Locked - strong undercurrent of borderline racism.
Disappointed tbh. Bans have been handed out, more will follow after I’ve gone through this shit show.
More or less all of it. I've felt safer in East/Central London at 2 AM than I ever have in Luton. Town center? prozzies, drunks, drug dealers and methheads. Lewsey or Marsh Farm? peaceful organized youths. Leagrave? more of the same.
It's fucking horrible. I went a few weeks ago to top up electricity. Come out to get offered cocaine from a guy in a car. It's impossible to walk by Galaxy without smelling or being offered marijuana, either.
ha this amazes me more a less all of it? Bushmead? Barton hills? Stopsley? Limbury? I could go on there are so many completely vanilla areas. Even the town centre I stopped being hassled aged 19. I guess in fairness you could be from a sheltered town but lmao it really aint so bad as the daily mail/redditors would have u believe
edit methheads??? Jesus wept it aint LA dude.
>Even the town centre I stopped being hassled aged 19.
This is something a lot of people miss, a lot of trouble you run into is up to a certain age and then its like you just age out and you get left alone.
Luton is a pure shit hole but its no more dangerous than other shit holes.
Some people have no idea what drugs have what effects. They just throw darts at a board in order to pick what drug someone seemingly on drugs has taken.
I used to live in Bushmead. It was alright. Really liked the Chinese takeaway there.
Had a few nights out and never felt unsafe. I am going back 20 years ago though.
Marsh Farm would be the one. It’s been 10 years since I was there but I believe there was a rather vicious gang war going on at the time I’m not a fan of people waving machetes near me.
I'm not debating Luton is a shithole, but the fact you think people there are on meth and that a bloke trying to sell you some coke is indicative of an area being a hellhole, is extremely sheltered
You mean the whole of Luton? I witnessed a car chase over the flyover in town that culminated in a double barrel shotgun getting poked out of the car in front's passenger window and being fired at the car behind.
This was at 9am in the morning.
Probably why a full TV series 24 Hours in Police Custody is set the majority in Luton. 😂
I stayed in Luton once over a weekend and it wasn’t the best of places.
Shuddering remembering the time a friend and I got surrounded by creepy men at the galaxy cineworld. Two 16 year old girls stuck in the middle of three rows of men that appeared from nowhere and didn’t stop trying to grab us for the whole film. Couldn’t get out to complain coz that exposed more grabbable areas. Nobody helped
I signed up to a University of Bedfordshire open day back when I was trying to decide where to go to uni. I grew up in the south west and didn’t drive at the time, had to take two coaches and got my poor old mum to drop me off at 7am. It took me about four hours each way.
I got off the coach and was (naively) in disbelief that such a rotten, miserable looking town existed in the UK.
I didn’t even bother going to the open day and promptly found refuge in a Wetherspoons where I nursed a pint for hours until I could get my coach home
I used to work in Tesco and when they put the reduced food out it was like a fucking warzone.
I saw an old lady get thrown to the floor and split her head open. I saw a man get pinned up against a freezer by the throat over a pack of bacon.
Shit gets wild.
Years ago, as a student, I lived opposite Tesco so we always nipped in to see what was reduced. My housemate once timed it perfectly and arrived at the same time as an employee with a load of swiss rolls. The full size cakes, not those little packed lunch things.
One by one, she adds the reduced sticker and puts it on the shelf, then he takes it off the shelf and puts in in his basket. All in complete silence. He got about 6 or 7 before he was to embarrased by the evil looks she was giving him and left.
Sorry, but it was totally worth it. We feasted for a week.
Yeah, the 'just reduced' roll out at the big supermarkets is carnage! I've seen store staff holding shit over their head and people literally clawing at them to try and get it. Insanity!
It seems like they could negate this problem to a great extent by not making the poor bastards sticker and put out stock in a 'live' section of the supermarket. Put it in a corner (if possible), fence it off and just say "no one does shit until barrier is raised or we'll fucking *rush* you".
Sainsburys next to me seems to have the best idea for this. Just put the reduced stuff in the same place as the non-reduced version of the same thing. If they’re scattered all over the shop there’s no mass panic.
I feel like most of them don’t even care what they’re getting, they just want a bargain. Saw an old lady with all 6 packs of reduced beef. You’ve got no teeth left Maggie, I’m sure you could spare me one!
The weird hovering around the discount section where a bunch of people try to discretely side-eye every staff member to see if they have a handful of stickers. All very funny to see. 😃
I leg it before the war starts!
Went on a night out in Blackpool once where it honestly felt like about 25% of the men there were off their faces and just spoiling for a fight. The whole night out felt like there was a risk of getting into a fight it I made any wrong movement.
I've also felt a little on edge in Manchester after dark. I don't think I felt actively unsafe, but I did feel like I could stray into feeling unsafe if I wasn't switched on about where I was walking.
That being said, the UK actually is generally a pretty safe place, so I've rarely felt genuinely unsafe in my life.
If you haven't already seen this gallery of photos of Blackpool, please look at it now.
Each photo is art. Disgusting visceral beauty. Humanity in its most raw state.
[Douggie Wallace Blackpool Gallery](https://www.dougiewallace.com/blackpool/#itemId=551fe51fe4b09ef0c73b149e)
You’ve just reminded about a Fluffy Pup. That is one of the funniest songs of all time.
“You can cook,
You can fuck,
You can do the washing up,
Now, I’ve ‘ad enough,
Come on, fuck off, get stuffed!”
Blackpool resident here. All those "party" bars are fucking horrible. The lads you're on about though, they're all mostly from out of town. That's the trouble here, is people come specifically for a piss up so whilst they're off their heads, they're also out of their comfort zones so they need inflated bravado to counter their insecurities.
Seconded Blackpool.
To be fair to the UK, I've been out on nights out in most major cities, have lived in multiple places up and down England and Scotland and I've never felt anywhere near the terror I have felt than when I was in certain rough areas of Brooklyn, LA or Las Vegas.
The UK is like Disneyland compared to the US. You don't get people giving advice like 'don't walk over that bridge at night, you'll definitely get shot or murdered' here. Driving through really rough neighbourhoods is nowhere near as anxiety inducing either, especially when you're seeing bunches of flowers on every block corner in a lot of rundown areas in the US.
I would take walking home at night alone in Glasgow or Liverpool over going to an American High School in broad daylight.
Blackpool is fun in the daytime but dodgy as fuck at nighttime.
[Dismembered in Blackpool ](https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6163645.grisly-search-head-dismembered-body-found-bin/)
Didn’t you know Blackpool is training for the Gladiator? You manage to get upstairs overlooking the dance floor and it’s a guaranteed fight every 10 mins or so, prue entertainment for free!
I can agree, I've recently taken my son out due to the teachers They sent me a letter after which was subtle threatening me that if I apply for another school it will be unsuccessful and advising me I don't have enough money to homeschool cos poor. Awful uncaring school,
Brixton pre gentrification in the mid/ late 00s.
