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Towns/cities in the UK which are surprisingly good
I had a good night out round Scarborough once. It was full of roidhead chavs, but at least the sun shone, there were some lovingly preserved Victorian buildings and not everyone was over 85 as I'd been warned. The odd thing is, as a child I had no idea whatsoever that anything cultural could come out of Manchester - just thought people there watched Corrie and cried in the rain.
knutsford
not really surprising
lot of money round those parts
always pleasantly surprised by Birmingham
Birmingham's never failed to disappoint
I had high hopes that were quickly dashed on my first visit. Every time I've been back I've always thought I was being a bit too harsh and it wasn't as bad as I remembered it, but it was and still is.
loads of places have a bad reputation which is undeserved
Liverpool, Glasgow, Bradford, Nottingham and Sheffield are all great.
Dundee also gets a bad rap all the time. i actually think its alright.
Nice to see some people have a good impression of Bradford.
Almost everyone I've met who live here despise it.
I love Bradford
Great curries, Media Museum is always good especially the photography exhibitions, Salt's Mill and Hockney stuff in general, and three cinema options - Pictureville, Imax, Cineworld.
I had a good night out in Loughborough once
But it peaked early and I might just have been too drunk to be critical.
I've seen Bristol get some stick, but I think it's a lovely place to live.
Bristol? From people from there or visitors?
Because there are some right scummy parts of it that visitors very rarely see (or those who've moved north of the river, for that matter), which growing up in I imagine would rather taint your impression of the place.
I think it's ace, though.
Well I live in Bristol
and I've been to Hartcliffe maybe twice. Knowle West once (and that was more than enough), no visitors would ever go there.
aw, Loughborough is alright for a night out, yes.
it gets overlooked for Notts and Leicester. Which is sad, because those places are both shit.
Whichever ones don't have a Greggs in them
^^^my single, unmalleable criterion
I used to like Greggs
Until I realised they were ruining the pasty - one of the greatest, most simple culinary pleasures known to man - by making the filling the texture of pulped baby food, with the occasional pea.
You bastard/bitch/whatever.
Massively, massively want a Greggs now. It's midnight. :(
...and another stomach was spared...
...but for how long???
Until tomorrow lunchtime, I should think.
Genuinely excited about the prospect, I hadn't thought about Greggs for at least three weeks. My earlier reaction was entirely misjudged. I shall instead thank you for reminding me of such tongue sizzling goodness.
Literally, though
Agent Orange in them there muffins
Bradford
aside from all the good Indian restaurants, had a pretty cool film museum thingy, and some other stuff I can't remember
At the film museum
Did you go to the cafe or bar and get served by a hairy dude? That might hvae been me.
Portsmouth.
People seem to think it's some awful shithole, but it's quite nice, history, Gunwharf Quays, Southsea Common, a bit different and unique. It's not amazing but it's not as bad as people think. At least unlike Southampton it's got a bit of character.
From what I have seen of it, Portsmouth is completely horrendous
Haven't actually been to the centre of town I don't think, but whenever I have driven in or out either on the way to playing football there or for a gig, everywhere has looked horrible - the architecture is so bad. Southsea Festival has been good fun both times I have been, but that area is full of mentals - not really any different to London Road in Brighton, which is the only bad bit of Brighton (discounting outlying estates). Southampton is not a good place either, quite right.
mmm, london road
I live 8 miles from Portsmouth
Obviously some parts of it are an absolute shit tip (looking at you Fratton and North End), but there are lots of redeeming places. Southsea, Old Portsmouth and the area around Albert Road and Gunwharf Quays are all nice with their own character.
... which isn't surprising...
Because it's known as a beautiful historic city.
geographical snobbery does get tiresome
xxxxxxxxx is a shithole etc..... your only memory of said place was a trip back when you were 11, it rained and your mum didn't buy you an ice cream so you had a little cry, but yeah xxxxxx is a shithole.
there are only a handful of truly awful places in the UK
Lincoln
Had very low expectations considering how rubbish most of the Midlands is, but the two weeks I spent there a while back were lovely. Nice buildings, great restaurants and a favourable non-twat:twat ratio.
Aye
Lincoln is a wonderful place, and somewhere I always recommend to people looking for a weekend break or something. Bit of an arse to get to, but it's lovely.
Bit of a small town mentality though...
*runs*
I didn't notice that much when I was there!
Although I definitely filed the place under one to visit and not to live in...
Not surprising though - it is a small town in the arse of nowhere. Although I suspect it's a lot more of a bugbear of yours than mine. I don't really care mostly, although one place I was astonished by the small townness was Canterbury. An unrivalled delight during the day - an absolute shitfest after dark.
