I grew up in Southend. It has really gone downhill in the last 20 years. In the 80s and 90s it was a great place to live. Every shop was occupied. There was virtually no homelessness and there were loads of nightclubs. Every night of the week there was some club night going on. But, they've all closed down. Even the most famous club, Tots has closed. Its now the King Pin bowling alley which you might have seen in your drone shot from the car park behind the seafront. To be honest, it has improved a little over the last year or so. New shops have opened, but there are far too many takeaways and phone shops. This year we hosted the largest Street Art festival in Europe for the second year running and it was a massive success. I still live in the area, just not in the center. After viewing many of your other videos, my opinion of the town/city has gone up a lot. It still deserves to be on your list, but it is improving and there are plans to greenify the high street. Maybe worth a revisit in the future.
@@housinauthority5258 That's why all the clubs closed. They're more interested in gaming and becoming TH-camrs. That and the law changed to allow pubs to stay open longer.
Thank you for not tearing Jaywick apart too bad. With all the negative press the poor place has received over the years it has made the locals annoyed by those passing judgement but also the sense of community i saw was massively inspiring. Also its not just Essex that has used Jaywick as a dumping ground, i met people from all over the UK (Liverpool, Manchester, London, Lincoln, Great Yarmouth and more!) My mate moved there back in early 2000s and that was right into the worst part. He introduced me to loads of people there from all over the UK and all with tales to tell of previous hardships. I live in a small Northern Essex town and was amazed at how nice, respectful and friendly everyone was to me. They treated me like a local the first time i met them and were ALL lovely people. I was a little on edge initially after hearing about Jaywicks reputation and the fact that a little before i visited someone had been killed by being run over (possibly repeatedly and certainly purposely!) I soon learned that the `victim` was a suspected paedophile that had received some street justice! But i needn`t have worried as everyone was great and friendly. I really hope the government starts to actually look after Jaywick and its residents, they deserve some love!
I’ve lived in jaywick for for 38 years- love it and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I was born in grays. True what he says . Lakeside done it in . Was a nice town when I was a child. From what I hear it’s awful now.
@@splodge5714They built the world's longest suspension bridge so people could escape Grimsby quicker. The problem is that it leads to Hull. Choose your poison.
It’s so tragic to see this once great nation in a state of total decline . We have been sold out by traitors and criminals . Unless there is radical change it’s only going to get worse .
@@IStOLeuRAnDomS Nah go back to the 70s and the strikes and it was way worse before Thatcher, but I am not a fan of Thatcher anyway. From a personal view it was labour in 1997 who have done much more damge to the UK than anyone else to destroy the country, I absolutely dread another 4 years of them, as much as I dislike the tories.
I spent the first 20 years of my life in Essex - just not the Turdtowns areas. I could spot most of the candidates a mile away, although (fortunately) Harlow is the only one I was anywhere near, and why anyone would want to live in that concrete carbuncle is a mystery that not even Miss Marple, Inspector Morse and Sherlock Holmes could solve if they all pooled resources.
We have Stevenage in Herts, blame them for Harlow 'coz they invented the New Town by looking at the Garden City 2 junctions north up the A1 and thought: "you know what would be great? Something like this designed entirely with a set square and built out of pebble dashed concrete. I mean, how else are we going fill it full of chavs?".
@@darthwiizius I'm fairly sure I went through Stevenage once... and fortunately I've never had to go there again. About all it'll ever be famous for is Lewis Hamilton. Harlow was a blight on my sight and mind for far longer.
@@baronthorsteinn Well a member of Jethro Tull comes from Stevenage, a friend of mind hangs out with him. I know the -chav infested shithole- town too well, I come from the aforementioned Garden City.
Was surprised you didn't mention Bas Vegas when talking about Basildon. The name locals call Festival Leisure Park, a sort of out of town leisure park built in early 2000 (I think) with restaurants, bowling alley, multi screen cinema, night clubs etc. Fine during the day but would absolutely avoid at night unless you want trouble!
Basildon new town was developed after WW11 because a lot of Londoners were homeless because of the blitz, my parents and us 3 kids followed their extended family in 1955 from a two bedroom, no hot water, no heating, run down house and no job for Dad on his return from the war in Carshalton to a 3 bedroom house with running hot water and heating with the promise of work, lots of factories sprung up giving everyone the opportunity to work, it was a wonderful place to grow up with plenty of green spaces and safe clean streets, schools, doctors etc, the lack of long term vision by the local councils and greedy developers ruined the place by throwing up cheap, bland housing estates (one was nicknamed Alcatraz it was that bad) to cope with the sudden rise in population in 80s and 90s so the pride people had in their town started to decline, luckily I was offered a two year visa to work in Australia and never came back.
Was a medical rep so went all round Essex and the contrast between different areas is stark. Been to all these places many times but the ultimate lose your will to live feeling was in South Ockenden. (Just North of grays) soulless place.
As a Grays resident i cracked up. Description was spot on. Moved here originally as it was closest thing to London I could afford. It kind of grew on me but unfortunately there is no saving the littering and dirtiness from a lot of the locals.
As a born and bred local to Grays, I escaped about 15 years ago, and even then it was well on the way to being a complete shite hole. It was killed stone dead when the final shops all disappeared over to Lakeside (I remember M&S closing and it being a massive issue); Woolies was literally the last hope and when you're in that state it's basically doomed. The cherry on the sewage is the complete incompetence and MASSIVE corruption of the council, which of course washes over into Tilbury as well.
@@richiedd4119 Yuuuuuup African, Pakistani, Ukrainian/Romanian with a few of the old schooler Englishmen and women. Hoping to move to Oxfordshire in 2 months !
@@peterharper3861 Yes! Christ Thurrock council literally has not fixed some major dangerous things like falling walls and brickwork, hazardous tree overgrowth etc and they are cranking up the Council Tax price (of course) as part of the CoL crisis. I think this type of corruption is pretty widespread in England unfortunately. You should see some councils in the capital... Brent comes to mind.
Every time my wife and I visit Clacton we remember that we said "never again" on the previous visit. We have now finally learned our lesson, but it's a shame - it was fun 60 years ago when I was a kid.
Actually, the dog is a bitch, and bitches squat to pee, she's peeing not crapping lol, you can tell by how she's squatting. I should know, I have one :) :P
Fun fact - you know the film Four Weddings and a Funeral? Well, the funeral was filmed in Grays. It was deliberately chosen as the most barren, soulless and depressing locations imaginable. It was a good choice.
@@jilllawton8556 It is a handsome church. The contrast of that with the hulking, impersonal modern factory next door probably explains the choice of filming location, I'd imagine it was a lot more idyllic in your great-grandparents' day.
I grew up visiting Harlow regularly as my Nan lived in Altham Grove, thought it was a nice place with local shops at the Stow and a playground in the park. Went back a few years ago and it was unrecognisable to me, visited the crem to bury my Dads ashes and some kind soul broke into my car. Not sure I'll be going back again.
Back in the old days, 70s it was a good place to grow up in. I used to visit my cousins who lived there and always lovely local shops, etc. We used to go up to the town centre on a Saturday and the place would be rammed. Us kids used to hang around Woolworths, in the photo booths, pick ‘n’ mix, go down the market, have burgers in the wimpy bar. I was so jealous of my cousins living there, as I lived in the back of beyond. They seemed to have everything on their doorstep, even a riding school and there were lots of green places. It used to have a country show each year in the town park and even a carnival. I loved visiting my cousins and begged my parents to move there, but they never did. Harlow offered so much to families back then. There are still lots of green spaces, trees and despite what you say, there is a lot of history there. The original Harlow, now has become Old Harlow and all the little hamlets which Harlow was built around are still there, but they have been incorporated into the New Town fabric, swamped. When I stayed with my cousins, Harlow was always referred to as Harlow New Town. Do your research a little more on the towns you so despise. There are always good points somewhere along the way and had you bothered to venture outside of the town centre, you would still see lots of trees everywhere, green areas, little copses and the town park is a real gem. Society has changed so much and don’t forget, it is always people who ruin a place. With the right combination of people - no drug addicts, drunks, thieves, people who continue to live off the State - every area can look lovely.
Thanks for another great review. I relocated to Grays from south London 5 years ago for the more affordable property and two regular train links to the capital. Initial impressions were of a carbuncle surrounded by a cultural desert! And as the video shows, it's certainly ugly in places with its peculiar juxtaposing of architecture and some of the commercial buildings looking shabby or in need of investment. The disused State Cinema, especially (a grade II listed building) would revitalise the whole town centre if only it could be restored to its original Art Deco grandeur. Like many places, Grays has its redeeming qualities too, such as a panoramic riverside walk, some relaxing green spaces, and an increasingly diverse and cosmopolitan populace. There’s a surprising range of restaurants such as Turkish, Indian and Nigerian etc. And as a non-driver, the compact town centre provides most household essentials. Compared with the various rentals where I’ve stayed in London, I find it generally friendlier, less polluted, and certainly less crowded and noisy. Overall, Grays kinda grows on you. So perhaps more of a wart than a turd? :)
I agree. Grays is more like average urban as opposed to a Turd. It’s has its redeeming qualities with excellent public transport links to wider areas and the City and good employment opportunities for those who want to work, especially the young. Lakeside is excellent for many needs. The town centre has hardly any boarded up areas and is busy not a ghost town like a lot of high streets. Ok it’s not safe at night (sadly the norm these days) and it has its poverty areas. But it is no where near as bad as many many other smalls towns or villages ie Ockendon, Chadwell, Aveley even Corringham ain’t much to shout about. Chafford Hundred which is technically outside grays (perhaps a property developer decision decades back)is basically centrally attached to Grays and relies on Grays (inc Lakeside)for its retail and commercial needs and it’s police station, but does have some nice gorges. Sadly the council has its incompetence in its leadership (like the country really). I think Grays is ok. Not a turd. With the forthcoming council cuts from its debts that may be at threat though. 😢
Aveley has some great attributes. Belus woods, Sir Henry's gastro pub and many woodland walks. I have relatives who live there and absolutely love the peace and quiet.@@NotMoreGames
@@carolemarriner1362 .......all very nice probably for the Retired or perhaps a 2nd home but otherwise nowhere to find gainful employment though - unless you're self-employed at something useful.
Used to live in Clacton and some of the places you showed were around the corner from where I resided. Even then Jaywick was considered as a Turdtown but at least it had an open air market at the time. I have to say though that some of the friendliest people you could wish to meet live in those chalets. I can say from experience that they all might not have much but they will help out their neighbours if they have it.
Yeah I live near and my parents used to live in Jaywick. It's apparently got a real community around it where people help each other. Beach is nice too, during the summer :P
Excellent video as always. I personally would love to see a Lancashire version. The seaside towns of Morecambe and Blackpool (highest crime rate in the UK) would be in there for sure. Plus, you have Burnley, Blackburn, and Preston. Small county so easy to get around, too 😊
@@ruth_southernstar I grew up in East Tilbury but my partner and a lot of my work is in and surrounding Lancaster. Delivering parcels on Morcambe seafront and the surrounding roads is the closest I've come to receiving physical violence twice in the same day. You also have to constantly watch the floor because there is dogshit everywhere and on wet days it's a death sentence to slip on it. Probably still better than Tilbury town though.
As part of a "how far can we get for £10" challenge we took a £2 route 724 fare from Heathrow to Harlow which must be one of the longest local bus routes. Harlow is architecturally a mess but the shops were not too bad.
@@TerraFirmaTyger Really, it was dead the last time I visited before covid. On a Saturday the Mall was empty and we vowed never to return. Whats changed?
