What is a moment that completely changed your opinion about a place in the UK ?
Posted by Status_Agents@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 58 comments
Could be positive or negative—but something that made you rethink your assumptions.
Mysterious_County154@reddit
Manchester
I was always told it was a rough, unfriendly shithole and kinda just went along with it because so many people was saying that
Well I visited on my own for the first time last year and now I go every couple months for a few days staying in a hotel there. I feel really "at home" there and relaxed. Everyone I've talked to there has been extremely friendly and overall great. I plan to move there one day
Nuthetes@reddit
I felt the opposite. I went to Manchester this year and ... it wasn't a shit hole as such but it felt anywhere UK. It had no real character or feel of its own. And disappointing because there were times when I felt it had a bit of charm--a Georgian building here or there which was immediately spoiiled by some glass and concrete 70s to modern day monstrosity plonked next door with no thought put into making it look remotely attractive.
I didnt find it rough or unfriendly or sketchy at all though. Just bland and charmless.
Wooden_Astronaut4668@reddit
I agree totally charmless and so dry there is barely a tree or blade of grass in sight anywhere in the centre which makes it feel stifling and dirty
DoctorOctagonapus@reddit
I saw that. The only bit of greenery in the entire city is a small lawn next to the cathedral.
gizmostrumpet@reddit
I find Manchester pretty bland to be honest. There are parts of the city centre that are sketchy as fuck as well.
Gillzy18@reddit
‘Parts’ = Piccadilly gardens, anywhere else in the town centre is not even close to sketchy
Nuthetes@reddit
Yeah, I was staying in the town centre and for a big city I felt perfectly at ease, even out at night.
Bland and charmless--but it felt safe. Unlike Nottingham where it felt very sketchy at night, and many of the people I walked past on the way to the station I just got a sense of "wrong 'un" about them. Like, if I looked at them or they got some imagined slight they'd be looking to pick a fight.
Never got that feeling at all in Manchester, even at night. It just felt like normal people on a night out.
gizmostrumpet@reddit
It's weird you can criticise any other city in the country on Reddit (London and Birmingham get a lot of stick) but people can't abide some mild criticism of Manchester.
Gillzy18@reddit
I feel as though the hate London gets is just right-wing bots at this point but I genuinely can’t think of areas in the Manchester city centre that are sketchy af
uk123456789101112@reddit
Sounds like you were looking for York in a city of 3 million people, I think the issue here was you. Manchester us a post industrial city that is seeing a massive boom in regeneration. I think you woukd prefer Liverpool or Newcastle by a long way
Pure_Study_3664@reddit
I actually feel the same way about Manchester! I was told how dingy and depressing the city is but I had a completely different experience.
Status_Agents@reddit (OP)
Thats a solid lesson firsthand experience almost always beats secondhand reputation. Cities especially tend to carry outdated or exaggerated stereotypes that just get passed around without anyone questioning them. Glad Manchester won you over its got a genuinely warm character to it. Sometimes the places people dismiss are the ones worth exploring most.
adamrhodesuk@reddit
Peterborough - I was completely on the fence about the place until the summer of 2019. I was waiting at the bus station near the main shopping centre in the town centre. Making my way back home from Leicester to Norwich sometime in the middle of July.
It was roasting, I was tired, and mildly hungover from the night before. The Leicester to Peterborough dropped me off 15 mins ago and the next coach wasn't due to get me for another 45 mins.
On the horizon I spotted what I assumed at the time (I assumed correctly) to be a local, drunk and slightly older than middle-aged gentleman with a walking stick. For the sake of the anecdote, let's refer to him as Gerald. Gerald was making his way towards me and gaining speed rather quickly.
As the distance between Gerald and I closed, he began to hurl profanities in my general direction. Along the lines of "you b*****d" amongst other things while pointing right at me.
By the time Gerald was just metres away a thought had crossed my mind...
"FFS, I can't be doing with this today"
And just like that, Gerald's walking stick slipped out from underneath him and he face-planted the pavement harder than I thought possible.
Gerald was now unconscious in Peterborough town centre. Me on the other hand, still hungover and reaching for my phone to call an ambulance.
Little did I know, that when you call an ambulance for such incidents, you're supposed to stay with the person and on the line.
While on the phone to the emergency services, a woman of similar age to Gerald comes marching over. With a volume and profanity to non-profanity ratio similar to Gerald's, she was shout "F-in 'ell Gerald! What the F 'ave you gone and done naaa? You're always doing this!"
And before I had chance to explain to her what had happened (not that she needed an explanation clearly), she bent forward, reached into Gerald's back pocket and took his wallet. Then of course continued on her day.
While still on the phone, I explained fully what had just happened and an ambulance arrived moments before my coach did.
In a state of disbelieve of what I had just witnessed, Peterborough rapidly became somewhere I intend to avoid.
