the centre of the known universe. (Just like the residents of New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Mumbi, and Paris must do.)

Fine, if that's what you want, enjoy, but people are not meant to live like that.

Best avoid the West Country , we've had too many incomers already , selling their little place in London for megabucks and downshifting to the country/seaside, pushing up house prices out of range of anyone on a normal wage .

@thesandman

Where is it that you live?

No, I think the place is a godawful shithole and I never want to go back there in my life.

That’s a bit rude, where do you live and would you mind people talking about it in these terms?

without the smell, the noise, the FILTH - gods! London is incredibly dirty, and the the unrelenting soul crushing stupendous pressure of millions of people all crammed in together. Many of them sharing the common delusion that they are at the centre of the known universe.

Why the vitriol? Which bits of London did you go to?

Stoke
Slough
Ilkeston
Most of Norfolk
Blackpool
HATED Stonehenge!

LuckyLou7 - you obviously have not been to Luton, near Chatham- that is the worst place ever, especially Luton Road, I wish I did not live so near, but no choice at present. When I have been to Norfolk, Bucks or Ruislip I think how lucky the people are. One thing I would consider seriously is the traffic and flooding. You need to live somewhere with easy access to everywhere else but not anywhere dangerous - think rivers and reservoirs. There are lots of pretty places all over England but maybe not so attractive when the winter ice and snow arrives. Think carefully before you move OP

Worst places I’ve been are Runcorn, Birkenhead, Ellesmere Port and Wrexham. However like anywhere there are good and bad parts. There are some absolutely shit areas in London but I love other parts so you can’t tar a whole area with the same brush!

There I think you have it. "Trying to Survive". Most people I know aren't 'trying to survive', they are trying (and sometimes succeeding to varying degrees) to be happy, to be good people, good neighbours.

🤷🏻‍♀️🙄 so if most people you know aren't then clearly some are and we all know people who it isn't easy for financially. Like in most towns including London...

MadameFireweed - you forgot to mention “Like” is is used constantly, I wonder how much Red Ink teachers use correcting essays. I was standing in a queue recently, the loud twenty something behind me:

“I was like... ..then she comes in and goes like....so I was like..... As the St Trinian’s head remarked,
“Not quite Roedean or Cheltenham”. I am pleased to read that someone else has noticed the English language’s deterioration

...’Ere fackin’ ‘ell...’

Cockney translate, it means the equivalent of ‘Hello’ in Lincolnshire, Gloucestershire and Dorset.

True Londoners are very good at interfering with the lives of others.

The top 10 places in the UK in Halifax's 2019 quality of life survey are:

1. Orkney, Scotland

1. Richmondshire, Yorkshire and the Humber

1. Rutland, East Midlands

1. Hambleton, Yorkshire and the Humber

1. Eden, North West

1. South Oxfordshire, South East

1. Cotswold, South West

1. Ryedale, Yorkshire and the Humber

1. St Albans, East of England

10. Derbyshire Dales, East Midlands

Op can still be white by the way and be concerned about living in an area with a poor reputation on racism or small mindedness....

There is sadly no where in the world though where you can go to avoid bigots.... you just need to find somewhere to live that you feel comfortable with and that has access to lots of other places.....

Come to Wales. 40 minutes to the city, a couple of minutes until you are on the mountain (where I live anyway!), for what you pay for a 2 bed in the south east, you could have a 4/5 bed detached here. It actually does not rain all the time, that is a misconception. The longest wait for a GP appointment will be a week- that’s because you want Dr X, emergency appointment- you phone at 2:30pm and they’ll give you one for 3:00pm, or sometimes for 10 minutes after you call if you can make it. A&E waits a long time is 3 hours, I was in, x-rayed diagnosed and out in 40 minutes a little while ago. People are really friendly. We don’t all speak Welsh- actually more of us don’t these days. You just need to get used to all road signs being in welsh then English.

Jaywick.

I promise you there is categorically nowhere else more shit anywhere in the country.

Nice beach at jaywick though, but such poverty is soul destroying

For some
Reason I was looking on google maps at Jaywick recently. Got a shock. History of the estates building and then subsequent attempts by council to get people to move are shocking. Little summer houses never meant as permanent and left to rot. Apparently officially most deprived area in uk. Good local website though and people sticking up for it. As everywhere people taking pride in parts of it.
Like looking at housing policy of the last 50 years and everything which could have gone wrong did go wrong.

I remember the TV show abut Jaywick. Horrific too watch such desperation and poverty in this country. People defended it and blamed the people on it and all the rest of it, but to see people in that situation was heart breaking.

@IsobelRae23 I agree. I wouldn't swap my home here in West Wales for much else. Maybe the cotswolds!

Yes Jaywick is essentially a shanty town or a favella in modern Britain. It’s shameful that people are essentially living in beach huts.

This is creepy - I was looking at Jaywick on Google Street View last night with a view to posting about it on here, but wimped out in case any of our lovely MN-ers live there...

zoid that’s a coincidence. Feel there may have been a news story which triggered me looking at it. Spent some time looking at closed amusement arcade on sea front. Interesting building. I nearly posted too.

The shame of how we neglect our social houses in this country is high lighted in George Clarke's council house scandal program. It worth watching on catch up, and this thread is very informative.

I knew housing was bad but until I watch it I didn't realise they are putting families in converted rooms in offices indefinitely as 'temporary accommodation' which leaves them there for 2+ how ever many years!

Then look at Austria were anyone who earns up to 50k a year can live in subsided housing which includes swimming pools, gyms, and Saunas. The Austrians started building council houses at the same time as us.
But the didn't stop, and sell them off.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3647056-George-Clarkes-Council-House-Scandal

I watched that too Moo I hope he does well with his new scheme.

Luton.
Paignton.