I grew up in West Thurrock. Grays was always dodgy but has gotten a lot worse. Jaywick has effectively been abandoned by the council. It is appalling how much the rent is for one of those "beach hut "properties. Bald and Bankrupt visited before Christmas and I think it is awful how it has been left to decay.
I grew up in West Thurrock, Grays, too. I was very glad to leave it. I think I was fortunate to be in the Rectory/Chadwell Road area. We used to play in the Celcon pit, and build camps out of breeze blocks.
My ex gf had a place in Grays, she lived in a block of flats, getting in and out of my car to get to the flats before being stoned by gangs of 12yr old kids was always a bit of a challenge.
@@grantmail4112 Oh my God, how awful. I'm sorry to hear that. Kids can be worse than adults at times. I hope you never experience this again, wherever you live. Be well, from Ruth x
@@ruth_southernstar Thanks Ruth, I agree, even though they were just kids it wasn't any easier. I know it's an old saying, but I really blame the parents more than the kids.. you just know if you spoke to their parents and told them what they were up to...the parents would punch you in the eye.
As someone who has had the dubious pleasure of going to Tilbury docks regularly, I was waiting for Tilbury's name to come up on the list... not shocked it's top.
Born and raised in Harlow. When I was young (60s-70s) it had a thriving industrial area along Edinburgh Way (chemicals, electronics, engineering, etc). By the 90s, it had largely gone, replaced by commercial zones. So where do people now go to work…..? Perhaps a sign or symptom of what has degraded the economy and culture?
My other Half's family live in Tilbury, the most depressing places I have to visit, litter everywhere, extremely gray all year round and nothing to do apart from set fire to bins. I may be a Sussex snob, but seriously, Tilbury deserves number one spot
Ah, poor Harlow. Back in the 80s when I was a small child I genuinely loved that town - its beautiful park, its outdoor swimming pool, the kids play areas, the way the place didn't quite look like anywhere else I'd been before (I loved those slabs of concrete and that fantastic town centre clock you showed). The whole place just seemed like a novelty and actually features in my childhood memories in a good way. My older brother would drive me down there in his car as a treat and we'd have a fun day out. In those days I suspect it was a bit brighter, cleaner and greener, a bit more well-kept. I haven't been back since then and have been warned on many occasions not to bother. I think I'll stick with my memories. Sometimes you can't go back. On the other hand, the house I currently live in (in the Midlands) is on a Local Authority estate designed by the man who did most of the work on Harlow. My mind was blown when I found out, but once you're told, it does figure... it was cheap for a reason! I live in a tiny row of Harlow-esque houses in a really nice area and get to look at the huge posh residences I'm surrounded by from my window, which I just think is hilarious. They all get a much less flattering view for their money.
Ooh loved the outdoor swimming pool when I lived there in the 60s. I actually live in Old Harlow, but visited Harlow on Saturday for shopping, and remember it had a lovely market too❤
I did some survey work around Tilbury and the surrounding area. The atmosphere genuinely felt like it was stuck in 1780 and that at any minute some marauding band of pillaging drunkards would emerge from the scrub along the Thames and accost me. There was also an abundance of deflated 'Happy Birthday' helium balloons around the landscape for some reason. Like all the broken childhood dreams and spirit of London's children float over to Tilbury to rot and perish.
My sole visit to Tilbury was when I passed through there on a motorbike in the late ‘90s and had a brick thrown at me. The smell of menace was omnipresent.
I’d be interested to hear your take on Hampshire. Everyone thinks it’s a beautiful county because of places like Winchester or New Forest. However, you will find some right turd towns like Aldershot or Portsmouth
I always see Portsmouth flag up on these “worst places to live” lists. I just can’t buy that. Especially after the places I’ve been. Maybe I should visit and find out.
I’ve lived in tilbury in the past and years ago it was a fairly decent place to live. The Olympic village sort of ruined it with outsiders moving in. They’ve also closed the police station which is like closing the sheriff office at the o.k. Corral.
Essex is a compound of all the failings of the UK over the last 30 years. Mismanagement and underfunding run rampant, while house prices remain absurdly high due to the locality to the city and, as such, ever-more housing developments threaten to bring towns on the commuter lines to bursting point. It needs serious investment if the seriously overstretched services are ever to catch up with the burgeoning population.
You should take in all the new towns as you travel and produce an episode on the idealistic future that never materialised but very quickly decayed and started falling apart with the one exception in North Buckinghamshire.
To be fair Livingston in Scotland isn't too bad for a new town. Good connections being right on the M8, two train stations and regular frequent bus services to Edinburgh and beyond have made it into something of a commuter town mainly for Edinburgh as it's 20 minutes away, but also for Glasgow which is only 40/45 minutes along the motorway.
I live in the North Bucks New Town you mention and think its great and done well for a new town. Would like to see Mr Ts review of it. Spent my youth in Hemel Hempstead which also isn't too bad and learnt from the mistakes of Harlow.
There's a couple of other decent New Towns. We have three up here in the North East and two of them are utter dives (Peterlee is probably one of the worst towns I've ever visited... and I've been to a lot) but Cramlington is relatively alright: it's a bit bland, but the average house price is £180k and the nice areas definitely outnumber the bad areas
As a northerner, I found this one fascinating Essex is always painted as this very rich county and as the sun always shines. This opens your eyes this is not the case. Keep up the good work i really find this channel fascinating.
South Essex is basically on fringe of London with good transport links into City, hence house prices, north of Chelmsford small villages and small towns, transport not so good, more rural, but still expensive houses especially towards Cambridge area
Your videos are great! We love your cultured approach and great commentary that is never dull or annoying but always informative. We left the UK 23 years ago to come to Italy and not for a moment looked back. I grew up in Hackney, Aveley and Dagenham then moved to the Bath area but by far the worst place we lived was Bristol. It would be an insult to toilets to call it one. Have you done Southmead? When we were there 30 years ago it was hell. Well done for doing these. We're avid watchers. I need to watch your one on Twerton tonight.. that place was always a dump.
Southend was our nearest resort when I was a kid as we used to live in Ilford (another place that has gone downhill very badly). I last visited Southend on a hot day last year when it was unbearably crowded. It used to have good shops back in the seventies, several department stores, but now the shopping centre is completely rundown. I may not bother for a while. although there are nearby beaches that are lovely. Clacton also a few years ago had good shops and a great outlet a few miles out of town that was well worth making a journey for. Now half the outlet has been turned into a car park and there are only half as many shops and Clacton town centre has been decimated. Jaywick has a beautiful beach reminds me of Sandbanks. I used to have a school friend in the sixties who lived in an Essex mansion and they had a holiday chalet there. The only time I visit Tilbury is to use the cruise terminal which is very handily placed as it is only an hour from home but I have never visited the shops apart from Asda.
Local councils are to blame, years and years of mismanagement all over the the country , even going bankrupt wtf , how have we let this happen to our country
Yes, but budgets are set by central government which in some places has been slashed by 76%. Anyone's quality of life would suffer with cuts to their income of that magnitude.
@paulb8603: All the councils going bankrupt are the Labour Party run ones since they like to spend other peoples money on woke and all that garbage and not the people or the towns and cities they run.
@@leehannaford9166 no not politicians, normal folk running things that affect our lives as much as if not more that useless politicians, remember who did you vote for four who works for your local authority , who spends our hard earned money and decides on what rubbish the spend it on . They work for us we should always remember that fact when dealing with local authority people , civil servants , say that out aloud , the don’t work for us civilians anymore all they want is our hard earned money
Grew up in Basildon and upto the late 90s it wasn’t that bad. Nightlife from the past Infamous Raquels in Bas. Pink Toothbrush in Rayleigh. Pzazz in Grays And of course ToTs in Southend.
I’m just gonna be the one to say it: please do a London special, I know there’s not really many ‘towns’, so to say, but I feel like there’s definitely a few potential ‘turd settlements’ around the county/city, such as Lee, Neasden and Edmonton. If not then Hertfordshire would be a good one to do, given you’ve recently been doing a lot more nearby home counties to London-themed videos 🤷🏼♂️ Wouldn’t be surprised to see you put Potters Bar in on that list
@@RubbishGimpy well I grew up in West London most of my life but I’m planning on moving to South, so no 😂 I just happen to be familiar with some of these places due to completing certain jobs around there or just personal experience 🤷🏼♂️
Yep lived in Harlow back in the 60s. Was a nice place then. Also lived in Southend. Once a dump, always a dump! Grays is just dire! I can’t think of one redeeming feature. Live in a small village just outside Tiptree, still in Essex. It’s beautiful here. Like England used to be 50-60 yrs ago, so not all of Essex is a writeoff❤
Yesssssss! I cheered when you said Tilbury is number 1! My family are from Tilbury and I grew up in Chadwell St Mary and Grays. But when ever I visited my grandparents in Tilbury as a child, I knew it was the roughest place with the roughest people. People let horses into their houses in Tilbury lol. But I do have some nice memories of it.
I almost moved to Basildon with my batshit crazy ex as she'd taken a job down there after finishing uni. I've never actually looked up Basildon before, but seeing this has made me realise that it's the second-biggest bullet I dodged when we broke up. What a shithole!
So far I think you have visited nearly every one of my childhood holiday destinations. To be fair, the descriptions as Turdtowns are accurate, even back when I was a child.- I'm in my mid fifties now.
I love your channel mate. Love the Commentary.😂 Wifey and I paid our first ever visit to the UK from Oz in Sept/Oct. We loved most of the places we saw. Planning a return visit for 2025. Will have to visit some "Turd Towns."
Have you noticed that most of the Towns that are ‘Turds’ have been flooded by immigrants and have had no money spent on them for years? This is has happened in most working class towns across the whole of the UK not just Essex
It’s happened across many areas of Kent and London but apparently all these newcomers are exactly what the country needs…..doesn’t look like they are having the desired effect to me……
@nickgodfrey1148 I think it's the lack of funding and effective governance that should be your primary focus (not to say that mass immigration cannot and does not pose issues)
@@Gordon.Pinkerton I agree with you. It’s a combination of lack of funding and uncontrolled immigration. This government (and previous) are not interested in small towns with incompetent councils nor do they concern themselves with immigrants flooding into these same towns. It doesn’t concern them because it doesn’t affect them.
@@Gordon.Pinkerton The two things go hand in hand - massive increase in population with much of it going to poorer towns and no increase in funding to cope with it
I was one of those homeless drug addicts in Southend. I used to sleep either buried in the sand, under the three shells, or by a footbridge on Southchurch Road. I wasn't either of those things when I moved to Essex, and got sober after I decided to leave, the only real conclusion being that Southend on Sea is to blame.
@@richlee509 because every corner you turn you're offered drugs of some sort? I used to know a group of people from there, about 8-10 people, all of them was off their heads on something all of the time
I knew Basildon was going to get a good shafting. I grew up there after leaving London just after the war. I emigrated to Australia and after travelling the world I settled in Brisbane. Would I ever go back to the UK for a holiday. No way. The whole country is sliding into a dismal derelict dumping ground. I think I would get very upset. Still it was nice 65 years ago.
My grandfather lived in Jaywick in the 80's and 90's. We didn't go often to visit as my dad snd his father didn't get a long so well. I was a child, so I only remember bits and pieces. It was like a ghost town every time we visited. He lived in a prefab bungalow that had a single bedroom in the roof, that was accessible via a hatch with a pull down folding ladder that was more like staircase.
