Plymouth - Shithole Of The South West

[Asriel]

If you think Plymouth is bad, try Beeston in Leeds, now that really is a fu**ing shit hole

 

[Meltingpot]

I moved down from London about 3 years ago and really like the place, I was originally in Sutton Marina, now in Stoke Village. Millbay is getting redeveloped (well hopefully)

http://www.cargomillbay.com/?gclid=CIjU1MjxypoCFRAgZwody2Sz2w

Yes, the center is dead - probably because there are no pubs. The Barbican/Hoe area is nice also, but yeah, full of piss-heads on Bank Holidays etc, but where isn't.

Like someone pointed out, 15 minutes outside the city you've Dartmoor/Cornwall amazing costal walks/beaches.

It just seems to me that Plymouth is 10 years behind any other city, in the sense that over the last few years where there's been the development boom, they've been waaaayyyy behind and only recently thought, look what we've got here - we 'could' make this place a top city, then crash, economy collapses - too late.

There used to be some OK pubs in the city centre, the King's Head by the bus station is one I remember fondly. Very friendly and a good choice of cider (marked up on a blackboard).

The Unity (also near the bus station) was also popular with the "quick drink after a day at the office" set and was one of the first pubs in the city to have a no smoking section.

 

[SpookyFrank]

If you think Plymouth is bad, try Leeds. Now that really is a fu**ing shit hole

Corrected

Oh no, wait a minute...

If you think Plymouth is bad, try Yorkshire. Now that really is a fu**ing shit hole

...there, that's definitely right.

 

[pk]

Leeds pisses on Plymouth from a great height.

 

[Asriel]

'Beeston' in Leeds is a shithole of the highest order, Leeds city center yeah wipes the floor with Plymouth, however, the area's around Leeds are also fucking shitholes. , it is fucking grim up north.

 

[DotCommunist]

Corby.

Thread won

 

[internetstalker]

Corby.

Thread won

true

 

[Idaho]

Leeds pisses on Plymouth from a great height.

Definately. Leeds is probably a mid to low table division 1 city, whereas Plymouth is fighting relegation to the conference.

 

[Meltingpot]

Leeds is about three times the size of Plymouth IIRC, so that's not a fair comparison IMO (though I still think Plymouth's got better scenery). Plymouth can't grow any bigger because it's got natural barriers in the way of its expansion in the form of the Tamar river, the Sound, and Dartmoor national park as its hinterland.

I think a fairer "south west" comparison to Leeds would be with Bristol.

 

[Gromit]

I've been to Plymouth once. Class me as a tourist if you must.

• When to a footy match. Nice stadium but crap result (my team lost).
• Walked along some sea path (past where the nudists go acording to my mate, but we didn't see any, not that i wanted to).
• When to a couple of bars near the Barbican where my ears started to bleed from the music that was set to 11 on all the speakers (it might have been 12 it was that loud) so we left.
• When to another bar that seemed to be full of couples consisting of really young women (early 20s) with really old men (50s and 60s). I would have been too young for these women being in my 30s.
• Ended up in The Union Bar which i really enjoyed.
• Next day we had breakfast and played snooker in some daggy social club somewhere.
• Then a really nice lunch in a pub near the hotel.

Overall it was a mixed bag of wierd, not nice, nice, not fun and fun.

 

[Cribynkle]

I moved down from London about 3 years ago and really like the place, I was originally in Sutton Marina, now in Stoke Village. Millbay is getting redeveloped (well hopefully)

http://www.cargomillbay.com/?gclid=CIjU1MjxypoCFRAgZwody2Sz2w

Yes, the center is dead - probably because there are no pubs. The Barbican/Hoe area is nice also, but yeah, full of piss-heads on Bank Holidays etc, but where isn't.

Like someone pointed out, 15 minutes outside the city you've Dartmoor/Cornwall amazing costal walks/beaches.

It just seems to me that Plymouth is 10 years behind any other city, in the sense that over the last few years where there's been the development boom, they've been waaaayyyy behind and only recently thought, look what we've got here - we 'could' make this place a top city, then crash, economy collapses - too late.

