# What's the hardest northern town / city?



## Firky (Feb 12, 2006)

Nominations below. Poll to follow.


----------



## MysteryGuest (Feb 12, 2006)

Hardest as in most nails-est, or hardest as in most complicated?


----------



## chio (Feb 13, 2006)

Football hooligans and BNP meet random nutters in... Stoke


----------



## zenie (Feb 13, 2006)

mm Bradford??

or is that midlands?


----------



## chio (Feb 13, 2006)

zenie said:
			
		

> mm Bradford??
> 
> or is that midlands?


----------



## zenie (Feb 13, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

>




lol can you tell I'm from the south??


----------



## marty21 (Feb 13, 2006)

north london


----------



## Leica (Feb 13, 2006)

MysteryGuest said:
			
		

> Hardest as in most nails-est, or hardest as in most complicated?


Perhaps hardest to comprehend?


----------



## chio (Feb 13, 2006)

have you lot not got a forum to go to?


----------



## chio (Feb 13, 2006)

bollington

no actually that's not funny


----------



## big footed fred (Feb 13, 2006)

The one with the most pissed up bastards is doncaster
The one with the accent that sounds most like they are going to welly you is liverpool
The hardest is barnsley where you will get nutted for almost anything.

chio, that map's a cracker. Bunging Brum where Manchester should go. Well funny.


----------



## foggypane (Feb 13, 2006)

Carlisle. Fucking terrifying. It's like the last 500 years never happened.


----------



## Firky (Feb 13, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

> have you lot not got a forum to go to?




LOL


----------



## Firky (Feb 13, 2006)

Blyth, smack capital of the UK for a few years.


----------



## chio (Feb 13, 2006)

big footed fred said:
			
		

> chio, that map's a cracker. Bunging Brum where Manchester should go. Well funny.



it says "bradford" you numpty


----------



## Belushi (Feb 13, 2006)

Glasgow.


----------



## chio (Feb 13, 2006)

Belushi said:
			
		

> Glasgow.



i give up


----------



## mancboy (Feb 13, 2006)

Barrow in Furness.

End of the line.


----------



## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 13, 2006)

From my footie travels I'd say Burnley was as 70's in the 90's as you can get.


----------



## big footed fred (Feb 13, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

> it says "bradford" you numpty




You expect me to read and process information at 1:30 in the fucking morning after working for 15 hours, having a shitty chicken curry and driving back from liverpool.
remember in yorkshire we only have a gravel pit for a bed and no covers.

PS - think I fell in love yesterday as well.


----------



## hammerntongues (Feb 13, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> From my footie travels I'd say Burnley was as 70's in the 90's as you can get.




If we are talking footie the Sheffield in the 70`s n 80`s was scarey , Stoke was naughty as well


----------



## RubberBuccaneer (Feb 13, 2006)

Middlesboro is usually quoted as the most fearsome.


----------



## Belushi (Feb 13, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

> i give up



Hey! I could have said Aberystwyth!


----------



## Firky (Feb 13, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> Middlesboro is usually quoted as the most fearsome.



It is dull as dishwater not hard. Mostly just ben sherman shirted wankers.


----------



## foggypane (Feb 13, 2006)

hammerntongues said:
			
		

> If we are talking footie the Sheffield in the 70`s n 80`s was scarey , Stoke was naughty as well




I change my vote to Sheffield in the 80s. I'd suppressed that memory, you bastard.


----------



## Orang Utan (Feb 13, 2006)

Leeds


----------



## citygirl (Feb 14, 2006)

big footed fred said:
			
		

> You expect me to read and process information at 1:30 in the fucking morning after working for 15 hours, having a shitty chicken curry and driving back from liverpool.
> remember in yorkshire we only have a gravel pit for a bed and no covers.
> 
> PS - think I fell in love yesterday as well.


