Crispyuk88

I bought this book for a quid at a book shop a mate of mine worked for; only because his boss said she would chuck me out if I didn't buy anything!

I made a thread on this as I am interested to think what people of the results and if they have anything to say about them. Despite living in England for 15 years, I can honestly say even though I know I've been to some of these towns, I can't for the life of me remember what they were like.

All of the below are extracts from the book - not related to me in any way shape or form!

Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK

Listed in Reverse order, crappest town being #1.

50. St Albans
49. Hinchley Wood
48. Widnes
47. Barrow-in-Furness
46. Skelmersdale
45. Yate
44. Bridgwater
43. Alresford
42. Slough
41. Dagenham
40. Keighley
39. Hastings
38. Huntington
37. Maghull
36. Reading
35. Billingham
34. Newport
33. South Woodham Ferrers
32. Dover
31. Oxford
30. Peterhead
29. Tintern
28. Mirfield
27. Horsham
26. Hayling Island
25. Ipswich
24. Leiston
23. Aldeburgh
22. Brighton
21. Ascot
20. Didcot
19. Wolverhampton
18 Peterborough
17. London
16. Islington
15. Croydon
14. St John's Wood
13. Crouch End
12. Stockport
11. Portsmouth
10. Hackney
9. Basingstoke
8. Beshill-on-sea
7. St andrews
6. Liverpool
5. Winchester
4. Hythe
3. Morecambe
2. Cumbernauld
1. Hull

The Results looked to be based off a couple things:
Population
Unemployment Rate
Violent Crime Rate
% Achieving 5+ GCSE grades A-C

Discuss

touchingcloth

Somebody should write a book ranking crap books, with this book at no. 1
The fact that book reckons that Slough is 'less crap than Oxford or Reading' just shows how little research the author did.

mr mover

milton keynes did not get a mention, most poms i talk too ,reckon if the world needed an Enema they would put it im MK .....................mm

joh117

Well what a load of c***. I cant believe that St Albans is getting a listing before Luton. I studied in Luton and though it was fantastic for being a student I would not rate this town above St Albans.

stacey and jordan

http://idler.co.uk/crap/?page_id=141

Has any one been on here.

Stacey

Lizzi

Aldeburgh crap? It's a poo list imo.

turkeytickler

aldeburgh has my favourite fish and chip shop in the world.... + all those admans pubs....

Rushman

Seems like a dodgy list to me. Whoever researched it didn't do much in the way of actual research.
#17 is listed as London
However 10. 13.14.15 16 and to some extent 41 are all actually IN London.

Crispyuk88

Bol*ocks
Why didn't I think of that

The book is actually pretty well written. Although I can't make any self judgements about the towns listed because I've never been there. They pick a focus on the town and get some people that live there to give input. They also talk about amount of cinemas, pubs, entertainment value of the town. How well the council spends its money, the education and the behavior of teens in the area; determined to regards of graffiti, vandalism etc. Throughout the book they have sections where they explain the good points of the towns also.
I don't think the book is accurate by any means really as all towns have their bad points and then people have preferences on the matter of how bad things are etc. Hard to know what to make of it really!

Bob

Slough and Reading need to be higher than Oxford, Oxford is only expensive, lovely place to live...Swindon on the otherhand....craphole...and didn't make the list...

Didcot is a tad dull, but nought wrong with it...and Ascot, that's bloomin' tiny, nothing there except a train station that is falling apart and the race course...

moneypenny20

Having looked at that list, seeing St Albans at no 20, assumed I would find Luton further up - gob smacked that it wasn't there. St Albans is pretty, but has it's problems, but it's paradise compared to Luton :scared:

uk+kiwi

Winchester at number 5? It's lovely. I'm guessing it's only there as house prices are so expensive because it is a lovely place to live. Certainly the factors listed above have not influenced it being on the list. Being above Slough and Luton beggars beyond belief. In fact, since Ascot is also there, I really think housing costs have been used as a major factor since Ascot is also considered a desirable expensive place to live, partly because of 'Royal Ascot'. Horsham too?????

I think it's strange that there are some huge towns (almost cities) listed - Oxford/Reading/St Albans which will have a real mix of attributes and then some nice desirable small towns that I really cannot understand. Also parts of Oxford are really lovely plus it has one of our top globally respected universities.

So I have to agree with others that this lising can't hold true.

debbie#1

Well according to this list I lived in the 3rd worst place - Morecambe. I agree with everyone else - where did this person do the research. Statistically their crime rate is far lower than where I came from in Manchester, unemployment is no more or less than anywhere else - glad you only paid 1 pound for the book

ladylisa

I cant believe Winchester is even in the list. Its a gorgeous city I would love to live there. I think the author is just randomly naming cities.

Mizz Teapot

He used an atlas for his survey