I hope it gets better, it's got so much potential but I moved out 12 years ago for uni and at the moment can't imagine ever moving back. The new shopping centre's rubbish and there's no nightlife that I'm aware of that doesn't involve drinken chain pub shenanigans. Union Street's always been awful - esp since they closed JFK's (sob!)

 

[Fuzzy]

It just seems to me that Plymouth is 10 years behind any other city, in

you not been to truro?

 

[purplex]

Fuck me, did Gloucester pass you by? Its where the north begins.

 

[3_D]

Plymouth? Horrid. Been to Home Park a bunch of times over the years. In the 80's their fans always used to throw rocks at us and then run away. These days they just run away. Inbreds.

 

[Meltingpot]

you not been to truro?

Again, Truro is small so it's not really fair to compare it with large cities with more cultural and other opportunities.

All the same, there's stuff going on in Truro if you look for it, it's just that there's only two or three clubs (because it's small) so people hang out at the same places all the time and it can get boring. I've been told it's not much fun being a teenager there.

 

[jusali]

I have fond memories of Plymouth.
Monroes, The academy the warehouse, Zena's, the SAS, Positivity Alpha raves. Raves over in cawsand, tripping knackers on the hoe to the backdrop of an Easygroove tape in ford escort xr3i.
Coming down in Mount edgecombe, going down to the Barbican to find records and getting pissed at the pubs. Having a Caspian on Mutley plain having just run the gauntlet from the pub on a roundabout (forget it's name)
Someone always wants to fight you in Plymouth though

 

[London_Calling]

I've only been there two or three time but I really got the feeling it suffers from what the Luftwaffe did to it. Or maybe how the planners rebuilt it. I'd imagine the naval presence also gives it a distinctive non-cultural vibe but the way the city looks . . .

 

[pootle]

I have fond memories of Plymouth.
Monroes, The academy the warehouse, Zena's, the SAS, Positivity Alpha raves. Raves over in cawsand, tripping knackers on the hoe to the backdrop of an Easygroove tape in ford escort xr3i.
Coming down in Mount edgecombe, going down to the Barbican to find records and getting pissed at the pubs. Having a Caspian on Mutley plain having just run the gauntlet from the pub on a roundabout (forget it's name)

That sounds like my student life in Plymouth! I liked Plymouth when I was there about 10 years ago ( ) and when I went back about a year ago was v impressed at the tarting up of the place! But then, I have spent a large chunk of my life in Gloucester...

 

[SpookyFrank]

I've only been there two or three time but I really got the feeling it suffers from what the Luftwaffe did to it. Or maybe how the planners rebuilt it. I'd imagine the naval presence also gives it a distinctive non-cultural vibe but the way the city looks . . .

Indeed. Exeter has suffered even more from the devastating Luftwaffe/fuckwit planners tag team.

And that Drake's Circus thing they built in Plymouth, who decided to make the car park in the shape of a giant concrete arse? Which cunt is it that signs off on crap like that?

e2a: yer tis:

 

[SpookyFrank]

In the interests of fairness, here are a couple of nice photos of Plymouth:

 

[jusali]

That sounds like my student life in Plymouth! I liked Plymouth when I was there about 10 years ago ( ) and when I went back about a year ago was v impressed at the tarting up of the place! But then, I have spent a large chunk of my life in Gloucester...

I was at school and went to art college there, I left in 93 to got to uni in Leeds, now, that is a shithole not just a shithole but they have the audacity to be pretentious about their shithole. I remember clubbing up there was like some fucking fashion parade to bad italo house blaring out of Back to Basics etc.
Not like gurning your tits off at the Academy wearing a pair of baggy dungarees!
I fuckin' hated Leeds.......

 

[BlackArab]

I was at school and went to art college there, I left in 93 to got to uni in Leeds, now, that is a shithole not just a shithole but they have the audacity to be pretentious about their shithole. I remember clubbing up there was like some fucking fashion parade to bad italo house blaring out of Back to Basics etc.
Not like gurning your tits off at the Academy wearing a pair of baggy dungarees!
I fuckin' hated Leeds.......

