To ask for your experiences with Bath/strange atmospheres

[AliceInBlunderland13]

Semi-regular poster but I’ve name changed for this as the details could be quite outing. Also not really an AIBU but posting for traffic and all that…
There have been two periods in my life when I have lived and/or worked in the city of Bath, Somerset and I’ve experienced problems with my mental health on both occasions. The first was right after I finished by undergraduate degree in London and I moved to Bath to do a Masters at the university. I started in the October and by Christmas I was experiencing terrible panic attacks and depression. I did manage to complete the course but as soon as I finished I ended the tenancy on my flat early and moved back home. I then worked in my home town for a few years, during which time I had no problems with my mental health. Then I decided to do a PhD and took a position again at the uni in Bath. This time I didn’t move there but instead moved to a nearby town and commuted in. Yet again within a couple of months of being there I began experiencing daily panic attacks, terrible anxiety and feelings of dissociation, and depression. I tried to stick it out (had counselling, on meds etc) but I still felt utterly miserable so I recently quit the course and found a new job in another town.
Even after having counselling, I’ve never truly got to the bottom of what triggers these episodes. Logically, it could be stress related as both a Masters and a PhD are obviously a lot of work but then I dealt with the stresses of my undergraduate course just fine, and the job I had between my Masters and PhD was high-stress and I loved it – in fact I used to think I worked best with a bit of pressure.
Then the other day, I was reading an old thread on here (bored while I wait to start my new job ) about places people found creepy. Several people mentioned that they didn’t like Bath or that it had an odd atmosphere – I think one poster described it as ‘melancholy’. Now normally I’m very rational and logical (except when the anxiety takes over ) and wouldn’t give it a second thought, but I couldn’t help wondering if anyone has any experience of feeling anxious/down in a particular place, or if anyone else has felt this ‘atmosphere’ in Bath? I know some will say it’s a load of pish but I guess I’m just interested in other people’s experiences really…

That’s so interesting - I’ve been to Bath twice (for a long weekend each time) and absolutely fell in love with the place, I remember it so fondly even now.

Lots of smiles when you're spending money

Any Bath residents able to weigh in on why people are so weird when they stare here? Just stare stare stare. Anyone get that nosy vibe here. People say its a very nosy place with nothing but gossip which isnt what people like the OP might like.

Why do we stare here?

Whereabouts in Bath is this? I can't say that I've ever noticed. I do have form for staring blankly when I am thinking, so I have possibly been tailing you.

With 30,000 students, many many Airbnb's and lots of tourists you probably won't see too many locals in the town centre.

I agree with others that Bath is very very cliquey in terms of both social circles and neighbourhoods.

The city is in for a challenging year or two, I fear.

Ive had it all over the place .This ward, that ward. In shops, this place, that place. Am I famous? I dont think so. That alone is enough to make me want to leave. Definitely not just in the town centre. If anything its less there and is probably the only part that I enjoy being in as a result. I've never come across more weird and awkward people anywhere else in the UK. Thats genuinely not hyperbole.

As for the cliquey behaviour, why is that? In other cities people meet, talk, discover. Bath seems IMO to attract a certain type of person more so than other cities London, Bristol, Manchester etc.

This is really interesting. The first time I went to the centre of Bath it was vibrant with lots of independent retailers. This was around 1990 or 1991. I went back to the centre in 2002 for an evening event at the Baths and both that event and the following day mooching around had a very different feel to it. Menacing. I remember driving down the A417 and there was the most massive murmuration of starlings taking place in the sky and it looked brooding rather than awesome.

The thing that I remember Bath for most was a news report somewhere around those times of a local unrest to which the police were called. Just lots of people getting pissed early on a Friday or Saturday night and someone turned on male and female police officers. Many other drinkers turned out and laid into the police. The female officer was badly beaten - unconscious I think and lots of people turned out to cheer the attackers on. This was before the 'explosion' of the internet I recall.

For that alone there is something dark about Bath. Geography and buildings can forge people. Look at the ancient Egyptians, the Portugese and modern New Zealand.

I live near to Bath now, have been going there regularly pretty much all my life including going to school there. I don’t like the city at all, it’s expensive, dirty, overrated and ruined by hoards of visitors. I also feel it is actually pseudo-Georgian in a lot of places., mere facades.
You need to be upper middle class, well educated and posh to fit in, it feels unwelcoming to newcomers.
Too many empty shops, homeless people begging and soulless.

I too feel uneasy in Glastonbury; the hippy vibe has a malevolent undercurrent.
I hate the atmosphere on Holy Island, I couldn’t get away from it fast enough when we visited. It was a lovely sunny day but a very chilling atmosphere.

I love Bath! I’d live there if I could afford it.

I don’t like Glastonbury though. Very unfriendly place.

The only place that made me feel really uneasy was the area around Porlock and Porlock Weir. We were on holiday in Minehead and took a drive out. I hated it so much, it felt really oppressive and I felt quite panicky, I begged DH to drive us back as soon as possible. I’d never go back.

Love this thread and now I really want to visit Glastonbury to experience the oddness!

Forest of Dean has parts that are like driving through a mid-west US town where they only see strangers once every 15 years. Gothic revival Victorian cottages with well- peeled painted wood frame windows, net curtains and dead plants in windows.

I know this is an oldish thread but I’m glad it’s been revived because it’s interesting. I had the same sinister, menacing feeling the one and only time I’ve been to whitstable.

I agree about Porlock weir but I think the village itself is fine

I'd say usernameusrnme has Bath pretty spot on.

Whoever lumped Bristol in with it, how very dare you! Bristol is far superior in every way.