@@ReadySaltedCrisps like he said in the video there's like 2 parts of Jaywick, I lived by the sea for only a couple years from when I was about 3 until I was 5, then I moved to the other part which is like all houses, bungalows and parks by the school. All I really remember from by the sea is the amount of times the water came over the sea wall in bad weather, which is probably why it was covered in sand all the time! If the tide was in it was touching the wall.
Born and raised in Tilbury! Makes ya proud to see that we at least came first place in something! Gutted we didn't get the No.1 County crime rate award thou, would've thought that was a sure bet! Come on you Tilbs! Up yer game!
Born in Tilbury 1957 moved to Chadwell St Mary 1960 moved to Australia 1973. Been back twice from Australia, not going back again. Were nice places when I was young, so sad what has happened to them
I worked as a housing Officer with council in around 2000, that estate was dire, worked in Hackney and Milton Keynes but that was one of the worst ever.
I got the No.1 right!! I grew up in Tilbury, remember my family going to the local, The Bomb crater, such a dump of a town. I also lived in Grays, it had so much potential, just never realised, like most of these towns.
I grew up in Harold Hill, and it wasn't a bad place to grow up , I remember the havering play leadership in the six week holidays , the Harold Hill carnival, wallys mobile shop . Hilldene shops used to have everything, then a couple of proper butchers , sports shop, barrowboy green grocers ( used to work there after school ) 😅 sainsbury, woolworths and many more . I moved away many years ago and when I've visited its certainly in need of a major refresh .
Harold hill is a london borough as its within the m25 , however, its actually essex hence harold hill romford essex rm is a romford postcode that is essex
@@ListenUp-py1qm you know the saying what are you when you assume? read back our convo. i didn't say i didn't know or disagree with you . i hoped for an intelligent debate . As i'm from Havering and possess a post 1965 birth certificate , i'm obviously very well aware of where Harold Hill is.
Would love to see Northamptonshire, most of the big towns in Northamptonshire give you an overwhelming sense of depression the second you enter, especially Northampton itself.
My parents lived in Northampton for a while, so I visited many times. Dear God, what a depressing place. I once house sat (well, cat sat) for them while they were on holiday, and was immediately so bored that I started leaving town every day for the day, just to be somewhere less depressing. One time for something to do I walked into the city centre from their house in the outskirts, about an hour's walk, and that was GRIM, just a neverending series of soulless suburban streets.
@@AlastairjCarruthers My dad's called Derek and he's from Northampton. Born in the slums 1933. They have been demolished and replaced by a multi storey car park (Swan street)
Totally agree with you on Basildon. An ex of mine lived there and worked in the SuperF**kOffMegaTesco in the adjoining village of Pitsea, so I had plenty of opportunity to see most of the place in the early-2000's. Back then, you could see a wide variety of abandoned burned-out cars on virtually every corner, as Basildon was pretty much Boy Racer Central. The only bright spot is comic store 'The Cartoon Shop' in Eastgate Shopping Centre, which is fortunately still there.
Basildon hit the headlines infamously as the place where Leah Betts took dodgy ecstasy pill in nightclub and died.The related Essex Boys murder nearby also. 😑
@@minnielee3399 I remember the Essex Boys stuff. My Ex, being somewhat older than myself at the time (I was mid-20's, she was 41!) if I remember rightly, knew one or more of the guys involved.
@@minnielee3399 She seemed to have turned out alright :). 2 kids and more into her Motorbikes these days, from what I gather. Lost touch many years ago.
Finally Clacton, glorious horrible Clacton, the last time I went there I had not visited since I was a child over 25 years ago and thought it might be nice. Oh boy how wrong I was! We got off the bus and were greeted by people yelling, low iq looking chavs and some having a fight. Upon getting to the sea front we witnessed someone drowning in the sea, and saw an entire rescue operation unfold 😢 The staff in all the jobs looked like they had not had a happy day in their life. We had a while for our bus to turn up ( it was a Sunday) and I could never wait to leave a place quicker. Taking a walk to try and kill some time was spent trying to not make eye contact with the locals, avoiding any yelling we heard and trying to not get close to the multiple punch ups we witnessed. Finally the bus came and I'm glad we survived, never to return again. Something is definitely in the water there. Thank god I was returning to Harwich, again not an amazing place but miles better than Clacton!!
You got to love Basildon working away from her in the mid 1970s. I was there for 2 1/2 years great memories and great times. Lovely down-to-earth people that stick together.
I was born in Harlow in 1958, when it was a very new town. There was about half a dozen shops in the town centre. My mum, Bless her, used to have to walk to the Stow from Northbrooks. A long walk even today. Like many people my parents came down from East London for a better way of life, and the plentiful work. Mum did some nursing and dad worked with BOC. It used to be a really lovely place with a great olympic size swimming pool, lots of youth clubs and a great sports centre, which was generally affordable for those who wished to use it. Harlow also had a thriving market where most of my family worked at one time or another. And of course there was the Iconic Gilbeys distillery, which was one of the major employers in the town at the time. Enter the Tories! Decline and fall big time! Never the same again! No market at all now. Just an open air drug and alchol shitstop! Fortunately, I managed to escape in the early naughties, and will never return except for the occasional family visit. The current house prices are shocking and unjustifiable! The most recent builds were built for a fiver and sold for 500k! More fool those who've bought one! So Shame on the governments, all of em, and even more shame on the dirty bastards who've turned the town into nothing but a massive toilet that can't be flushed! Like many other places throughout England, it should be nooked, and most of the inhabitants with it! 😔😡🏴🇮🇪🙏
Never been to Essex but heard mixed things! Would definitely be interested to hear your takes on Berkshire. I’m sure you’ll have some choice words as for every Windsor or Twyford, you’ve got a Reading or Slough lol
i have been looking foward to the moment you cover essex.having worked some of these towns for four decades i had a wry smile as i counted down from seven.surely tilbury will be number one.sure enough it was.saying that although i agree with what you said i quite liked the place,mainly because it has an old school working class feel about it.
Yes, agreed. There are certainly some nice places, hell the village I live in was nominated as the best place to live in the country for some reason when I’ve been to far better places. But yeah there’s definitely some rough places.
The fact I've lived in all these places ecept Harlow, I feel so much shame! Literallym I went from Southend, to Jaywick, to Clacton, to Grays, to Tilbury. I lived in Tilbury 3 times and thats even worse! HOWEVER FUN FACT ABOUT TILBURY! A lot of the street shots in Grimsby the film, is shot in Tilbury. Even the train station Also, the opening scene to the first Christan Bale Batman film was filmed in Tilbury fort. Tilbury Fort was used to "store" those who either were dying from the plauge, or who had died from it in their tombs. My fiance's grandad used to live in and run the fort. You should also look at Aveley, it's harder to get to than Jaywick or Tilbury. Only 2 different buses go throught there, but they go through different parts altogether. No train station. It's a village between Purfleet and Ockendon
I grew up in Southend so a little bit gutted to see it on this list. Though I have to admit the night life and high street have been hit hard over the past 20 years. But I lived in a great area only a mile from town. I have also recently moved away from Basildon, and can confirm, it is indeed a Turdtown.
Would love it if you went over the Channel and did some French Turd Towns - Les Villes du Merdes! Be really interesting to see if they have similar run down places that we have. Would suggest Amiens for starters.
The Nord-Pas de Calais (now known as Hauts de France), is an area particularly ripe for les villes merdiques. Have a glance on google maps at Denain, Loos (the one that is a satellite town of Liile, in fact look at most of the satellite towns of Lille), Douai. I live not far from Saint-Lô, in Normandy which was 95% destroyed (yes, 95%) during the allied bombardments of 1944. Unlike, a lot of French rebuilt towns, they decided to go all 'Coventry' with Saint-Lô. It's not a rough town, but it is greyer than John Major and more depressing than the state of British politics.
@@motosnape I visited Douai for a few days 10 years ago, I cycled there beside the canals from St Omer and it was really lovely. I really hope it hasn’t gone down hill since then. I remember Henin-Beaumont nearby was pretty grim, a proper old mining town. Even then I wondered what people “did” in that area, it seemed like there were a lot of retirees which isn’t a good recipe for long term sustainability.
Had a day trip to Dunkerque last week, and hoped to do a good old shop and explore the area. It was a cheap ferry deal. There was a reason for this... utterly grim and felt very unsafe, grey and depressing, especially the big Auchan nearby.
Most of london isn't exactly nice to live in about the only thing going for most of london is public transport isn't too expensive and goes almost anywhere you need to go but the prices of houses is ridiculous and good luck driving anywhere, Basildon is just as depressing as london and half of it was sold off to other councils to house their overflow of people so not surprised it is I think the highest populated place in Essex with high house prices and a council that that couldn't run a bath without messing it up! It is in a good location though if you drive not far from anything major
Yeah, I watched that video. I'm a big fan! The people seem friendly enough, it's just the infrastructure of the place that makes it seem soi down and out.
Jaywick is kind of small, it looks really run down, that goes against the place. Not somewhere most people would want to spend their time, you have to feel sorry for any decent people that are stuck there without a way out.
Back in the 60s jaywick was a holiday destination for many poorer families,but like many places, it’s evolved into a slightly run down area due to lack of funds,councils rather build stupid great vanity projects,and new roads with the money,then ploughing back in to socialist revamped areas that need up grading ..
Sarfend used to be a cracking night out in the 90's. Tots, Club Art, Ad Lib, Storm, Churchills, Bakers Bar etc. Back in the days you couldn't get in without shoe, trousers and a shirt with a collar. It's a crying shame whats happened to the place now.
I was born and brought up in Aveley, near Grays. Got out of there as soon as I was old enough! Would never go back to Essex. Astonishes me how many of my school friends still live in that little crap heap.
If u lived in Essex ,you’d also know there a many really beautiful villages to live and lovely countryside..although it’s one of most densely populated places to”live now .every area has less desirable parts to live.
Ive live in basildon since 1970, it was a beautiful green town back then until successive councils destroyed the place, selling it off to developers who just plonk flats wherever they can , no new infrastructure to cope with the vastly inflated population, mainly from london. Its a real shame, ive got fantastic memories as a kid. I disagree about not being able to walk anywhere, ive never driven and walk absolutely everywhere! And i dont think its particularly scarey in Basildon either, but maybe thats because i know the place inside out. Far worse places to live, like Pitsea, Tilbury and my place of birth London, you couldnt pay me enough to live in any of those places!
Not sure if coincidence but I’ve been to them all. Southend is actually fun on a weekend especially summer, the night is so busy and full of lights, never felt unsafe Jaywick has amazing beach and friendly people and a lot of camp sites a few historic towers Clacton is a bit far so I didn’t see it as much as others but the roads there are amazing, a lot of older people and dog walkers on the beach, the cement separating the beach from the road is colossal, you need to climb if you want to see the beach in other areas Tilbury is extremely industrial, and busy at all times I wouldn’t recommend living there unless you have a business there Basildon I like the Sign BASILDON written hollywood style cheers me up everytime apart from that the town seems really clean, and wide roads, I wouldn’t mind living there Grays: almost identical to Tilbury (to me) And top Harlow, I always liked how new the city looks. I saw many gardens and flowers well maintained, with plenty of green spaces, with good roads, and plenty of old pubs So to me Top Harlow Southend Basildon Clackton Jaywick Tillbury Grays
I experienced good things and bad things in Tilbury a few years ago... THE GOOD THING : I purchased a lovely car in Tilbury. THE BAD THING: It turned out that when I went to get it serviced at my local garage a few weeks later they told me it was recorded as being stolen!
Historically, Romford was a market town in the county of Essex, but it became part of Greater London in 1965. Therefore, it is correct to say that Romford is both in Essex and Greater London. London has been eating up surrounding areas for decades.