DoctorOctagonapus@reddit
I remember in primary school geography we watched a video about Peterborough that was all people saying what a nice place it was. I can only imagine it was a very old video.
Nuthetes@reddit
I always assumed Peterborough was a nice place and visited the cathedral this year.
It is the most disappointed I have been to a town. I had a walk around what would be a nice square just outside the cathedral, it has a Guild Hall or something from the 1600s and a bunch of old buildings around it. It was spoilt by the fact every single one of them had been turned into shitty fast food places and similar.
There was this lovely old building with statues of royalty and other notables built into the sides that was now a Pizza Express with no attempt whatsoever to blend in with the arcitecture. Something like that should be something more tasteful--a second hand book shop, an antique shop, a fancy tea room or something.
DEADB33F@reddit
The only time anyone I've ever known has gone to Peterborough is if they're going on holiday and need a passport ASAP. There's literally no other reason.
Horrid place.
Nuthetes@reddit
The cathedral is worth visiting.
Katherine of Aragon is buried there. And Mary Queen of Scots was originally there before being moved to Westminster.
It was disappointing though, a cathedral is usually a sign that a place has a nice old town to walk around. Not Peterborough, it was shit. The most disappointed I have been in a town because the buildings in the square itself are actually nice but just ruined by letting the fast food chains move in.
Like this -- I don't think it's an old building as such, Victorian or Edwardian and made to look old. But it's a nice little building with statues of Henry VIII and Prince Rupert and others and deserves much better than having a ghastly pizza express using it.
Robmeu@reddit
The Exeter one on Cathedral Green is also in a nice building. Fair play to them keeping the old tearoom name on it too.
Nuthetes@reddit
Yeah,that one at least the decor at the bottom is more subdued and tasteful. Unless its worse from an other angle?
But it looks ok--small sign on the outside and just the name on the umbrella. No different than an independent coffee house or something.
Robmeu@reddit
Yeah just as modest on the other side. It doesn’t scream at you for sure. If it had to be anyone I would rather it was them, imagine a bloody KFC there.
terahurts@reddit
I grew up there in the 70s and 80s. That Pizza Express was a Wimpy for most of my childhood and - IIRC - a homeware store before that.
Peterborough suffered from being part of the New Town scheme in the 80s. Dozens of new, very cheaply built council estates were built around the outskirts, turning it into a dormitory town for London, leading to a large increase increase in population while the old town centre was ripped out and replaced by the shopping centre. In the late 80s and 90s, pretty much all the big industrial employers either closed down or downsized and the new estates turned into sink-estates full of crime. Then the office-based jobs at places like Pearl (asset stripped by an Aussie bank) and Thomas Cook started going as well.
With that said, it was actually a nice place to grow up in. There were dedicated bike paths everywhere, Queensgate (the shopping centre) was full of big-name shops, there were two cinemas in the town centre, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, plus places like Ferry Meadows, a sort of large park built in the old claypits with some outdoors activities like sailing. The coast was only an hour or so away and - back when rail fares were somewhat reasonable - London was only 50 minutes away by train plus the A1 and A47 gave good road links to the rest of the country.
I moved away in the early 2000s when it was still a reasonably nice place to live and I haven't been back for more than a few minutes since 2010. Last time I was there, it had a changed a lot.
Altruistic-Medium-23@reddit
I always thought the Peterborough hate was just a meme joke. I live in Cambridge and we spend a bit of time in Peterborough for shopping or sometimes for some admin stuff. It’s not too bad and definitely better than other places in east Anglia (cough - Kings Lynn - cough)
R2-Scotia@reddit
When I was at uni some friends and I went to a late night cinema showing in Peterborough. Afterwards we were chased through the city centre by a buncj of drunk middle aged women who I guess had been on a hen night.
Altruistic-Medium-23@reddit
Tbf I always thought the Peterborough hate was just a meme joke. I live in Cambridge and we spend a bit of time in Peterborough for shopping (they have more stuff than us) or sometimes for some admin stuff. It’s not too bad, and definitely better than other places in east Anglia (cough - Kings Lynn - cough)
Nandor1262@reddit
Peterborough has more shops than Cambridge? Peterborough has a John Lewis but otherwise I can’t think what shops it has to warrant a trip from Cambridge.
Active_Definition_57@reddit
John Lewis in Peterborough closed about 4 years ago. I think Cambridge has a John Lewis.
Nandor1262@reddit
I moved away from Peterborough 4 years ago so that makes sense 😂 can’t understand what that guy is going to Peterborough for then!
dinkidoo7693@reddit
Moved there with an ex, i knew it wasn’t the right place to live when the nearby walk-in clinic was reopened as a rape crisis clinic about 2 months after we got there.
