most disappointing UK city/place

crescent

Methil, Fife.
A complete armpit of a place. Allegedly it was once hit by a tornado which caused several hundreds of pounds of improvements.

Oh, and Cumbernauld.

jordan_217

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

My vote is a joint Kettering/Huntingdon. Considering the apparent wealth and affluence in the surrounding areas the town centre's are just 5hi7 holes!

Good shout on Padstow too. The single most overrated place I have ever been, crap fish and chips too.

simonhead

I think this needs a poll to go with it, i am one of those that read the title and automatically thought "where is a bit of a crap hole". As mentioned the disappointment factor is important.

A place that would get my vote would be Ascot, bigged up by friendsstay in a half decent hotel there for a weekend and come back feeling somewhat lacklustre

PerformingMonkey

lostboysaint wrote:

Gosport - yep, town centre is truly dreadful, but Alverstoke/Stokes Bay more than makes up for it.

I'll give you Stokes Bay and Alverstoke just for the chippy and the pub with the Elvis shrine. However I would also like to counter that with the Rowner area.

jordan_217

I wish to add Perranporth too; nasty place. My Sisters-in-law live there and think it's the jewel of Cornwall….

tangled_metal

my view on this thread is the place where you had a certain expectation of it, for whatever reasons, but on spending time you see those expectations being missed by a wide mile.

With this idea I have one place in mind. The expectations I have come from comparisons with towns I visit a lot that I assumed had similarities based on the towns' reputations. The comparisons were with Ambleside and Keswick in the Lakes. Those were towns linked to the title Adventure Capital of the UK. The other town is Fort William in Scotland.

Both Keswick and Ambleside are quite beautiful towns in a really nice area. Picture postcard both the town and the area.
Fast forward to many years of visiting the two Lakes towns I actually arrived in Fort William at the start of a trip. I had time and needed to buy some kit so thinking that one of the contenders for Adventure Capital would have a good load of outdoor shops to kit up I went up and down the high street going into every shop that looked like it had anything remotely outdoors related. First disappointment, only two half decent shops IMHO. Whilst walking around I thought the buildings were not very nice. In fact the was nothing good to say about the town. Disappointment.

Then I looked around and wondered whether there was a nice short walk I could do straight from town. Only about an hour up and down to get some exercise and fresh air at the end of the journey. Now Ambleside has a really nice walk up Wansfell. You can walk through the park and there are a few options there too. You can take part of the route up the start of the Fairfield horsehoe or the waterfalls. There are options. Keswick too has a nice walk over to the lake. You can go up Latrigg too. A nice walk along the river Greta too. Both these English towns have a really nice environment in the town and around the town to walk in. Fort William I do not know well and this could be a big reason in my disappointment number 3 but walking around it a few times now and nothing shows itself as obvious to me for a short walk after a long journey up there.

i think my expectations of Fort William stem from the idea that it is a centre you can do things in as well as around. My opinion of Fort William is that it is a stop off point to get provisions at the supermarket then you get out and into the highlands as quickly as you can. It is a junction between arriving in the area and actually doing what you came into the area to do. if you want anything more it is a disappointment. But it is not a dump as badly as other places but being a disappointment is different from being a dump it is about being let down when you go there.

lostboysaint

Philly8mt wrote:

My top ten .....

1. Mansfield
2. Mansfield
3. Mansfield
4. Mansfield
5. Mansfield
6. Mansfield
7. Rotherham
8. Hull
9. Skegness
10. Goldthorpe

Mansfield - I'd managed to get rid of that memory from my mind, you are absolutely right. My brother moved to Huthwaite and that whole corridor of Sutton in Ashfield through to Mansfield is just awful*.

*I pulled up to fill my car up with diesel on my first evening up there and got £10 in before the pump went "clunk" and stopped. I tried and tried again to get more in before eventually going in to find the cashier in a cage and demanding my bank card before he reset the pump to continue filling up "as we get too many drive-offs". I said "either reset the pump or you'll get another fucking drive off".

A truly awful place.

secretsam

If we're talking 'disappointing' rather than places you knew were a sh17hole before you went there (well, hello Immingham) - mine's Nottingham. Never warmed to it.

lostboysaint

PerformingMonkey wrote:

lostboysaint wrote:

Gosport - yep, town centre is truly dreadful, but Alverstoke/Stokes Bay more than makes up for it.

I'll give you Stokes Bay and Alverstoke just for the chippy and the pub with the Elvis shrine. However I would also like to counter that with the Rowner area.

And you'd be delighted to know that the whole area has been levelled and is being redeveloped.

mr_goo

Truro

I first visited a few years ago for work. And was really looking forward to the couple of nights I had booked down there. Apart from the cathedral it is quite the most awful place to visit. An awful shopping precinct come bus terminus dominates the city centre. There are some nice shops/eateries but not enough to redeem the city.