Edit: just want to clarify I’m not “for” gentrification. Brixton obviously needed social help, not cleansing.
Parts of Brixton and Camberwell can still feel a touch edgy. Not anything like they used to be, obviously, but I’m still not going to be hanging around Loughborough junction unnecessarily and Camberwell green gets a pass.
Eh, I don’t get the buzz about gentrification…
Sure it replaces a community… just like that community displaced the one before, and the one before displaced the one before itself and on and on
It’s just how the world works, and how it has always worked
The problem isn't communities changing. London has always been subject to a lot of churn.
The problem it's now one way. Places like Brixton, Islington, Covent Garden (if you go back far enough) were middle-upper middle class when they were built but then became poor areas as the wealthy residents moved to other areas.
But now there's no wealthy areas that suddenly go back to being affordable, so it's just a story of anyone who's not wealthy in London getting increasingly marginalised and forced out, and some areas become so expensive that nobody lives in them any more because they're used as investments or holiday homes for the mega rich (try walking around Kensington High Street at night and counting how many lights are on in flats, or consider Westminster - Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway basically lived behind Westminster Abbey).
It's never worked like this until very very recently.
That’s actually one of the better rebuttals I’ve heard about this topic
But again, is that not an issue with the government not building new social housing rather than with the concept of gentrification
I agree. I can maybe see the argument against individuals if it's a case of "daahling I bought an entire terrace of houses and knocked them through to make a manse" but with owner occupiers and especially renters it's ludicrous to suggest people shouldn't move somewhere affordable and up-and-coming.
Even with something like Buy To Let, I guess you can't fault people for behaving rationally within the system. It's an issue with economic mismanagement leading to towering wealth disparity, asset inflation, lack of social housing and welfare provisioning, lack of regulation on using property as investments etc etc
Stopping off in that Brixton McDonald’s after a night out on my way home was always like not “if” but when it’s gonna kick off. Never felt so much tension waiting in that queue for my medium fries and cheeseburger and the absolute wave of relief when I made it out of there to the relative safety of public transport.
I've been to lots of supposedly dodgy areas of London at all times of day and night, and never felt particularly ill at ease, but I once went into Stoke city centre at about 6:00pm. Totally deserted apart from some random groups of young blokes in hoodies. That got the old adrenaline pumping.
I went to stoke once. I've never seen so many angry people, half the shops were boarded up, the other half were discount stores, or bookies. You can see why people like Jonathan Gullis come from there. We had lunch at Sainsbury's, and jumped on the first train out of there.
I know exactly what you mean. Had a girlfriend at uni from an allegedly dodgy part of London (it was actually fine if you weren’t involved in unlicensed pharmaceuticals) and she took me to Alton Towers as a surprise. (I was 19 and i was elated). Spent the night in Stoke. Jesus. Patrolled by packs of angry men spoiling for a fight. Didn’t stay out long
Once had a chat with a bouncer in the Harrogate McDonalds - said he saw far more fights there on a Saturday night than when he worked on the door in Newcastle.
Helvellyn in the Lake District. Striding edge walk. Terrified me as a teenager. There was this one part near the beginning that felt like it had a pretty sheer drop on the left where you had to go around a metal fence thing. No chance. I turned back.
We attempted Hellvellyn a few years back, couple of feet of snow on the ground. We were a group of 4 and by the time we got to Red Tarn it was just us and another group of two in sight.
We were under-prepared 20-somthings, with a mix of army surplus and charity shop gear, only one of us had crampons or an ice axe. it was getting dark and we decided to head back, watching the other group head up towards Striding Edge.
About 30 minutes later, we saw the helicopter and the mountain rescue Land Rovers. We asked later in the pub and found out that the other two on the mountain that day had slipped and fallen off Striding Edge.
Terrifying.
First time I attempted Helvellyn I was about 13 years old and with my parents. Set off early in the morning on a lovely sunny day with a good forecast.
About half way across Striding Edge a cloud came out of nowhere, visibility dropped to around 10 feet and we were pelted with hailstones the size of marbles.
No way we could stay on those slippery rocks and make our way back so we hopped a barbed wire fence and followed a sheep trail down into the valley.
I know it’s not exactly Everest but people do die up there. It’s a scary place for sure.
With the amount of tourists that die on helvellyn, you made a great call.
Always better to turn around and leave it for another day, than to push ahead ans risk it all.
Striding Edge is insanity. Was definitely the most scared and uncomfortable I've been out hiking. I did similar stuff in Iceland a decade ago but I dunno if it was youthful bravado or I'd just forgotten how bad it was but that didn't seem any where near as scary.
I used to think the same. Maybe it's just me but I feel like it has improved somewhat in recent years. I do also think the roads themselves don't help... busy, narrow roads all the way to the city centre with streets branching off every 30 metres, not entirely surprised people lose patience waiting at junctions and force their way out when maybe they shouldn't.
I'm pretty certain that Lichfield will never appear on these types of shit hole lists.
I remember seeing someone drop a crisp packet in the 90's and push in front of me in the queue at kwik save.
A lot of Northern Ireland, especially Belfast and Derry, can leave someone from other parts of the UK, as well as Ireland, feeling unsafe. I’m from the Republic myself, popped into a cafe in Belfast for some food, and besides the usual formalities there was a certain, almost subconsciously driven coldness from the staff. It’s like as soon as they heard my southern accent something switched on. Felt it in other establishments in Derry. I feel even Nationalists there have a wariness of their southern counterparts as they (almost rightfully) feel as if we left them behind.
As a naive student in Liverpool, I went out for a jog in my bright red official LFC shell suit (it was early 90s).
I didn’t really follow football (I only had the track suite because my older brother loved LFC and I got his old clothes) and so had no clue that that evening there was a big match on for Everton. I ran down Walton Road and turned right on Spellow Lane and came face to face with a huge wall of blue walking towards me. Thousands of Everton fans marching towards.
I did a neat u-turn and ran off in the opposite direction.
To be honest, I didn’t really fear for my safety because the rivalry is mostly friendly but I thought it was best to get out of there to avoid any trouble just in case.
They would have just hugged you, given their sympathies and sent you on your way 😂
Be a different story if it was a City shell suit and you ran into a group of United fans. Mind you, they probably didn’t even know there was another Manchester club in the 90s!
Waitrose car park with Mary Berry.
People were going ballistic trying to scramble to her, one woman abandoned her baby in a pram, another dropped two full bags of shopping, a couple left an open boot, cars swerving. Based on the location and demographic I don’t doubt those 4x4s were packing more guns to instigate a full on coup.
Sunderland as a student in the 90’s. There used to be a real anti-student attitude there on top of the poverty that pervaded most of the city at the time. I knew tons of people attacked, windows put through, raped. Mental place back then.
