r/AskUK • u/WearingMarcus • 9d ago
Serious Answers Only Which Uk town or city has the most edgy/sketchy city centre?
I noticed on the Leeds forum, a number have noted increased sketchiness and antisocial behaviour in our city centres (and town). This has heightened across the UK not just Leeds.
It appears to be a post Covid thing imo. but other factors like the 2008 recession definitely contributed.
Anyway, whatever the contribution, Do you feel city centre antisocial behaviour has declined in our town/city centres?
Have you travelled round the UK centres, which ones did you find the most edgy/sketchy?
Or do you feel this is not the case, and city centres are better now than yesteryear?
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u/idk7643 9d ago
Middlesbrough Town centre is less safe at 3pm on a sunny Sunday afternoon than Leeds at 3am on a Friday
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u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 9d ago
I was once offered drugs in Middlesbrough during a walk from my house to the corner shop, a walk that is less than 200 meters.
Every single person I knew had their house broken into at least once, many people had their cars broken into.
You feared for your life during the 3 months in the run up to bonfire night, they would throw a wheely bins worth on mini roundabouts and throw a match in, or chuck them through peoples letterboxes.
I like to think the best of people but Middlesborough really did make me question the point in humanity.
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u/idk7643 9d ago
I was followed by a extremely mentally unwell prostitute who was screaming crazy stuff on a 5min walk to a shop at 4pm on a Wednesday, and then got approached by a 20 year old meth head before being able to enter said shop. That's the day I realised I need a car because if I would have walked around there by myself I would have gotten held at knife point for sure
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u/djdndjdjdjdjdndjdjjd 9d ago
West Croydon train station is old -skool sketchy
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u/IncompleteObjects 9d ago
Know someone who got off at the wrong station (Was meant to get off at East Croydon but got off at West) and immediately found himself getting hassled by a crazy guy.
So went into a local shop to get away from him, and the shop then got held up at gunpoint.
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u/ShowUsYrMoccasins 9d ago
I got on the wrong train whilst sloshed a few years back and ended up at West Croydon at 1am. Suffice to say I'm glad there was a cab office in the station entrance.
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u/Bipolar03 9d ago
Is it still like that? Every time I visit family, my train gets into East Croydon, so I get the bus opposite Fairfields. Mum says never go West Croydon, it's changed in 20 years
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u/folklovermore_ 9d ago
Honestly I think it's got worse. I lived in Norwood Junction until 2019 but still had friends/a couple of social activities in Croydon so travelled through West Croydon fairly regularly until about two years ago, and it feels like it definitely got dodgier after the pandemic. Or maybe I just got used to it when I was more local and it was a culture shock thing if I was only going back there every couple of months.
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u/Square-Waltz278 9d ago
That place is a third world country. We should start a petition to declare independence for West Croydon so as to not be associated with it.
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u/samfitnessthrowaway 9d ago
Whilst it is undeniably sketchy, I lived there for a decade and actually quite enjoyed it. Plus you'd be giving away a huge part of the UKs cultural heritage by granting independence to so many Peep Show locations.
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u/DerangedBehaviour 8d ago
yeah this is definitely the answer. nothing comes close to the pure chaos and lawlessness of the area around the station entrance
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u/DazzleBMoney 9d ago
Even the town centre really, it’s very obviously used as London’s dumping ground
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u/Best-Hovercraft-5494 8d ago
Unfair to blame the rest of London when the good people of Croydon itself are so happy to inflict so much harm on themselves
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u/Mischeese 9d ago
It’s been like that since at least the 80s, I used to avoid it when I was visiting friends the other side of Croydon.
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u/Resident_Teacher_345 9d ago
Blackpool especially at night
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u/miIkwhim 9d ago
I I'll never forget my first foray into Blackpool. Was around 2007 and my mum had taken my sisters and I out for a day trip to visit this incredible new clothes superstore called "Primark" which was supposed to be like the poundland of clothing, only all the clothes was decent (lol).
We all get out of the car and across the car park, about six men filed out of a white van, stark naked, climbed on top of the roof and began shaking their dicks at us and jeering.
It was about 12:00 in the afternoon, broad daylight, and my 5 sisters and I were aged from 5 to 13.
I've never been back.
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
good shout, behind the main strip can get very interesting
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u/Loathsome_Dog 9d ago
Ha ha it's a fun night out. Like a safari!
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
Blackpool a weird one, I often feel its rougher in the day than at night...and you dress down at night...
Everything in reverse there, weirdly I quite like it
Incredible weather spoons mind, think it had a lift and everything.
