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?

Come to Newcastle! Everything is close by. There are great shops. We have the Sage and a load of theatres/venues. It is easy to travel to anywhere. There are so many decent places to eat and lovely green spaces.

Norwich is fabulous. As are the beaches and country lanes of Norfolk.

(but very white)

Shropshire

Try Stoke OP.
Seriously, don't listen to your friends. There are some beautiful places in the rest of the UK. Have fun exploring them, say a few long weekends and see where appeals to you the most. Then go back and spend a bit longer. I've moved around a lot in the UK and honestly the SE was my least favourite. I'd move back to Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire, Northumberland, Orkney or Dorset in a heartbeat though. North Yorks is lovely too.

But the difference is in my “nice town” you could have a vegan option but it’s all grown in the pubs back garden. Salad in summer, soup in winter.

Same here. Most food is locally produced, coffee locally roasted.
But the point I’m making is that my town is often spoken of as a shithole and my parents town is listed as an amazing place.
I find the generally level of inclusiveness, variety and culture to be far higher in my ‘shithole’ town than the nice town, but people are snobby fuckers who wouldn’t entertain my town.

Sittingbourne

Please don't come to Norfolk, we have too many people like you already.

People who move here then ask where all the services are? And why everything's quiet after 10pm? And make sneering remarks like 'backward' and 'racist', all the while pricing local people out of their homes and changing the character of our area.

And don't get me started on the second home owners. Some of the villages on the coast are empty in the winter. How does the song go? 'The red brick cottage where I was born, is the empty shell of a holiday home. Most of the year there's no-one there, the village is dead, but they don't care.'

I’m retired and you couldn’t pay me to live in the Home Counties . The attitude that everywhere else is backwards and racist is narro minded and bigoted . Wonder if the op can see the irony .

Norfolk it seems is an OK place apart from Kings Lynn, whats so wrong with it there?.

Civilisation beyond the Home Counties?

Baffling. Always amazes me how small minded Londoners and Home Counties folk can be and how parochial in their own way.

There’s whole swathes of the world out there, both in the uk and abroad, that offer masses of culture, “civilisation”, a whole lot of better quality of life, fewer crowds, less stress, better weather, a less polluted environment, more authenticity, friendlier people and a longer life expectancy than the bloody Home Counties ever can.

I went to Hull recently, you can buy a house for £50k so plenty of money to buy some Greggs and fags.

Avoid anyway near London - it's a filthy and expensive dump. You need subtitles too to understand the people.

Anyway, as an Aberdonian, I know perfectly well that civilisation stops south of Stonehaven.

I suppose a Home Counties version of civilisation probably means easy access to the motorway network, Waitrose and M&S ready meals. Probably about as sophisticated as the aspirations get.

"but everywhere I consider away from the Home Counties seems to be regarded as a dump."

By who?
Have the people that think that anywhere outside of the M25 is a dump actually ventured outside of it?

Quite frankly with an attitude like that you will not be made to feel welcome wherever you end up.

Don't anyone tell this muppet where is nice in the UK. We don't want your uneducated kind up here. Stick down there in the Home Counties with your ignorant friends.

London is the biggest shithole by the way.

YouTheCat Sat 10-Aug-19 23:18:04
Come to Newcastle! Everything is close by. There are great shops. We have the Sage

Don't you mean Gateshead has the Sage? And the Baltic. And the Millennium Bridge.

There are loads of lovely places in the UK.
Personally I have found Norfolk to be a pleasant place to visit. Obviously there are big differences in visiting and living in a place, but city living is always going to be very different to rural living. Cambridge is a nice place, but small, full of tourists, bicycles and students, as well as some lovely shops, restaurants and cultural attractions.
It all depends what you are looking for.
Visit places, do your research.

Well I don't want any of your friends coming up to my neck of the woods! Because we have the best countryside and friendly people with the biggest festival in the world on right now only a 40 min. train ride away. You lot can keep your 'civilisation' we have ours a plenty.

Yeah, your user name is apt.

How have you got to retirement age with such fixed views?

I live in Tunbridge Wells..its a lovely town but stupidly expensive...god knows why 🙄

Maybe because it’s a lovely town?

From my bedroom window on a clear day I can see the Pennines and Yorkshire. Yeah it’s a dump.

Avoid London at all costs, complete shithole and miles from civilisation. Need to go at least 3-4 hours north before it gets any better 😉

On a serious note, I echo earlier comments urging you to do a tour of England and surrounding countries with an open mind, sounds like it would do you the world of good!

I’m not saying where I live because it has been mentioned on this thread I don’t want OP rocking up next door to me. Not that that is likely as she seems to be basing a major life decision on what her poorly informed friends think (can’t be that friendly though as she can’t wait to get away from them).
I would also really be interested to know on what “they” (whoever “they” actually are) base the 10 best & worst places to live. A place is surely to a large extent what you make of it.

Well this is the real reason people locally are trying to stop HS2.

It’s not the billions it’s going to cost so much as the thought that it might make our nice little city ‘commutable’ to London.