----------



## stereotypical (Feb 14, 2006)

Liverpool


----------



## shoddysolutions (Feb 14, 2006)

chio said:
			
		

> Football hooligans and BNP meet random nutters in... Stoke



The Stoke City firm are the footsoldiers of a crew from Longton IIRC

Longton was also the location of the legendary Shelleys nightclub, where Sasha was resident DJ


----------



## rosa (Feb 17, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> Middlesboro is usually quoted as the most fearsome.


All the people i know from Middlesbrough quite proudly tell me it's the closest thing Britain's got to the third world. Not sure if that automatically makes it hard.


----------



## Juice Terry (Feb 17, 2006)

Definitely Hartlepool.

I went out with a girl from there once and even her little kid sister used to come home after a saturday night out with bloody and busted knuckles.


----------



## Firky (Feb 17, 2006)

rosa said:
			
		

> All the people i know from Middlesbrough quite proudly tell me it's the closest thing Britain's got to the third world. Not sure if that automatically makes it hard.



They've never been to Glasgow then.


----------



## mhendo (Feb 20, 2006)

big footed fred said:
			
		

> The one with the most pissed up bastards is doncaster


I lived in Donny for a while in 1990-91, and worked behind the bar at the rugby club in Bentley, one of the rougher parts of town.

There were some real hard types, for sure, but most of the people i knew were more talk than action, and in general were a pretty friendly and amiable bunch of people. I was about the only Aussie in the town (bit different from London!) and they took me in made me feel like a local within the first few months.

I lived in the Lakes District for just over a year (1991-early '92, and back again for half of 1993), on Ullswater. For a while i was seeing a woman who worked doing crime stats and sociological stuff for the Cumbria police, and she told me that Penrith had the highest rate of per-capita violence of any city in England. Or maybe it was the most violent in the _north_ of England, i can't remember; but i know that she said it was a disproportionately violent place.

We used to go to some of the nightclubs in Penrith (actually, i think there might only have been one, maybe two). Anyone who's been to a nightclub in a small northern English town will know the sort of place well. Half the people in there are underage, the DJ played crappy Top 40 shite (not a proper dance track to be found), the clothes were hangovers from the '80s, the hairstyles from the '50s, and if you looked at a local woman you were likely to get a glass in the face from one of the half-dozen blokes who fancied her.

That is, of course, an exaggeration, but i never really felt comfortable in those places, and the locals made quite clear they weren't interested in any friendly interaction with us outsiders.


----------



## s.norbury (Feb 20, 2006)

Penrith is very bad, and they're armed with shot guns plus no one knows where it is


----------



## machine cat (Feb 22, 2006)

It has to be either Leeds or Halifax IMO


----------



## zoltan (Feb 22, 2006)

*Any Pit Village in Durham/ Northumberland*

MY mate was dancing close with a girl hed just met  on the dancefloor in a shithole outside Newcastle called Chopwell -a wedding do in the community centre. He saw this lumpy heavy browed bloke come marching across the dance floor, staring evilly at him - he thinks " oh no - he we go........" 

the bloke gets right up to Mt mate & this Girls & pulls them apart as they danced, then deftly nutted the girl, who fell into a heap on the floor. he managed to get 2 kicks into here prone body before here harridan friends set about him & dragged him outside.here thr fight continmued with about 10 other low browed blokes appeared, began pulling off their shirts & layed into each other en mass

Turn out he was her husband.

we escaped via the toilet window into our car & fucked off

terrible place

Nice.


----------



## machine cat (Feb 23, 2006)

Scary!  

By the way, what's wrong with your keyboard?


----------



## omlette (Feb 23, 2006)

Carlile from me too.  I'm not talking about psychopathic nutters, just general hardness.  The kind of people who wouldn't really notice if you accidentally drove over their foot, or would plough the rest of the field before continuing down t'road to take their severed limb to a hospital to get it sewed back on before tea.


----------



## zoltan (Feb 24, 2006)

drcarnage said:
			
		

> Scary!
> 
> By the way, what's wrong with your keyboard?



