Excellent entry on the UK's preeminent shanty town, Rhyl:
http://www.craptownsreturns.co.uk/2013/02/26/rhyl/
The comment by Andy is a classic.
Don't all these places have a certain kind of charm, though ?
I wouldn't want to live in Rhyl, I don't think. But I bet it's of interest to walk around for an hour.
I've only ever heard about finding used Johnnies in a bus stop, actually seeing them would add to my knowledge of life.
I once went to Clevedon to see the noted pier and found needles and syringes on the beach. Totally unexpected and a revelation to me. I grew as a person that day: The tourist in search of Victorian architecture encountered the wonderful cultural collision of then and now. Other people's realities always fascinate. Nice places to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.
I find these type of guides quite refreshingly funny, but you need to be able to approach them at the tongue in cheek level, despite the real urban degeneration in places and the trend of dumping junkies in Victorian sea side resorts turning once thriving towns into cesspits of destitution.
My grandparents took my brother and me to Rhyl on my eighth birthday, I can remember it well, my grandfather's special edition gold Chevette with slightly tinted windows taking us there and plenty of bathers, even a crab or two and there is photo of me in a water fountain with a Columbia University sweat shirt on. There was also some girl marching bands doing their things, I can remember a coach of them parking in the same outside car park as us. I can even remember by grandparents bought me an Action Man field machine gun that was battery powered and made noises and had a flickering red light when you pressed the trigger.
Happy days and not threatening at all, the gangs of feral youths were a good decade and a half away.
I really agree. ALL of this is to be embraced and enjoyed on a certain level.
I have been to Macclesfield in my time and was even slightly seduced by the place - You could live in Henbury and get the train to Manchester for work. Macclesfield itself was diverse and full of life. Scumbags and Sweethearts abounded, just like London's West End.
I saw degradation and decency side by side along with decadency. All of English life was there.
Genius post.
And I do stand corrected by one who knows. I thought Macc Lads were rough... I got there and found lovely manners.
http://www.macclads.co.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macc_Lads
- No sheep till' Buxton !
http://www.macclads.co.uk/hectic_house/lyrics/lyrics_alpha/monk.html
Bless.
Real people from a real town.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvy0kq8PPkU
Worthy of mention is that David James Frost Mellor was born in Congleton and lived in Macclesfield. He went to Broken Cross Secondary Modern. At 19 he met me in London... So where are all your certainties now ?
DJFM isn't public school, nor does he write these posts.
OMG !
You could have checked all this out years go...
- I'm your 'Russell Street'.
Jim.
Knutsford Scabby Women was a favourite from the Macc lads.
There was another group, Half Man Half Biscuit along similar lines.
Knutsford is an interesting place, both wealth and poverty living side by side.
Cheshire can be like that.
I've only been once. I suspect I've missed out !
Knutsford or Cheshire?
Parts of Knutsford are very affluent, especially the drive out through Mobberley towards Wilmslow.
If memory serves correctly Alderley Edge sells/consumes more champagne per capita that anywhere on earth.
Cheshire is a lovely county, but has its rough areas. Winsford being one.
Several of those old Victorian seaside resorts have imploded. There's a certain faded grandeur to some of them. I'm reminded of the film Atlantic City with Burt Lancaster.
Southport is quite nice, as has maintained some of its 'gentility'. Helps that you have Birkdale and Formby (The place, not me) just down the road.
I have worked quite a bit in Cheshire, stayed at some nice hotels and visited the most boring place on earth a few times
Northwich a real" no horse" town.
Last edited by Topstitcher (2013-10-09 02:31:49)
They have some really nasty chemicals stored in them there salt mines......
http://chej.org/2013/09/the-bond-villain-salt-mine-where-britains-hazardous-waste-is-stored/
He lives there now, on account of all the 1000+ year old oak trees.