Don't worry, it was a reference to an old thread,
where an offhand comment about Lincoln having a small town mentality was blown up into a massive argument about whether it could have a small town mentality if it was a city.
As a born and bread Lincolnian, I can confirm that this is very true!
Awfully backward place...
A big contrast between the very lovely uphill area (St. Giles estate excluded)and shithole downhill area/city center.
Wherever you are, you're never too far from a field either!
Yeah, I was staying up on the hill opposite the cathedral
The place I was working was at the bottom of the hill just past the train tracks. Never has the phrase "wrong side of the tracks" ever seemed as easily applicable. Having said that, the worse bits of Lincoln look like the better bits of Wolverhampton so it's all relative.
(Incidentally, that fucking hill. The word "Steep" should be in giant bold red letters on the map).
Well it is called 'Steep Hill'!
Always a challenge after a night out...
The North in general.
I wouldn't spend more than a weekend there or anything, but it's not actually as bad as many people would have you believe.
348 posts
I went to the North once
came back covered in soot
The North has the reputation the Midlands deserves.
The Midlands is what the north would be like
Id it hadnt made a desperate, cringeworthy effort to try to be the south
enjoy hackney
Perhaps an unpopular opinion
but most small provincial towns, whilst having a high dickhead:sound ratio people wise, are really fun and underrated nights out compared to cities which are hugely overrated (in the main).
merthyr tydfil
Not ^this
The over 85s are like reverse vampires in Scarborough
they only come out during the day, for chips and zimmers or something. Booze/chips are cheap and chavs are plentyfull anytime mind.
Hull.
Went there once, have always wanted to go back. Pleasant harbourside, lovely tea shops, warm and friendly local accent.
Hull is surprisingly great
Took my girlfriend there for the weekend a couple of years ago - she thought I was joking but we ended up having a great time :)
Stoke-on-Trent
Having lived there (here) for the last few years, I've decided its not all that bad.
Might be a bit bleak in areas, but every town as its shit parts.
Probably wouldn't describe it as 'good' but its certainly not as bad as it seems.
i thought chichester was nice
thought the witterings were the only place worth going but the town itself was nice had a lovely day there and took loads of good pictures
You really don't want to live there though.
Their train station makes me happy.
Retro beauty.
I'm from Scarborough
it's great, very very underrated and interesting place. Good jazz + blues scene too if that's your bag.
Birmingham was surprisingly nice when I went there, I was expecting it to be fucking awful. I was only in the city centre though.
Derby.
Though it pains me to admit it.
Norwich
Inevitably gets a lot of stick from folk who've a) never been and b) think that all that happens when you get there is see a load of farmers fucking each other but it's lovely. Absolutely lovely.
Always thought Norwich had a pretty good (deserved) rep myself ...
Fair enough
But I think if you asked the average person who'd never been to Norwich, whether or not they'd want to go there they'd probably err on the side of 'not really' owing to stereotypical negative connotations.
But it should have a pretty good rep amongst people who've been/lived there for sure!
yeah I often get some shite when I tell people I'm from Norwich
which is why I moved to Scotland, because they couldn't care less :P
Norwich is nice enough, my parents and some friends of mine are still there so its nice to visit (plus to see NCFC) but its so quiet and dead and claustrophobic after 18 years that I very much doubt I could ever move back
agreed
good shops, old market, castle, the arts centre (plus other music venues)... a fine city
the arts centre is like the only venue left :P
lucky that it is pretty good (when decent bands play that is)
it's a shit hole
Frome in Somerset
You'd think it'd be just full of people reading the Guardian in flip flops in coffee shops and commuting to Bath and Bristol, and well it is, but there's also loads of great cultural and artistic stuff happening and the people are really civic minded and individual. There's loads of cool independant shops, venues, pubs and art galleries etc.
Go to the Frome festival.
Leicester.
Had only seen it from the train station. It's got a significantly gnarly 'Old' part, it turns out, with a pretty tight 15thC Guild Hall that you can look around.
Summer Sundae is...
...a cracking little festival too.
Sunderland
Even though i know it's PRETTY shit, it's not massively shit. It's got a pretty lush coast and stuff. And it's a class night out if you don't mind drinking orange vk's surrounded by 15 year olds from Pennywell (I don't)
Also it's got an alright music scene if you're into certain things and y'know some nice cafes.
And museums and that. You could HAPPILY spend a bit of time in sunderland. Probably.
Am I the only person here indie enough that I read that line as 'It was full of radiohead chavs'
?
indie enough
JFC