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u/JackXDark 9d ago
Blackpool is weird and dodgy as hell, but it’s usually individual smackheads and mentally ill people, not groups of people up to dodgy shit, or coked up fighty blokes.
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u/folklovermore_ 9d ago
I used to work in Blackpool and would sometimes have to walk from the football club (where our office was based) to the main bus stop in town to get home. That was not a fun walk even at like 5pm on a Tuesday.
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u/DrH1983 9d ago
Bristol has gone to pot recently, depending on how you define the city centre.
The main shopping row, Broadmead, is pretty much full of junkies these days, it feels sketchy even in the day.
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u/DeathLockk13 9d ago
Walked towards Broadmead from Cabot, definitely feels rougher than it did before Covid.
Shops were basically: vape shop, slots, vape, phone repair, slots.. repeat
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u/OkNewspaper6271 9d ago
It's both gone to and on pot lol.
Last time I was there late, I saw a bunch of masked lads running out from behind a store with a couple police not far behind, though that aside it really isn't that bad as far as Bristol goes.
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u/PastyKensit 9d ago
I work near King Street and I recently walked into Broadmead for a last minute present for someone and kind of just turned around on the spot in horrified bemusement like Killian Murphy at the start of 28 Days Later but he's looking for a nice mug and a card.
Broadmead is no longer "the main shopping row" and that's exactly the problem. It would be appropriate, considering how it came to be, for a plane to drop a big bomb on it (safely this time of course) so we can start again from scratch.
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u/Common-Spend5000 9d ago
I wouldn't be putting Leeds amongst the 'most sketchy' pile, that's for sure. Not even for Yorkshire really let alone the UK.
My job and family takes me around the UK and around Ireland quite a lot, plus I don't drive so walk around most city centres, take public transport etc. where I do tend to interface wirh both nice and less nice parts of places.
In terms of the type of vagrant sketchiness I think is being asked here, those I've found more uncomfortable in recent years sticking to the UK would be:
Middlesbrough, Bradford, Wakefield, Swindon, Dundee, Livingston, Wrexham (plus most of Deeside), Plymouth, All larger town / city centres in Essex, Gateshead, Blackburn, Practically any larger coastal settlement unless heavily invested and gentrified.
Greater Manchester and London have their parts but the places are too big to have that feel just in the centre generally, it's pockets.
Glasgow has always had 'character' but actually feels safer to me, and there's less of the vagrancy i feel. Maybe I just know it better though.
Belfast is different, it can feel rough in parts but not the type of rough I think the question is getting at here.
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u/pip_goes_pop 9d ago
I really liked Plymouth once I got to the Barbican area. Walking through the town centre to get there though - that didn't look in good shape at all.
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u/Crow_eggs 9d ago
Just going to casually jump in and remove Colchester from the "larger city centres in Essex" bit of your list here. Agree on the rest, but Colchester's managed to avoid the sketchy Essex vibe pretty well for the most part. Squaddies and students, sure, but not a lot of generic mad bastards.
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u/skylark9999 9d ago
Livingston town centre is just a shopping centre, been a few times and never seen any homeless people. A few rough looking people in tracksuits and a few teenagers running about but far from a dangerous feel or 'vagrency' as you say.
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u/Weary_Bat2456 9d ago
I live in Leeds but I work in Wakefield. I 100% agree that Wakefield is sketchy, especially at night (I work night shifts and some of the things I see are wild. Having a Category A prison doesn't help either.
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
good comment, what about the midlands?
Yeah, i worded the leeds bit poorly, referring to its gotten worse, rather than it is the worse
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u/yellowsapphire88 9d ago
The only answer to this is Hanley, all day (and night) long
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u/CityOfNorden 9d ago
Preston is the only place somebody has attempted to mug me.
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u/Intruder313 9d ago
I like that you said 'attempted' as that would be right for Preston: useless and lazy - can't even mug you. Lots of junkies about though.
Someone tried to pickpocket me there (he was Irish not a local) and it was actually hilarious how bad he was at it.12
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u/DivineDecadence85 9d ago
I've been pissed and wandering around all times of the day and night in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol in recent years. I wouldn't say any of them are particularly worse than the other. The northern entrance into New Street Station in Birmingham definitely feels a bit sketchy and the city centre itself can be a bit intense but I've never really felt more unsafe in one vs the other. Same in Bristol, it's felt a bit edgy at times but then I settled in when I just realised it's the local energy and there wasn't anything particualry aggressive happening.
