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…

Everybody who has ever been to Withernsea feels this way about it, though its not hard to see why. Completely bleak.

A lot of places mentioned on here are very ancient briton sights.

Glastonbury seems to attract troubled people. I know a few people who've developed massive drug addictions and then hung around the town for months on end, in the guise of working for the festival. So there are definite social problems adding to the vibe. When we visited it did have a weird atmosphere. The shops and cafes were busy but the streets were empty and I felt like I just wanted to leave.

My other uneasy place is Norfolk. No offence to Norfolk residents on here, but I always feel like I'm being stared at and that people are angry or suspicious of me? Like, the feeling you get when you are in a small village and go into the local pub and everyone stares at you. Twice I've had people kick off and scream and swear at me over minor things. Weird vibe.

This is something a lot of architects have taken very seriously in the past. Look into glastonbury, stone hedge, laylines and Milton Keynes.

I agree about the horrid vibe in Buckinghamshire - Aylesbury, Wycombe area. Interesting. Broaden that area a bit to include Hemel/Watford and I've lived there most of my life, and never liked it. Ugly towns and people with a very mean attitude: either aspirational, materialistic wannabe middle class types who look down their noses, or aggressive chavs - the two types not being mutually exclusive. It's got a bit nicer as more and more educated/professional/arty types get priced out of London and rock up here. I'd never thought of it as having any kind of "vibe" though, it's just soulless and has tended to attract unfriendly people. Hastings is basically Hemel on sea, hence the menacing feel.

I loved Bath and thought it had an amazing ambience, but perhaps that's to do with living on the Herts/Beds/Bucks border: anywhere else has to compare favourably! I went there once, in the early 90s, for a summer school. We did all the tourist stuff like the costume museum and Roman baths by torchlight, and it blew me away. I had no idea there was a university there, if indeed it was a university then. Bath and Brighton are my happy places, though I haven't been to either for more than a decade. Maybe that's why I chose my French village, which is full of tall sandstone houses. Some people have said they find it oppressive and I just assume they aren't very familiar with French villages! :)

I felt exactly the same about Edinburgh when I was at uni there. I loved Glasgow though.

I agree with bettedaviseyes about Buxton such a creepy place!! There was a shop that sold shabby chic bits n bobs which I love, it had a cellar you could go down to that had shabby chic furniture in I got halfway down the stairs and had this overwhelming feeling if I went any further I would be locked down there!! ( There was a heavy door with a bolt at the top of the stairs). I find a lot of places in Derbyshire creepy cromford particularly it feel as though you are in a Stephen king novel even the church there feels wrong!

I lived outside of Bath for 18 months. It never felt creepy. But I agree with the poster who described it as being empty despite being full of people.
I love big cities and can walk and mooch for hours, but everytime I went to bath I left as soon as I had got what I came for.
No real buzz to the place or identity.
Very very bad traffic too. Some beautiful buildings but again I felt like I wasnt interested in exploring them, which again is odd and not like me.

Interestingly I've been to Buxton a couple of times recently and liked it.

*I had a strange experience in Hastings

Only way I can describe the feeling was that it was overwhelming menacing*

I totally agree with this. I grew up in the South Coast and have always said to my family from a young age, that Hastings has a strange feeling and II could feel Pirates!

Now obviously as an adult and knowing the history of the town, it's understandable.
I got similar vibes in Exeter. Near the castle. Creepy

I work in Buxton and am inclined to agree with you. I live in Macclesfield and have to do the “cat and fiddle” drive over which can be either incredibly bleak and depressing, or beautiful and awe inspiring depending on the weather/my mood.

I live in Macclesfield too and do that dtive a lot. I have always thought Buxton seemed a charming town and I quite like the drive, unless the weather is really bad. Mind you if I was doing it every day for work I might think otherwise!

Isn't there supposed to be a haunted bookshop in Buxton? Sure I have read that somewhere.

(BTW Wonder if we will have to have a new name for that road if the new owners of The Cat and Fiddle change its name?)

I meant wirkswirth sorry although cromform is off too.

Argh cromford stupid phone

I had the worst fish and chips ever in bath. Very expensive and we got a fish portion like you'd get in a box out the freezer at farm foods and about a dozen hard, over cooked and going cold chips.

I've been in many places where I feel there has been oppression, and not very nice atmospheres. I don't think everyone always believes it but I was happy to leave Glastonbury after visiting once. My spirit felt a huge sigh of relief

This thread is interesting. I have family in Bath and visit regularly. It’s fine for a weekend but I wouldn’t like to live there. I find it a bit depressing outside of seeing my family. Agree with others about Glastonbury. I would have said I like different and quirky but didn’t like Glastonbury. Apologies to anyone who lives there but I felt there was lost souls from the festival who can’t find their way home. But I really like Portland though.

I don't like Glastonbury town but love the tor

That radon map is interesting.
I've never been to Bath but Oban feels that way to me - miserable, heavy, menacing. I couldn't wait to leave. There's also a stretch of the road between England and Scotland that always makes me feel as though something bad happened there. I hate driving through it and have spent quite a bit of time researching whether anything happened there. It has such a strong sense of menace. Interestingly, it shows dark on the radon map.

Now that you mention it Anne, I don't especially like the part of the M6 passing through SW Scotland. No bad experiences, just a feeling of nothingness.

Dover. I just felt sad and unwelcome when I was there. Takes decades to get there too and I just wondered why we’d bothered. The castle is amazing but incredibly menacing. The atmosphere in the underground tunnels is intense.

York and Winchester give me the heebie jeebies.

I went on a mini break to Bath on my first pay cheque as a graduate with my new DP. Had a whole itinerary planned, Roman baths, pump rooms, candlelit dinner etc. Everything felt flat and sad and we couldn’t wait to leave. We ended up paying ££ to get an earlier train back to London. Weird because I remembered loving going there as a child to visit grandparents.

Another trip to Eastbourne was memorable for the feeling of absolute horror and desperation lingering over the whole place. DP and I walked the cliff paths towards Beachy Head, fog descended and a menacing feeling had us running to the nearest pub, where we had a vicious row that nearly saw us split up. On the train back it was like waking up from a bad nightmare and we turned to each other and said “wtf was that all about?”

Luckily DP is now DH despite all the geographically induced rows

@nevermorelenore that's just many norfolk people having poor social skills due to being largely cut off from the rest of England - it's not the place itself.

Teacup34 how interesting: I really, really love the church in wirksworth. Feel as if it’s somehow more solid than everything around it, an if-the-world-fell-apart-you’d-still-be-ok-in-here feeling.

Although I do confess to having a wobbly moment when we were in there along and my 2-year-old shouted ‘wakey wakey!’ at one of the stone figures on top of a tomb and I let myself imagine it creaking upright.

Alone, not along

St Just is indeed the end of the Earth, glad to see it being acknowledged here. I would add that Dove Holes (near Buxton) is worse than Buxton itself, not quite a rival to St Just, more that it has nothing to recommend it. Again it is very high on the radon map, which is interesting.

I have been to Bath, I don't think I've necessarily felt it to be dark and forboding though. I think I've only visited for a couple of day trips and a later wedding weekend, so been happily distracted rather than drinking in the atmosphere.

Other places I've found unreasonably spooky and dragging me down: Reading (so much so that I burst into tears when later revisiting), Norwich and Camber Sands (near Hastings which lots of other people have mentioned).

It was odd verbena as I thought if we go in the church I will feel better but it just felt off.