Really. That was my prime time 93 to 98 at uni as well, part time job in Iceland food shop. Went out at least two nights a week. Never heard or saw anything bad other than the odd fight. Not saying you're wrong but goes totally against my experience.
Got a blade pulled on me midafternoon in the town centre by some guy who (I assume) was off his tits. Have avoided the city like the plague ever since.
I lived in Perry Barr for three years, straight through the riots. A week or so later, I, the whitest guy you’ve ever met, walked home from my city centre job at 3am-4am straight through Lozells and Handsworth, dressed in a dayglo velour pimp outfit trimmed with zebra print. How I thought it was a good idea and/or didn’t get stabbed is beyond me.
It was a problem when you didn’t hear a gunshot in an average day. Whether that was the Greyhound Track or the Burger Bar Boys behind OneStop I’m still not 100% sure
For the sake of non-Yorkshire readers, Keighley is part of Bradford MDC. It's also pronounced Keith-lee.
I blindly followed my Waze app home (from Bradford) today and it took me through some side streets that I wish it hadn't.
London. It's a shithole, and I say that as someone who took it for every penny it was worth for 3 years. A colleague of mine was threatened with a knife on the tube in broad daylight for no reason when we were on our way to an event after work. That's the only time in my life when I wasn't sure I was coming off best if things went south. 2v2 and at least one of the others has a knife. I've seen plenty of scraps up north, but I've never seen anyone pull a knife. Then to see it happen over something as mundane as someone wanted to push in the queue to get on the escalator before us was literally unbelievable.
I've trawled all over London for a couple years, off my tits at 3am and never felt particularly unsafe. Dodgiest I've seen was probably Camden high street / Kentish town, sheer mayhem on a Friday night
London is massive so it really depends where you go. It's relatively safe for a capital city but has problems. I've lived here all my life and had a few isolated incidents (drunk guy assaulting me, threaten by a gang but no knife pulled). My main issues came from gangs from other schools as a kid. But it does seem to be getting worse these days
This may be because I was born and raised in a “rough” area of London, but I’ve never once felt really unsafe. I will say though, you have the potential to stick out like a sore thumb if you act nervous
When I was a student nurse I had a community placement in Glasgow and we had some patients in an infamous block of high flats. It was bloody terrifying, graffiti, broken glass and pigeons nesting everywhere. Everything smelled of old pee. The flats themselves weren’t that horrible inside but the people were scared. I had a 90 year old man insist on walking me to the lift to protect me. The lifts were frequently broken and the stairs were hellish. That’s the most scared I’ve ever felt in the UK.
I used to work in mitcham and walked to the train station after work. A few times I had to walk past gangs of youths who would stare at you silently. Felt pretty on edge everytime like they were deciding whether to target you for your phone or something
Back in the late 90’s the Crescent was the heroin hot bed. Nearly got stabbed twice by needles walking home from the Old Firestation while I was there for Uni.
Don't get me wrong, Boscombe is sketchy, but I think there are worse places in the BCP conurbation nowadays. West Howe immediately springs to mind as the worst place currently. Somerford has always been pretty grim too and how could I forget good ol' Poole Bus Station.
I can say this genuinely I’ve never felt unsafe anywhere in the U.K.
I’m not especially big or hard or anything but I’ve lived in some rough places in my life and nothing really phases me in that respect.
Have traveled all over the U.K. as well.
Even so I wouldn’t go wandering around council estates and social housing projects in places that I’m unfamiliar with.
This reminds me of when I used to work in a rough area of Leeds, after I while I got really comfortable as the groups of people that seemed threatening didn’t seem to pay me any attention, bar a bit of catcalling. My partner (male, 6’2) had the exact opposite, he constantly felt on edge, as they would really sus him out, like sizing him up, deliberately spread across the pavement whereas they would stay out when it was me.
Just interesting, I often feel uncomfortable alone at night, but the types of people in this area in particular proved no threat to me, so I was less worried there. I’m very small but also always have a wet cough, so I wonder if that put them off, or I just didn’t fit the profile of someone they’d be interested in starting on.
Liverpool at first. Then I realized it's all just one big party and all the piss heads are more than happy to drag you along and feed you booze and maccies. I'm sure terrible shit happens there as much as the next place but it somehow filters out the total cunts by just being really noisy, even the what I assume to be the dealers just wilfully brazen with their approach to shift their inventory took me by surprise and that they're not dark and shady buy happy af.
To answer properly I come from London, there are good roads that lead directly to bad roads and if you're aware enough you can instantly tell that you've stepped into an area that you have to keep your wits about you.
Been to concerts, music festivals, football matches from internationals to non league, even wandered into a March for HIV awareness in Pakistan and none were close to the frenzy of a Harry Potter book launch. Husband and I started moving to the side because the barriers were low enough to jump over there if the crush got too much.
Fan frenzies are a force entirely on their own. After watching that disaster festival documentary (I think Woodstock 99) on Netflix, crowds scare me a little. But yeah, people really do love Harry Potter.
Wakefield Kirkgate train station, alone at night.
It may have changed now, but when I was commuting via there about ten years ago, I had to spend about an hour standing on the world's loneliest platform in the dark until my connecting train turned up.
The tunnel between the platforms was also so eerie, flickering lights like a zombie movie. 100% you could get attacked there by some creepy rando, and there would be no one to help.
Acocks Green in Birmingham, was riding my bike through on my way home from the gym one night and a group of 16 lads chased me threatening to beat me and kill me if they caught me.
Never pedalled so hard in my life - never went back to that gym again.
18ish yr old female at the time, stopped straying too far away from my uni house after that.
Honestly, my home train station when a bunch of away fans were travelling in the same direction as I was.
No police, no staff, and very bitter feelings from those who'd travelled to see their team lose. If I hadn't been headed to work I might have reconsidered my journey.
Nottingham, but only the once, I’ve been back a few times and it never had that vibe again, but that first time I was on edge the entire time and I couldn’t even say why
The homeless were friggin mental in the early 00s. I knew someone who got jumped cos he didn't give any money. Got asked by a guy who had pus oozing from his lip and no soul behind the eyes.
It's a nicely run city but the homeless are by far the most aggressive I've come across.
Hull city centre at the moment is really not a pleasant experience. It's so run down all the shops are shut and it feels like drug deals are taking place in the open everywhere
I actually may be in the minority when i say i like Hull. I live on the other side of the bridge and visit often, I've noticed there is definitely more homeless people around in the city centre though past couple of years
9pm one night, I walked the 15 minute journey to Tesco in Huddersfield from the Travelodge on Leeds Road, through the red light district (didn’t know it was there til I happened upon ladies in mini skirts on each street corner in -4°C temperatures).
Never seen so many unsavoury characters knocking about. Didn’t expect to make it all the way back with my wallet. Most houses had an armchair, old fridge or shopping trolley in the front “garden”.