Romford is over 800 years and until the last 50 years was in Essex politically. Ok it’s now absorbed into Greater London politically but still considered Essex by people who are older than 40? Thurrock and Southend are all unitary authorities (self governing) not part of Essex County Council yet they are still Essex. We are part of England but Still Essex and so not mutually exclusive. We are also European although not politically anymore. Always been English. So it’s not always black and white.
The great and powerful kingdom of essex. Theres a lot of ancient history going back to before the romans,astounding. And some magical beautiful towns and villages.Essex is a mix of extremes but overall a succesful,friendly,safe place to enjoy life. The natural decay of the seaside resorts are part of its joy and charm as we connect to the great victorian age and carry on movies. I love it.
Lived in Rayleigh for a while back in 2000, and only assume it is even worse now than it was then. Couldn't wait to get back to the beautiful West Country. Which also has its fair share of turd towns but at least its far from London and everything that means.
It shows that everywhere in the UK has some bad areas. The West Country has many bad spots. I understand Cornwall is one of the most deprived areas in Europe, despite the red-trousered Range Rover drivers clogging up St Mawes every summer, driving up property prices so that locals are unable to live where they grew up.
No real bad points about it to be fair, other than the high street being full of hairdressers and coffee shops, and it gets completely grid locked multiple times throughout the day
I used to live in East London back last century. Many a trip to Southend for the amusements or a walk along the pier & then the train back. Now boy racers having road races. Sunday trips to Clacton but how far it has fallen they never got the dream after voting Brexit. Harlow was always a dump with a mandatory roundabout for every adult. Anywhere close to the Thames is a $hithole. Some really nice places in Essex but they tend to be vastly overpriced & the not so nice where the population is semi-feral & take pride in their lack of intelligence.
Dagenham has got to be more of a turd than any of them towns, nah? … just the fact that me bird, the beast from Dagenham East, comes from there… makes it the biggest turd in Essex!
Im from a small town in Essex and it is poor but i can say before the big shops moved here it was a lot better. Also people from bigger towns were moved here, so that didn't help.
Pretty accurate. Tilbury definitely the worst. Lived in Essex all my life. As others have commented - surprised South Ockendon, Pitsea and Chadwell st Mary didn’t get a mention - far less to offer than Southend and Harlow, the areas are well known for being rough although probably too small to register. Would definitely rather live in Southend or Grays above them as they have amenities I.e. restaurants, pubs etc. Corringham probably deserve a mention as well. Overall though good description.
I live in Canada but spent my first decade of life in Stanford-le-Hope and Corringham. I’m curious why you’d think the later should make the list. It was a bit dreary for sure but in the 1970s it seemed safe and friendly, just streets of tiny 1930s bungalows and postwar prefabs. There were a lot of Cockney families among my neighbours, many who’d relocated after the Blitz and were generally great folks. Maybe it’s gone to the dogs but I have nothing but fond memories of life on the Thames marshes in the gentle glare of the catcrackers
To be fair - wouldn’t rank CorringhAm in the top 5 amd tilbury and chadwell st Mary are far worse. It would probably be in the top 8 amd I wouldn’t include Stanford le hope in this as I consider it a separate town. CorringhAm does have a very good secondary school as well in Gable hall so it isn’t all bad. The main issue is that there’s there nothing to do there and travel network is poor. The town centre (if you can it that) is run down and kids just congregate there as there isn’t anywhere to go or anything to do. KFC ended up pulling out a few years ago as it just wasn’t worth the hassle of running. There are far worse places in Essex but if you list Southend (which does have a university, an array of different restaurants, various theatres, parks etc) than you need to include Corringham in my opinion. It’s an industry feeder as there are a lot of power stations around that area so I think employment is good and house prices are above average so it isn’t a slum but it does have a dying dead end feel to it
We left Stanford le Hope two yrs ago. Best thing we ever did! Get anxiety now when we get to Pitsea flyover on A13, going back to visit our kids. Hoping they can move away soon❤
Corringham use to be good but it's fast becoming a complete dump with chavvy scummy kids, drugs, shit council, no police station and more and more over spill of London
I'm surprised Canvey Island isn't featured somewhere. Southend isn't as bad as Canvey and I know both very well. Yes, homelessness is rife, but I know through my line of work that in order to receive help, a homeless person has to travel to the Southend catchment area because the required levels of support are simply not provided in the surrounding areas.
Canvey isn't rough though. It's just old Cockneys living in weird small houses. I walked all over it working for Essex Highways, it's certainly preferable to Southend.
I grew up on Canvey... we moved away when I was 17 and I've been back there less than 5 times in the 30+ years since and it has grown progressively worse with each visit.
I have lived on a really bad estate once. I'd get up at 6am each day, go out and ask the drug users if they were ok, then I'd take a long arm litter picker, poop scoop and a bag and pick up all the litter and dog poo on my half of this estate and put it into my bin. I did this every day for the year I lived there. Never got any thanks of course, apart from the drug users who would always thank me for checking on them. Nobody else cared. I enjoyed doing all that. You can live in a bad area and still strive to be a good person, that's up to you. Now imagine if more and more people did these things?.
@thewr0ngchild - You are the type of person that every shithole needs. Like you say, imagine if everyone had a sense of pride about their area and strove to keep it looking nice. But humanity being what it is, some cannot be bothered and many complain that their area is a dump, but are unwilling to do anything about it and they are usually the people who made it a shitehole in the first place.
Mate, I currently work in Basildon as a grocery delivery driver. Our vans are often broken into and robbed in some parts of the area. I don't think there is a single person where I work that hasn't been robbed. No shock it has the highest crime rate in Essex.
TH-cam unsubscribed me !!! Love the show - Canada is declining the same way as UK and USA . Volume is a little low but sadly it’s sickening to know that the rest of western world is identical. SAD
I grew up in Southend. It has really gone downhill in the last 20 years. In the 80s and 90s it was a great place to live. Every shop was occupied. There was virtually no homelessness and there were loads of nightclubs. Every night of the week there was some club night going on. But, they've all closed down. Even the most famous club, Tots has closed. Its now the King Pin bowling alley which you might have seen in your drone shot from the car park behind the seafront.
To be honest, it has improved a little over the last year or so. New shops have opened, but there are far too many takeaways and phone shops. This year we hosted the largest Street Art festival in Europe for the second year running and it was a massive success. I still live in the area, just not in the center.
After viewing many of your other videos, my opinion of the town/city has gone up a lot. It still deserves to be on your list, but it is improving and there are plans to greenify the high street. Maybe worth a revisit in the future.
Ask to King to visit this town to ramp up the activities....cakes or bread... his choice....
Let me guess you got your cultural enrichment,
Diversified out of fkkn contention,
Or just full of Londoners running from their "enrichment"
'nightclubbing' is becoming a thing of the past. Youngsters now don't go out like people did in the 80's and 90's
@@housinauthority5258 That's why all the clubs closed. They're more interested in gaming and becoming TH-camrs. That and the law changed to allow pubs to stay open longer.
It’s getting more enriched by the day, the prospects are grim.
Thank you for not tearing Jaywick apart too bad. With all the negative press the poor place has received over the years it has made the locals annoyed by those passing judgement but also the sense of community i saw was massively inspiring. Also its not just Essex that has used Jaywick as a dumping ground, i met people from all over the UK (Liverpool, Manchester, London, Lincoln, Great Yarmouth and more!)
My mate moved there back in early 2000s and that was right into the worst part. He introduced me to loads of people there from all over the UK and all with tales to tell of previous hardships. I live in a small Northern Essex town and was amazed at how nice, respectful and friendly everyone was to me. They treated me like a local the first time i met them and were ALL lovely people. I was a little on edge initially after hearing about Jaywicks reputation and the fact that a little before i visited someone had been killed by being run over (possibly repeatedly and certainly purposely!) I soon learned that the `victim` was a suspected paedophile that had received some street justice! But i needn`t have worried as everyone was great and friendly. I really hope the government starts to actually look after Jaywick and its residents, they deserve some love!
A lot of TH-cam coverage on jayrick lately, including Bald and Bankrupt, surprisingly calm!
I didn’t hate it but yes it is a mess there. I would go back to jaywick which is saying much more about it than other places I’ve been!
I’ve lived in jaywick for for 38 years- love it and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I was born in grays. True what he says . Lakeside done it in . Was a nice town when I was a child. From what I hear it’s awful now.
As a child in the 60s Jaywick was like heaven on earth to me. I loved it 👌🏽
Jaywick is only bad on the sea front in them huts the rest is ok I have family in jaywick and Clacton in the 80s was such a lovely place for a kid
Fun fact, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy Grimsby was filmed in Tilbury because it's even worse than Grimsby.
Didn't think it possible for anywhere to be more grim than Grimsby.
@@splodge5714They built the world's longest suspension bridge so people could escape Grimsby quicker. The problem is that it leads to Hull. Choose your poison.
Tilbury is not that bad .. grays and clacton is definitely worse
It’s so tragic to see this once great nation in a state of total decline . We have been sold out by traitors and criminals . Unless there is radical change it’s only going to get worse .
Essex folk have got exactly what they wanted: Tories in power and freedom from the EU. Careful what you wish for!
@@peterm7548 Oh that damage was done and it started when Labour got into power in 1997
@@HarleyFirestorm so it wasn’t started by Thatcher no?
@@IStOLeuRAnDomS Nah go back to the 70s and the strikes and it was way worse before Thatcher, but I am not a fan of Thatcher anyway.
From a personal view it was labour in 1997 who have done much more damge to the UK than anyone else to destroy the country, I absolutely dread another 4 years of them, as much as I dislike the tories.
These places became Turds 30 years before Brexit..
They will only become bigger, giant turds - if you can imagine that being possible...
I spent the first 20 years of my life in Essex - just not the Turdtowns areas. I could spot most of the candidates a mile away, although (fortunately) Harlow is the only one I was anywhere near, and why anyone would want to live in that concrete carbuncle is a mystery that not even Miss Marple, Inspector Morse and Sherlock Holmes could solve if they all pooled resources.
We have Stevenage in Herts, blame them for Harlow 'coz they invented the New Town by looking at the Garden City 2 junctions north up the A1 and thought: "you know what would be great? Something like this designed entirely with a set square and built out of pebble dashed concrete. I mean, how else are we going fill it full of chavs?".
@@darthwiizius I'm fairly sure I went through Stevenage once... and fortunately I've never had to go there again. About all it'll ever be famous for is Lewis Hamilton.
Harlow was a blight on my sight and mind for far longer.
Lovejoy could..filmed in Essex!
How about Michael Barrymore?
@@baronthorsteinn
Well a member of Jethro Tull comes from Stevenage, a friend of mind hangs out with him. I know the -chav infested shithole- town too well, I come from the aforementioned Garden City.
Was surprised you didn't mention Bas Vegas when talking about Basildon. The name locals call Festival Leisure Park, a sort of out of town leisure park built in early 2000 (I think) with restaurants, bowling alley, multi screen cinema, night clubs etc. Fine during the day but would absolutely avoid at night unless you want trouble!
I've been there at night no problems
No mention of 'basil-drain', which alot of people call it.
