Question from an American - what are considered the roughest areas in Britain?

[Fenster]

You make me laugh the way you describe south London - it sounds like Boys in the Hood

In 33 years i've never seen anyone shot, shot at or stabbed to death (know of it but not actually seen it).

Where is the estate you live on in Lewisham?

I live on Lethbridge. Which bit of South were you from?

I don't find it funny or cool watching people I grew up with going to jail or becoming drug addicts. One of my friends was shot dead in his car just 3 months ago over some stupid shit, so I certainly don't find it at all amusing. I'm not Lefty, I don't think this hard man shit is cool, I think most of the people doing it are just looking for some small, pathetic way to feel important. The problem is these dickheads have taken over as the idols for most of the young boys in the bits, even me when I was 14 & stupid. They have all the nice shit, everyone acts like they're really somebody. There's a lot more decent hard-working people in the area than these fuckers, but we've yet to make someone getting up & working as a postman or a bus driver a desirable job, so kids won't see it that way.

It isn't like Compton or West Baltimore, I certainly don't want to give that impression, I should probably be more specific in some stuff I say, we don't have loads of people just walking along the street shooting each other or pulling drive-bys in broad daylight. The murder rate is barely comparable here to the US thankfully. But, people are still getting killed & it's getting worse. The big problem is drugs, which many people see as the easiest way to money. I'd say 95% of shootings are over drugs or gang wars over drugs. The stabbings are the thing that tend to be over minor issues, like somebody looking at someone wrong or moving to the wrong girl. It's also not like Glasgow where I heard people get stabbed like 85 times.

Ah right, I know where you mean, big estate. I've just moved after living for ten years up the other end of Lewisham high street near the hospital. I've lived in quite a few different places in London, I'm from Bermondsey.

I don't think you're a bullshitter, gloryfying or a fantasist mate. It's funny how we live in the same place but experience things differently. I don't really know about these youth gangs. The only dealings i've had with them was when they robbed a bar/club I was working in a few years ago (3 times). Thankfully they didn't shoot me or carve me up ().

[HattonTheHammer]

Happen to live in east london which is supposedly populated with drug gangs and of course my beloved football hooligans yet can hand on heart say i or my family have never had a single problem with the area.

you do the odd pikey kid flying around on a scooter and giving you lip while your walking the dog but apart from that its relatively a trouble free zone.


Having followed west ham up and down the country i can hand on heart say the one place in britain i hate to visit is liverpool.

When we play liverpool/everton away its the only 2 times of the year your pretty much told if you take your car and park in and around the stadiums its at your own risk. Dont acknowledge talk to or even make eye contact with the locals. It really is that bad.

[Scrap]

I love going to Liverpool, visit my Hubcaps.

[Kel]

Worked in Ilford for 2 years (Seven Kings) which is said to be tough but it's not at all, never had any fuss in London either or Southend where I live (well there was one thing but not a biggie). Had much worse in Bradford and Leeds.

Moss Side is dangerous. Had a mate work down there who went for a piss some place, a public toilet or something.....and a guy put a gun under the cubicle door and demanded keys for his truck lol.

[superheavyrhun]

As has been mentioned, I lived in east London for a few years, and never really felt truly threatened there, though I was in the University areas (Bow and Mile End). Only fights I got into were of my own making, though the owner of Kennessy fried chicken in Stepney once chased me down the road and hit me with a stick after I pinched one of the baseball caps of the guys working there.

However, there was always stuff in the paper about the estates not half a mile away from where we were (Ocean estate), but apart from some minor gang arguments on open mic rap nights in the local was alright.

I think some of the provincial towns which have lost industries can be much worse than the cities....if a small town loses its main employer, drugs, violence, muggings and robberies just go through the roof. I'd much rather park my car on an estate in the East End than on an estate in Caernarfon.

[JazMerkin]

Ah right, I know where you mean, big estate. I've just moved after living for ten years up the other end of Lewisham high street near the hospital. I've lived in quite a few different places in London, I'm from Bermondsey.

I don't think you're a bullshitter, gloryfying or a fantasist mate. It's funny how we live in the same place but experience things differently. I don't really know about these youth gangs. The only dealings i've had with them was when they robbed a bar/club I was working in a few years ago (3 times). Thankfully they didn't shoot me or carve me up ().

Yeah, I found that a lot, that people who're a bit older than my generation & younger can live here without ever really seeing what we see. Although tonight was an almost comical take on that as a Yardie bouncer decided to try & mug me of my pick & mix

Are the areas described - South London, parts of Manchester, and Glasgow (is that Scotland?) - comparable to US tough? The last time I was in London I was under the impression the more destitute areas were bad in the sense there were crackheads and fistfights, but they weren't horrible. Also, in the states, most of the bad areas in the major west coast and east coast cities although not all (Youngstown, Ohio where KP is from is pretty hard from what I gather), are predominately african american or latino, are the bad areas in the UK predominately one racial group? Mixed? Russian (JOKE - like in Eastern Promises)?