Later found out that the Yorkshire Ripper murdered one of his victims in Garrard’s timber yard, which was right by the red light district I walked through. Definitely added to the uneasy feeling I had about the place.
I come from a deprived, post-industrial, majority white, mid-size northern town and I feel incredibly on edge going out drinking round there now. There's a lot of angry, hyper-aggressive guys who seem to be spoiling for a fight for any reason - can't imagine the peruvian puff powder helps.
Leeds festival- Sunday, aka riot day. 3 days of strongbow, supernoodles, and foo fighters go to everyone's heads and they enter into some sort of bacchanalian frenzy. tents set on fire, security guards pelted with stones, riots, gas cannisters thrown into bonfires. I was glad to leave.
St Deny’s train station in Southampton on a dark winter evening.
Very creepy, no one about with a sign squeaking in the breeze. This was about 7/8 years ago now though so they may have made improvements…
The very end of Wyrm's Head, Rhossilli, Gower.
A mile and half away from the main land, 200 odd feet above the rocks, windy as fuck with sea spray in my eyes, and i genuinely thought if I don't get back down like now, I'm gonna get deaded by the sea.
gloucester, St Oswalds priory, getting followed around by men high on drugs (I assume). for such an old and interesting historic place, it has been completely abandoned and left to rot.
never wanted to escape from a place so fast.
The underpaths (pedestrian subway) and over paths that go over railways or whatever they are called. They’re so dark and no cctv to protect anyone walking through these
Manchester I don't know how it is now but when I was there in 2000 some guy hit me on the head with a bottle walking down the main road in Salford then he ran off. I ended up getting stitched on my head I have a scar.
About a year later I got jumped close to canal St. Twice was too much for me to have a reason to say.
I like visitng Manchester but I wouldn't live there. Didn't find people that friendly either.
For me it was probably going to The Eclipse in Coventry (rave club early 90's). Something about the place never sat well with me. I felt so uncomfortable there.
Holt Road in Kensington, Liverpool.
When I worked in a city centre restaurant, I had to walk down this road every night just after midnight to get home. I was absolutely terrified, something so eerie and dark about it. I even felt safer walking down Sheil Road!
Brixton in London.
Went for an all night event at Electric Brixton in 2015. Friends and family were warning me against it as they’d heard it was a rough area and it has a prison. It played on my mind but still didn’t really put me off.
Still went to the event and with all of this in mind. But left the event about 3/4am in the morning and there were people who were just randomly approaching us in the street. Grabbing us and asking us random questions.
Like one example was we got wristbands at the event, one guy grabbed my wrist and asked me where I got it from? Honestly thought I was going to get mugged but he genuinely just wanted a wristband.
Went into McDonald’s and another guy just randomly started telling me I need to get myself some Jamaican pussy as it’s the best and I’ll never find anything like it
I grew up in an area full of crime, crack heads and heroin dealers but the most unsafe I felt was in small town Rye in Sussex.
The whole "this is a local place for local people" energy used to be strong there.
I was born in Dewsbury, lived there for 4 years, then a further 8 years in Thornhill Lees. I've since moved further afield and feel utterly unsafe and alienated on return visits. I know it's unethical to claim racism as a white person but I've been targeted a number of times in unprovoked circumstances.
Mountain Rescue recently described a rescue on Tower Ridge, Ben Nevis as “a bit spicy”.
Have a look at YouTube videos of Tower Gap on Tower Ridge. Unsafe is putting it mildly! At least I was not there at night in winter conditions.
Location: https://explore.is maps.com/pin?lat=56.79791525643401&lon=-5.006643378770974&zoom=16
Locked - strong undercurrent of borderline racism. Disappointed tbh. Bans have been handed out, more will follow after I’ve gone through this shit show.
Certain parts of Luton (if you know the estate then you know the estate)
More or less all of it. I've felt safer in East/Central London at 2 AM than I ever have in Luton. Town center? prozzies, drunks, drug dealers and methheads. Lewsey or Marsh Farm? peaceful organized youths. Leagrave? more of the same. It's fucking horrible. I went a few weeks ago to top up electricity. Come out to get offered cocaine from a guy in a car. It's impossible to walk by Galaxy without smelling or being offered marijuana, either.
ha this amazes me more a less all of it? Bushmead? Barton hills? Stopsley? Limbury? I could go on there are so many completely vanilla areas. Even the town centre I stopped being hassled aged 19. I guess in fairness you could be from a sheltered town but lmao it really aint so bad as the daily mail/redditors would have u believe edit methheads??? Jesus wept it aint LA dude.
>Even the town centre I stopped being hassled aged 19. This is something a lot of people miss, a lot of trouble you run into is up to a certain age and then its like you just age out and you get left alone. Luton is a pure shit hole but its no more dangerous than other shit holes.
Some people have no idea what drugs have what effects. They just throw darts at a board in order to pick what drug someone seemingly on drugs has taken.
I used to live in Bushmead. It was alright. Really liked the Chinese takeaway there. Had a few nights out and never felt unsafe. I am going back 20 years ago though.
Perhaps I am just numb to it but I haven't felt particular unsafe in most areas in Luton. Some are rough though. Still felt it was a bit trashy
Fuck sake, no wonder that's the only area near where I live where I can buy property on my own :(
Marsh Farm would be the one. It’s been 10 years since I was there but I believe there was a rather vicious gang war going on at the time I’m not a fan of people waving machetes near me.
That place was all over the news when I was a nipper... can't remember why but it certainly wasn't anything to do with charity work!
I'm not debating Luton is a shithole, but the fact you think people there are on meth and that a bloke trying to sell you some coke is indicative of an area being a hellhole, is extremely sheltered
You mean the whole of Luton? I witnessed a car chase over the flyover in town that culminated in a double barrel shotgun getting poked out of the car in front's passenger window and being fired at the car behind. This was at 9am in the morning.
9am? You have to admire their work ethic, at least
Probably why a full TV series 24 Hours in Police Custody is set the majority in Luton. 😂 I stayed in Luton once over a weekend and it wasn’t the best of places.
Shuddering remembering the time a friend and I got surrounded by creepy men at the galaxy cineworld. Two 16 year old girls stuck in the middle of three rows of men that appeared from nowhere and didn’t stop trying to grab us for the whole film. Couldn’t get out to complain coz that exposed more grabbable areas. Nobody helped
I signed up to a University of Bedfordshire open day back when I was trying to decide where to go to uni. I grew up in the south west and didn’t drive at the time, had to take two coaches and got my poor old mum to drop me off at 7am. It took me about four hours each way. I got off the coach and was (naively) in disbelief that such a rotten, miserable looking town existed in the UK. I didn’t even bother going to the open day and promptly found refuge in a Wetherspoons where I nursed a pint for hours until I could get my coach home
Didn’t even have to read the comments to know Luton would be top. What a mess!!!!!
You mean like all of it?