@@domhubbard2197 obviously I meant brain drain labour can't run anythingb
Yep grew up there and spent most weekends in Bas Vegas. Great if you’re up for a fight
Basildon new town was developed after WW11 because a lot of Londoners were homeless because of the blitz, my parents and us 3 kids followed their extended family in 1955 from a two bedroom, no hot water, no heating, run down house and no job for Dad on his return from the war in Carshalton to a 3 bedroom house with running hot water and heating with the promise of work, lots of factories sprung up giving everyone the opportunity to work, it was a wonderful place to grow up with plenty of green spaces and safe clean streets, schools, doctors etc, the lack of long term vision by the local councils and greedy developers ruined the place by throwing up cheap, bland housing estates (one was nicknamed Alcatraz it was that bad) to cope with the sudden rise in population in 80s and 90s so the pride people had in their town started to decline, luckily I was offered a two year visa to work in Australia and never came back.
Was a medical rep so went all round Essex and the contrast between different areas is stark. Been to all these places many times but the ultimate lose your will to live feeling was in South Ockenden. (Just North of grays) soulless place.
I lived in Grays growing up. S. Ockendon, Chadwell St Mary, Stifford Clays all big council estates. Russell Brand came from Grays
South Ockendon should definitely be on the list. A serious rival for Tilbury.
As a Grays resident i cracked up. Description was spot on. Moved here originally as it was closest thing to London I could afford. It kind of grew on me but unfortunately there is no saving the littering and dirtiness from a lot of the locals.
Me too. However I have moved around quite a bit. Now live in Somerset. My son lives in Saffron Walden and it is beautiful
Last time I went everyone was from Eastern Europe..
As a born and bred local to Grays, I escaped about 15 years ago, and even then it was well on the way to being a complete shite hole. It was killed stone dead when the final shops all disappeared over to Lakeside (I remember M&S closing and it being a massive issue); Woolies was literally the last hope and when you're in that state it's basically doomed. The cherry on the sewage is the complete incompetence and MASSIVE corruption of the council, which of course washes over into Tilbury as well.
@@richiedd4119 Yuuuuuup African, Pakistani, Ukrainian/Romanian with a few of the old schooler Englishmen and women. Hoping to move to Oxfordshire in 2 months !
@@peterharper3861 Yes! Christ Thurrock council literally has not fixed some major dangerous things like falling walls and brickwork, hazardous tree overgrowth etc and they are cranking up the Council Tax price (of course) as part of the CoL crisis. I think this type of corruption is pretty widespread in England unfortunately. You should see some councils in the capital... Brent comes to mind.
Every time my wife and I visit Clacton we remember that we said "never again" on the previous visit. We have now finally learned our lesson, but it's a shame - it was fun 60 years ago when I was a kid.
Clacton is fast becoming greater Jaywick, it's basically the dumping ground for all the problems of Essex.
Also not in essex but lowestoft. Jeez that is bad news
Never ever liked Clacton
@ThisWontEndWell it's been like that for years
@tenniskinsella7768 I live there and if it wasnt for my mum and mental health home,I would have drowned myself by now,that's how shit it is here
Anyone catch at Basildon a white dog having a crap ? Great timing 😊
It's usually just the wimmin!
Yes lol
Brightened the place up
His actions spoke for us all
Actually, the dog is a bitch, and bitches squat to pee, she's peeing not crapping lol, you can tell by how she's squatting. I should know, I have one :) :P
Fun fact - you know the film Four Weddings and a Funeral? Well, the funeral was filmed in Grays. It was deliberately chosen as the most barren, soulless and depressing locations imaginable. It was a good choice.
St Clements, my great grandparents married there.
@@jilllawton8556 It is a handsome church. The contrast of that with the hulking, impersonal modern factory next door probably explains the choice of filming location, I'd imagine it was a lot more idyllic in your great-grandparents' day.
they had to do extra takes on that particular scene - one of the locals nicked the coffin .
I grew up visiting Harlow regularly as my Nan lived in Altham Grove, thought it was a nice place with local shops at the Stow and a playground in the park. Went back a few years ago and it was unrecognisable to me, visited the crem to bury my Dads ashes and some kind soul broke into my car. Not sure I'll be going back again.
Harlow is bad. Really bad
Back in the old days, 70s it was a good place to grow up in. I used to visit my cousins who lived there and always lovely local shops, etc. We used to go up to the town centre on a Saturday and the place would be rammed. Us kids used to hang around Woolworths, in the photo booths, pick ‘n’ mix, go down the market, have burgers in the wimpy bar. I was so jealous of my cousins living there, as I lived in the back of beyond. They seemed to have everything on their doorstep, even a riding school and there were lots of green places. It used to have a country show each year in the town park and even a carnival. I loved visiting my cousins and begged my parents to move there, but they never did. Harlow offered so much to families back then. There are still lots of green spaces, trees and despite what you say, there is a lot of history there. The original Harlow, now has become Old Harlow and all the little hamlets which Harlow was built around are still there, but they have been incorporated into the New Town fabric, swamped. When I stayed with my cousins, Harlow was always referred to as Harlow New Town.
Do your research a little more on the towns you so despise. There are always good points somewhere along the way and had you bothered to venture outside of the town centre, you would still see lots of trees everywhere, green areas, little copses and the town park is a real gem.
Society has changed so much and don’t forget, it is always people who ruin a place. With the right combination of people - no drug addicts, drunks, thieves, people who continue to live off the State - every area can look lovely.
Thanks for another great review. I relocated to Grays from south London 5 years ago for the more affordable property and two regular train links to the capital. Initial impressions were of a carbuncle surrounded by a cultural desert! And as the video shows, it's certainly ugly in places with its peculiar juxtaposing of architecture and some of the commercial buildings looking shabby or in need of investment. The disused State Cinema, especially (a grade II listed building) would revitalise the whole town centre if only it could be restored to its original Art Deco grandeur.
Like many places, Grays has its redeeming qualities too, such as a panoramic riverside walk, some relaxing green spaces, and an increasingly diverse and cosmopolitan populace. There’s a surprising range of restaurants such as Turkish, Indian and Nigerian etc. And as a non-driver, the compact town centre provides most household essentials. Compared with the various rentals where I’ve stayed in London, I find it generally friendlier, less polluted, and certainly less crowded and noisy.
Overall, Grays kinda grows on you. So perhaps more of a wart than a turd? :)
I agree. Grays is more like average urban as opposed to a Turd. It’s has its redeeming qualities with excellent public transport links to wider areas and the City and good employment opportunities for those who want to work, especially the young. Lakeside is excellent for many needs. The town centre has hardly any boarded up areas and is busy not a ghost town like a lot of high streets. Ok it’s not safe at night (sadly the norm these days) and it has its poverty areas. But it is no where near as bad as many many other smalls towns or villages ie Ockendon, Chadwell, Aveley even Corringham ain’t much to shout about. Chafford Hundred which is technically outside grays (perhaps a property developer decision decades back)is basically centrally attached to Grays and relies on Grays (inc Lakeside)for its retail and commercial needs and it’s police station, but does have some nice gorges. Sadly the council has its incompetence in its leadership (like the country really). I think Grays is ok. Not a turd. With the forthcoming council cuts from its debts that may be at threat though. 😢
Aveley has some great attributes. Belus woods, Sir Henry's gastro pub and many woodland walks. I have relatives who live there and absolutely love the peace and quiet.@@NotMoreGames
....yes very true- at least a Turd, a Wart, and a Carbuncle CAN 'grow' on you.
@@carolemarriner1362 .......all very nice probably for the Retired or perhaps a 2nd home but otherwise nowhere to find gainful employment though - unless you're self-employed at something useful.
Used to live in Clacton and some of the places you showed were around the corner from where I resided. Even then Jaywick was considered as a Turdtown but at least it had an open air market at the time. I have to say though that some of the friendliest people you could wish to meet live in those chalets. I can say from experience that they all might not have much but they will help out their neighbours if they have it.
Yeah I live near and my parents used to live in Jaywick. It's apparently got a real community around it where people help each other. Beach is nice too, during the summer :P
I miss Oscars
I lived in Clacton c2003 Jaywick resident were rough around the edges but lovely always willing to help
Excellent video as always. I personally would love to see a Lancashire version. The seaside towns of Morecambe and Blackpool (highest crime rate in the UK) would be in there for sure. Plus, you have Burnley, Blackburn, and Preston. Small county so easy to get around, too 😊
Aah, the Lancashire Riviera. It also includes Fleetwood.
Brierfield and Nelson as well, Colne also
Brierfield and Nelson as well
I doubt very much Morecambe would be in that list.
@@ruth_southernstar I grew up in East Tilbury but my partner and a lot of my work is in and surrounding Lancaster. Delivering parcels on Morcambe seafront and the surrounding roads is the closest I've come to receiving physical violence twice in the same day. You also have to constantly watch the floor because there is dogshit everywhere and on wet days it's a death sentence to slip on it. Probably still better than Tilbury town though.
As part of a "how far can we get for £10" challenge we took a £2 route 724 fare from Heathrow to Harlow which must be one of the longest local bus routes. Harlow is architecturally a mess but the shops were not too bad.
an way better than hounslow feltham around heathrow now your talking proper dumps .
That’s the thing about Harlow. It looks like a dump but it has some of the best shopping around. It’s got everything.
Hounslow, Feltham and Slough. The only places where the birds fly upside down because there's nothing worth crapping on. 😁
@@TerraFirmaTyger Really, it was dead the last time I visited before covid. On a Saturday the Mall was empty and we vowed never to return. Whats changed?
@@maverickhistorian6488 What about Staines ?
I grew up in West Thurrock. Grays was always dodgy but has gotten a lot worse.
Jaywick has effectively been abandoned by the council. It is appalling how much the rent is for one of those "beach hut "properties. Bald and Bankrupt visited before Christmas and I think it is awful how it has been left to decay.
I grew up in West Thurrock, Grays, too. I was very glad to leave it. I think I was fortunate to be in the Rectory/Chadwell Road area. We used to play in the Celcon pit, and build camps out of breeze blocks.
Grays is alright. I live here. Grew up in Purfleet.
My ex gf had a place in Grays, she lived in a block of flats, getting in and out of my car to get to the flats before being stoned by gangs of 12yr old kids was always a bit of a challenge.
@@grantmail4112 Oh my God, how awful. I'm sorry to hear that. Kids can be worse than adults at times. I hope you never experience this again, wherever you live. Be well, from Ruth x
@@ruth_southernstar Thanks Ruth, I agree, even though they were just kids it wasn't any easier. I know it's an old saying, but I really blame the parents more than the kids.. you just know if you spoke to their parents and told them what they were up to...the parents would punch you in the eye.
As someone who has had the dubious pleasure of going to Tilbury docks regularly, I was waiting for Tilbury's name to come up on the list... not shocked it's top.
Born and raised in Harlow. When I was young (60s-70s) it had a thriving industrial area along Edinburgh Way (chemicals, electronics, engineering, etc). By the 90s, it had largely gone, replaced by commercial zones. So where do people now go to work…..? Perhaps a sign or symptom of what has degraded the economy and culture?
From home on laptops probly 😂😂
I can leave my house in church langley and be in Liverpool Street station in 40 minutes. You buffoons🤡🤡🤡🤡
Into London and working from home lol
My other Half's family live in Tilbury, the most depressing places I have to visit, litter everywhere, extremely gray all year round and nothing to do apart from set fire to bins. I may be a Sussex snob, but seriously, Tilbury deserves number one spot
As an Essex boy, with friends and family in most of the places you visited, and myself living in Southend, I very much enjoyed this episode! 😂
Ah, poor Harlow. Back in the 80s when I was a small child I genuinely loved that town - its beautiful park, its outdoor swimming pool, the kids play areas, the way the place didn't quite look like anywhere else I'd been before (I loved those slabs of concrete and that fantastic town centre clock you showed). The whole place just seemed like a novelty and actually features in my childhood memories in a good way. My older brother would drive me down there in his car as a treat and we'd have a fun day out.