Growing up in LA, I was jumped a dozen or so times, and I lived in a good area, but it was in the middle of the city. It kind of came with the territory that would happen if you know what I mean.

I think during the last comparative year, which was 2007, those 3 cities, London, Glasgow, Manchester, had roughly similar violent crime levels to somewhere just above New York, but quite a bit below LA, in terms of per capita (so that means the number of murders for every 100,000 people in the city for the simpletons among you). New York was 6, London was about 7 or so, whilst LA was 10. There was a thing in all the papers about London & Glasgow being worse than NY. So it's comparable in that sense, but it simply can't be compared with the worst of your cities like Baltimore, Detroit & St Louis in terms of violence. Those all have murder rates in the 40s.

I hear both NY & LA have improved a lot in the past decade, so it's probably more due to the crime rate falling a lot there, than the UK going up substantially. So like I said it's probably comparable with certainly New York, but not the worst of the places in the US. The only thing with not noticing it is we have far less of a boundary between different classes. Like it says above, Fenster & I live in basically the same area but have very different experiences of the level of violence. Although obviously these areas aren't on any tourist maps or any mainline tube lines, so people who come here largely don't know they exist.

In terms of how they are racially, I think Glasgow is pretty white, although jamie will know better than me, the areas in Manchester are supposed to be quite mixed, but I'm not from there so don't really know. As for this bit of South London, it is a mainly black area, but not exclusively, there's still a lot of white people & other ethnic groups around here. It doesn't seem as ghettoised as American cities appear to us, but Brixton, Peckham & Lewisham are predominantly black.

Oh & Peckham is a horrible shithole. There's a saying among people who live in some of the worst places in South London...

'At least I don't live in Peckham'

[jamiebhoy]

Yes Jaz, Glasgow is mostly white and the ehtnic mix has come traditionally from the Asian community (Pakistan,India). It does piss me off a bit when violence that has crossed over between the groups is put down to racism though.

When I was growing up it was more or lett based on territory which is pretty much it worldwide at least as far as gang violence. our estate had a fish and chip shop , the surrounding ones didn't , therefore our shop, now pisss off and don't come here , so lots of fights and full on battles over a bag of chips !!!

Ahh for the good old days

[superheavyrhun]

Yes Jaz, Glasgow is mostly white and the ehtnic mix has come traditionally from the Asian community (Pakistan,India). It does piss me off a bit when violence that has crossed over between the groups is put down to racism though.

When I was growing up it was more or lett based on territory which is pretty much it worldwide at least as far as gang violence. our estate had a fish and chip shop , the surrounding ones didn't , therefore our shop, now pisss off and don't come here , so lots of fights and full on battles over a bag of chips !!!

Ahh for the good old days

Does this tie in with Memphis's story about getting stabbed in the neck with a chip shop fork?

[The Rela]

I don't go for London being massively rough. I used to live in the midlands and every weekend without fail there would be fights all over the place. I don't see it in London. Sure, I've seen it a few times, but no where near on the scale it was in the midlands.

However, I've seen a few things down in London, shootings etc, to make me think it could be seen as rough.

In Britain, small towns at closing time is where most of the violence happens. It's like a fucking zombie movie. seriously

[jamiebhoy]

Yes Jaz, Glasgow is mostly white and the ehtnic mix has come traditionally from the Asian community (Pakistan,India). It does piss me off a bit when violence that has crossed over between the groups is put down to racism though.

When I was growing up it was more or lett based on territory which is pretty much it worldwide at least as far as gang violence. our estate had a fish and chip shop , the surrounding ones didn't , therefore our shop, now pisss off and don't come here , so lots of fights and full on battles over a bag of chips !!!

Ahh for the good old days

Does this tie in with Memphis's story about getting stabbed in the neck with a chip shop fork?

Never heard of a posh place that had cuttlery before ! isn't that why God gave us fingers, for fish and chips......

[gudnite vienna]

i live in blackpool, jesus it really is turning into a bad place...

Drug are rife everywhere, and you see the crack and smack heads everywhere..

And all weekend in the town centre its going off everywhere.. Still like livin here though

[skel1983]

i live in blackpool, jesus it really is turning into a bad place...

Drug are rife everywhere, and you see the crack and smack heads everywhere..

And all weekend in the town centre its going off everywhere.. Still like livin here though

Mate last two times I been Blackpool I have been approached more than once by the smack heads, one time trying to sell me vodka which no doubt was water lol and another time asking me if I wanted to buy some Nike socks hahaha.

Your rite mate seems to have gone to the dogs when it comes to crack heads they seem to be everywhere last couple of times i went.