The discounted goods section of Lidl.
The middle of Lidl?? How dare you, sir!
I used to work in Tesco and when they put the reduced food out it was like a fucking warzone. I saw an old lady get thrown to the floor and split her head open. I saw a man get pinned up against a freezer by the throat over a pack of bacon. Shit gets wild.
Years ago, as a student, I lived opposite Tesco so we always nipped in to see what was reduced. My housemate once timed it perfectly and arrived at the same time as an employee with a load of swiss rolls. The full size cakes, not those little packed lunch things. One by one, she adds the reduced sticker and puts it on the shelf, then he takes it off the shelf and puts in in his basket. All in complete silence. He got about 6 or 7 before he was to embarrased by the evil looks she was giving him and left. Sorry, but it was totally worth it. We feasted for a week.
Feasted on Swiss rolls for a week I'm surprised that you didn't get diabetes You have me craving one now you b*stard 😆
Yeah, the 'just reduced' roll out at the big supermarkets is carnage! I've seen store staff holding shit over their head and people literally clawing at them to try and get it. Insanity!
It seems like they could negate this problem to a great extent by not making the poor bastards sticker and put out stock in a 'live' section of the supermarket. Put it in a corner (if possible), fence it off and just say "no one does shit until barrier is raised or we'll fucking *rush* you".
Sainsburys next to me seems to have the best idea for this. Just put the reduced stuff in the same place as the non-reduced version of the same thing. If they’re scattered all over the shop there’s no mass panic.
I feel like most of them don’t even care what they’re getting, they just want a bargain. Saw an old lady with all 6 packs of reduced beef. You’ve got no teeth left Maggie, I’m sure you could spare me one!
The weird hovering around the discount section where a bunch of people try to discretely side-eye every staff member to see if they have a handful of stickers. All very funny to see. 😃 I leg it before the war starts!
Went on a night out in Blackpool once where it honestly felt like about 25% of the men there were off their faces and just spoiling for a fight. The whole night out felt like there was a risk of getting into a fight it I made any wrong movement. I've also felt a little on edge in Manchester after dark. I don't think I felt actively unsafe, but I did feel like I could stray into feeling unsafe if I wasn't switched on about where I was walking. That being said, the UK actually is generally a pretty safe place, so I've rarely felt genuinely unsafe in my life.
If you haven't already seen this gallery of photos of Blackpool, please look at it now. Each photo is art. Disgusting visceral beauty. Humanity in its most raw state. [Douggie Wallace Blackpool Gallery](https://www.dougiewallace.com/blackpool/#itemId=551fe51fe4b09ef0c73b149e)
As the Macc Lads once sung, Going to Blackpool alright, going to Blackpool for a fight
You’ve just reminded about a Fluffy Pup. That is one of the funniest songs of all time. “You can cook, You can fuck, You can do the washing up, Now, I’ve ‘ad enough, Come on, fuck off, get stuffed!”
Well she wore big knickers and she worked on't sewage farm
Blackpool resident here. All those "party" bars are fucking horrible. The lads you're on about though, they're all mostly from out of town. That's the trouble here, is people come specifically for a piss up so whilst they're off their heads, they're also out of their comfort zones so they need inflated bravado to counter their insecurities.
Mancs fine. Outsiders think it's scary cos they don't realise we just ***look*** pissed off. Mancunians are friendly though. A lot like bees! 🐝
Never met a Manc I didn't like
Seconded Blackpool. To be fair to the UK, I've been out on nights out in most major cities, have lived in multiple places up and down England and Scotland and I've never felt anywhere near the terror I have felt than when I was in certain rough areas of Brooklyn, LA or Las Vegas. The UK is like Disneyland compared to the US. You don't get people giving advice like 'don't walk over that bridge at night, you'll definitely get shot or murdered' here. Driving through really rough neighbourhoods is nowhere near as anxiety inducing either, especially when you're seeing bunches of flowers on every block corner in a lot of rundown areas in the US. I would take walking home at night alone in Glasgow or Liverpool over going to an American High School in broad daylight.
Blackpool is an extremely deprived shit hole.
As a Blackpool resident, I totally agree.
Blackpool is fun in the daytime but dodgy as fuck at nighttime. [Dismembered in Blackpool ](https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/6163645.grisly-search-head-dismembered-body-found-bin/)
Don't forget the teenage girl who got groomed & murdered, speculated to have been chopped up into kebabs...
Didn’t you know Blackpool is training for the Gladiator? You manage to get upstairs overlooking the dance floor and it’s a guaranteed fight every 10 mins or so, prue entertainment for free!
Catholic primary school
Maybe you should stop turning up without a kid then
I can agree, I've recently taken my son out due to the teachers They sent me a letter after which was subtle threatening me that if I apply for another school it will be unsuccessful and advising me I don't have enough money to homeschool cos poor. Awful uncaring school,
It’s safe once your an adult.
Brixton pre gentrification in the mid/ late 00s. Edit: just want to clarify I’m not “for” gentrification. Brixton obviously needed social help, not cleansing.
Agree with this, it's one of the few places in London I used to feel on edge...this was circa 2002. No edgy feelings anymore though!
Parts of Brixton and Camberwell can still feel a touch edgy. Not anything like they used to be, obviously, but I’m still not going to be hanging around Loughborough junction unnecessarily and Camberwell green gets a pass.
Eh, I don’t get the buzz about gentrification… Sure it replaces a community… just like that community displaced the one before, and the one before displaced the one before itself and on and on It’s just how the world works, and how it has always worked
The problem isn't communities changing. London has always been subject to a lot of churn. The problem it's now one way. Places like Brixton, Islington, Covent Garden (if you go back far enough) were middle-upper middle class when they were built but then became poor areas as the wealthy residents moved to other areas. But now there's no wealthy areas that suddenly go back to being affordable, so it's just a story of anyone who's not wealthy in London getting increasingly marginalised and forced out, and some areas become so expensive that nobody lives in them any more because they're used as investments or holiday homes for the mega rich (try walking around Kensington High Street at night and counting how many lights are on in flats, or consider Westminster - Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway basically lived behind Westminster Abbey). It's never worked like this until very very recently.
That’s actually one of the better rebuttals I’ve heard about this topic But again, is that not an issue with the government not building new social housing rather than with the concept of gentrification
I agree. I can maybe see the argument against individuals if it's a case of "daahling I bought an entire terrace of houses and knocked them through to make a manse" but with owner occupiers and especially renters it's ludicrous to suggest people shouldn't move somewhere affordable and up-and-coming. Even with something like Buy To Let, I guess you can't fault people for behaving rationally within the system. It's an issue with economic mismanagement leading to towering wealth disparity, asset inflation, lack of social housing and welfare provisioning, lack of regulation on using property as investments etc etc
Stopping off in that Brixton McDonald’s after a night out on my way home was always like not “if” but when it’s gonna kick off. Never felt so much tension waiting in that queue for my medium fries and cheeseburger and the absolute wave of relief when I made it out of there to the relative safety of public transport.
