
Someone asked about places in the UK that look posh but don’t quite live up to their reputation – 21 striking nominations
Even if we’ve never visited a place in Britain, we will have formed an opinion about it anyway, whether that’s from seeing it on TV, hearing about it from a friend or just by some strange social osmosis. However, it turns out these preconceptions are highly likely to be wrong. Over on the AskUK subreddit, user Upstairs-Ad-6952 posted this:
What is a place in the UK which is regarded as posh but in reality is quite rough? From personal experience, Canterbury really isn’t all that.
Which prompted lots of people to chip in with British places that aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.
1.
‘Cheltenham. Where you have ‘haves’ you tend to have ‘have nots’.’
–stuntedmonk
2.
‘Parts of Edinburgh are fucking terrible and nearly as bad as Glasgow. You have kids launching fireworks at the police in one area, in another area you have a gangster who just casually saunters into a flat roof pub and fires his shotgun into the ceiling. The pub itself is covered in barbed wire and you can’t see through any of the windows.’
–Jolly-Minimum-6641
3.
‘High Wycombe should be a lot posher than it is. Lovely valley setting on the edge of the Chilterns, great transport links to London, but it’s still (mainly) a shithole.’
–purrcthrowa
4.
‘Ascot, or pretty much anywhere with horse racing.’
–JedsBike
5.
‘Horse racing is an amazing example. You’re somewhere with a bunch of people who’ve got properly dressed up to go out, tweed, sports jackets, posh frocks and smart skirt/top combos. Take a photo and it’s gonna look like the hoity toity are out in force.
And then you find a massive fucking queue for the bar, everyone lagered up, and some of the widest accents you’ve ever heard losing their paycheck to the onsite bookies. Truly wondrous.’
–Buddy-Matt
6.
‘Windsor. There’s a family that lives there, right, they control the place. Coppers won’t do anything, they live in a huge council house, they haven’t worked for generations, they’re milking the benefits system, and they’ve got the whole place sewn up.’
–sunheadeddeity
7.
‘Malvern. Up on the hill… big money. Down in the dips almost like a slum. I remember back in the 90’s it was both in the top 10 most wealthy and at the same time in the top ten most impoverished places in the UK.’
–boobiemilo
8.
‘I ran a pub in Cambridge for just over a year. I’m from a Northern council estate town, spent 12 years living in Luton and ran pubs all around Herts/Beds/Bucks for years. I’d never live in Cambridge again – absolute nightmare of a place.’
–Tallulah_Gosh
9.
‘Tunbridge Wells. Has an excellent reputation but is in fact a dirty hovel like everywhere else.’
–JohnCasey3306
10.
‘A lot of villages in Devon and Cornwall. For every postcard-beautiful street of cottages, there is a rough estate. It’s one of the poorest parts of the country with a lot of rural deprivation, high unemployment, poorly performing schools, etc.’
–BarryFairbrother
11.
‘I went to Gloucester and was genuinely shocked when I got off the train.’
–Fit_Manufacturer4568