Worst places in England.

robfosters said:
I feel thankful every day that I’ve been lucky enough to live in decent areas my entire life
Click to expand...

If you think Welling is a decent area I don't want to know what you consider a bad area :cry:

I was brought up near there, haven't been back in a few years but I remember Welling / Belvedere / Erith / Crayford / Abbey Wood / Thamesmead / Bexleyheath etc being full of chavs, unless things have changed in recent years?
 
About 3 weeks ago we went to the Isle of Wight for 5 days and I was gobsmacked.
Traveling from the ferry to Shanklin was like going through the 6 Towns of Stoke and all Stokie's now how grim that is.
Even visiting Cowes we didn't feel safe and ended up going back to the coach after 30 minutes of a 90 minute drop.
On the first evening we walked into Shanklin Town Centre for a pint but also didn't feel safe there so just stayed in the hotel for the other 3 evenings.
 
geekman said:
If you think Welling is a decent area I don't want to know what you consider a bad area :cry:

I was brought up near there, haven't been back in a few years but I remember Welling / Belvedere / Erith / Crayford / Abbey Wood / Thamesmead / Bexleyheath etc being full of chavs, unless things have changed in recent years?
Click to expand...
It’s too expensive to be chavvy now. Only a tiny bit of social housing remaining and the average price for a 3 bed semi is nigh on half a mill.
 
Last edited:
SexyGreyFox said:
About 3 weeks ago we went to the Isle of Wight for 5 days and I was gobsmacked.
Traveling from the ferry to Shanklin was like going through the 6 Towns of Stoke and all Stokie's now how grim that is.
Even visiting Cowes we didn't feel safe and ended up going back to the coach after 30 minutes of a 90 minute drop.
On the first evening we walked into Shanklin Town Centre for a pint but also didn't feel safe there so just stayed in the hotel for the other 3 evenings.
Click to expand...
I think most seaside resorts have struggled with post Covid. They look a former shadow of themselves.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
I obviously have no idea what it's turned into but it can't be worse than Abbey Hulton just over the road.
Click to expand...

Ah "Scabbey Abbey" still have a mate who lives there :D

I know I'm very negative but I realise that some people loved their life in Bentilee, it became part of who they are and, I'm assuming here, would never consider anything else, so their stories will be far different than my own, almost to the point of "did you even live there?" based on the differences between us.

SexyGreyFox said:
There was also at least four pubs I used to gig at plus Ubberley & Bentillee WMC, Bentilee British Legion, Clowe's and another the other side of Dividy Road.
Click to expand...

Could've been The Thurston about 1/2 way down Dividy, it's gone now and been replaced by a tiny 8 house space.
 
Last edited:
ianh said:
I know I'm very negative but I realise that some people loved their life in Bentilee, it became part of who they are and, I'm assuming here, would never consider anything else, so their stories will be far different than my own, almost to the point of "did you even live there?" based on the differences between us.
Click to expand...

Even though two of my families got off there into really nice areas I had/have several mates who would never think of moving.
One of them bought his council house and spent £1000s renovating when he could have moved off into a nice area but he loved Bentilee and people.
Even the scummiest areas have got nice areas in them.
I live in Blurton and I know some people who come from the area will say "WTF" but where my Mum lived she had zero problems since 1966, where I live I've only know one break in since 1983 and I'd feel totally safe walking around at midnight however go over the road and I wouldn't walk there at midnight.

There's been a 'recent' incident in Bentilee that still isn't solved and has upset locals.
It's quite bad but nobody has asked 'Why have scum come from Manchester to burn her home down'?.

www.stokesentinel.co.uk

Three more arrests as Bentilee mum and daughter still fight for lives after fire

Nine people have now been detained over the Beverley Drive blaze
www.stokesentinel.co.uk www.stokesentinel.co.uk
 
As the guys in those videos come out of their bedroom?

The 2 big towns either side of me are in the videos.

Just because an area is poor doesn't make it the worst place to live.
 
SexyGreyFox said:
There's been a 'recent' incident in Bentilee that still isn't solved and has upset locals.
It's quite bad but nobody has asked 'Why have scum come from Manchester to burn her home down'?.

www.stokesentinel.co.uk

Three more arrests as Bentilee mum and daughter still fight for lives after fire

Nine people have now been detained over the Beverley Drive blaze
www.stokesentinel.co.uk www.stokesentinel.co.uk
Click to expand...

There's probably more to that story than me and you will ever know about but if there's 9 people involved so far and from different counties you can almost guarantee money and/or drugs are involved. She probably tried to shaft a few drug dealers and broke a few hearts in the process. Silly girl.

Nobody tries to kill /set someone on fire unless it's a very serious matter.
 
Beef Burger said:
There's probably more to that story than me and you will ever know about but if there's 9 people involved so far and from different counties you can almost guarantee money and/or drugs are involved. She probably tried to shaft a few drug dealers and broke a few hearts in the process. Silly girl.

Nobody tries to kill /set someone on fire unless it's a very serious matter.
Click to expand...