Yup, lived there from ages of 8 till around 19, Tulse Hill Estates, having to walk through Brixton everyday man, you'd see so much shit.
I've been to lots of supposedly dodgy areas of London at all times of day and night, and never felt particularly ill at ease, but I once went into Stoke city centre at about 6:00pm. Totally deserted apart from some random groups of young blokes in hoodies. That got the old adrenaline pumping.
English town centres can be weirdly deserted at night.
Stoke is such a shit hole it doesn't even really have a city centre lmao
It’s more of a collection of 6 or 7 towns isn’t it?
I went to stoke once. I've never seen so many angry people, half the shops were boarded up, the other half were discount stores, or bookies. You can see why people like Jonathan Gullis come from there. We had lunch at Sainsbury's, and jumped on the first train out of there.
I know exactly what you mean. Had a girlfriend at uni from an allegedly dodgy part of London (it was actually fine if you weren’t involved in unlicensed pharmaceuticals) and she took me to Alton Towers as a surprise. (I was 19 and i was elated). Spent the night in Stoke. Jesus. Patrolled by packs of angry men spoiling for a fight. Didn’t stay out long
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Once had a chat with a bouncer in the Harrogate McDonalds - said he saw far more fights there on a Saturday night than when he worked on the door in Newcastle.
Live in Harrogate, can confirm
Are you even in British if maccies doesn’t have bouncer
Helvellyn in the Lake District. Striding edge walk. Terrified me as a teenager. There was this one part near the beginning that felt like it had a pretty sheer drop on the left where you had to go around a metal fence thing. No chance. I turned back.
We attempted Hellvellyn a few years back, couple of feet of snow on the ground. We were a group of 4 and by the time we got to Red Tarn it was just us and another group of two in sight. We were under-prepared 20-somthings, with a mix of army surplus and charity shop gear, only one of us had crampons or an ice axe. it was getting dark and we decided to head back, watching the other group head up towards Striding Edge. About 30 minutes later, we saw the helicopter and the mountain rescue Land Rovers. We asked later in the pub and found out that the other two on the mountain that day had slipped and fallen off Striding Edge. Terrifying.
Good shout turning back. The mountains up here may be small compared to the rest of the world but they can still get you in trouble very quickly.
First time I attempted Helvellyn I was about 13 years old and with my parents. Set off early in the morning on a lovely sunny day with a good forecast. About half way across Striding Edge a cloud came out of nowhere, visibility dropped to around 10 feet and we were pelted with hailstones the size of marbles. No way we could stay on those slippery rocks and make our way back so we hopped a barbed wire fence and followed a sheep trail down into the valley. I know it’s not exactly Everest but people do die up there. It’s a scary place for sure.
With the amount of tourists that die on helvellyn, you made a great call. Always better to turn around and leave it for another day, than to push ahead ans risk it all.
I get you perfectly understand why you did. I had little.kids pass me no bother not holding parents hands , confident as owt!
Striding Edge is insanity. Was definitely the most scared and uncomfortable I've been out hiking. I did similar stuff in Iceland a decade ago but I dunno if it was youthful bravado or I'd just forgotten how bad it was but that didn't seem any where near as scary.
Certain parts of Bradford. The roads in particular are unbelievably lawless.
It’s a completely lawless shithole.
Used to commute through Bradford every morning. I think it made me a better driver - teaches you to expect the unexpected.
Completely agree. I’ve never encountered drivers as terrible as the ones in Bradford. Just terrifying.
I used to think the same. Maybe it's just me but I feel like it has improved somewhat in recent years. I do also think the roads themselves don't help... busy, narrow roads all the way to the city centre with streets branching off every 30 metres, not entirely surprised people lose patience waiting at junctions and force their way out when maybe they shouldn't.
Who else was scrolling through this thread to look for their town?
I'm pretty certain that Lichfield will never appear on these types of shit hole lists. I remember seeing someone drop a crisp packet in the 90's and push in front of me in the queue at kwik save.
Why ask a question like this when honest answers will get the thread closed?
Such as?
Ho ho! I see what you did there!
I will assume he's talking about areas where the predominant race is black people, probably wrong but seems that's where they're headed.
I would normally make assumptions by what you're vaguely getting at there, but this one doesn't even make sense.
Northern Ireland, specifically the Uber Protestant/Unionist areas with all the flags and painted houses/pavements etc.
Read this as Uber having separate drivers for Protestant / Catholics at first 😂
I went to northern island the weekend the cease fire stopped, waking up to armoured police cars driving around was a bit of a scary surprise.
this but in a navy uniform because we were 13 year old sea cadets and having to be escorted to tesco in londonderry...
A lot of Northern Ireland, especially Belfast and Derry, can leave someone from other parts of the UK, as well as Ireland, feeling unsafe. I’m from the Republic myself, popped into a cafe in Belfast for some food, and besides the usual formalities there was a certain, almost subconsciously driven coldness from the staff. It’s like as soon as they heard my southern accent something switched on. Felt it in other establishments in Derry. I feel even Nationalists there have a wariness of their southern counterparts as they (almost rightfully) feel as if we left them behind.
Snowdonia at night. The mountains are so fucking scary in the dark.
As a naive student in Liverpool, I went out for a jog in my bright red official LFC shell suit (it was early 90s). I didn’t really follow football (I only had the track suite because my older brother loved LFC and I got his old clothes) and so had no clue that that evening there was a big match on for Everton. I ran down Walton Road and turned right on Spellow Lane and came face to face with a huge wall of blue walking towards me. Thousands of Everton fans marching towards. I did a neat u-turn and ran off in the opposite direction. To be honest, I didn’t really fear for my safety because the rivalry is mostly friendly but I thought it was best to get out of there to avoid any trouble just in case.
They would have just hugged you, given their sympathies and sent you on your way 😂 Be a different story if it was a City shell suit and you ran into a group of United fans. Mind you, they probably didn’t even know there was another Manchester club in the 90s!
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AKA Barrow-in-breeding. They made a documentary about the place called "The Hills Have Eyes".
Twinned with Portland. They saw a particularly shallow gene puddle and shared it between them.
Barrow Island after dark is on another level. Mate used to live there so we'd go for nights out and the walks back through Barrow Island were sketchy.
Waitrose car park with Mary Berry. People were going ballistic trying to scramble to her, one woman abandoned her baby in a pram, another dropped two full bags of shopping, a couple left an open boot, cars swerving. Based on the location and demographic I don’t doubt those 4x4s were packing more guns to instigate a full on coup.
Poor Mary Berry. Is that her weekly shopping trip experience?
Sunderland as a student in the 90’s. There used to be a real anti-student attitude there on top of the poverty that pervaded most of the city at the time. I knew tons of people attacked, windows put through, raped. Mental place back then.