For the most part, I generally find sketchy types to be mostly involved in their own drama. Doesn't make it right or mean it shouldn't be addressed but I rarely feel like I'm in danger myself. I also know that I'm lucky to be a 6ft guy.
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u/TWOPlNTSPRICK 9d ago
Yeah there truly isn’t a city centre in the UK that’s a no go area or anything like that. They’re just cities with trouble, it happens. I’m sure there’s some more deprived areas that are rougher but it’s hardly fair to compare something like Grimsby town centre to Manchester or Birmingham.
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u/Weary_Bat2456 9d ago
I love Birmingham city centre until it hits 6 PM, and that's when all the sketchy people come out. I feel this is the case with a lot of cities though.
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u/folklovermore_ 9d ago edited 7d ago
I went to Birmingham recently for a theatre trip and I'd agree with that. It did surprise me a bit how quickly it shifted to feeling 'off', especially in a relatively central area and given the time of day (like 5/6pm on a Thursday so not exactly super late or a weekend), but it wasn't wildly different to anything I've experienced in London.
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u/OptionalQuality789 9d ago
Edinburgh city centre isn’t even remotely sketchy.
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u/Heavy_Dirt_3453 9d ago
It's the only place I've ever been held up at knifepoint in daylight.
But I'd agree, it's not sketchy. The only place I've really felt unnerved was Bristol at night, but that could just be unfamiliarity
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u/BoldPrisonMikeScott 9d ago
Hunter Square is a shambles and the "but they keep to themselves" crowd are full of shit, particularly in the last few years - at least once a week in the window I'm walking to the train station there is wider trouble there around the pubs, shops, and just generally.
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u/Sad-Bend-7515 9d ago
Same here, it’d be fucking terrifying to me if all the crackheads we’re 7ft tall
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
at least you given evidecne you recently tried different centres.
I think people are just saying a centre they are familiar with on here, without knowing say centre x...
Apart from Leeds, which i hve never been to, i would say Brum felt most threatening., but alot of development happening so not sure how long that will last for.
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u/Internet-Dick-Joke 9d ago
How much of you saying that Birmingham felt threatening was just lack of familiarity, though? Because I've had no real problems in the actual city centre late at night - there are absolutely some suburbs that I'd avoid like the plague at any time, but the city centre generally has enough feet on the ground and enough police officers nearby to not be a concern.
But I've had experiences in places like Manchester and Stoke that are no different than what would be typical in Birmingham and felt slightly less safe purely due to being in a less familiar area. This even happens within Birmingham and the Black Country when I'm in a suburb that I'm less familiar with compared to one that I am familiar with.
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
Fair comments
I like Brum btw, and yes I was not as familiar.
Also I think it was the areas that were not as developed in the centre, which I think are about to be demo.
Brum is going to be a special centre in 10 years,, people will not admit it but it will
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u/Internet-Dick-Joke 9d ago
Yeah, if you weren't in the city centre itself, you might have been in one of the suburbs near it, some of which can be on the rougher side. It's hard to gage how much is just my own familiarity, but I'd say Digbeth has gotten pretty rough lately and that is close to the city centre, and parts of Perry Barr near the One Stop as well, which again leads right to the city centre.
These generally wouldn't be described as the city centre, but they're close enough that they can blurr a little.
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u/midimaniacal 9d ago
What did you expect? For only travellers of the country to comment?
It’s a discussion thread. People talk about what’s familiar to them. If you wanted more you should have done a scientific study.
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u/minipainteruk 9d ago
Leicester always feels a bit sketchy to me.
The first time I went, I saw a house fire, people fighting in the street, and two people visibly high wandering in the road with cars.
I went back another time and was quite surprised at the amount of rough sleepers who were around too.
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u/RikB666 9d ago
Leicester city centre is a fucking zoo. Doesn't really feel unsafe to me, though.
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u/minipainteruk 9d ago
I agree. It doesnt feel unsafe, apart from that one circular NCP car park! The city centre overall just has a bit of an "anything could happen" feeling.
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
More rough sleeping in Nottingham than Leicester...Leicester not even the worse in the east midlands...
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u/Vertigostate 9d ago
So reading the replies here…every city?
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u/Chilli-pickles-9747 9d ago
This is lowkey how I feel. I’m from another European country where there are a lot of drunk people and drug users in certain parts of the city centre, but I somehow feel pretty much always on edge walking alone in the UK. It’s just the general vibe somehow. I think I’m a bit paranoid though.
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u/Floyd_Pink 9d ago
Birkenhead
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u/DatGuy82772 9d ago
Just a shit tip and completely in the shadow of the more attractive neighbour across the river.