In those days I suspect it was a bit brighter, cleaner and greener, a bit more well-kept. I haven't been back since then and have been warned on many occasions not to bother. I think I'll stick with my memories. Sometimes you can't go back.
On the other hand, the house I currently live in (in the Midlands) is on a Local Authority estate designed by the man who did most of the work on Harlow. My mind was blown when I found out, but once you're told, it does figure... it was cheap for a reason! I live in a tiny row of Harlow-esque houses in a really nice area and get to look at the huge posh residences I'm surrounded by from my window, which I just think is hilarious. They all get a much less flattering view for their money.
I lived in Harlow in the late 80's and I really liked it back then. It's not so good now though.
Ooh loved the outdoor swimming pool when I lived there in the 60s. I actually live in Old Harlow, but visited Harlow on Saturday for shopping, and remember it had a lovely market too❤
I did some survey work around Tilbury and the surrounding area. The atmosphere genuinely felt like it was stuck in 1780 and that at any minute some marauding band of pillaging drunkards would emerge from the scrub along the Thames and accost me.
There was also an abundance of deflated 'Happy Birthday' helium balloons around the landscape for some reason. Like all the broken childhood dreams and spirit of London's children float over to Tilbury to rot and perish.
Pretty sure that Tom Hardy series (Taboo) was filmed there for that reason.
You've definitely got a way with words 🙂
My sole visit to Tilbury was when I passed through there on a motorbike in the late ‘90s and had a brick thrown at me. The smell of menace was omnipresent.
...and the brick was probably stolen ....
I’d be interested to hear your take on Hampshire. Everyone thinks it’s a beautiful county because of places like Winchester or New Forest. However, you will find some right turd towns like Aldershot or Portsmouth
Portsmouth is pretty nice for the most part tbf but there are DEFINITELY some turd towns in Hampshire
Try Leigh Park or Paulsgrove.
Andover; Totton; Basingstoke;
I always see Portsmouth flag up on these “worst places to live” lists. I just can’t buy that. Especially after the places I’ve been. Maybe I should visit and find out.
I think Waterlooville deserves a visit!
I’ve lived in tilbury in the past and years ago it was a fairly decent place to live. The Olympic village sort of ruined it with outsiders moving in. They’ve also closed the police station which is like closing the sheriff office at the o.k. Corral.
Essex is a compound of all the failings of the UK over the last 30 years. Mismanagement and underfunding run rampant, while house prices remain absurdly high due to the locality to the city and, as such, ever-more housing developments threaten to bring towns on the commuter lines to bursting point. It needs serious investment if the seriously overstretched services are ever to catch up with the burgeoning population.
You should take in all the new towns as you travel and produce an episode on the idealistic future that never materialised but very quickly decayed and started falling apart with the one exception in North Buckinghamshire.
To be fair Livingston in Scotland isn't too bad for a new town. Good connections being right on the M8, two train stations and regular frequent bus services to Edinburgh and beyond have made it into something of a commuter town mainly for Edinburgh as it's 20 minutes away, but also for Glasgow which is only 40/45 minutes along the motorway.
I live in the North Bucks New Town you mention and think its great and done well for a new town. Would like to see Mr Ts review of it. Spent my youth in Hemel Hempstead which also isn't too bad and learnt from the mistakes of Harlow.
@@kevinh96 Livingston is awful
There's a couple of other decent New Towns. We have three up here in the North East and two of them are utter dives (Peterlee is probably one of the worst towns I've ever visited... and I've been to a lot) but Cramlington is relatively alright: it's a bit bland, but the average house price is £180k and the nice areas definitely outnumber the bad areas
As a northerner, I found this one fascinating Essex is always painted as this very rich county and as the sun always shines. This opens your eyes this is not the case. Keep up the good work i really find this channel fascinating.
There's quite a large north/south divide in Essex, you'll notice most of these are on the coast or nearer London
It seem Northern folk think it's all well off people and places down south.
We have some of the most deprived areas in the whole of the UK down here.
South Essex is basically on fringe of London with good transport links into City, hence house prices, north of Chelmsford small villages and small towns, transport not so good, more rural, but still expensive houses especially towards Cambridge area
Once you get past the London Thurrock Southend bits Essex is very beautiful and unspoiled. Thaxted. Uttlesford. All worthy of acclaim
Down here, you have northern wages, but southern prices.
I grew up near Tilbury and can confirm that it's the worst town in Essex. Amazing how all the worst town's in Essex are so close to each other.
no no no , South Ockendon should get all awards . It makes Tilbury look hupper class .
Tilbury is not near jaywick and clacton
Your videos are great! We love your cultured approach and great commentary that is never dull or annoying but always informative. We left the UK 23 years ago to come to Italy and not for a moment looked back. I grew up in Hackney, Aveley and Dagenham then moved to the Bath area but by far the worst place we lived was Bristol. It would be an insult to toilets to call it one. Have you done Southmead? When we were there 30 years ago it was hell.
Well done for doing these. We're avid watchers. I need to watch your one on Twerton tonight.. that place was always a dump.
Southend was our nearest resort when I was a kid as we used to live in Ilford (another place that has gone downhill very badly). I last visited Southend on a hot day last year when it was unbearably crowded. It used to have good shops back in the seventies, several department stores, but now the shopping centre is completely rundown. I may not bother for a while. although there are nearby beaches that are lovely. Clacton also a few years ago had good shops and a great outlet a few miles out of town that was well worth making a journey for. Now half the outlet has been turned into a car park and there are only half as many shops and Clacton town centre has been decimated. Jaywick has a beautiful beach reminds me of Sandbanks. I used to have a school friend in the sixties who lived in an Essex mansion and they had a holiday chalet there. The only time I visit Tilbury is to use the cruise terminal which is very handily placed as it is only an hour from home but I have never visited the shops apart from Asda.
Local councils are to blame, years and years of mismanagement all over the the country , even going bankrupt wtf , how have we let this happen to our country
Yes, but budgets are set by central government which in some places has been slashed by 76%. Anyone's quality of life would suffer with cuts to their income of that magnitude.
@paulb8603: All the councils going bankrupt are the Labour Party run ones since they like to spend other peoples money on woke and all that garbage and not the people or the towns and cities they run.
Politicians 😡
@@leehannaford9166 no not politicians, normal folk running things that affect our lives as much as if not more that useless politicians, remember who did you vote for four who works for your local authority , who spends our hard earned money and decides on what rubbish the spend it on . They work for us we should always remember that fact when dealing with local authority people , civil servants , say that out aloud , the don’t work for us civilians anymore all they want is our hard earned money
@@paulb8603 Local aurhorities have had far bigger cuts than central government. Why is it all their fault?
Grew up in Basildon and upto the late 90s it wasn’t that bad.
Nightlife from the past
Infamous Raquels in Bas.
Pink Toothbrush in Rayleigh.
Pzazz in Grays
And of course
ToTs in Southend.
Back in the 70s I used to love going to ToTS .
Especially on a Thursday because the Hen nights were real fun 😜😜
And zero 6
Another excellent report and commentary Mr Turdtown. Thank you.
Can we get started with the Essex girl jokes plz?
Q: What does an Essex girl use for protection when having sex?
A: A bus shelter.
Next...😁
Q How does an Essex girl turn on the light after sex?
A. She opens the car door.
How do you know when an Essex girl is having a climax? The chewing gum falls out her mouth.
Q: What’s the difference between an Essex girl and an Essex boy?
A: Essex girl has a higher sperm count.
What's the difference between Essex Girl and a Walrus ? One has a moustache and smells of fish the other one is a Walrus
@@raythomas4812 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The best thing about Basildon is Depeche Mode 😂. Keep up the good work 👏
I’m just gonna be the one to say it: please do a London special, I know there’s not really many ‘towns’, so to say, but I feel like there’s definitely a few potential ‘turd settlements’ around the county/city, such as Lee, Neasden and Edmonton.
If not then Hertfordshire would be a good one to do, given you’ve recently been doing a lot more nearby home counties to London-themed videos 🤷🏼♂️ Wouldn’t be surprised to see you put Potters Bar in on that list
I'm guessing you live in North London then.😆
Add Wood Green, Hayes (Middlesex), Harlesden, Upton Park/East Ham to that list
@@RubbishGimpy well I grew up in West London most of my life but I’m planning on moving to South, so no 😂 I just happen to be familiar with some of these places due to completing certain jobs around there or just personal experience 🤷🏼♂️
@@J8rdz tbf I don’t know much about East Ham, but there’s an argument for the rest being included on that list 🤷🏼♂️
Stratford !
Yep lived in Harlow back in the 60s. Was a nice place then. Also lived in Southend. Once a dump, always a dump!
Grays is just dire! I can’t think of one redeeming feature.
Live in a small village just outside Tiptree, still in Essex. It’s beautiful here. Like England used to be 50-60 yrs ago, so not all of Essex is a writeoff❤
Yesssssss! I cheered when you said Tilbury is number 1! My family are from Tilbury and I grew up in Chadwell St Mary and Grays. But when ever I visited my grandparents in Tilbury as a child, I knew it was the roughest place with the roughest people. People let horses into their houses in Tilbury lol. But I do have some nice memories of it.
I almost moved to Basildon with my batshit crazy ex as she'd taken a job down there after finishing uni. I've never actually looked up Basildon before, but seeing this has made me realise that it's the second-biggest bullet I dodged when we broke up. What a shithole!
Basildon and Harlow are bad Tilbury is definitely the worst place in essex
@@richlee509 in what way bad, mot of social housing and people not working, talking and bickering against every one , and doing drugs??
I haven't lived in the UK in 20 years. Haven't been in 10. I fear some places from youth/childhood have changed for the worse :/
No people in history have ever benefited from becoming a min ority in their own homeland.
So far I think you have visited nearly every one of my childhood holiday destinations. To be fair, the descriptions as Turdtowns are accurate, even back when I was a child.- I'm in my mid fifties now.
I love your channel mate. Love the Commentary.😂 Wifey and I paid our first ever visit to the UK from Oz in Sept/Oct. We loved most of the places we saw. Planning a return visit for 2025. Will have to visit some "Turd Towns."
Have you noticed that most of the Towns that are ‘Turds’ have been flooded by immigrants and have had no money spent on them for years? This is has happened in most working class towns across the whole of the UK not just Essex
It's not a coincidence. There has been an agenda in play involving local councils and central government. It will all come out in 2024 I believe.
It’s happened across many areas of Kent and London but apparently all these newcomers are exactly what the country needs…..doesn’t look like they are having the desired effect to me……
@nickgodfrey1148 I think it's the lack of funding and effective governance that should be your primary focus (not to say that mass immigration cannot and does not pose issues)
@@Gordon.Pinkerton I agree with you. It’s a combination of lack of funding and uncontrolled immigration. This government (and previous) are not interested in small towns with incompetent councils nor do they concern themselves with immigrants flooding into these same towns. It doesn’t concern them because it doesn’t affect them.
@@Gordon.Pinkerton The two things go hand in hand - massive increase in population with much of it going to poorer towns and no increase in funding to cope with it
I was one of those homeless drug addicts in Southend. I used to sleep either buried in the sand, under the three shells, or by a footbridge on Southchurch Road. I wasn't either of those things when I moved to Essex, and got sober after I decided to leave, the only real conclusion being that Southend on Sea is to blame.