Nothing -just have  have big northern fingers


----------



## Wintermute (Feb 24, 2006)

Wellllllll... there's the obvious ones - Toxteth, Moss Side et al. I think their bark is worse than their bite - it's a while since either had all-out riots, but they're still fucking rough. Locally to my home town of Crewe (which is, incidentally, full of pussies), both Wrexham and Winsford have got some right nasty fuckers, but the town I'd have to nominate as "place you're most likely to get your head kicked in for no apparent reason" is Rhyl. Horribly, horribly violent place.


----------



## polo (Feb 24, 2006)

I would have to nominate Hull.  Something about the heritage of doing hard, rough jobs, getting pissed and fighting.  The dodgy clubs and pubs by the docks were the worst.  Sport for an accomplished brawler was to mug and Icelandic fisherman.  Apparently these guys are brought up on high protein fish diets and do not come in small sizes.  

I once spent a Christmas eve  going around town with my brother and French friend introducing him to the local culture.  At some point in each pub we visited a brawl errupted.  My friend was amazed at the reaction of the police who just marched in walked around a bit until it stopped and the fucked off.  He said they don't to that in France, they normally beat up everyone including the landlord with batons.

In one pub my brother got into a fight with a pissed skin head.  A one arm bandit was sent flying, table went over.  I managed to persuade my brother to leave as he was throttling this guy before the police arrived.  We passed them coming in as we shuffled out.

Suddenly, I thought 'where is Pascal'.  He was still in the pub.  He emerged sometime later and told us that when it kicked off he found himself hiding under a table with a couple of girls who had snogged him and grabbed his crotch.

He said it was like the Wild West.  Fortunately none of us got hurt that night.  I was, after all, the Season of Goodwill.  

A hard place.


----------



## foggypane (Feb 25, 2006)

Everywhere has it's violent bits. A mate and I made the mistake of pretending to be French in a pub where the BNP were holding a meeting once, in Leicester. That turned into a rollicking good evening of high jinks, I can tell you. 

One or two of the BNP lads found out that they weren't as hard as they thought they were, and then I found out that I wasn't as hard as I thought I was.

i'm changing my vote back to Carlisle though, after careful and mature consideration. Or maybe Dumfries if you are allowed to vote Scottish. That place is like distilled essence of Carlisle, without the ironic self-awareness.


----------



## london manz (Feb 25, 2006)

norths got too many hard places....going by area and crime rate 2003/04

North West
Manchester
Liverpool
Salford
Rochdale
Bolton
Burnley
Oldham

Yorkshire and Humberside
Hull
Grimsby
Leeds
Scunthorpe
Bradford
Calderdale
Huddersfield

North East
Middlesbrough
Hartlepool
Newcastle
Sunderland
Stockton
Gateshead
South Tyneside


OVERALL WORST 10 BY CRIME RATE 03/04
Hull
Manchester
Middlesbrough
Liverpool
Grimsby -----this one really suprised me
Salford
Leeds
Scunthorpe -n this, i think humber police made changes in recording practices
Rochdale
Bradford


----------



## polo (Feb 25, 2006)

Grimsby has a huge reservoir of mental dereliction to draw upon due to a tradition of inbreeding.  Aside from that, they are very nice people.


----------



## montevideo (Feb 26, 2006)

polo said:
			
		

> Grimsby has a huge reservoir of mental dereliction to draw upon due to a tradition of inbreeding.  Aside from that, they are very nice people.



& lots of derelict fishing boats. Is the rainbow still up & running?


----------



## soulman (Feb 26, 2006)

Wintermute said:
			
		

> Wellllllll... there's the obvious ones - Toxteth, Moss Side et al. I think their bark is worse than their bite - it's a while since either had all-out riots, but they're still fucking rough. Locally to my home town of Crewe (which is, incidentally, full of pussies), both Wrexham and *Winsford* have got some right nasty fuckers, but the town I'd have to nominate as "place you're most likely to get your head kicked in for no apparent reason" is Rhyl. Horribly, horribly violent place.