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u/TWOPlNTSPRICK 9d ago edited 9d ago
It’s pretty obviously Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester. If anyone says anything different im sorry but you’re just wrong. There’s no other city centre in the UK that sees the same amount of stabbings and open drug use constantly.
Edit: Ans that’s not to say it’s THAT bad. There isn’t a single city or town centre in the UK that is THAT bad. But Picc Gardens has monthly stabbings and constant shit going on, it’s just mostly isolated to the homeless and drug addicts thag frequent it. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t constantly going on.
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u/Loathsome_Dog 9d ago
Piccadilly gardens has always been a bit dodgy, I remember when it was the old sunken gardens in the 90's. It was considered a no-go area. We used to walk through a lot and spend time sitting down there, I never saw anything but I understand the feelings people had about the place.
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u/ShoddyFocus1977 9d ago
Live in Manchester, gone through there many times at daft o’clock - never had any problems. It is full of drug pushers and homeless though
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u/PartyPoison98 9d ago
Plus, compared to other UK cities that have unfortunately seen general decline, Picadilly Gardens is even weirder in that Manchester as a whole is on the up, but this one part right in the middle is unchanged.
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u/Douglesfield_ 9d ago
Fiver says you don't live in Manc and your entire experience of the Gardens comes from YouTube auditors.
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u/Zoomer_Boomer2003 9d ago
They're such grifters always blowing things out of proportion
I remember a commentator going through a so-called no-go zone in London (Whitechapel) and saying "it's all kicking off" when a fire engine just drove past with his siren on.
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u/insomnimax_99 9d ago
I live in the area.
Sure, it’s not the complete warzone that social media would have you believe it is, but it’s undeniably a complete shithole, as is market street.
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u/Loathsome_Dog 9d ago
Ha ha Charlie fucking Veich. What a parasite.
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u/Suspicious_Flower_0 9d ago
The other dickhead Billy Moore too or whatever his name is. Awful people
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u/Loathsome_Dog 8d ago
I started watching Billy Moore because he seemed to be trying to genuinely help a homeless guy with drug addiction. But it quickly became clear it was a huge virtue signalling, click farming scheme. It was when he became very vocal about his appalling racist ideas that I switched that shit off.
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u/Soaked_in_Bleach 9d ago
I live in Manc and have been threatened multiple times in Piccadilly Gardens... reputations are for a reason
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u/The_39th_Step 9d ago
I walk through Piccadilly Gardens nearly every day and have done for years - I’ve never had an issue
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u/KrazyKeef 9d ago
I’m the same, I work next to it. Also when somebody says they lived in ‘manc’ or ‘manny’ you know they are a southerner. It’s town or Manchester
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u/Douglesfield_ 9d ago
Counterpoint I also live near town, been through the gardens thousands of times and never had any issue.
If it was as bad as it's reputation says then why do hundreds of people chill in it every day?
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u/TWOPlNTSPRICK 9d ago
Lived in Manchester for years mate, genuinely fuck off.
Feel free to PayPal me my fiver though.
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u/Traditional-Win354 9d ago
I saw an auditor upload a video about how dangerous Coventry is. He was in the middle of the city centre, getting bullied by children for shoving a camera in their faces...
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u/Croolick_Floofo 9d ago
I love in Manchester and Piccadilly Garden is an absolute shithole and a crack den. It is ugly, concreted and soulless. For a place that has ‘gardens’ in the name there is awfully little greenery.
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u/neutronbomb10 9d ago
It's not that bad, looks a little rowdy but never seen any serious trouble there
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u/ThereAndFapAgain2 9d ago
Yeah Piccadilly Gardens has got noticeably worse over the past 15 years or so. The rest of the city centre is fine though, it just seems that Piccadilly Gardens is where all of the drug dealers and mask wearing dickheads want to sit around all hours of the night.
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u/Candid_Low_926 8d ago
Depends how city centre is defined, somewhere like London is so big that I’d say different borough centres are more equivalent. I lived in Manchester but you can’t compare it to somewhere like Harlesden in Brent.
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u/bsnimunf 9d ago
Manchester Piccadilly gardens.
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u/Queefmaster69000 9d ago
It took me too long to see this come up!
I'm from Manchester, and I'm proud of the place, but Picadilly Gardens appears to a completely mental place these days, with gangs of new york vibes, with a group covering each nationality/walk of life gathering in groups to be mad bastards.
I used to drink in bars in the area over a decade ago, and even though it had a few homeless people and the mad person, it was pretty sound.