KnightOfTheLongTights

Glastonbury - you'd think it might be at least a little bit interesting.
But no, it's like a Disneyland of new age clap-trap.

mr_eddy

Blackpool (the seaside bit) - Seriously I went there a few years ago to collect a car I bought on the web. I felt ashamed to be british. Scum bags everywhere and litter / dog poop / chewing gum all over the place. What a hole !

bianchimoon

Tangled Metal wrote:

my view on this thread is the place where you had a certain expectation of it, for whatever reasons, but on spending time you see those expectations being missed by a wide mile.

Hit the nail on the head TM with what my intention of how the thread should go, fully agree with Fort William. Really looked forward to going there, but oh so disappointed with what I found

Stevo_666

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

smoggysteve

Can I vote for just the UK as a hole? Just because it is one.

Most backward, miserable, filthy, crime infested dump in Europe. No wonder the Sweaty socks wanted away if only to call their shit-tip their own shit-tip

jordan_217

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

You Sir, need to lower your expectations!

oscarbudgie

Harrogate. Cemetery with fairy lights

bianchimoon

jordan_217 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

You Sir, need to lower your expectations!

he's from Redka, how can his expectations be lower?

lostboysaint

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

And maybe that's the problem, my expectations have probably all been far too high* and I need to recalibrate them to avoid future disappointments.

* I find myself nodding along to those who wrote Padstow (RickSteinVille) as well.

smoggysteve

bianchimoon wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

You Sir, need to lower your expectations!

he's from Redka, how can his expectations be lower?

Ah Sunny Redcar. Place of my childhood. If only there was a way of it falling into the sea Atlantis style.

jordan_217

SmoggySteve wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

You Sir, need to lower your expectations!

he's from Redka, how can his expectations be lower?

Ah Sunny Redcar. Place of my childhood. If only there was a way of it falling into the sea Atlantis style.

Well the sea has reclaimed some of Saltburn so maybe it'll work it's way round the coast ?!

smoggysteve

jordan_217 wrote:

SmoggySteve wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

You Sir, need to lower your expectations!

he's from Redka, how can his expectations be lower?

Ah Sunny Redcar. Place of my childhood. If only there was a way of it falling into the sea Atlantis style.

Well the sea has reclaimed some of Saltburn so maybe it'll work it's way round the coast ?!

Not fast enough. Need a natural disaster to remove this unnatural disaster

mr_eddy

Just to also add - Someone mentioned Monaco as a positive. I went there and its blackpool with better weather and if possible even more awful people.

lostboysaint

mr_eddy wrote:

Just to also add - Someone mentioned Monaco as a positive. I went there and its blackpool with better weather and if possible even more awful people.

Like.

Stevo_666

SmoggySteve wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

SmoggySteve wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

You Sir, need to lower your expectations!

he's from Redka, how can his expectations be lower?

Ah Sunny Redcar. Place of my childhood. If only there was a way of it falling into the sea Atlantis style.

Well the sea has reclaimed some of Saltburn so maybe it'll work it's way round the coast ?!

Not fast enough. Need a natural disaster to remove this unnatural disaster

My expectations are pretty low to start with, it's easier than being successful :P

Unfortunately Tsunamis are a bit rare in the North sea. I suppose we could hope the Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station goes a bit 'Fukushima'.

desweller

I was sort of disappointed that the engineers at Llanberis hadn't rigged up an enormous (let's say, 20ft) Jacob's ladder to lend a bit of weight to the tag 'Electric Mountain'.

rolf_f

mr_eddy wrote:

Just to also add - Someone mentioned Monaco as a positive. I went there and its blackpool with better weather and if possible even more awful people.

That was me and I apologise. TBH, I'd have liked it once - before they ran the bulldozers through all the lovely old buildings and ruined it. Besides, it's were arseholes go to live.

A good example of a disappointing place - Stratford upon Avon. It sounds nice, you imagine it all to be a Shakespearean theme park - all timber frame and quaintness. But it's suffered from truly crass local planners and is largely charmless.

Of course, it's even more disappointing if you confuse it with somewhere else and end up looking for Anne Hathaways cottage in East London.......

Stevo_666

Also quite amusing that a thread on crap places brings out all the current and former residents of a certain corner of the North East I think we only need 'Shocked so shocked' to make an appearance and we've got a full house.

eric_draven

jordan_217 wrote:

SmoggySteve wrote:

bianchimoon wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Stevo 666 wrote:

jordan_217 wrote:

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Middlesbrough?!?! I'm shocked, it's usually the place everyone loves to hate. Middlesbrough isn't a bad place, there's just a lot of ar5eholes who drag it down. Some great cycling to be done too.

Probably because the thread is about places that are well below expectations. Middlesbrough is a bit crap but everyone expects it to be.

You Sir, need to lower your expectations!

he's from Redka, how can his expectations be lower?

Ah Sunny Redcar. Place of my childhood. If only there was a way of it falling into the sea Atlantis style.

Well the sea has reclaimed some of Saltburn so maybe it'll work it's way round the coast ?!

Hope that would happen a bit further down the coast at Scarborough,just the town hall needs to go in the North sea,and take the councillors that run the town down with it

Sith lard

Stoke.total shoot hole that makes Alsager look inviting.