Yes to whoever said about Bath being 'safe' meaning white and Bristol 'edgy' meaning multicultural. Despite, or maybe partly because of its slave trade history, Bristol is one of the most culturally integrated cities in the U.K., everyone rubs along together and it's very friendly.

I went to uni in Bath but never lived there, from what I saw there was very little to do for anyone younger than middle aged.

Saltburn in Yorkshire, we stopped off there whilst on holiday one day. I cannot describe how uncomfortable and errily strange the place made me feel.

I love Brighton, but then I would be easily recognised as part of the tribe and I think this is largely what feelings described here boil down to. That intrinsic and uncomfortable feeling that you don't belong picked up from social clues from the residents of the town you're visiting.

Education and culture in the UK is still rather geared towards observance of Christian/Catholic values and, in a lot of the places mentioned here, there is a strong pagan undercurrent engendering subconscious suspicion and fear.

I'd say usernameusrnme has Bath pretty spot on.

Judy Gemstone "Whoever lumped Bristol in with it, how very dare you! Bristol is far superior in every way.

Yes to whoever said about Bath being 'safe' meaning white and Bristol 'edgy' meaning multicultural. Despite, or maybe partly because of its slave trade history, Bristol is one of the most culturally integrated cities in the U.K., everyone rubs along together and it's very friendly"

This is the major difference. Bristol acknowledges its historical role and looks to move past it. Theres been debates and discussions about various things. Bath is the kind of place that would refuse to acknowledge anything ever happened because in Bath because they are only concerned with appearances of being morally excellent and correct, the kind of place where open discussion, thought and analysis on a subject like that wouldn't even be allowed.

Bristol also seems to embrace difference and variation. People talk about Bath's Georgian architecture, but if they looked, Bristol has it too! The difference is Bristol also has OTHER styles and is a place where people seem to just have a much more personality in conversation and thought. Artistically and culturally Bristol has far richer RECENT heritage in art and music too. Absolutely agree that Bristol is more friendly, whenever I go its like a gasp of oxygen from the clicquey, parochial people in Bath. I've had so many great conversations with so many Bristolians from all over their city, all walks of life. In short, they are more open to individual thought. Bath residents only concerns are with fitting in with which ever "clique" they've been roped into.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3295554-Beechen-Cliff-Bath-Inadequate-Ofsted?pg=1

Read the thread. Page 5 in the middle from Local bath mum

"Sorry to be so impassioned, but I do feel unable to speak out locally"

Thats Bath.

www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/non-disclosure-agreements-bath-universities-2390145

Never been to Bath (or Brighton or Glastonbury) but I seem to be quite sensitive to what I can only describe as “atmospheres” both negative and positive. Ie I’ve had houses I needed to get out ASAP of but also places where I feel really at peace and like I “belong” for no real reason.

I’ve got weird vibes from;

Oban - really dark and oppressive feel, couldn’t wait to leave.

Miami - this was due to the fact that it’s seedy and dangerous more than anything woo. But the whole place felt on edge and like something dangerous could happen.

San Francisco did something weird to me. Within 8 hours of getting there I had a huge row with my family and locked myself in the bathroom because I couldn’t stop crying uncontrollably. I was angry (totally unlike me!) and full of self hatred. The most extreme emotions I’ve ever felt. I felt bad on the inside, 100% unlovable. I had always wanted to visit the Golden Gate Bridge but when I got there, despite never having been suicidal before this, I had the overwhelming feeling to throw myself off it. Bloody weird and stopped as soon as we got out of there.

Lincoln - couldn’t wait to leave. Felt really unlike myself. The whole place had a weird vibe. Claustrophobic and I found the people strange.

Quite a few parts of North Wales. Like a sadness and a darkness too. We’d go when I was a child and my parents would have horrific arguments the whole time. I hated Rhyl, Conway Castle etc. My ex lived in Powys which someone mentioned further up and he and his family all ended up with Mental Health problems whilst there. He was fine when he wasn’t living there and always spoke about Powys as somewhere he felt he’d never escape from.

Gaitlinburg, Smokey Mountains. Hated the smokey mountains and didn’t even dare to explore Gaitlinburg in the end we were all so spooked. Just a weird time warpy vibe and feeling like you were being watched the whole time.

Much of the Deep South in the US, though I’m convinced that’s to do with poverty and the legacy of slavery which feels ever present.

Random but Preston. I always feel really depressed when I am there and my job takes me there sometimes so I have to go. I just feel totally off kilter and depressed while I’m in the city itself and would never voluntarily choose to go there.

Always felt a bit unsettled and found it hard to sleep, as did my parents, when visiting family in Norwich.

I’m fine with Buxton, Edinburgh and some of the other places mentioned on here.

I felt great in Glastonbury and Brighton, really relaxed.

I went to Happisburgh in Norfolk and felt dizzy, panicky and had to leave, such an oppressive, awful atmosphere.

I do seem to feel very different depending on my location though. I live in a big city and feel sick, headachey and despondent when driving through or visiting some areas. I have no idea why.

I've had similar experiences to @NameChange84.

Oban - hate it, very oppressive. Much of North Wales especially the area around Bethesda, and also that North Wales Coast - Caernarvon, Rhyl. Prestatyn - but fine in Conwy.

In Bath I felt unsettled, but I am fine in Glastonbury and Brighton - always found the people in both places very friendly.

San Fransisco - this may be coloured by the fact I went when I was having depression and panic attacks - but I was so excited for my holiday. Yet I felt on edge the whole time, as though something bad was about to happen.

This feeling went away completely when we moved on to San Jose and then other towns down the west coast, and I had a great time - until Los Angeles, when I took to my bed and wouldn't leave the motel room.

I like Malvern, found Harrogate a bit trying, love Edinburgh with a passion, love London, love Stonehenge, can't stand Avebury..... All very random.