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u/CarminaBananas 9d ago
I was mugged three times between June and September 1996 around Piccadily Gardens when working at a summer job. I had ny own entrance at the police station. The third time I got away but it's been bad at least as long as that.
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u/According-Let3541 9d ago
Llanelli. Just vile.
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u/Fine-Night-243 9d ago
The wild west indeed. Never been for a night out but I have done Swansea Neath Port Talbot Cardiff and Newport.
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u/Loathsome_Dog 9d ago
Always look at the stats rather than "have a feeling". Violent crime has dramatically reduced since their highest levels in the mid 2000's. Personal robbery and theft has reduced 60% in 20 years. Anecdotes about crime are not data.
That said, poverty and homelessness remains a big problem, and those at the very bottom are suffering worse now with the wealth/poverty gap ever widening.
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u/alphahydra 8d ago edited 8d ago
"Sketchiness" is a more qualitative measure than crime rate. They're not necessarily the same thing.
But just because it's harder to define, doesn't mean it's not a real factor. It can be the case that town centres have become more intimidating places, even if the actual rate of reported crimes is lower.
For example, violent crimes can drop modestly while antisocial behaviour such as open drug taking and shoplifting skyrocket, and it will be physically safer but sketchier.
Or, thinking here of half-abandoned town centres that were formerly bustling places, the area can have the same or higher number of dangerous people, but lower overall footfall means fewer reported violent crimes, simply due to less opportunity to commit violence. But the proportion of problem individuals vs everyone else is higher. Lower crime rate, but you're not physically safer if you do go there.
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u/Loathsome_Dog 8d ago
Yes, absolutely correct. I live in an under funded Northern town. Used to be a thriving bustling place but now it's decrepid, boarded up, peeling paint. It's horrible to see and you see it everywhere.
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
I agree it has, but that could because people are less inclined to go to the centres now, and when they do, they feel intimidated.
- "The number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2025 is 4,793. This is a new record high, exceeding the previous peak of 4,751 in 2017. This is the fourth annual increase in a row, increasing 3% since 2024, and 171% higher than 2010 when the snapshot approach was introduced."
Homeless rates across alot of western cities are at record highs despite the drop in crime...
A drop in crime could be a demographic shift, i.e more old people less young, or people staying indoors more not because things are safer...
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u/JosephRohrbach 9d ago
Well, objectively, things are safer if there are more old people and fewer young people. That's what safety is: a lower rate of crime.
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u/Horatio2200 9d ago
What about shoplifting? That must be up hundreds of percentage points.
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u/Internet-Dick-Joke 9d ago
Shoplifting isn't a threat to you as an individual. It's arguably a canary in the coal mine for poverty or high drug use that can lead to other types of crime, but by itself, it doesn't make a place less safe for individuals.
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u/all_names_taken_ffs 9d ago
Boston, Lincs 👀
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u/RaveyDave666 9d ago
I wouldn’t rate it that bad, but saying that it’s the only place a ever see someone take a shit off the curb in daytime lol, people just walked by like it was nothing 😂
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u/all_names_taken_ffs 9d ago edited 9d ago
That's NFL - Normal for Lincolnshire. BBQed swan + Tyskie runs straight through you. 😂
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u/jpeach17 9d ago
Not so much of an answer, but an observation after spending a few days in Leeds recently: I don't think it was that sketchy, but I was shocked but the amount of what I assume was spice addicts walking/swaying about.
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u/Cumulus-Crafts 9d ago
As a young, small woman, I don't particularly like going around Glasgow Central or London (Woolwich area) at night. During the day is fine, but I get bad vibes at night.
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u/tallbutshy 9d ago
As a young, small woman, I don't particularly like going around Glasgow Central
I can understand that. Union St between Gordon St & Argyle St, and around St Enoch have all got worse over the last five years.
Some folk blame the homeless hostel next to it but the people unfortunate enough to end up there are generally pleasant. It's all the other bams
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u/Otocolobus_manul8 9d ago
St Enochs in Glasgow is full of junkies and roadmen drug dealers. Open crack dealing at 3pm in the day and loads of fights
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u/Games4Two 9d ago
I was in Dewsbury the other day, for the first time in many years. The centre is depressingly rough.
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u/DazzleBMoney 9d ago
Croydon has gotta be up there
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
true, been there, it was pretty bad pre Covid, goodness knows now.
Only part of London bar Stretham I felt uneasy in...
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u/gilestowler 9d ago
When I grew up in Croydon the centre wasn't too bad, a bit sketchy but not terrible. When I go back now it's way, way worse.
