All towns are shit.
Or not, depending on where you're from.

Braintree - My home town, bit of a dump now, but far too expensive for me to move back - not that I'd want to, the only good thing about it (apart from memories)for me is that my family live there. It's not the worst place in the world, but certainly not as nice as some of my exes used to think it was whenever we went there.

Rugby - Lived there for about 10 years all told. It's got some lovely buildings, plenty of chavs these days (but then where hasn't?), but on the whole I liked it. It's not too big, not too small, but if you want shops you're better off heading somewhere else really. People are a bit stand-offish though; in the time I was there, never really made that many friends, or even acquaintances. Pubs that I frequented never became proper locals and none of the other customers ever spoke to me.

London - Lived there for a year, liked "the fact I lived in London" and that it only took me 5 minutes to get to work, or to plenty of bars, shops, restaurants and takeaways. Hardly ever spent any weekends there though, was always somewhere else with friends, family or stuff like that. Still enjoy going back there, and because I've spent a lot of time there living and working completely fail to subscribe to the "London's really expensive for everything" creed that all my colleagues in places other than London believe.

Northampton - Lived there for about a year, it's ok. The town centre is pretty grubby, and there seemed to be a higher concentration of chavs there than previous places I've lived. Got some good friends there too, but on the whole people from Northampton seem to have a very definite mindset about them, if they have a way of doing something that they're used to, you'll never convince them to do it a new way, even if it's quicker and easier.

Derby - I've been here for a couple of years now and I like it. There are lots of people who hate it, I know. It's certainly not the prettiest place I've ever been, and some parts of it are downright ugly
/tatty/rough (delete as applicable), but there are some really nice bits too. There are loads of chavs about (but I think that the increase in chavs as I've moved from place to place has been a function of date, not location), but on the whole the people are friendly - I've got a local boozer now too, where the landlord knows my name and the other customers say "hello".

So, to recap: everywhere is shit, but most places are nice too.

(Apart from Kettering and Bracknell, I've not found anything good when I've been to them)
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Sun 1 Nov 2009, 13:02, 4 replies)

Rugby, I'll agree to the shopping
If we want a decent shop, we'll push off to Cov or Milton Keynes. Not sure about the people being stand-offish though, I've made some exceptionally good friends here.
(Raystorm, Sun 1 Nov 2009, 21:02, closed)

Being ignored by customers
in a Rugby pub is a blessing sometimes. Especially if that pub is the local version of the Blue Oyster, you are with someone who is wearing leather salopettes, and both of you are straight. Now that's living dangerously......
(Rsoles, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 13:18, closed)

Haha, true :)

(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Mon 2 Nov 2009, 23:37, closed)

Rubbish towns
I wouldn't say hello to you either.
( porky, Tue 3 Nov 2009, 13:59, closed)