What Are The Most Soulless Towns Or Place In The UK

[GLASGOWOODS]

Cleethorpes!

Accidentally went there the other day. The 'Pleasure beach consists of the 'Big Wheel' and the microscopically large 'Roller Coaster'!

What a dreary, dreadful place. It appears to be a satellite town attached to the rear end of Grimsby … the giveaway being the first four letters of the latter.

Stayed for as long as our sensibilities would allow … about fifteen minutes as it transpired.

 

That Roller Coaster looks wicked!

 

My choice of grotty soulless location would be Irvine (Scotland). Spent 12 hours there last week and never heard one James Brown song.

[Branyy]

Guys, I'm not British and I must say that you (sometimes) can't fully appreciate what you have here I agree that there certainly are some s*holes but I've been to some places mentioned in this thread and it wasn't that bad For example Cleethorpes - I had really great time there, the park (the green one not the amusing park) is pretty, tiny zoo is nice, and I just loved random walks along the seashore... But I guess it also depends on the certain parts of the town - some look better, some worse...

[Hogg]

Guys, I'm not British and I must say that you (sometimes) can't fully appreciate what you have here I agree that there certainly are some s*holes but I've been to some places mentioned in this thread and it wasn't that bad For example Cleethorpes - I had really great time there, the park (the green one not the amusing park) is pretty, tiny zoo is nice, and I just loved random walks along the seashore... But I guess it also depends on the certain parts of the town - some look better, some worse...

 

Good that you are a glass half full type, but I bet you never paddled in the sea there, it feels - slimy.

[Alcoblog]

Good that you are a glass half full type, but I bet you never paddled in the sea there, it feels - slimy.

A glass half full of the seawater from there would represent a national biological disaster.

 

---------- Post added 04-01-2016 at 23:15 ----------

 

That Roller Coaster looks wicked!

 

My choice of grotty soulless location would be Irvine (Scotland). Spent 12 hours there last week and never heard one James Brown song.

A bit like going on a York ghost hunt then?

[Stoatwobbler]

i mean places like the Mosborough Townships to the south of Sheffield and towns like Milton Keynes etc

 

I'll start with a place called Harlow in Basildon Essex, this town must be one the most soulless places ever, it has the most boring unimaginative buildings landscaped area i have ever visited. Retail parks, Barrat Homes and 60's architecture all contribute to the make up of the town. There's no character, individuality in the buldings, the shops, and houses, it's somewhere that could easily be mistaken for dozens of bland places across the country, just that bit more land than most other similar places.

 

Where's the most bland soullesss place you'e ever been to?

 

 

Having lived in Essex for 11 years, I could't agree more about BasVegas. It's not a place you'd want to visit.

 

To be honest, most of Essex south of the River Crouch isn't that great (with the exception of Rayleigh). The nice stuff in Essex tends to be nearer to Suffolk than London.

 

---------- Post added 05-01-2016 at 07:53 ----------

 

That'll be new Harlow - the old original bit is lovely and also very very expensive (even compared to the rest of Essex). Harlow isn't in Basildon though - it's a separate place. Basildon is nearly as soulless as new Harlow I agree. When I read your thread title, before reading your post, these two places were the first ones that came to mind but then I was brought up in Essex so I guess they would.

 

I don't know anywhere in Yorkshire that's as awful as the above

 

Harlow is on the other side of Essex to Basildon. I've got to admit that I've never really visited Harlow too much outside of going to see one or two gigs at The Square.

 

---------- Post added 05-01-2016 at 07:55 ----------

 

Coventry - decrepit concrete city with all the charm of infected piles.

 

You can blame the Luftwaffe for that.

 

---------- Post added 05-01-2016 at 07:57 ----------

 

A strong candidate has to be Ashtead in Surrey. When someone told me that residents of a Surrey commuter village were objecting to a house being used to accommodate families of injured servicemen I thought "It has to be Ashtead". And it was: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=468619&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&expand=true#StartComments

 

Beautiful houses, nice village, duckpond and everything. But the people who live there are like Dementors. It's full of 'keep off the grass' signs and the kind of people who erect a little white chain link fence around their private parking space by their flat.

 

They had a chippy, but this was not like other chippies - it was a full-on restaurant, marketed as 'Genuine Yorkshire style fish and chips!" I was surprised not to see a plastic whippet tethered outside the door just to add to the no doubt exotic and slightly dangerous atmosphere of this little slice of Northern gastronomy transported to the stockbroker belt. The food was nice but it cost three times as much as a genuine Yorkshire chippie.

 

That sounds an awful lot like Frinton-On-Sea in Essex. Except their chippy only opened in 1992 after much protest from the locals.

 

---------- Post added 05-01-2016 at 08:01 ----------

 

Ipswich has to be in the running,and most of the towns in greater Manchester.

 

I used to work in Ipswich and I have to say that whilst the town centre is ugly, it's not that bad overall. Nothing special but I'd rather be in Ipswich than Basildon.

[Annina]

I'm with mojo, if the world needed an enema, Stavely is the place that it would be administered.

[LeMaquis]

Harlow......

 

As soulless as they come.

 

The train station is about 2 miles from the town centre. I'm trying to think of any other town with a railway station so far away from its centre.

 

The centre itself is a concrete square surrounded by multi-storey car parks and a ring (really a square) road. You can bypass the town centre all day without seeing it due to the car parks and other buildings. Not that you've missed anything.

 

The rest of it is a series of dual carriageways, roundabouts and retail parks. Someone must have thought town planning was all about the American model.

[foxy lady]

I once got diverted off the motorway and had to cross Wolverhampton. It isn't a place that I'd ever go back to. I'm surprised sat-navs don't warn against it and plot alternative routes to avoid it.

 

---------- Post added 06-01-2016 at 17:53 ----------

 

As soulless as they come.

 

The train station is about 2 miles from the town centre. I'm trying to think of any other town with a railway station so far away from its centre.

 

 

Won't Sheffield be like that when HS2 moves the main line to Meadowhall?

[Mister M]

As soulless as they come.

 

The train station is about 2 miles from the town centre. I'm trying to think of any other town with a railway station so far away from its centre.

 

The centre itself is a concrete square surrounded by multi-storey car parks and a ring (really a square) road. You can bypass the town centre all day without seeing it due to the car parks and other buildings. Not that you've missed anything.

 

The rest of it is a series of dual carriageways, roundabouts and retail parks. Someone must have thought town planning was all about the American model.

 

I believe Milton Keynes is very much like that. I've never been, but I spoken to those that have, and the consensus of opinion seems to be that it is dreadful.

[carosio]

This is a nice view from a residential street in a town in northern England.

Breathe deeply.

 

http://i665.photobucket.com/albums/vv12/carosio/b.jpg