How is a town responsible for peoples choices
@richlee509 I read that last line as being a joke, but hard to tell on the internet lol
@@richlee509 because every corner you turn you're offered drugs of some sort? I used to know a group of people from there, about 8-10 people, all of them was off their heads on something all of the time
@@richlee509It's a joke, buddy.
I remember a pub in Tilbury called The Ship being reported in the mainstream media as the roughest pub in England
The type of place where you Wipe your feet on the way out
I knew Basildon was going to get a good shafting. I grew up there after leaving London just after the war. I emigrated to Australia and after travelling the world I settled in Brisbane. Would I ever go back to the UK for a holiday. No way. The whole country is sliding into a dismal derelict dumping ground. I think I would get very upset. Still it was nice 65 years ago.
My grandfather lived in Jaywick in the 80's and 90's. We didn't go often to visit as my dad snd his father didn't get a long so well. I was a child, so I only remember bits and pieces. It was like a ghost town every time we visited. He lived in a prefab bungalow that had a single bedroom in the roof, that was accessible via a hatch with a pull down folding ladder that was more like staircase.
One of my friends lived in one of those bungalows! I forgot they exsited until now. I moved out of Jaywick when I was 10
@@planetbea What was it like living there? I remember walking down some of the roads near the beach, and they were just covered in sand lol
@@ReadySaltedCrisps like he said in the video there's like 2 parts of Jaywick, I lived by the sea for only a couple years from when I was about 3 until I was 5, then I moved to the other part which is like all houses, bungalows and parks by the school. All I really remember from by the sea is the amount of times the water came over the sea wall in bad weather, which is probably why it was covered in sand all the time! If the tide was in it was touching the wall.
Born and raised in Tilbury! Makes ya proud to see that we at least came first place in something! Gutted we didn't get the No.1 County crime rate award thou, would've thought that was a sure bet! Come on you Tilbs! Up yer game!
Born in Tilbury 1957 moved to Chadwell St Mary 1960 moved to Australia 1973. Been back twice from Australia, not going back again. Were nice places when I was young, so sad what has happened to them
Thanks for another TT! If you ever need showing round the best and the worst places in Beds, Berks and Herts - give me a shout!
The Kursall estate was built on the wonderful long gone Kursall amusmant park from happier times.
I worked as a housing Officer with council in around 2000, that estate was dire, worked in Hackney and Milton Keynes but that was one of the worst ever.
I got the No.1 right!! I grew up in Tilbury, remember my family going to the local, The Bomb crater, such a dump of a town. I also lived in Grays, it had so much potential, just never realised, like most of these towns.
Me too mate. 1962 through 1987 moved out because my mate was being threatened with being murdered and I didn't want to end up being collateral damage.
My nan use to say, they wash their nets (curtains) in South Ockendon because there's nothing else to do.
I grew up in Harold Hill, and it wasn't a bad place to grow up , I remember the havering play leadership in the six week holidays , the Harold Hill carnival, wallys mobile shop .
Hilldene shops used to have everything, then a couple of proper butchers , sports shop, barrowboy green grocers ( used to work there after school ) 😅 sainsbury, woolworths and many more .
I moved away many years ago and when I've visited its certainly in need of a major refresh .
@@ListenUp-py1qmwhere is it then?
Harold hill is a london borough as its within the m25 , however, its actually essex hence harold hill romford essex rm is a romford postcode that is essex
@@ListenUp-py1qm and deny you the pleasure of showing off once more
@@ListenUp-py1qm oh i'm definitely judging you.
@@ListenUp-py1qm you know the saying what are you when you assume? read back our convo. i didn't say i didn't know or disagree with you . i hoped for an intelligent debate . As i'm from Havering and possess a post 1965 birth certificate , i'm obviously very well aware of where Harold Hill is.
I was fully expecting Vange to get a mention !!!!
And Romford / Harold Hill
Would love to see Northamptonshire, most of the big towns in Northamptonshire give you an overwhelming sense of depression the second you enter, especially Northampton itself.
Kettering, Wellingborough and Corby are awful places too
Only ever went to Northampton once, once was enough, never again.
Wellingborough famous for its new super prison
My parents lived in Northampton for a while, so I visited many times. Dear God, what a depressing place. I once house sat (well, cat sat) for them while they were on holiday, and was immediately so bored that I started leaving town every day for the day, just to be somewhere less depressing. One time for something to do I walked into the city centre from their house in the outskirts, about an hour's walk, and that was GRIM, just a neverending series of soulless suburban streets.
@@AlastairjCarruthers My dad's called Derek and he's from Northampton. Born in the slums 1933. They have been demolished and replaced by a multi storey car park (Swan street)
Totally agree with you on Basildon.
An ex of mine lived there and worked in the SuperF**kOffMegaTesco in the adjoining village of Pitsea, so I had plenty of opportunity to see most of the place in the early-2000's.
Back then, you could see a wide variety of abandoned burned-out cars on virtually every corner, as Basildon was pretty much Boy Racer Central.
The only bright spot is comic store 'The Cartoon Shop' in Eastgate Shopping Centre, which is fortunately still there.
The little Chinese shop on the second floor is also a good place. Used to get my karate gear in there.
Basildon hit the headlines infamously as the place where Leah Betts took dodgy ecstasy pill in nightclub and died.The related Essex Boys murder nearby also. 😑
@@minnielee3399 I remember the Essex Boys stuff. My Ex, being somewhat older than myself at the time (I was mid-20's, she was 41!) if I remember rightly, knew one or more of the guys involved.
Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. @@AFCManUk 😒
@@minnielee3399 She seemed to have turned out alright :). 2 kids and more into her Motorbikes these days, from what I gather. Lost touch many years ago.
Finally Clacton, glorious horrible Clacton, the last time I went there I had not visited since I was a child over 25 years ago and thought it might be nice. Oh boy how wrong I was!
We got off the bus and were greeted by people yelling, low iq looking chavs and some having a fight.
Upon getting to the sea front we witnessed someone drowning in the sea, and saw an entire rescue operation unfold 😢
The staff in all the jobs looked like they had not had a happy day in their life.
We had a while for our bus to turn up ( it was a Sunday) and I could never wait to leave a place quicker.
Taking a walk to try and kill some time was spent trying to not make eye contact with the locals, avoiding any yelling we heard and trying to not get close to the multiple punch ups we witnessed.
Finally the bus came and I'm glad we survived, never to return again.
Something is definitely in the water there. Thank god I was returning to Harwich, again not an amazing place but miles better than Clacton!!
You got to love Basildon working away from her in the mid 1970s. I was there for 2 1/2 years great memories and great times. Lovely down-to-earth people that stick together.
What is the difference between Harlow and Basildon?
35 miles.
😂
I was born in Harlow in 1958, when it was a very new town. There was about half a dozen shops in the town centre. My mum, Bless her, used to have to walk to the Stow from Northbrooks. A long walk even today. Like many people my parents came down from East London for a better way of life, and the plentiful work. Mum did some nursing and dad worked with BOC. It used to be a really lovely place with a great olympic size swimming pool, lots of youth clubs and a great sports centre, which was generally affordable for those who wished to use it. Harlow also had a thriving market where most of my family worked at one time or another. And of course there was the Iconic Gilbeys distillery, which was one of the major employers in the town at the time. Enter the Tories! Decline and fall big time! Never the same again! No market at all now. Just an open air drug and alchol shitstop! Fortunately, I managed to escape in the early naughties, and will never return except for the occasional family visit.
The current house prices are shocking and unjustifiable! The most recent builds were built for a fiver and sold for 500k! More fool those who've bought one! So Shame on the governments, all of em, and even more shame on the dirty bastards who've turned the town into nothing but a massive toilet that can't be flushed! Like many other places throughout England, it should be nooked, and most of the inhabitants with it! 😔😡🏴🇮🇪🙏
Never been to Essex but heard mixed things! Would definitely be interested to hear your takes on Berkshire. I’m sure you’ll have some choice words as for every Windsor or Twyford, you’ve got a Reading or Slough lol
It's like any other county, got it's good parts and bad. Go into tye countryside and the north of the county, tends to be better up there.
Bracknell is a shithole too
Essex is pretty grim in the cities, much better in the rural parts. Also the North of Essex further away from London is better than South Essex.
@@martinwebb1681noted, cheers!!
As others have said, some parts of Essex are really beautiful and lovely. County as a whole gets a bad rep, but to an extent that can be quite unfair
Great Turd Towns video! Really wish you would make a video on Oxfordshire and include
Thame. Thanks!
i have been looking foward to the moment you cover essex.having worked some of these towns for four decades i had a wry smile as i counted down from seven.surely tilbury will be number one.sure enough it was.saying that although i agree with what you said i quite liked the place,mainly because it has an old school working class feel about it.
Would love to see East Sussex. Such a variety of turdtowns here that are definitely rough around the edges
Yes, agreed.
There are certainly some nice places, hell the village I live in was nominated as the best place to live in the country for some reason when I’ve been to far better places.
But yeah there’s definitely some rough places.
ive seen it and your right
Don't do it! Leave Hastings alone. I can't have another town in one of these videos I've lived in...
OMG ! I asked you to do Essex and you did ! And first up Southend 😂😂 you nailed it
The fact I've lived in all these places ecept Harlow, I feel so much shame! Literallym I went from Southend, to Jaywick, to Clacton, to Grays, to Tilbury. I lived in Tilbury 3 times and thats even worse!
HOWEVER FUN FACT ABOUT TILBURY! A lot of the street shots in Grimsby the film, is shot in Tilbury. Even the train station
Also, the opening scene to the first Christan Bale Batman film was filmed in Tilbury fort.
Tilbury Fort was used to "store" those who either were dying from the plauge, or who had died from it in their tombs.
My fiance's grandad used to live in and run the fort.
You should also look at Aveley, it's harder to get to than Jaywick or Tilbury. Only 2 different buses go throught there, but they go through different parts altogether. No train station. It's a village between Purfleet and Ockendon
Aveley is one of the nicer parts of Thurrock so it would be hard to get on this list - none of the areas in Thurrock are great though.
I grew up in Southend so a little bit gutted to see it on this list. Though I have to admit the night life and high street have been hit hard over the past 20 years. But I lived in a great area only a mile from town.
I have also recently moved away from Basildon, and can confirm, it is indeed a Turdtown.
Would love it if you went over the Channel and did some French Turd Towns - Les Villes du Merdes! Be really interesting to see if they have similar run down places that we have. Would suggest Amiens for starters.
The Nord-Pas de Calais (now known as Hauts de France), is an area particularly ripe for les villes merdiques. Have a glance on google maps at Denain, Loos (the one that is a satellite town of Liile, in fact look at most of the satellite towns of Lille), Douai.
I live not far from Saint-Lô, in Normandy which was 95% destroyed (yes, 95%) during the allied bombardments of 1944. Unlike, a lot of French rebuilt towns, they decided to go all 'Coventry' with Saint-Lô. It's not a rough town, but it is greyer than John Major and more depressing than the state of British politics.
@@motosnape I visited Douai for a few days 10 years ago, I cycled there beside the canals from St Omer and it was really lovely. I really hope it hasn’t gone down hill since then. I remember Henin-Beaumont nearby was pretty grim, a proper old mining town. Even then I wondered what people “did” in that area, it seemed like there were a lot of retirees which isn’t a good recipe for long term sustainability.
Had a day trip to Dunkerque last week, and hoped to do a good old shop and explore the area. It was a cheap ferry deal. There was a reason for this... utterly grim and felt very unsafe, grey and depressing, especially the big Auchan nearby.
A lot of northern France is like northern England, full of run down mining and industrial towns. It's grim up north!
