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Hardest Place in Britain

Brown Bottle

Brown Bottle

UTB
Someone posted in the Music section about Jimmy Somerville coming from Ruchill in Glasgow and what a hard area it was. Just wondered what the hardest area in Britain was? Glasgow must be well up the list.

My Dad grew up in Cheetham Hill (Manchester) in the 50s. He said everyone was dirt poor and many of them were involved in petty crime, especially theft, but it wasn’t that violent. Drugs came in after he left and worse crime and much more violence followed. My Grandma and Uncle lived there into the 80s, in the same house, it was really grim going to visit.

Other than that I had a pretty sheltered up bringing, probably the worst place I’ve been out in is Brambles Farm, Middlesbrough, was out with a local but still couldn’t settle.

Cheers BB
 
Mike Reed said:
Wasn't that the Jewish quarter? I used to survey the retail part there (such as it was) on an annual basis from the early seventies. It was run down as I remember.
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Yes Mike, a big Jewish area from what I remember of the 70s. My Grandad worked for a Jewish tailor and they rented their house from a Jewish family.

Cheers BB
 
We used to rent an apartment in a big building up Cheetham Hill Road near the Half Way house pub in the mid 70s. All the other tenants were lovely old Jewish ladies who fussed our cat no end. It was very leafy and nice up that end of the road.
 
A lot of old fishing towns used to be very tough & some of the larger ‘estates’ especially so. Many a football supporter looking for trouble ended up getting getting a kicking from the local enclave of Edgehill in Scarborough when they had a league football team.
 
I remember from listening to Lenin of the Rovers that the hardest place in Britain is Crunchthorpe, where unemployment has been 103% since the bottom fell out of the excrement trade. The government uses the town to dump nuclear waste - just outside Freeman, Hardy and Willis.

On the other hand, the hardest place in Britain to pronounce is Letchworth, according to my French pal Christian.
 
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Woodface said:
A lot of old fishing towns used to be very tough & some of the larger ‘estates’ especially so. Many a football supporter looking for trouble ended up getting getting a kicking from the local enclave of Edgehill in Scarborough when they had a league football team.
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Still are. Grimsby is very violent. They have the "murder mile" along Oxford Road; more murders per sq mile than the worst bits of London. The difference is of course that it's only a few streets, whereas London goes on for ever. Likewise back in the 80s when the football gangs were out they always knew that they would get a proper fight in the town.
At a guess though, Glasgow, if you gloss over the organised crime elsewhere and paramilitaries in NI. Only in Glasgow are there pubs where they only sell beer in mugs because it's impossible to break a mug and glass someone in one movement and this gives the bouncers a split second longer in a fight.
 
Woodface said:
A lot of old fishing towns used to be very tough & some of the larger ‘estates’ especially so. Many a football supporter looking for trouble ended up getting getting a kicking from the local enclave of Edgehill in Scarborough when they had a league football team.
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I took a beating in Scarborough when I lived in Whitby. Went there on a Stag Night, got punched by a local in a club and a bouncer stook a few on me outside. I was best man, still had the remnants of two black eyes at the wedding a week later. The only time I ever had a problem in Scarborough, or anywhere else for that matter.

Cheers BB
 
Any fishing harbour/port in the 80’s/90s
Woodface said:
A lot of old fishing towns used to be very tough & some of the larger ‘estates’ especially so. Many a football supporter looking for trouble ended up getting getting a kicking from the local enclave of Edgehill in Scarborough when they had a league football team.
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Any Friday the boats were landing in our town (kirkcudbright) after being away for a trip you’d be guaranteed to see massive fights which was run of the mill for the place - only a weekend at home with £1000s to spend and 13 pubs to choose from in a population of <3000.

It was bad in the 80’s when I was growing up but died down a lot in the 90’s due to ecstasy/mdma, saying that I still had a baton behind the bar of the pub (Gordon house) I worked at in kirkcudbright that I only had to use a couple of times but fights still happed every single weekend that we had to deal with, police were never called nor involved.

Some of the tales from my mates regarding fights at Peterhead or Wick etc back in the day are particularly nasty though - stabbings etc.

We had the Dundrennan army range just outside the town and the squaddies used to come in occasionally and only drink in the one bar, but a group of commandos made the mistake of slapping around a gobby local in another bar (he prob deserved it tbf). Upon leaving the pub at closing time they were set upon and had the absolute shite kicked out them, hospitalisations, military police, police and made front pages on all the Scottish papers - which were then hung up proudly behind the bars of the local pubs.

Squaddies were not allowed into the town after that without a 2 person military police escort
 
Marchbanks said:
I remember from listening to Lenin of the Rovers that the hardest place in Britain is Crunchthorpe, where unemployment has been 103% since the bottom fell out of the excrement trade. The government use the town to store nuclear waste - just outside Freeman, Hardy and Willis.

On the other hand, the hardest place in Britain to pronounce is Letchworth, according to my French pal Christian.
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Or Looga Barooga according to an infamous Aussie tourist tale (Loughborough).
 
Glasgow’s reputation largely rests on the infamous razor gangs of the 1920’s and 30’s- consolidated in the No Mean City novel. In reality it is no more or less violent than any other large town and city in the U.K., especially those with an industrial heritage where life was bloody hard, and bred hard people shaped by poverty and adversity. I feel no more at risk in Glasgow than I do in London, Leeds or Hastings.

Eastbourne belies its genteel retiree image by being quite an aggressive place, at least it did when I had a spell there in the 90’s. The nastiest place I’ve ever known is Croydon. I worked there for a few years in the late 90’s. I wish I had a tenner for every ruck I witnessed on staff nights out, especially the town centre and around East Croydon station.
 
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