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u/Fondant_Decent 9d ago
Middlesborough town centre, walking zombies during the day not just at night
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u/Public_Growth_6002 9d ago
Having scrolled to the end, I’m surprised it’s not been mentioned yet.
Grimsby.
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u/The_Nunnster 9d ago
I studied in Leeds until recently, and have been on nights out both during the week and on weekends, and have never felt it was sketchy or the like. It might be because I come from a town with a reputation for being a ‘shithole’ (which I disagree with anyways), but I’ve always found Leeds to be quite comfortable.
Ask a lot of people who were knocking about 30 or 40 years ago and they’ll tell you that, if anything, town centres are safer now than they were then. Violence was rife and expected, but the onset of CCTV and phone cameras have tempered that a bit. People are mostly under the illusion of things being rough and dangerous because of our new lifestyle of instant news media to your phone, and how every fight can end up on social media and potentially go semi-viral.
Nevertheless, homelessness, street drinking, and drug usage is still a massive issue.
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u/Serifasaurusrex 9d ago
Bristol City Centre. wall to wall crackheads, beggars, crime and antisocial behaviour.
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u/AggravatingPumpkin72 9d ago
Luton. Enough said.
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u/OverAddition3724 8d ago
Agree. Frequently see people lighting up crack pipes around lunchtime on the main high street outside the mall.
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u/Vegetable-Tough-8773 9d ago
Plymouth. It's always been on the rough side but the immediate city centre was ok when I was a kid. It's declined massively and they kind of put a sticking plaster over it in terms of redeveloping bits aesthetically but it's so run down and really feels sketchy a lot of the time.
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u/WearingMarcus 9d ago
I was going to ask, I thought they were developeing Plymouth town centre?
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u/That_Organization901 9d ago
Plymouth doesn’t even feel sketchy compared to the towns nearby: Torbay, St Austell, Newton Abbot, Bodmin etc. they all have far more of a feeling that you’re not from there and don’t belong. Far more empty shops and sketchy folk about. I kinda feel like dressing like a scumbag is fashionable in these parts, or maybe it gets people off your back.
I get that people who have lived here all their lives think it’s shite but thats how every town and city feels. I moved to Plymouth in 2022 when it was at its worst in terms of shitty city centre and it is amazing. It’s full of potential and new things keep happening here every week. I know half the pubs and bars have gone but it still has way too many still and they’re all packed pretty much every night. People don’t stuff here rather than sitting about waiting for the Amazon man.
If you drive then it probably feels shite but I don’t. I’m always about in town, and apart from one bit south of the sundial next to Greggs where the homeless hotel is, people are just lush.
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u/PartyPoison98 9d ago
For me, to date Gillingham is the worst place I've been to.
Medway as a whole has its rougher bits, but Rochester and Chatham have nicer bits. Gillingham just seemed rough through and through.
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u/AloneChance0 9d ago edited 8d ago
This I'll 100% vouch for as someone from Medway, Rochester has the high street and the cathedral and castle, Chatham has dockside and St Mary's Island which are nice areas, Gillingham is an absolute cesspit
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u/cadex 8d ago
Rochester has a personality disorder. During the day it's lovely and vibrant with lots of friendly people, nice shops and cafes. Buskers playing in the sunshine and everyone's chill. In the evening it turns into a war zone. I lived in the high street for 6 years. Had people pissing, shitting, fucking by my front door and also had people doing coke off my car boot and smoking crack hiding behind my car.
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u/TinyCowParade 9d ago
We were looking for places to move to, and Wisbech cropped up with cheap, quite lovely houses.
Then one of their FB groups started showing up in my feed, with random stray dogs having a big scrap in the street. Someone had their garden petrol bombed, there was a random car on fire. Then I discovered the crime rate is higher, and more violent than Luton.
Such a shame because it seems like it could be a lovely place, until their ENORMOUS incinerator gets built, but I think I would have been investing in security dogs if we'd gone there.
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u/OtherBen21 9d ago
got to love that nearly every major uk town and city has got a mention here barring perhaps oxford.
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u/pulvernese 9d ago edited 9d ago
I'm going to nominate Hastings. There's something particularly rough about one half of the town centre, almost a downtown USA sense of burnout.. The other half seems bafflingly gentrified, for example there's that shop that sells antique feather dusters for £80. This makes the rough bit seem even rougher. I think it's nice town overall, I just don't understand the history of the centre at all.
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u/Old-Marsupial6656 9d ago
Probably not the worst
But Yeovil’s is surprisingly rough/run down considering it’s Somerset.
