To ask if you think this very ‘unmumsnetty?’

[BologneseGurl]

If someone were looking for a place to live and there criteria were -

”I’m looking for somewhere run down with a few ropey pubs”

LIGHTHEARTED

Yes that was me. I didn’t live in Foord I ived jn Folkestone Harbout which 20 years ago was yuck !! But I walked through Foord a lot

omg I worked in offices opposite the East Kent Arms so used to see it every day !! Ah the memories 😊

I’ve stayed overnight in the Blackbull pub in 2005

Because I feel I’ve wasted some valuable opportunities since the mid to late 2000s and want to go back to that time

Doncaster should fit the bill. I recommend Edlington, Hexthorpe or Toll Bar
To add you could get a house for 70k

I’ve heard about Doncaster - yes it’s not the best !

What about Arksey ?

I think I get what you're saying OP.
My memory drifts off to the 1970s, an area of central Bristol where George Harrison lookalikes drank herbal tea on beanbags in patchouli scented cafes. Next door in green-tiled pubs old men in tweed caps drank cloudy cider. Everyone smoked. Cyclists didn't wear helmets and bikes weren't locked. Beards, centre partings, B.O., brown corduroy trousers, stray dogs and Afghan coats everywhere.

Girls in cheesecloth shirts passed bombed out buildings and amongst all that buzz of life ladies in headscarves bought chops, fruit and veg and carried it all home in tartan shopping bags to coal fired hearths.

I was on the up, all of life was ahead of me, life was exciting and perfect, I'd just lost my virginity to a man who called himself Moon.

You need to enter The Past into the search box of Rightmove.
By the time you're old enough to want to 'go home' it doesn't exist any more.

Your sentiments have perfectly summed up Margate and indeed Whitstable more so albeit 50 years ago.

I was in Woolwich yesterday. One side of the road and you're in gritty 90s Peckham, cross into the Arsenal and it's a different world.

Arksey is nice for Doncaster it has a local village feel, but probably still on the rough to anyone who doesn’t live here . But it’s in the middle of toll bar and Bentley that are rougher.

I went to a pub with a meat raffle the other day. 🤣 They were very pushy with the tickets. They wouldnt take no for an answer until I eventually told them I was a vegan (true but I wouldnt have bought tickets even if I wasnt and they didnt need to know about my diet). Then followed an exchange like The Royal Family. What about wafer thin ham? Can you eat wafer thin ham?

They did an announcement of their weeks events. "Tuesday is one for the fellas with the Lovely Linda. Wink wink." I'm guessing it's a striper who goes round with a pint glass afterwards.

I have mixed opinions about strippers but I cant help but think it must be so degrading walking round bare chested begging for change.

I know Whitstable not Margate though

sorry what I mean is when j lived in East Kent I visited Whitstable a lot not Margate though

Montpelier!

I would say border areas of Portsmouth/Southsea fit the OP's bill.

I get it, OP, but I warn you to never take my advice because sometimes I get nostalgic for Swindon 😅😅😂😂

Haha Bishopston - by any chance ?

I get it OP...I sometimes crave a run down flat above a shop in a run down part of town. I have nothing but good memories from that phase of life. I never felt unsafe although to an outsider the place looks dodgy but never really was, just poor and honest.

I TOTALLY understand. When I was in my mid 20s and needed cheap rent I lived in an area like this, most people would have thought it was dodgy, and it probably was, but I didn't feel unsafe and I loved all the neighbours and the goings ons and the ropey pubs.

The embedded advert in this thread was quite fitting, Tavelodge.

Rochdale or Halifax will suit you nicely love, and you can get a 2 bed for £45K in Burnley, but that might be taking things too far, you know.

I lived in a purpose built block of flats that actually WAS dodgy and tbh I wouldn’t live there - that really IS a bridge too far - too many seriously unpleasant incidents !

Omg I used to work in Milnrow - never went into Rochdale ‘proper’ though !!

Halifax appeals me because I love Hebden Bridge and Todmorden also in Calderdale

Montpelier !! I know it well !!

It’s not bizarre OP, I get it. I love all the YouTube videos of the 1960s/70’s where people pegged their washing out in the back lanes of mining towns, the 80’s graffiti that many photographers have turned into works of art, concrete jungles, skinhead kids sitting on walls… not saying I’d want to live in such a deprived area in my 50’s though…

🤣 at the meat raffle