Bethune not great either
You know Jay wick is bad when you see a dog doing a turd in basildon 7:11
“Many of these people moved out of London on the promise of better lives but they ended up in Basildon” 😂😂
Most of london isn't exactly nice to live in about the only thing going for most of london is public transport isn't too expensive and goes almost anywhere you need to go but the prices of houses is ridiculous and good luck driving anywhere, Basildon is just as depressing as london and half of it was sold off to other councils to house their overflow of people so not surprised it is I think the highest populated place in Essex with high house prices and a council that that couldn't run a bath without messing it up! It is in a good location though if you drive not far from anything major
I really thought Jaywick would get that number-one slot!
A TH-camr called Bald and Bankrupt went to Jaywick a few weeks ago and honestly doesn't look that bad.
Yeah, I watched that video. I'm a big fan! The people seem friendly enough, it's just the infrastructure of the place that makes it seem soi down and out.
Speaking as someone from south Essex, Tilbury can't be out-turded.
Jaywick is kind of small, it looks really run down, that goes against the place. Not somewhere most people would want to spend their time, you have to feel sorry for any decent people that are stuck there without a way out.
Back in the 60s jaywick was a holiday destination for many poorer families,but like many places, it’s evolved into a slightly run down area due to lack of funds,councils rather build stupid great vanity projects,and new roads with the money,then ploughing back in to socialist revamped areas that need up grading ..
Sarfend used to be a cracking night out in the 90's. Tots, Club Art, Ad Lib, Storm, Churchills, Bakers Bar etc. Back in the days you couldn't get in without shoe, trousers and a shirt with a collar. It's a crying shame whats happened to the place now.
brilliant series, keep 'em coming! x
I was born and brought up in Aveley, near Grays. Got out of there as soon as I was old enough! Would never go back to Essex. Astonishes me how many of my school friends still live in that little crap heap.
If u lived in Essex ,you’d also know there a many really beautiful villages to live and lovely countryside..although it’s one of most densely populated places to”live now .every area has less desirable parts to live.
I know but this is about the turd towns not the good ones.
Nailed it with Tilbury. South Ockenden could be worth a mention.
Ive live in basildon since 1970, it was a beautiful green town back then until successive councils destroyed the place, selling it off to developers who just plonk flats wherever they can , no new infrastructure to cope with the vastly inflated population, mainly from london. Its a real shame, ive got fantastic memories as a kid.
I disagree about not being able to walk anywhere, ive never driven and walk absolutely everywhere! And i dont think its particularly scarey in Basildon either, but maybe thats because i know the place inside out. Far worse places to live, like Pitsea, Tilbury and my place of birth London, you couldnt pay me enough to live in any of those places!
Pitsea is Basildon
@thedogman6910 yeah, I know, a sub district, grew up there and hate the place, I just meant there are certain areas of basildon I wouldn't live.
Not sure if coincidence but I’ve been to them all.
Southend is actually fun on a weekend especially summer, the night is so busy and full of lights, never felt unsafe
Jaywick has amazing beach and friendly people and a lot of camp sites a few historic towers
Clacton is a bit far so I didn’t see it as much as others but the roads there are amazing, a lot of older people and dog walkers on the beach, the cement separating the beach from the road is colossal, you need to climb if you want to see the beach in other areas
Tilbury is extremely industrial, and busy at all times I wouldn’t recommend living there unless you have a business there
Basildon I like the Sign BASILDON written hollywood style cheers me up everytime apart from that the town seems really clean, and wide roads, I wouldn’t mind living there
Grays: almost identical to Tilbury (to me)
And top Harlow, I always liked how new the city looks. I saw many gardens and flowers well maintained, with plenty of green spaces, with good roads, and plenty of old pubs
So to me
Top
Harlow
Southend
Basildon
Clackton
Jaywick
Tillbury
Grays
I experienced good things and bad things in Tilbury a few years ago... THE GOOD THING : I purchased a lovely car in Tilbury. THE BAD THING: It turned out that when I went to get it serviced at my local garage a few weeks later they told me it was recorded as being stolen!
To be fair, the UK as a whole looks sh!t in winter
Love Turd towns, would love for you to do one in Worthing, West Sussex, my old home town. It really is a Turd town and that's being polite.
"God's waiting room".
Having lived in Romford and Southend, I put many of the problems down to useless councils who couldn't run a bath let alone a town.
Historically, Romford was a market town in the county of Essex, but it became part of Greater London in 1965. Therefore, it is correct to say that Romford is both in Essex and Greater London. London has been eating up surrounding areas for decades.
Romford is over 800 years and until the last 50 years was in Essex politically. Ok it’s now absorbed into Greater London politically but still considered Essex by people who are older than 40? Thurrock and Southend are all unitary authorities (self governing) not part of Essex County Council yet they are still Essex. We are part of England but Still Essex and so not mutually exclusive. We are also European although not politically anymore. Always been English. So it’s not always black and white.
Great video as always, would love to see east and West Sussex
The great and powerful kingdom of essex. Theres a lot of ancient history going back to before the romans,astounding. And some magical beautiful towns and villages.Essex is a mix of extremes but overall a succesful,friendly,safe place to enjoy life. The natural decay of the seaside resorts are part of its joy and charm as we connect to the great victorian age and carry on movies.
I love it.
Lived in Rayleigh for a while back in 2000, and only assume it is even worse now than it was then. Couldn't wait to get back to the beautiful West Country. Which also has its fair share of turd towns but at least its far from London and everything that means.
The traffic in Rayleigh is bloody awful. No good points really at all.
It shows that everywhere in the UK has some bad areas. The West Country has many bad spots. I understand Cornwall is one of the most deprived areas in Europe, despite the red-trousered Range Rover drivers clogging up St Mawes every summer, driving up property prices so that locals are unable to live where they grew up.
I’ve lived in Rayleigh most of my life. Not a terrible place to live but has definitely gone downhill.
No real bad points about it to be fair, other than the high street being full of hairdressers and coffee shops, and it gets completely grid locked multiple times throughout the day
Dont get me started on ''Stanford-No-Hope'' (Standford-Le-Hope).
I grew up in Stanford. It was a great place to grow up ..
I used to live in East London back last century. Many a trip to Southend for the amusements or a walk along the pier & then the train back. Now boy racers having road races.
Sunday trips to Clacton but how far it has fallen they never got the dream after voting Brexit.
Harlow was always a dump with a mandatory roundabout for every adult.
Anywhere close to the Thames is a $hithole.
Some really nice places in Essex but they tend to be vastly overpriced & the not so nice where the population is semi-feral & take pride in their lack of intelligence.
east london last century? did you have a bathroom? or a decent inside bog? harlow is a million times better than the east end then and now .
@@knoxyish I didn't say East End & I wasn't living in a slum.
East end - between the river lea and the city.. east London - from the lea to Essex.
In the council, Basildon was often called Basildump, so it's quite apt that it appears in a Turdtowns episode 😂
My partner calls it Basilscum lol
Dagenham has got to be more of a turd than any of them towns, nah? … just the fact that me bird, the beast from Dagenham East, comes from there… makes it the biggest turd in Essex!
@@ListenUp-py1qmit must be Essex because my bird is a proper slag!
@@ListenUp-py1qmbut my bird wears fake tan and takes two in one hole… You can’t get more Essex than that!
@@ListenUp-py1qm but she does two in one hole lineups round the back of Dagenham Heathway station… so?
@@DelBoyjrProductionsI’m on my way to round the back of dagenham Heathway station
Im from a small town in Essex and it is poor but i can say before the big shops moved here it was a lot better. Also people from bigger towns were moved here, so that didn't help.
This episode & channel was mentioned in an article today about Tilbury in the Daily Mail.
Bang on with all of them
I used to go on holiday to jaywick in the 70’s and loved it
How things have changed
Pretty accurate. Tilbury definitely the worst. Lived in Essex all my life. As others have commented - surprised South Ockendon, Pitsea and Chadwell st Mary didn’t get a mention - far less to offer than Southend and Harlow, the areas are well known for being rough although probably too small to register. Would definitely rather live in Southend or Grays above them as they have amenities I.e. restaurants, pubs etc. Corringham probably deserve a mention as well. Overall though good description.
I live in Canada but spent my first decade of life in Stanford-le-Hope and Corringham. I’m curious why you’d think the later should make the list. It was a bit dreary for sure but in the 1970s it seemed safe and friendly, just streets of tiny 1930s bungalows and postwar prefabs. There were a lot of Cockney families among my neighbours, many who’d relocated after the Blitz and were generally great folks. Maybe it’s gone to the dogs but I have nothing but fond memories of life on the Thames marshes in the gentle glare of the catcrackers
To be fair - wouldn’t rank CorringhAm in the top 5 amd tilbury and chadwell st Mary are far worse. It would probably be in the top 8 amd I wouldn’t include Stanford le hope in this as I consider it a separate town. CorringhAm does have a very good secondary school as well in Gable hall so it isn’t all bad. The main issue is that there’s there nothing to do there and travel network is poor. The town centre (if you can it that) is run down and kids just congregate there as there isn’t anywhere to go or anything to do. KFC ended up pulling out a few years ago as it just wasn’t worth the hassle of running. There are far worse places in Essex but if you list Southend (which does have a university, an array of different restaurants, various theatres, parks etc) than you need to include Corringham in my opinion. It’s an industry feeder as there are a lot of power stations around that area so I think employment is good and house prices are above average so it isn’t a slum but it does have a dying dead end feel to it
We left Stanford le Hope two yrs ago. Best thing we ever did!
Get anxiety now when we get to Pitsea flyover on A13, going back to visit our kids. Hoping they can move away soon❤
Corringham use to be good but it's fast becoming a complete dump with chavvy scummy kids, drugs, shit council, no police station and more and more over spill of London
I'm surprised Canvey Island isn't featured somewhere. Southend isn't as bad as Canvey and I know both very well. Yes, homelessness is rife, but I know through my line of work that in order to receive help, a homeless person has to travel to the Southend catchment area because the required levels of support are simply not provided in the surrounding areas.
Canvey isn't rough though. It's just old Cockneys living in weird small houses. I walked all over it working for Essex Highways, it's certainly preferable to Southend.
I grew up on Canvey... we moved away when I was 17 and I've been back there less than 5 times in the 30+ years since and it has grown progressively worse with each visit.
I have lived on a really bad estate once. I'd get up at 6am each day, go out and ask the drug users if they were ok, then I'd take a long arm litter picker, poop scoop and a bag and pick up all the litter and dog poo on my half of this estate and put it into my bin. I did this every day for the year I lived there. Never got any thanks of course, apart from the drug users who would always thank me for checking on them. Nobody else cared. I enjoyed doing all that. You can live in a bad area and still strive to be a good person, that's up to you. Now imagine if more and more people did these things?.
@thewr0ngchild - You are the type of person that every shithole needs. Like you say, imagine if everyone had a sense of pride about their area and strove to keep it looking nice. But humanity being what it is, some cannot be bothered and many complain that their area is a dump, but are unwilling to do anything about it and they are usually the people who made it a shitehole in the first place.
Mate, I currently work in Basildon as a grocery delivery driver. Our vans are often broken into and robbed in some parts of the area. I don't think there is a single person where I work that hasn't been robbed. No shock it has the highest crime rate in Essex.
My memory of Grays is the awful plastic waste all over the Thames foreshore there, Everything from bottle tops to needles collecting on the tide.
TH-cam unsubscribed me !!! Love the show - Canada is declining the same way as UK and USA . Volume is a little low but sadly it’s sickening to know that the rest of western world is identical. SAD