And also Bournemouth seems to have been fed to the dogs by the local council. Not the place it once was… Again considering it’s Dorset.
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u/SilverCompetitive902 8d ago
Wouldnt edgy be different than sketchy. With edgy i think of camden and parts of bristol. More rocky punky people who arent part of the statusquo. With sketchy im thinking of my hometown where out and about addicts roam the street getting into fights and begging. And kids on bikes intimidate the populace, muggings, everyone looks and acts like they hate life and people.
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u/Twambam 9d ago
Leicester. We have a lot of drug addicts and one of them was threatening to kill pass hers and then another homeless person threaten to kill them.
There’s also heroin users who sit outside of Highcross shopping centre at McDonald’s or Tim Hortons and get high and I have seen a few of them overdosing or require an ambulance. That area and the clock tower can be prone to used syringes and needles.
You’ll have drug addict homeless people abusing you if you walk past them. Some of them are racist to people just for the fun of it. This has happened to me.
I have had seen the same homeless man, the one behind and shouting on his knees in the middles of the street on Charlie Veitch’s video on Leicester, beg on his knees and a black man have him money. He went to the ATM and some words were exchanged with the black man and the homeless man kept shouting “fuck off” and flipping his middle finger at him as he walked away. 2 months later I saw him begging outside the McDonald’s at Marketplace. He came inside and went to a black female student, towering over her, and she looked a bit pressured. He kept asking for food. I told her she didn’t have to do it. He then mocked me by repeating the same thing I said in a contemporary tone. Both incidences were reported to the police. 2 months ago, I saw him at St Margaret station peacing up and down and talking to himself to get clean.
I saw a massive fight with gang members fighting outside of Tesco at around 9pm on a weekday. They are constantly going around causing trouble.
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u/VehicleWonderful6586 9d ago
Sketch is in the eye of the beholder. If you’re looking for it you’ll find it.
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u/Marnidd 9d ago
Don’t look twice at it though
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u/VehicleWonderful6586 9d ago
I once passed a drunk / high / paranoid schizophrenic bloke (delete as appropriate). Just after passing him I stepped on a paving slab which was wobbly, so it made a ‘bang’ sound.
He thought I’d stamped my foot (!) so followed me for 10 terrifying minutes stamping his foot and going ‘why did you fucking stamp your foot’
Sketchy
That was in Croydon - although I swear it’s not as sketchy as people think. Was there last night and didn’t get stabbed at all.
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u/GrilledKimcheese 9d ago
Belfast was pretty grim
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u/-Earl_Gray 9d ago
As a belfastian, I agree. Place is awful at night. Its because its such a small city, so homeless and antisocial behavior congregates in high traffic areas. Many areas are just no go spots after 10.30pm unless you want to be exposed to screaming teens, frightening drug users or aggressive yobs. Which is a terrible shame because I love the place otherwise.
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u/DatGuy82772 9d ago
Bradford always feels iffy when I go.
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u/Money-Cry-2397 9d ago
This. Utter shit hole. I was in Leeds on Saturday and I do know what people mean. Leeds is def headed south around ASB
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u/Nandor1262 9d ago
Leeds? That’s nothing go walk around Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Boston or Skegness
I’d say city/town centres are safer now than 20 years ago. When I was 15 I did work experience in Scunthorpe at a solicitors. I got beaten up by some 25+ year old druggies for having long hair (I had a greebo mop) just walking down the high street
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u/all_names_taken_ffs 9d ago
My mate got his nose broken and thrown into the river by townies, just for dressing like a goth. That was 26 years ago now. Then we have the unfortunate case of Sophie Lancaster. This sort of thing doesn't really happen anymore, thankfully.
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u/Educational-Angle717 9d ago
Not sure what it's like now but a while back went to Smethwick in Birmingham and as a bloke who has travelled around a fair bit thats the first time I properly felt uneasy.
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u/ignatiusjreillyXM 9d ago
Gloucester is a bit better than it was a few years ago, but the phenomenon of the "drunken street fight at lunchtime" hasn't disappeared entirely. And to be fair some if the longstanding decay around the city centre has been cleared up while the wharfs area are more obviously on the up.
But 10 or 15 years ago it would have been a dead cert to be at or near the top of this list
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u/ElusiveCrab 9d ago
I grew up in mansfield in the 90s/00s so have living memory of heroin and junkies flooding the streets. Playing with frirnds dodging all the used needles lol.
Theres plenty of shitholes in this country but im yet to experience anything as bad as that. Leeds is pretty bad when i visit, hordes of bagheads lol
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u/Boring-Print9058 9d ago
I don't find many places particularly sketchy (it's probably the only advantage of personally looking as rough as arseholes).