Winsford, really? Only stopped off there a few times but never felt threatened by the locals.


----------



## tangerinedream (Feb 26, 2006)

Blackpool is pretty grim, as it's full of people from all the aforementioned places getting very, very drunk and as it's shit - they get pissed off. 
Fleetwood has a reputation, but I find it one of those places that if you want a scrap, you'll find one in two minutes, but if you don't - you'll be fine. 

(needless to say - I don't)


----------



## foggypane (Feb 27, 2006)

Rhyl/Prestatyn - very unpleasant places, with a lot of spiritually diseased fuck heads working hard to put the 'tat' in 'Prestatyn'. Violent, yes, but only shell-suit on shell-suit IME, which is more a spectator sport than a threat.

You can buy shell suits pre-soiled in Prestatyn so as to fit in straight away.


----------



## FruitandNut (Feb 27, 2006)

london manz said:
			
		

> norths got too many hard places....going by area and crime rate 2003/04
> 
> OVERALL WORST 10 BY CRIME RATE 03/04
> Hull
> ...



Grimsby figuring in the list did not surprise me at all, when I lived there a few years ago my car got done over three times and stolen once, and most of the car parks around the town centre in the mornings looked like 'Crystal Nacht' had happened the night before.    There were several burglaries and at least one mugging in the area where I lived and that was by no means the worst end of town.


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 27, 2006)

Hull's a bit rough in places, but it seems to have quietened down quite a bit over the last few years.  Or at least, the city centre has.  The violent crime rate's fallen quite a bit.

I suspect much of east Hull and the Hessle Road/Anlaby Road area are as dicey as ever they were, but then I've no call to go to either place very often.  Beverley Road has a bit more drunken scrapping than it used to, but that's mainly because there are more pubs up there now than there were a few years back.  It's not a particularly threatening place even then.

Polo, every time Hull gets mentioned, you seem to take every opportunity to run it down.  Why is this?  I have to say, some of the time I really don't recognise the city I know and like in your comments...


----------



## london manz (Feb 27, 2006)

Roadkill said:
			
		

> Polo, every time Hull gets mentioned, you seem to take every opportunity to run it down.  Why is this?  I have to say, some of the time I really don't recognise the city I know and like in your comments...



because some people are ignorant. personally i dont think anywhere should be given a bad name even the most infamous areas because at the end of the day when you have to go live in them places you realise the majority of people are friendly honest and hard working and not at all like the media portrayals.

and anyways 9 times out of ten the people slagging off these places are people who have never actually lived there and only heard stories and travelled through them on the bus catching the rawness of the area, it hardly gives them the insight to judge does it. these bad areas of towns may have some bad criminals and look a shithole but it doesnt reflect the majority of residents 







[/IMG] heres an urban pic, it may look shit round here but its friendly enough for me to walk around taking fotos


----------



## Roadkill (Feb 28, 2006)

Polo has lived - for all I know still does - in Hull.  That's what puzzles me.  It's not _that_ big a place, and yet his experience of it is so different from mine.

IIRC he's from east of the river though, which may explain things.  If I lived in Marfleet or Longhill I'd have a downer on the place too I expect.


----------



## polo (Feb 28, 2006)

Roadkill said:
			
		

> Hull's a bit rough in places, but it seems to have quietened down quite a bit over the last few years.  Or at least, the city centre has.  The violent crime rate's fallen quite a bit.
> 
> I suspect much of east Hull and the Hessle Road/Anlaby Road area are as dicey as ever they were, but then I've no call to go to either place very often.  Beverley Road has a bit more drunken scrapping than it used to, but that's mainly because there are more pubs up there now than there were a few years back.  It's not a particularly threatening place even then.
> 
> Polo, every time Hull gets mentioned, you seem to take every opportunity to run it down.  Why is this?  I have to say, some of the time I really don't recognise the city I know and like in your comments...