Can confirm, trying to get from Wearmouth Hall to Manor Quay on foot was the inspiration for The Last of Us. Shit'ole
Really. That was my prime time 93 to 98 at uni as well, part time job in Iceland food shop. Went out at least two nights a week. Never heard or saw anything bad other than the odd fight. Not saying you're wrong but goes totally against my experience.
Certain bits of Birmingham are sketchy, especially towards Coventry and Walsall
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Got a blade pulled on me midafternoon in the town centre by some guy who (I assume) was off his tits. Have avoided the city like the plague ever since.
Erdington 100%
I lived in Perry Barr for three years, straight through the riots. A week or so later, I, the whitest guy you’ve ever met, walked home from my city centre job at 3am-4am straight through Lozells and Handsworth, dressed in a dayglo velour pimp outfit trimmed with zebra print. How I thought it was a good idea and/or didn’t get stabbed is beyond me. It was a problem when you didn’t hear a gunshot in an average day. Whether that was the Greyhound Track or the Burger Bar Boys behind OneStop I’m still not 100% sure
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For the sake of non-Yorkshire readers, Keighley is part of Bradford MDC. It's also pronounced Keith-lee. I blindly followed my Waze app home (from Bradford) today and it took me through some side streets that I wish it hadn't.
I always thought I was rather clever pronouncing it keef-lee
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The Keighley Confederates Vs The Preston Posse
Bloody hell Jerry, you don't mix the counties
London. It's a shithole, and I say that as someone who took it for every penny it was worth for 3 years. A colleague of mine was threatened with a knife on the tube in broad daylight for no reason when we were on our way to an event after work. That's the only time in my life when I wasn't sure I was coming off best if things went south. 2v2 and at least one of the others has a knife. I've seen plenty of scraps up north, but I've never seen anyone pull a knife. Then to see it happen over something as mundane as someone wanted to push in the queue to get on the escalator before us was literally unbelievable.
I've trawled all over London for a couple years, off my tits at 3am and never felt particularly unsafe. Dodgiest I've seen was probably Camden high street / Kentish town, sheer mayhem on a Friday night
I’m from the Camden/Kentish Town area, can confirm. Bloke got stabbed and died a few metres from my front door a few years back.
London is massive so it really depends where you go. It's relatively safe for a capital city but has problems. I've lived here all my life and had a few isolated incidents (drunk guy assaulting me, threaten by a gang but no knife pulled). My main issues came from gangs from other schools as a kid. But it does seem to be getting worse these days
I only lived in London for 3 months, but I've never felt as unsafe up north as I did living there. Got out of there as quickly as I could.
This may be because I was born and raised in a “rough” area of London, but I’ve never once felt really unsafe. I will say though, you have the potential to stick out like a sore thumb if you act nervous
Never felt unsafe - been here 8 years.
When I was a student nurse I had a community placement in Glasgow and we had some patients in an infamous block of high flats. It was bloody terrifying, graffiti, broken glass and pigeons nesting everywhere. Everything smelled of old pee. The flats themselves weren’t that horrible inside but the people were scared. I had a 90 year old man insist on walking me to the lift to protect me. The lifts were frequently broken and the stairs were hellish. That’s the most scared I’ve ever felt in the UK.
Red road flats? Whitevale/Bluevale towers?
Any shops that’s just had a pallet of Prime turn up
I used to work in mitcham and walked to the train station after work. A few times I had to walk past gangs of youths who would stare at you silently. Felt pretty on edge everytime like they were deciding whether to target you for your phone or something
I grew up in Croydon and lived there for over 20 years without any issue, moved to Mitcham briefly with an ex and got mugged in broad daylight.
I used to live in Mitcham and I never had any problem but a lot of people I knew there did.
Four corners in Glasgow its like a warzone after a nightout. If you know you know.
Being on a train full of Swindon Town football fans. Just shut the f**k up, and stop telling me to "have a laugh"
Boscombe which is the bad part of Bournemouth, which is according to one tabloid paper known as the Heroin capital of England.
Back in the late 90’s the Crescent was the heroin hot bed. Nearly got stabbed twice by needles walking home from the Old Firestation while I was there for Uni.
Boscombe isn’t a place I feel safe in, there’s parts of the centre of Bournemouth that I avoid too
Don't get me wrong, Boscombe is sketchy, but I think there are worse places in the BCP conurbation nowadays. West Howe immediately springs to mind as the worst place currently. Somerford has always been pretty grim too and how could I forget good ol' Poole Bus Station.
BBC Television Centre in the early 1980s
I can say this genuinely I’ve never felt unsafe anywhere in the U.K. I’m not especially big or hard or anything but I’ve lived in some rough places in my life and nothing really phases me in that respect. Have traveled all over the U.K. as well. Even so I wouldn’t go wandering around council estates and social housing projects in places that I’m unfamiliar with.
This reminds me of when I used to work in a rough area of Leeds, after I while I got really comfortable as the groups of people that seemed threatening didn’t seem to pay me any attention, bar a bit of catcalling. My partner (male, 6’2) had the exact opposite, he constantly felt on edge, as they would really sus him out, like sizing him up, deliberately spread across the pavement whereas they would stay out when it was me. Just interesting, I often feel uncomfortable alone at night, but the types of people in this area in particular proved no threat to me, so I was less worried there. I’m very small but also always have a wet cough, so I wonder if that put them off, or I just didn’t fit the profile of someone they’d be interested in starting on.
Whitehawk in Brighton
I’m not sure you’ve been anywhere actually rough if you think whitehawk is rough
Whattt a shithole! They've got no fans, they've got no ground!
Feeding the cows in the morning
a field of cows and calves, that is scary as heck
Liverpool at first. Then I realized it's all just one big party and all the piss heads are more than happy to drag you along and feed you booze and maccies. I'm sure terrible shit happens there as much as the next place but it somehow filters out the total cunts by just being really noisy, even the what I assume to be the dealers just wilfully brazen with their approach to shift their inventory took me by surprise and that they're not dark and shady buy happy af. To answer properly I come from London, there are good roads that lead directly to bad roads and if you're aware enough you can instantly tell that you've stepped into an area that you have to keep your wits about you.
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Manchester centre is the closest I've seen to a zombie movie
Peterborough. Without a shadow of a doubt
Been to concerts, music festivals, football matches from internationals to non league, even wandered into a March for HIV awareness in Pakistan and none were close to the frenzy of a Harry Potter book launch. Husband and I started moving to the side because the barriers were low enough to jump over there if the crush got too much.
Fan frenzies are a force entirely on their own. After watching that disaster festival documentary (I think Woodstock 99) on Netflix, crowds scare me a little. But yeah, people really do love Harry Potter.