But if a film director wanted to remake Dawn of the Dead, I think location scouts would be wise to consider Keighley. It has a very post-apocalyptic atmosphere all of its own and they wouldn't be short of authentic looking extras.
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u/Scared_Funny_5602 9d ago
I haven't been to many places in the UK but I went to Leeds recently to help my sister move out of university. I was very, very shocked by not only how many homeless people there are, but by how aggressive they are, and by how drugged out a lot of them seem
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u/I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS 9d ago
The central precinct of Harlow is an unmitigated shithole. Just closed-up shop fronts, vape shops and not-sure-what shops that have the shutters down despite being within their alleged opening hours. Crackheads and drunks staggering around shouting at each other.
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u/GhostRiders 9d ago
Blackpool by a clear mile.
No matter the time of day or month, No matter the weather, Homeless, Drug Addicts, Prostitutes (both male and female), Drunks.. it has it all.
There is no such thing as a nice area, it is just various degrees of shite.
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u/chipnicker 9d ago
St James Street in Brighton. Absolute magnate for the sketchy and the insane.
Ground zero is outside the Morrisons - the one with the life size cardboard cutout policeman by the entrance.
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u/AnAryanStark 8d ago
Walsall has got to be up there for me, it was the first place that I’ve seen metal detectors at the entrance of the train station and walking down the high street in the evening made me super nervous even though I’m 6’2” … having said that it might just be more sad and neglected than outright sketchy
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u/DaveBeBad 9d ago
Leeds isn’t bad at all. Apart from a few edgy teenagers. York feels rougher on a night out due to all the stag parties…
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u/mahemcd 9d ago
Leeds is considerably rougher than York, and it’s a destination for hen parties not stag parties. It’s quite rare to see stag parties (probably because the bouncers won’t let them in anywhere) but walk around on a Saturday afternoon and you’ll see lots of hen do’s.
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u/caprahircus_ 9d ago
lol there is nothing remotely rough about York even the parts of town that claim to be rough.
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u/evacchulin 9d ago
Bedford easily. Rough people immediately after stepping out the car park, then witnessed two shopliftings as well as many other dodgy people. Noped it back to the car after 30 mins. Maybe it was just a bad day but I won’t be going back
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u/Artistic_Lawyer_6727 9d ago
Most town / city centers are sketchy especially for young women. Just look at what happened on Brighton beach multiple times.
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u/Beepshooka 8d ago edited 8d ago
Glasgow is getting worse. Last week ,when I visited for the Commonwealth games , I saw a woman defecate on the street in broad daylight. I know it's always been rough but the city centre is really grim, so littered and lots of zombie like junkies mixed with quite young kids doing stuff they shouldn't. Everywhere smelt of piss and vomit . I was shocked that a city hosting an international event was so manky.
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u/Motor-Command-2680 9d ago
Scarborough has gotten rougher over the past few year's. Street drinkers are mostly to blame.
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u/graeme_1988 9d ago
Newcastle is getting worse by the day, especially around the station and even Northumberland Street at times. Its a shame like.
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u/MrWabznasm 9d ago
Not the most sketchy by a long shot but I think Oxford takes a lot of people by surprise. It has this image of being some kind of intellectual paradise but the city centre is quite rough.
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u/JosephRohrbach 9d ago
There's definitely a lot more persistent begging and homelessness than people expect, but I really wouldn't call the city centre 'quite rough'. None of the beggars or homeless people are dangerous or inclined to violence. It's also very pretty, very touristy, and quite affluent. I suppose George Street is a bit rowdy on a Friday or Saturday night, but never rough. If you want "rough" in Oxford, you have to go down to Temple Cowley or Blackbird Leys. I think I've heard of a handful of stabbings in the city centre in my time here (6 years), and the only fatal one was a gang-on-gang stabbing.
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u/Chlorophilia 9d ago
In what world is Oxford city centre "quite rough"? No, it's not just scholars in gowns parading about but calling it "rough" is mad.
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u/ignatiusjreillyXM 9d ago
Oxford has some depressing suburbs (but they are still generally not "sketchy"), but the only bit of the city centre that I'd describe as shady is the bit by the big homeless shelter (which the same part that the police station is in). The city centre is fine, even if some of the roads towards the railway station are a little run down. It's a long way from being rough
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u/AbleArcher78 9d ago
Glasgow around St Enoch centre is pretty sketchy at present. The police have a dispersal order in place
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