To be sick of people looking down on the town I live in?

[Beboopbadoopie]

I'm 40 and have lived here for 10 years, before I had kids and after (I have 2 under 5) and recently we've randomly bumped into several old school friends in different places and when we say where we live they say something like, 'oh really?' and one person even said 'why!?' and another told me its a dive! It's happened lots in the past too. Where we live is not terrible, it's just the worst looking town locally (live in a very pretty area) and the high street is pretty much dead. I think people think it's rough but I've noticed a lot of posts about crime in other 'nicer' local towns so feel it's kind of a similar level (I have never felt unsafe here but there's the odd shop break in or smashed shop windows but nothing major and I've noticed these incidents in nicer towns nearby too)

We bought here because it's a lot cheaper than everywhere else (for a reason it seems!)We renovated our house so we are in a good position financially now which means I only have to work part time and am around more with the kids which I want. We have a lovely house, amazing neighbours, a great park and leisure centre around the corner, 3 good cafes (not loads but better than nothing), a great library for the kids, several supermarkets, a train station to that goes directly to major cities.

I'm getting pretty fed up with the negativity from other people because it makes me feel a bit shit, and I'm bringing my kids up here and that's what people are going to think when they say where they live and I don't want people to look down on them. I have thought of moving but feel it's an extreme reaction and also we'd have to double our mortgage. How can I stop it from bothering me? It's so annoying!

I lived in Folkestone in the mid uk late 2000s. Trying to keep my language neutral but it’s a town that’s so predominantly deprived I wouldn’t choose to live there. A few nice roads in the west end of the town but the town centre was extremely run down to the point I thought Debenhams seemed far too posh for it and looked out of place

Things change anyway. When I was younger most people tried to avoid more than a few areas in Borough, London and a lot of the East End.

They've all been gentrified now and the houses/flats cost a fortune. 🤷‍♀️

Swindon?

And yet things turn around. Folky is now a desirable place to live. Lots of investment, the Harbour Arm, The Lees, lots and lots of new flats built right on the beach. It’s still has its ‘areas’ that are not so great and Debenhams is just an empty shell. De Haans money seems to be doing the trick.

I lived in Folkestone Harbour and it was awful then - in the block of flats at the bottom of Remembrance Road - omg it was grim

but yes I’ve heard it’s now more of an ‘artistic’ place

I hear you OP. I live in a town which always comes up on shit places to live threads. Yes our high street has gone to shit, and there are a number of people who are clearly drug users hanging about. But outside the town centre it’s great. Huge, world wide award winning, parks. Three theatres, numerous independent coffee shops and restaurants. But we are surrounded by ‘naice’ towns with branches of Cook and Seasalt, places that on here people recommend for holidays.

I was going to say the same😁. My entire life I was given a ‘look’ when I said where I lived.

Radstock, Rotherham, Swindon…?

I have challenged negative comments about my hometown. I even have statistics! I’ve then been accused of having a chip on my shoulder.
You can’t argue with stupid I suppose.

I could never understand why some people had such silly opinions about Liverpool when I was growing up. Chances are they’ve never visited. I keep finding reasons to visit i.e. booking concert tickets when I could see the band/singer closer to home. I think there’s something for everyone there.

I was once in a Dept store lift in Liverpool where a similar conversation was going on. Someone piped up "I've been thrown out of better places than this".

I agree. DD is in Liverpool, and I'm always finding excuses to visit her. I love the city.

I’m there next weekend and looking forward to it!

@Sladuf1 we love Liverpool too - have been a fair few times with our business - found it incredibly friendly too

@RestlessSparrow I get that too - we live in Bath but have council estates and some pretty grim areas that rival anything I experienced back in Mansfield where I am from - and in Bristol I’ve seen way worse - but I got used to hearing the ‘they get everything ‘down south’ - it really isn’t the case in fact the opposite. Outside of London it’s much harder to get state funding in many cases in the south -

@PoisedGoldBiscuit we live in Bath and it’s 12 minutes on train to Chippenham - it’s not amazing but is fine and for anyone wanting a new 3 or 4 bedder with good motorway links, train link , supermarkets and at a ‘relatively ‘ sensible price I think it actually has a lot going for it - I think a lot of incomers is changing the demographic too and is actually improving- and very easy and cheap just to go into Bath if you want a bit more

I live in the Midlands, (originally from the south), but also known as the Peak District which isn’t shitty at all. Reasonably priced property too😊

I really dislike the phrase, "down south", as though it is all one place. It sounds dismissive as though who says it thinks themselves superior somehow. Also ignorant - the south east is very different indeed from the south west.

@HeronPond you’ll have a great time.

@RampantIvy I love the city too. It has more life in it on an average weeknight than other cities I’ve spent time in on a weekend. I’d been thinking about having a weekend away in London with friends for my 40th ever since I’d done that for my 21st. In the last 2 years I’ve said I want to go to Liverpool instead for my 40th. It has everything I want (and more); like @Crikeyalmighty I’ve found it very friendly and from experience it’s easier getting there and back by car even if the journey is longer than it is to London. I’ve not minded driving around Liverpool either.

I’ve not minded driving around Liverpool either.

Ha ha. The area around the Knowledge and Georgian quarters is OK, but the one way systems in the centre are awful. I drove round them several times when I moved DD to a flat share from student halls. It isn't something I want to repeat in a hurry.

Yes, people don't want to live where I live. Mostly because the main population is I dian/Pakistani/Bengali. But the local schools are amongst the best performing, the local teens are extremely polite, it's generally a safe area even in the evenings, and the local secondary school gets many straight 9s and A*. My own dc is going to Warwick
to study maths, a friend of his is off to LSE, another to Imperial, a couple of students to Oxford and three to study medicine.
I love living here!

I don’t know why everyone keeps mentioning Slough. I grew up there and left 20 years ago. The tiny 3 bed house I sold for 160k is now going for 350k +

I certainly wouldn’t call Slough affordable, you must all have a lot more money than me, I could never afford to move back!

£350k isnt expensive for 3 bed house though

Actually I just looked and it’s more like 450k.

It makes no difference to us though, we had to move to fucking Dudley to be able to afford anywhere, 170k was our absolute limit for a 3 bed house for our family. That was 5 years ago, and thank god we bough then, as even here would be unaffordable for us now, prices have gone up so much.

I feel bad now for dissing my home town. Live and work in Rochdale, it’s got some lovely areas, close to Pennines, and some not so good areas like lots of other places. lots more positives than there used to be.