We caught a bus into the city centre for a night out and one of the younger women sat in front of us had a bar uniform on, her friend made a casual joke about her not getting raped on the way home this time.
As a woman who didn’t know anyone apart from the people who my ex worked with, who weren’t exactly the most friendly or social people, that scared the hell out of me.
Mysterious_County154@reddit
Sounds about the average day in Peterborough. This cursed city is sadly the nearest one to my town
Just drunk or high or unwashed (or some times all together) people everywhere. Scary at night
Hamsternoir@reddit
The only positive thing I can say about Peterborough is that it's not Wisbech
adamrhodesuk@reddit
Sorry to hear. I've never spent a lot of time there to be honest. So cannot comment on the reality of the place. But this was definitely my most memorable experience.
Status_Agents@reddit (OP)
Haha Gerald’s wife didnt even check if he was breathing before going for the wallet Peterborough really said welcome, here is everything you need to know about us. Cant blame you for avoiding it after that!
adamrhodesuk@reddit
She was either heavily reliant on Gerald's ability to come back from such incidents, or the general public's good nature to get the paramedics involved. Either way, she knew the score.
Amazingbuttplug@reddit
My mother is English and she raised me in the US. I went to Glasgow for university as I was a citizen anyway and wanted to do something new. My mother acted like it was going to be a war zone and that I would be stabbed or addicted to drugs in my first year. But when I arrived it seemed very safe this would be 2015 when I arrived. She is an older parent so she may have been working off of dated information. But I pretty much noticed upon arrival that it seemed safer than any US city.
One thing I noticed about Glaswegians is they talk a lot about the sun. They will ask where I am from and when I reply California they say “wow must be sunny there”. Or I’d tell them Im making a trip to Spain and they will say “the sun will be nice there”. It is very interesting. Now I do half the year in Brazil and they will ask about the sun there as well. It’s a very small thing but I find it comes up a lot. I didn’t really expect the overcast to bother people so much and for them to have a such strong preference towards sunny weather. I would have guessed they would have accepted overcast more.
h00dman@reddit
My dad was from Glasgow (born in 1954), and when he brought my mum up to visit his friends and family her reaction was similar to your mum's - very rough, very dirty, the buildings were black from decades of soot and dirt etc.
There was a huge transformation in the city with the run-up-to and subsequent win of the European City of Culture awards in 1990, with the place being literally and figuratively cleaned up.
I've also always found the place to be friendly (I was there recently with my mum, one of the ticket sellers in the subway called her "Pal" 😅) and I like going back there when I can.
Amazingbuttplug@reddit
Yeah my mother was born in 1956 and she moved to the US in around 1990. I actually thought the city was improved more recently, I did not know it happened all the way back in 1990.
Yeah I notice people in Glasgow are very kind. I have lived in Glasgow most of my adult life, but people presume I am a tourist because of accent. And I would say it’s the kindest city population I have experienced.
kettlejuices@reddit
I think the reason is that overcast is the default in most areas of the UK, so when we do get a sunny, clear day it's a real treat.
Djinjja-Ninja@reddit
So would you if you never see it.
Consistent_Guide3886@reddit
I went to Glasgow for the commonwealth games in 2014 and they were without doubt the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Absolutely loved the city
Extreme-Composer8452@reddit
Tbf the Glasgow I grew up in compared to the Glasgow of 2015, seemed very different. Some of my pals used to compare stab wounds. There was a time I felt left out for not having any. I'm pretty happy about that now, of course. I know a lot of people that went on to become junkies, a few have already gone. It's still a great place, I still love going back. The changes in vibe can be fascinating.
Effective_Topic_4728@reddit
Trip to Birmingham to see the Foo fighters at Villa park a couple of years ago. I was staying about an hours walk from the stadium and I'm not lazy so the thought of using public transport didn't cross my mind.
I have never seen such filth in all my life. Every couple of hundred meters or so, there was a van load of rubbish just tipped on the side of the road. People openly taking drugs whilst driving, openly urinating in the streets, young adults in incredibly expensive cars racing up and down the streets, gangs roaming, prostitutes on street corners.
I tended to think that this sort of thing was made up by the right of politics, but it really opened my eyes to just how bad some areas have become.
Wooden_Astronaut4668@reddit
yep, Birmingham is grim and I felt unsafe there once it got to the evening.
Sliver-Knight9219@reddit
The minute i saw the giant Greggs in Edinburgh. I new this was one of a capital city
uk123456789101112@reddit
Edinburgh feels like a Capital city, Cardiff and Belfast feel like they play at being one.
Few_Entertainer2932@reddit
Cardiff is a nice cute capital of a country that is also largely cute and rural, not to mention Wales being economically shafted it's entire existence. Forgive us that we are not a metropolis
NOFEETPLZXOXO@reddit
lol you’re smaller than Bristol.
