To not think Aylesbury is the worst town in the UK.

[SerialNameChanger2114]

I mean. It’s not the best place in the UK, but hardly the worst!

www.countryliving.com/uk/homes-interiors/property/a38671598/worst-places-to-live-uk/

I grew up in Oxford, I’d say blackbird leys and Witney are worse.

I’ve visited Luton and driven through Slough.

I’ve lived in Aylesbury for 12 years, and other than the traffic, it’s not that much of a bad place! Having read an article about someone stabbed in MK recently, it got me wondering why on Earth it’s so awful!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Aylesbury is the best place in the world to live.

But it’s certainly not terrible. I can walk into town from home, and feel safe doing so. The staff in Tescos are friendly, the new Sainsburys is nice, and the Costa coffee at Bedgrove is immense. I’ve had some rubbish costas in my time but never one from Bedgrove 😁

There is a nice canal to walk down, Bedgrove Park is nice, it’s easy to get on the A41 to London, it’s 25 mins to MK. There is a regular bus to Oxford, and the train to London takes an hour.

I did grow up in a village with absolutely nothing, with a parent that didn’t drive, so perhaps my vision is slightly skewed. But I certainly don’t feel like it’s an awful place to bring my kids up.

@Zwellers

Across the UK, Aylesbury is not the worse. However compared with other nearby towns it is a bit grim, as the poster above said no nice independent shops. The premier Inn we stayed in was also I suspect in one of the less salubrious areas.

Also shinynewapple22 what nice towns in the west midlands. That's an oxymoron surely!

@Zwellers - I was being sarcastic.

Apart from Luton, there is nowhere in the south of England which is anywhere near as grim as Skelmersdale, Mansfield or Skegness. It’s just a completely different level of shithole.

@autumnkate

I lived in Slough until I was about 22- it got a lot worse towards the end and is a good bit worse than that now

Yeah I'd heard that. Suspect it's not going to improve anytime soon either given the local council have gone bankrupt.

@BeckyWithTheGoodHair010101

I can't believe I've got to the end of this thread and no one has mentioned the shit hole that is Harlow!

Old Harlow is lovely. But the main bit is awful.

Luton is definitely worse.

Safe to say the writer has never been to Dudley.

It is a bit of a stupid clickbait list. People do enjoy slagging off where they live though a lot! It is rather sweeping to have the whole of Liverpool in there though, and it does claim to be UK, and there's some good claims from Wales and Scotland too I'm sure. Most of those are just a bit mediocre/crap really, not actually bad. I think for proper grimness you need either somewhere built around a large single industry that has gone bust (mining/steelworks/factories), a seaside resort once popular but now not (masses of B&B's, no jobs etc.), or a lot of post-war building for a 'new future' featuring a lot of concrete and brutalist architecture.

As said, I find there can be some good character in some places. Spent a bit of time in Hull, and I quite like it

Not to mention the world’s worst new housing estate ever - fucking Berryfields, huge pylons in people’s back gardens & that road called Paradise Orchard when there’s not a tree in sight and just ugly sprawling over-priced houses

that's definitely not exclusive to Aylesbury. I raise you Fleet in Hampshire (which has won best place to live in the UK a few times) with "Edenbrook". Sounds quite bucolic doesn't it. But it's built on floodplain land, the houses are massively overpriced (though quite nice, if they had any space around then) and pylons across the country park at the back so not quite back gardens but very close. And then next to the leisure centre which is floodlit at night so lots of light pollution.

There are some ghastly estates going up around Newton Abbot in Devon, too. People go the West Country for the lovely countryside, there won't be anything left of it soon.

Just sticking my head in to nominate Wisbech

Farnworth up and coming, @yellowsuninthesky??
I wasn't thinking of Farnworth when I said there are some nice bits of Bolton

@MywobblyBottom

OP get to fuck with your rude comments about Witney!

Hello fellow Witney person 🥰

I second that @Mydogisagentleman.

@Bunnycat101

It shouldn’t be number 1. a more realistic list would be to take the most deprived towns from the ONS data set. I’d bet Aylesbury is not in the bottom 50.

ONS statistics, Middlesbrough is the most deprived town but even there it's 'over the border' that is dreadfully deprived and there are nice leafy suburbs to the south of the city and I'd feel safe enough in the city centre (as much as in any city).

maddiemookins16mum Which pub or which plaque?
Pub was The Royal Oak but it was ages ago. I used to work in Ducklington post office and my sister used to work in Witney Pottery shop. Lovely little town and great for parking too!

Aylesbury really isnt the arse end of the world, although it does share the same post code

Surely Bolton deserves a mention…it’s grim!!!

Aylesbury is the 276th most deprived local authority out of the 316 local authorities in England. Or to put it another way, it's the 40th more affluent. Southerners have really no idea.

So Aylesbury has a vegan market, a grammar school and a Waitrose..Hardly awful.
In Dewsbury M&S, Next and even the MacDonalds closed down.

The Stroud thing is so weird to me, we had an opportunity to live there and went to check it out for the day. I was expecting it to have a bit of a Ludlow/Lewes/Beverly vibe, quaint and cute and markety, lots of delicious looking organic carrot cake and 60-something women in Breton tops and woven shopping bags 😂 instead the moment we parked up we saw a naked busker being wrestled in to a police car screaming, and another ‘interesting’ fellow just standing outside Savers screaming his head off. A lot of the shops felt rundown and had the usual mix of crappy discount places and nice independent coffee shops and organic grocers. The church gardens stank of weed and had a couple of chaps knocking back beers at 10am. In short it was certainly no better than your average small town, and actually a fair bit worse than many I have visited. Amazing schools and countryside admittedly, but I think the whole ‘best town’ thing probably stems from the people of Stroud themselves, who to me seem inordinately proud of living there!

I would say Preston is the worst place I’ve ever been if I had to choose. Crickhowell in Wales is one that springs to mind for one of the best.

@SierraSapphire

Corby is on the list, though IMO Kettering and Northampton town centres are worse.

Surely Jaywick is the worst though.

I think Jaywick is the poorest statistically. Was only there once and found it OK. Seaside helps I guess. And it was summer! Basildon is a bit bleak by comparison?

@Mydogisagentleman

Just sticking my head in to nominate Wisbech

Was there for a wedding a couple of years ago. The proceedings enlivened by the - very pleasant and peaceful - chaps drinking and urinating in the graveyard! Yet it is Silicon Fen so there must be money sloshing about...

DasAlteLeid There was an article about Stroud in The Times and someone commented that the only good thing about it was that it had a better class of drug dealers.

@SeanMean

Surely Bolton deserves a mention…it’s grim!!!

It's number six in the list , l live in a grim bit of Bolton,but in its defence as I said earlier it does have some nice bits , it's a big town there are grim bits and nice bits of all big towns .