I have the same attitude as many people who live in the Hull that I grew up in.  Not people from the nice middle class bits, those pleasant western suburbs. Nor the areas where students spend their years partying in the houses that their parents bought as an investment.    

But the attitude of the people who live in Corporation houses on the sprawling estates.  There you will find a perverse pride in how shit the place is. 
It breaks a lot of records.  The statistics speak for themselves.  Take a trip around Longhill, Greatfield, Preston Road, Holderness Road, Bransholme.  These places have actually got worse over the years having bourne the brunt of the heroin epidemic and all that goes with it.

But like a lot of the poorest members of society they are tucked away out of sight and out of mind.  And curiously not more than a mile or so away from the grand abode of Mr Prescott who seems to have done very well for himself.

Luckily the people have an irrepressible spirit and good humour that helps them endure the worst of it.  They know how to enjoy themselves.  

I don't live there, I got out as soon as a I could.  I visit the place regularly to see family.  They all live in East  Hull.


----------



## JTG (Feb 28, 2006)

Not that I know much but in my experience of visiting places for the footy:

Stoke, Burnley, Barnsley, Carlisle and Rotherham have all done their best to scare me silly in their own lovable ways.

Whoever nominated Rhyl and Wrexham seems not to have noticed they're in Wales, even if they do all speak like scousers there.


----------



## Maidmarian (Feb 28, 2006)

RubberBuccaneer said:
			
		

> Middlesboro is usually quoted as the most fearsome.



With good reason ----- AWFUL place !


----------



## Roadkill (Mar 3, 2006)

polo said:
			
		

> I have the same attitude as many people who live in the Hull that I grew up in.  Not people from the nice middle class bits, those pleasant western suburbs. Nor the areas where students spend their years partying in the houses that their parents bought as an investment.
> 
> But the attitude of the people who live in Corporation houses on the sprawling estates.  There you will find a perverse pride in how shit the place is.  <snip>.



If you're trying to suggest that the only people who like the place are the students and people who live in the posh suburbs, then you're miles off the mark.

Granted, though, that east hull is pretty grim...


----------



## Orang Utan (Mar 3, 2006)

Gipton in Leeds has to be the most menacing place I've ever been


----------



## GarfieldLeChat (Mar 3, 2006)

Firky said:
			
		

> Nominations below. Poll to follow.


norf lundun innit everything else is forgin... innit


----------



## london manz (Mar 3, 2006)

GarfieldLeChat said:
			
		

> norf lundun innit everything else is forgin... innit


----------



## rutabowa (Mar 3, 2006)

Orang Utan said:
			
		

> Gipton in Leeds has to be the most menacing place I've ever been


yuh.


----------



## Alf Klein (Mar 3, 2006)

JTG said:
			
		

> Not that I know much but in my experience of visiting places for the footy:
> 
> Stoke, Burnley, Barnsley, Carlisle and Rotherham have all done their best to scare me silly in their own lovable ways.
> 
> Whoever nominated Rhyl and Wrexham seems not to have noticed they're in Wales, even if they do all speak like scousers there.



North Wales. The post didn't specify northern England


----------



## chio (Mar 3, 2006)

Yeah, but this isn't the Welsh forum


----------



## Wookey (Mar 6, 2006)

Lovely answer there Chio. Understated, yet all the more gleefully cutting for it.


----------



## ewok (Mar 27, 2006)

mancboy said:
			
		

> Barrow in Furness.
> 
> End of the line.



 it is quite a unique place isn't it


----------



## s.norbury (Mar 27, 2006)

Botchergate Carlisle


----------



## BettyButterfly (Apr 20, 2006)

Toxteth is actually getting quite gentrifed now with all those gorgeous Georgian Buildings being made into very expensive flats.   

I think it's reputation from years ago is the only hard thing about it.


----------