Icy_Mixture1482@reddit
Edinburgh is indeed one capital city.
WorcsBloke@reddit
Liverpool. This was the 90s and I ended up going to uni there. At the time it still had a pretty dire reputation in many places and little of the redevelopment (bar the Albert Dock) had yet taken place. I loved the city. Used to walk home at midnight from Lime Street station to my flat in Toxteth and never had any trouble. There were a few places you avoided (Granby St in those days had a reputation as drug dealer central) but otherwise it was fine. Certainly not posh, but I felt much more comfortable there than I'd expected.
Turbulent_Brief_2813@reddit
Lincoln.
I had visited a handful of times over the years, just spending a couple of hours there in an evening, and it always felt like an amazing, vibrant, thriving city that would be a great place to live. I moved to that area a few years ago, and while I was preparing to move, everybody I mentioned it said, "oh, Lincoln is lovely."
When I actually lived there, I realised that Lincoln is indeed a great city - in small doses, concentrated to a single venue or area. There was nothing wrong with it per se - it was clean, the people were friendly, not many shuttered shopfronts, etc. But when it was the only city I had within reach, I realised how small the city centre was - I always felt like there must be a whole other section tucked away that I was somehow missing - and it got ridiculously crowded at times, so getting a table for lunch anywhere on a Saturday was virtually impossible without a huge bunfight.
itsxafx@reddit
my little corner of nottingham.
used to say i’d die before i left here, no way am i ever living anywhere else, i love council estate life and wouldn’t trade it for anything etc. i grew up in a council house and have lived in it all my life.
the council built a new (and very much unwanted!) development near my house which is 100% council housing, not mixed private/council. big mistake. now they’re using it as a dumping ground for their particularly difficult tenants, and i’ve had county lines dealers move in across the road from me. there’s crime in the new estate constantly with the majority of it being violent, my neighbours were riding their shitty loud bikes at all hours of the day and night until the police showed up the other day to take one because it was nicked and it’s just been a constant low level anxiety since christmas. my anxiety spikes any time i hear my gate, my doorbell or even see someone walk past outside.
thankfully the neighbours seem to have done one or are keeping things very quiet, but the result is the same. i’ve reached my mental limit with this place. add to this the council seemingly refusing to do anything about the very big and glaring issues this new estate has brought with it and i’ve come to the conclusion that living here is not good for my health and i want to get out.
my partner is delighted. he comes from a fairly affluent area and would never have wanted to live here, he just hoped i might change my mind. now all i want is to live somewhere very quiet where all the neighbours care about is keeping to themselves and not causing issues.
Gillzy18@reddit
Bradford - I went for a football game and walked right through the centre to the ground. The architecture is some of the nicest I’ve seen in the UK, grand historical buildings & small Victorian high streets. Before that point I had only heard bad things about the place!
Sharp_Budget_4416@reddit
Birmingham. Driven round it on the M6 about a hundred times without stopping, mainly because every time anyone mentions it someone pulls a face. Went down for a mate's wedding a couple of years back, ended up in Digbeth on the Saturday afternoon and it was honestly the most fun I'd had in a UK city in years. Came back with a list of pubs to try and a much shorter list of places I'd been smug about.
Nuthetes@reddit
Hull was much nicer than I thought--at least the old town area.
Nice old buildings, some interesging ghost signs hinting at the fishing and maritime heritage of the place, some good old pubs like the Black Boy and Minerva and W.M Hawkes and Ye Olde White Horse. Three excellent museums that I went too (Wilberforce House, Streetlife and Hull & East Riding) and there's also the Maritime Museum and Lightboat Museum which were closed when I went.
It's a good city. Not sure why it has such a bad reputation
Realistic-River-1941@reddit
Politically, Hull has no suburbs: they are across the boundary in the East Riding. If someone in Hull gets a good job, the first thing they do is move somewhere not technically in Hull.
This means Hull scores badly on any measure where in other cities the middle class areas drag up the inner-city areas, eg education.
VFrosty3@reddit
My dad is from Hull but spent most of his life in Staffordshire. He would say that Hull and Stoke-on-Trent were very similar, and this is one of the ways - if anyone starts making money in Stoke, they’ll move into the more affluent local authority boundary of Staffordshire; often to somewhere like Newcastle-under-Lyme, Barlaston, Leek, Stone.
ArapileanDreams@reddit
Yes, this surprisesd me. Before they redrew the electoral boundaries the electoral ward to the east of Hull was the second most affluent in the whole of Yorkshire. Pleasantly surprised myself at how nice the city centre is compared to the stigma at the city previously held and also the reputation it has on its City stats that you have cleared up above.
IceQueenByte@reddit
Visiting Edinburgh completely changed my view far more welcoming and vibrant than I initially expected.
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