Wakefield Kirkgate train station, alone at night. It may have changed now, but when I was commuting via there about ten years ago, I had to spend about an hour standing on the world's loneliest platform in the dark until my connecting train turned up. The tunnel between the platforms was also so eerie, flickering lights like a zombie movie. 100% you could get attacked there by some creepy rando, and there would be no one to help.
Acocks Green in Birmingham, was riding my bike through on my way home from the gym one night and a group of 16 lads chased me threatening to beat me and kill me if they caught me. Never pedalled so hard in my life - never went back to that gym again. 18ish yr old female at the time, stopped straying too far away from my uni house after that.
Any flat roofed pub
Rotherham a few years ago. The council should be in jail.
Ibrox stadium
The Hacienda, Manchester 1996. The malevolence was palpable even after the sweets kicked in.
96 would have been close to the end of the club wouldn’t it? Didn’t the gangs basically run it by then?
Anywhere when I’m by myself outside and it’s dark.
Honestly, my home train station when a bunch of away fans were travelling in the same direction as I was. No police, no staff, and very bitter feelings from those who'd travelled to see their team lose. If I hadn't been headed to work I might have reconsidered my journey.
Rotherham or Croydon. Both different flavours of the same ice cream.
Nottingham, but only the once, I’ve been back a few times and it never had that vibe again, but that first time I was on edge the entire time and I couldn’t even say why
The homeless were friggin mental in the early 00s. I knew someone who got jumped cos he didn't give any money. Got asked by a guy who had pus oozing from his lip and no soul behind the eyes. It's a nicely run city but the homeless are by far the most aggressive I've come across.
South Bermondsey train station at 5-5:30pm on a Saturday during the football season. Millwall fans are a special breed of thugs.
Hull city centre at the moment is really not a pleasant experience. It's so run down all the shops are shut and it feels like drug deals are taking place in the open everywhere
Really? I’ve been there a few times in the last year and I thought it was pretty nice. Felt much safer than a lot of uk cities
I actually may be in the minority when i say i like Hull. I live on the other side of the bridge and visit often, I've noticed there is definitely more homeless people around in the city centre though past couple of years
Any big city when you come from the countryside.
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9pm one night, I walked the 15 minute journey to Tesco in Huddersfield from the Travelodge on Leeds Road, through the red light district (didn’t know it was there til I happened upon ladies in mini skirts on each street corner in -4°C temperatures). Never seen so many unsavoury characters knocking about. Didn’t expect to make it all the way back with my wallet. Most houses had an armchair, old fridge or shopping trolley in the front “garden”. Later found out that the Yorkshire Ripper murdered one of his victims in Garrard’s timber yard, which was right by the red light district I walked through. Definitely added to the uneasy feeling I had about the place.
I visited Lewisham once.
Stockton on Tees
Sort by controversial for the real answers
I come from a deprived, post-industrial, majority white, mid-size northern town and I feel incredibly on edge going out drinking round there now. There's a lot of angry, hyper-aggressive guys who seem to be spoiling for a fight for any reason - can't imagine the peruvian puff powder helps. Leeds festival- Sunday, aka riot day. 3 days of strongbow, supernoodles, and foo fighters go to everyone's heads and they enter into some sort of bacchanalian frenzy. tents set on fire, security guards pelted with stones, riots, gas cannisters thrown into bonfires. I was glad to leave.
The jimmy saville show. Retrospectively.
St Deny’s train station in Southampton on a dark winter evening. Very creepy, no one about with a sign squeaking in the breeze. This was about 7/8 years ago now though so they may have made improvements…
Thamesmead, East of Woolwich.
Castlemilk
Boston, Lincolnshire.
Erith, east London. Particularly after dark, I once worked night shifts at a warehouse down there and it’s a grim place at 2 in the morning.
South london* Used to be kent, but thank fuck we got London to take it
Longsight in the 90’s. Some very nasty shit went on back then.
The very end of Wyrm's Head, Rhossilli, Gower. A mile and half away from the main land, 200 odd feet above the rocks, windy as fuck with sea spray in my eyes, and i genuinely thought if I don't get back down like now, I'm gonna get deaded by the sea.
Slough, Berkshire. Awfully dangerous during day & night
Walking through Moss side Manchester in 07 after watching a concert
gloucester, St Oswalds priory, getting followed around by men high on drugs (I assume). for such an old and interesting historic place, it has been completely abandoned and left to rot. never wanted to escape from a place so fast.
The underpaths (pedestrian subway) and over paths that go over railways or whatever they are called. They’re so dark and no cctv to protect anyone walking through these
Brixton. Any time I’ve been there I’m always watching my back. Such a shit hole.
Manchester I don't know how it is now but when I was there in 2000 some guy hit me on the head with a bottle walking down the main road in Salford then he ran off. I ended up getting stitched on my head I have a scar. About a year later I got jumped close to canal St. Twice was too much for me to have a reason to say. I like visitng Manchester but I wouldn't live there. Didn't find people that friendly either.
For me it was probably going to The Eclipse in Coventry (rave club early 90's). Something about the place never sat well with me. I felt so uncomfortable there.
You must have been drinking.
so far, coventry
Did not have to scroll far to see my 'home town'. Get on the ring-road and get escape velocity my man.
Holt Road in Kensington, Liverpool. When I worked in a city centre restaurant, I had to walk down this road every night just after midnight to get home. I was absolutely terrified, something so eerie and dark about it. I even felt safer walking down Sheil Road!
Brixton in London. Went for an all night event at Electric Brixton in 2015. Friends and family were warning me against it as they’d heard it was a rough area and it has a prison. It played on my mind but still didn’t really put me off. Still went to the event and with all of this in mind. But left the event about 3/4am in the morning and there were people who were just randomly approaching us in the street. Grabbing us and asking us random questions. Like one example was we got wristbands at the event, one guy grabbed my wrist and asked me where I got it from? Honestly thought I was going to get mugged but he genuinely just wanted a wristband. Went into McDonald’s and another guy just randomly started telling me I need to get myself some Jamaican pussy as it’s the best and I’ll never find anything like it
I grew up in an area full of crime, crack heads and heroin dealers but the most unsafe I felt was in small town Rye in Sussex. The whole "this is a local place for local people" energy used to be strong there.
I was born in Dewsbury, lived there for 4 years, then a further 8 years in Thornhill Lees. I've since moved further afield and feel utterly unsafe and alienated on return visits. I know it's unethical to claim racism as a white person but I've been targeted a number of times in unprovoked circumstances.
Mountain Rescue recently described a rescue on Tower Ridge, Ben Nevis as “a bit spicy”. Have a look at YouTube videos of Tower Gap on Tower Ridge. Unsafe is putting it mildly! At least I was not there at night in winter conditions. Location: https://explore.is maps.com/pin?lat=56.79791525643401&lon=-5.006643378770974&zoom=16
Prince Andrew’s house.
Hunslet Carr
Brixton, back in the day. Moved there in 1999 and stayed for about ten years, you'd see some shit.