By coincidence I went to Leeds around that time to visit a friend who was a student there. She lived in the Hyde Park area and I remember walking around thinking it was like going back in time. They had lines of washing strung up over the street ffs. Not been back since.

Proper shithole.

 

[likesfish]

went to union street once got out alive by persuading very gullible marines
s we were "special forces "and legged
ended up carrying two baby matlots back to there camp who were so pissed they couldn't stand yet kept threating to attack us with iron bars they were using as crutches to stay upright

nice place
at least its not portsmouth

 

[BlackArab]

went to union street once got out alive by persuading very gullible marines
s we were "special forces "and legged
ended up carrying two baby matlots back to there camp who were so pissed they couldn't stand yet kept threating to attack us with iron bars they were using as crutches to stay upright

nice place
at least its not portsmouth

Lived in Pompey, nowhere near as bad as Plymouth!

 

[Meltingpot]

In the interests of fairness, here are a couple of nice photos of Plymouth:

Thanks, these are great. I took a few of Plymouth back in the early 80's but I can't post them up because they're film shots as opposed to digital.

 

[CornishAcid]

I have fond memories of Plymouth.
Monroes, The academy the warehouse, Zena's, the SAS, Positivity Alpha raves. Raves over in cawsand, tripping knackers on the hoe to the backdrop of an Easygroove tape in ford escort xr3i.
Coming down in Mount edgecombe, going down to the Barbican to find records and getting pissed at the pubs. Having a Caspian on Mutley plain having just run the gauntlet from the pub on a roundabout (forget it's name)
Someone always wants to fight you in Plymouth though

Haha, I'm glad someone else has fond memories. Alphawave nights were the shit, as were digital blasphemy, dimensional schism, magick bullet. My first days of being a naive little raver were spent there so the grotty little shithole will always have a place in my heart.

As far as non violent clubbing in Plym goes I'd reccomend the Voodoo Lounge...electro, breaks, psytrance, breakcore and other such tomfoolery.

 

[stupid dogbot]

I lived in Plymouth for two years. Never again.

 

[jannerboyuk]

I grew up, went to school and in all spent 20 years of my life there. I agree the place has its problems but I don't accept it's as bad as everyone here says.

It's got one of the best scenic locations of any city in the world IMO - the views from North Cross down Armada Way and out to the Hoe, down Western Approach towards Drake's Island, or from Mount Pleasant Redoubt in any direction, are truly superb, it's like a miniature San Francisco. Precisely because it's so hilly, you get a sense of space from almost anywhere you live - instead of looking at a back-to-back house right in front of you, you tend to look over it and out to the countryside in some direction.

It could be a fantastic city and one day maybe will be, but IMO it suffers from being a naval city. You get a deep social conservatism as a result there and also a sense of impermanence, because so many people are on short term postings and aren't there for any length of time, so don't have a long term commitment to the place.

Also, too much of the city centre closes down at 5:30 - 6:00 p.m. Even the library shuts at 7:30 p.m. (which it didn't when I was at school - blame the cuts). The place is crying out for a decent out of doors cafe culture on a warm summer's evening instead of people just heading home to the suburbs.

There is arts and culture there, but you have to look for it. Try the Arts Centre near the bus station, which puts on some good alternative films (also a good veggie restaurant there) or one of the folk clubs which meet in pubs every so often. I heard some good sea shanties on my way home from the bus station once, passing a pub holding one such meeting.

i agree with this having been born, schooled and lived in plymouth for 23 years. still fond of the old place but then i live in happening cardiff, at least happening relative to plymouth. plenty of potential but lacking direction, leadership and a sense of focus now the dockyard has died.

 

[jannerboyuk]

There used to be some OK pubs in the city centre, the King's Head by the bus station is one I remember fondly. Very friendly and a good choice of cider (marked up on a blackboard).

The Unity (also near the bus station) was also popular with the "quick drink after a day at the office" set and was one of the first pubs in the city to have a no smoking section.

i used to love the kings head - part of the cooperage, err little old pub round the corner triangle. fond memories can be made from a small part of a city like plymouth if you know a group of sound people.

 

[jannerboyuk]

Oh yeah is the nowhere inn still going? always liked that place maybe a bit punky/hippy for some tastes