On our local Stoke on Trent Live Facebook page one person did ask what I wanted to ask "What had she done for people to come down from Manchester etc to burn her house down" and they got absolutely abused, glad I didn't ask it.
I think it's 100% County Lines stuff.
 
ianh said:
I left Bentilee nearly 30 years ago when I joined the RAF, it was an extremely dirt poor council estate back then so something's changed to allow the people who live there now to have a house with a driveway and a Range Rover. No-one back then had a driveway, and if your 10-15yo (so made in mid 70's) car could pass a "genuine" MOT rather than your mates dodgy one then you were lucky, no-one could afford the equivalent of a RR Evoke back then. Hell when someone bought a car which was less than 5yo everyone thought they were posh or were dealers etc!

The "rich" area of Bentilee was a sub-estate called Eaton Park and was non-council so it was there that people had driveways and owned their houses. The local High School (BerryHill) took kids from both estates and the fights were epic in scale. IIRC (and I'm not 100% this was accurate) BerryHill was the first school in Stoke to get CCTV because of the violence (pupil vs pupil and pupil vs teacher) which after a year had to be upgraded to armoured CCTV as the kids deliberately smashed them chucking stones at them every chance they got etc and there was "Anti Vandalism paint" on every surface to stop the kids climbing up the poles to get to the cameras and/or getting on the school roof.

Ah great times :D

The biggest problem Stoke had to me (and this is generic, everyone's experience is unique) was that the attitude of adults of the vast majority on the estates towards getting out was "Don't improve yourself. I'm council scum and proud, my dad was council scum and proud and his dad was council scum and proud too so if you try to improve yourself then I'll drag you back as much as I can, because if you can do it then it shows I could have if I'd tried and I don't want to acknowledge that so you need to stay scum like me" so I'm eternally grateful to my parents who pushed me, even though it isolated them from our neighbours. Well thats my experience of Bentilee anyway, maybe other estates were different, well I hope they were because it was an absolute hell hole to grow-up in for anyone who wanted to "break free".
Click to expand...
I went to James Brindley high, it was rough in there too but not on the level of some places in Stoke.
That school though was seriously low tier, it no longer exists.


Weird time for me I was a fostered child from a very abusive family, I have only just found out I was in a news paper.
 
Last edited:
Tired9 said:
I went to James Brindley high, it was rough in there too but not on the level of some places in Stoke.
Click to expand...


Between 2008 to 2010 I used to teach, support & mentor female students from a load of schools around the area in Healthcare at the main hospital including James Brindley.
My boss wasn't switched on to this side of his job but demanded all the representatives from the schools to come in one day.
We're all sitting there with a ghostly silence waiting for him to start but nothing for ages.
Somebody asked when we were going to start because they had got to get back to their school and he said he'll start when Mr Brindley arrives :)

The reason he got them there was very embarrassing.
He picked up a report me and my colleague had made about the attitude of students on a two day course and that if there was a repeat of the stuff that was in the report he would be expelling students.
Me and my colleague looked at one another and she told him it was nothing to do with Year 10 & 11 Students, that was a report on all the Young Doctors :)
 
Bluecube said:
From the replies above, it may be easier to ask if there are any nice places in England
Click to expand...


Basically, there's a good side and a bad side to every town and city in the UK but "nice" depends on your criteria and how much money you can spend. Some people might think it's nice living in a city centre loft apartment coz they like the hustle and bustle of modern life whereas the peace and quiet of living in a countryside cottage might be nice to someone else.

Generally speaking, England is a beautiful country and there's so many nice places you could live if you've got enough money to be choosey but I think, for most people, location is determined by jobs/careers and friend/family connections and not how wealthy you are.

If I suddenly became a multi millionaire I don't think I'd go looking for exclusive new postcodes to live in where I didn't know anybody and didn't know what to do or where to go in that area. I'd probably stay near my local area but just buy a bigger/better property. It wouldn't even cross my mind to move from Cheshire to Belgravia or buy a plot of land in the Scottish Highlands and build a luxury home.
 
Last edited:
moon man said:
I think location is also determined by people afraid to take a chance and move from where they are familiar with ,I came here without a job from Heckmondwike.,a few hundred yards from Karen Mathews estate
Click to expand...


I've lived in a lot of different places around the North West over the years (Lancashire, Liverpool, Manchester) and have probably rented over 20 different flats/houses scattered across those regions so I consider the North West to be home coz it's an area I know quite well.

I moved to Stoke and spent 6 years there but I had a reason to move there that was related to my business but I seriously can't understand why you would move from Leeds to Stoke for no apparent reason and without any job prospects on the horizon.

What you did seems stupid and pointless to me unless you were running away from something in Leeds and wanted a complete fresh start where nobody knows you.

I doubt anyone is actually too scared to take a chance and move away somewhere new but most people would need a reason to make a big life change like that. Stoke isn't a city anyone in their right mind would choose to move to on a whim. Overall it's quite a drab and dreary place to live compared to other more vibrant/buzzing cities/towns around the North and Midlands..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom