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Nice Towns

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gazthomas

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Amused at Hitchin cropping up. It’s a “desirable” town for sure, but nice? Increasingly congested, several rough estates on the periphery, new housing being stuffed in every nook and cranny possible, and most of all it’s increasingly full of some of the smuggest people one could ever meet. If some of the people were visiting a chocolate shop they would choose themselves off the shelf and relish every indulgent mouthful!

And whilst the town centre is reasonably smart, it’s nothing compared to things which can be found elsewhere in the country. Okay if you like doing a cafe-crawl I suppose.
I guess what your criteria for "nice" means. All towns have dodgy estates and having lifted in Hertfordshire for 20 years I'm kinda resigned to traffic problems!
 
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Bald Rick

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St Albans (a city by name but really a town)

It’s a city by name, because it’s a city. Not a large one, granted, but a city nevertheless.

Also surprised by the mention of Hitchin.

Another vote for Shrewsbury, and I propose Lewes, Keswick and Lytham.
 

HOOVER29

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Ashby De La Zouch, Leicestershire.

Well I like it.
I’ve lived there 42 years & in the same house
 

Strathclyder

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Having come back from a fortnight's holiday there this Saturday past, Portsoy in Aberdeenshire more than qualifies for this thread.

Lying approximately halfway between Cullen & Banff and sloping northwards down towards the Moray Firth, this former fishing town is awash with history, a small but still wonderfully eclectic selection of buildings and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. No visit to the town would be complete without stopping in at the famous Portsoy Ice Cream Parlour or the Marble Shop down by the harbour.

Truly a underappreciated gem nestled in the northeast coast of Scotland. :)
 

Butts

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Having come back from a fortnight's holiday there this Saturday past, Portsoy in Aberdeenshire more than qualifies for this thread.

Lying approximately halfway between Cullen & Banff and sloping northwards down towards the Moray Firth, this former fishing town is awash with history, a small but still wonderfully eclectic selection of buildings and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. No visit to the town would be complete without stopping in at the famous Portsoy Ice Cream Parlour or the Marble Shop down by the harbour.

Truly a underappreciated gem nestled in the northeast coast of Scotland. :)

Cullen in my opinion is much better than Portsoy where half the shops have shut down in recent years.

Fantastic Chippie "Lindas?" sit down and take away and a great Ice Cream Shop just a little further up the road.

Cullen Bay Hotel has wonderful views of the Sea from it's Restaurant.

ps don't refer to Portsoy as Aberdeenshire that plastic abomination created a few years ago - it's Banffshire !!!
 

LWB

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Two similar delightful market towns feature largely in my life and I love them both:
Ulverston
Otley
 

transportusers

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All of the following places are very nice pleasant towns to be in.

Kent:
• Cranbrook
• Edenbridge
• Hawkhurst
• Tenterden

Hampshire:
• Brockenhurst
• Liphook
• Liss
• Lymington
• Petersfield
• Winchester

Surrey:
• Cobham
• Cranleigh
• Dorking
• Farncombe
• Farnham
• Godalming
• Guildford
• Haslemere
• Lingfield
• Oxted

Sussex:
• Arundel
• Battle
• Burgess Hill
• Chichester
• Crowborough
• East Grinstead
• Haywards Heath
• Heathfield
• Henfield
• Horsham
• Lewes
• Midhurst
• Petworth
• Pulborough
• Rye
• Steyning
• Storrington
• Uckfield

There are also plenty of nice villages i can think of but i suppose those don't count as they are villages.
 

NoMorePacers

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I'll give a mention to Beverley - town is pretty clean and nice to visit, and seems like a nice place to live.
 

Bletchleyite

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I always find it strange how Winchester is considered to be a city. It seems much more like a town to me. Winchester has a population of 45184 and is officially a city but yet some other places with much larger populations are only considered towns such as Guildford which has a population of 77057 and is officially a town. I don't know how they decide these things.

The Queen gets to pick, though traditionally it was related to having a cathedral (i.e. all the places with cathedrals are cities, but not all cities have cathedrals). It's not in any way related to size.

The smallest city is St Davids in south-west Wales which has a population of 1600.

(I've been doing a personal project/challenge over the past 2 years which involves running at least 5k in/to/from each actual city in the mainland UK, all 64 of them - that's why I've been all over the network of late and it does mean I've now visited (nearly) all of them! :) - St David's was one of the nicest ones with a run around the coast path, though was also one of the few that practically had to be reached by car! I called in at Winchester on the way home from somewhere else down that way - Salisbury I think - and was really quite impressed with it)
 

radamfi

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City status should be scrapped as it is meaningless in 2019. It wouldn't be surprised if it causes large towns without city status to underperform economically.
 

Bletchleyite

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City status should be scrapped as it is meaningless in 2019. It wouldn't be surprised if it causes large towns without city status to underperform economically.

I think MK does quite well economically despite not having city status. To me it's a nice ceremonial thing, though the people of Rochester must be kicking themselves as they lost it by accident during a Council rejig and can't regain it without a Royal Charter which has not been forthcoming! :)

Actually, having said that there are no cathedrals in towns - there is one - Rochester! (It of course was a city before the administrative stuff-up).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_Kent
 

radamfi

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Bizarrely, most of what most people call "London" does not have city status
 

si404

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I always find it strange how Winchester is considered to be a city. It seems much more like a town to me.
Given it was ancient capital of Wessex, and post-conquest seat of Hampshire's government, it was deemed important enough to be a city before the 13th century (by a good 4-500 years). That it wasn't an industrial powerhouse in the 19th century, and that had its historic core preserved and enlargement blocked in the 20th, doesn't make it less of a city - which is a status rather than a description. That said, it does feel like a city, IMV - probably urban with some bustle, and grand too - even if it doesn't boost its population with sprawl.

Guildford has a good case for city status, Admin HQ of a large county, CofE Cathedral - Chelmsford won the last competition on those grounds over the back of larger towns like Reading and MK. I think Essex being the largest county without a city was key in this though, but that Southend with its population, and Colchester with its historical importance were beaten by county council offices and (to a lesser extent the cathedral) must give hope to Guildford, and others like it seeking city status.

PS: not everywhere with a cathedral is a city. Keeping to England and CofE Cathedrals: Southwark, Blackburn, the aforementioned Guildford, Bury St Edmunds aren't cities. Rochester isn't either due to a clerical mishap, but was for about a millennium (places like St David's and St Asaph similarly lost it, but regained it about 100 years later).
 

ian1944

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But which is actually a better place to live when you consider that Didcot has its own major rail station and better amenities in general?
Depends on your criteria, I was thinking of my impression of the place itself rather than its transport links. Similarly, Nantwich is (to me) preferable to Crewe.
 

Bletchleyite

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Depends on your criteria, I was thinking of my impression of the place itself rather than its transport links. Similarly, Nantwich is (to me) preferable to Crewe.

Crewe certainly isn't a place I would put anywhere near a discussion on "nice towns", I've never been to Nantwich but I have heard good things about it.
 

talltim

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[QUOTE="Calthrop, post: 4097216, member: 32469]

From my part of the world: on passing through Henley-in-Arden, it has struck me as a thoroughly pleasant smallish town.[/QUOTE]
I drove through the weekend before last and thought it looked nice, although that’s only viewing the high street without getting out of the car. We were on the way back from a weekend in Stratford on Avon, the centre of which seemed very pleasant, although the great weather helped
 

ChiefPlanner

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Crewe certainly isn't a place I would put anywhere near a discussion on "nice towns", I've never been to Nantwich but I have heard good things about it.

Back in the 1970's even - the delights of Crewe were such that "Great Little Escapes from Crewe" was advertised fairly widely. I can vouch for Nantwich being a very decent place. Like a lot of places - think Swindon -where not very nice towns have great places quite nearby. Stoke might depress you - but there are rich seams of superb places around (like Stone) , not at all far away.
 

Bletchleyite

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Back in the 1970's even - the delights of Crewe were such that "Great Little Escapes from Crewe" was advertised fairly widely. I can vouch for Nantwich being a very decent place. Like a lot of places - think Swindon -where not very nice towns have great places quite nearby. Stoke might depress you - but there are rich seams of superb places around (like Stone) , not at all far away.

Stoke is one of the most unpleasant places I have been to, and as if to set the scene one of the first things I saw on arrival was a bloke openly urinating in a bus shelter. Though the bit at the immediate front of the station gives a false impression of niceness! :)
 

bramling

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Back in the 1970's even - the delights of Crewe were such that "Great Little Escapes from Crewe" was advertised fairly widely. I can vouch for Nantwich being a very decent place. Like a lot of places - think Swindon -where not very nice towns have great places quite nearby. Stoke might depress you - but there are rich seams of superb places around (like Stone) , not at all far away.

The same logic can applied to many of the northern places generally regarded as bad - Blackburn, Burnley, Oldham, Bradford et cetera. It’s what keeps Luton at the absolute bottom of the pile, it has no redemption at all!
 

Bletchleyite

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The same logic can applied to many of the northern places generally regarded as bad - Blackburn, Burnley, Oldham, Bradford et cetera. It’s what keeps Luton at the absolute bottom of the pile, it has no redemption at all!

Luton is well-provided with ways out - the MML, the railway, the airport and a reasonably decent (by Home Counties standards) bus service. This is completely and entirely necessary.

Having said that, the suburbs can be reasonable - Leagrave isn't bad, for instance. I bet they are insistent they *don't* live in Luton! :)
 

ChiefPlanner

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Luton is well-provided with ways out - the MML, the railway, the airport and a reasonably decent (by Home Counties standards) bus service. This is completely and entirely necessary.

Having said that, the suburbs can be reasonable - Leagrave isn't bad, for instance. I bet they are insistent they *don't* live in Luton! :)

Leagrave - like the Curates Egg (check it up ,if you do not know) , is a settlement of two parts. One bit "fine" - the other , patrolled by gun wielding officers not so long ago. Says an ex resident who lived there. Not me. I suspect it has improved , as Nottingham - or parts of it - are not now known as "Shottingham" .....

Luton actually has some very decent suburbs.
 

cjmillsnun

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Another vote for Shrewsbury.

I was pleasantly surprised by Petersfield when I spent a few hours there.
Ditto, Dorking.
Stroud has character in abundance, and is probably large enough to be an interesting place to live, too.
Agree about St Albans
Saffron Walden
Maldon
Bath

I can think of a few other larger towns (eg Reading, Nottingham) that probably make good places to live too, without being overwhelmingly delightful at first glance.
And others (Cheltenham, Droitwich) which in some ways might appear to qualify for this kind of list, but which have something inescapable that is slightly odd and jarring about them accompanying the positives.
Petersfield is lovely. I lived there for 11 years and loved it. Only moved out because I could afford to buy elsewhere and get out of renting a house. I was a councillor at Petersfield Town Council.
 

radamfi

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Depends on your criteria, I was thinking of my impression of the place itself rather than its transport links. Similarly, Nantwich is (to me) preferable to Crewe.

In terms of having to live somewhere, practicality becomes more important than a place looking pretty. If you have to drive for miles every time you want to go on a train, that's inconvenient.
 
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