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The BEST and the WORST places to live in Sussex...?



crasher

New member
Jul 8, 2003
2,764
Sussex
It's not a town or a village but the bit of Sussex I really hate is that sprawl of A27 dual carriageway around Chichester and on towards Portsmouth. Endless fecking roundabouts and fast food places and retail warehouses. It's like a little bit of suburban America transplanted onto an otherwise lovely place.
 




West Hoathly Seagull

Honorary Ruffian
Aug 26, 2003
3,544
Sharpthorne/SW11
Best: somewhere like Telscombe (the village, not Telscombe Cliffs, which I would put in the other category). I love the view from up there and there are some lovely houses, including one for sale the other week for £3.5 million. Lewes, if it wasn't catching the Brighton Green bug. Great transport links for Falmer, easy access to London, independent shops, pubs, beautiful houses etc. I really like Arundel too, but the lack of a bypass is a real pain. Rye is another favourite town of mine. Up my way, Hartfield is very nice, as are villages around Ashdown Forest, such as Danehill and Fairwarp.

Worst: Buildings wise, I'd have to go for Peacehaven - plot lands, with no apparent controls of any kind on what was built. The west side of Crawley would be pretty unpleasant too. Not from the rough point of view, but I have a particular aversion to the sort of private estate consisting of bungalows and full of all sorts of restriction on what you can do, and usually under the control of busybodies with nothing better to do than to tell you what to do. There are a couple of those estates down by Pagham Beach, where I go birdwatching. I think I would quickly tire of living there.

Before anyone lists Littlehampton and Newhaven, I will defend both. Littlehampton is the town of my birth, so I am bound to be a bit defensive, but apart from the Wickbourne Estate, it is not a bad town (and even on Wickbourne, groups like Arun Community Church are doing their best to make it a better place). And apart from its dull shopping parade, Rustington is okay too. And the seafront is quite pleasant, as is the West Beach.

With Newhaven, yes, the town centre needs rebuilding, but the town is not the dump many make it out to be; the industrial nature of the harbour gives it real character for me, and Denton Village is as pleasant as many other Sussex villages.
 




West Hoathly Seagull

Honorary Ruffian
Aug 26, 2003
3,544
Sharpthorne/SW11
It's not a town or a village but the bit of Sussex I really hate is that sprawl of A27 dual carriageway around Chichester and on towards Portsmouth. Endless fecking roundabouts and fast food places and retail warehouses. It's like a little bit of suburban America transplanted onto an otherwise lovely place.

Traffic is a nightmare too, which is why I didn't list it in my best places to live.
 


bpbill

New member
Jul 13, 2011
166
Hastings always gets a bad press - anyone got anything good to say about it ?

It's currently in the process of trying to re-invent itself, new buildings, more students, fewer drunks but still suffers from abysmal transport links to just about anywhere, even getting to next door Bexhill can be a nightmare. Honestly I can think of worse places to live in Sussex and some of it's press is probably undeserved, but I can also think of a lot better places :p
 






Foolg

.
Apr 23, 2007
5,024
I LOVE living in Brighton, love it. Everything I need and plenty to do within easy reach, good transport, and so on.

Worst? Well for me it would be somewhere like Newhaven.
 


Tomnorthi

New member
Jan 2, 2010
2,107
BN15
North Lancing is a great place to live. Right next to the downs, walking distance of lancing station to get to the Amex/Brighton/London easily, not high crime and a beach close by.
 




Colossal Squid

Returning video tapes
Feb 11, 2010
4,906
Under the sea
I'm not a fan of Burgess Hill. It's a very dated town that grew too quickly and now has more houses than it has facilities and infrastructure to cope with them all.

I know Crawley is pretty grim BUT at least it serves a purpose and attracts people from out of town. It has all the shops you could ever need and employment is very high. Contrast that with Burgess Hill which has a really shoddy half arsed shopping centre with barely any shops in it and aside from the AmEx presence there, very little in the way of employment opportunities. It's the sort of place you'd only ever go to if you were unfortunate enough to live there, or at least visiting somebody who was.

As for the best place, I do love Brighton but as I get older I get more and more frustrated by the incredibly high number of out of towners and tourists, many of whom never leave, and the prohibitive cost of living here. BUT as I am no fan of the country and quiet rural life I'm not going to be voting for Lindfield or Ditchling as the nicest places to live. I'm therefore picking Kemp Town as the best option. You're in the city, with everything you could need, but still get the nice village community feel with a local butcher, greengrocer, baker and plenty of decent pubs. You can enjoy the beach away from the swathes of tourists who congregate between the piers and there are some fantastic buildings in the area such as St George's Church, Sussex Square and Royal Crescent. Add in the fact that we have the much loved, if a little decayed Concorde 2, and I really do think Kemp Town has it all.

So in conclusion:

BEST = Kemp Town

WORST = Burgess Hill
 


I refuse to acknowledge that Crawley is part of Sussex - I see it as an enclave of Shitty Surrey.

I recall a recent thread where it was suggested we arrange for Crawley to be transferred to Surrey (probably on a "free") and get Tunbridge Wells to transfer into Sussex where a large part of it used to be.
 


Colossal Squid

Returning video tapes
Feb 11, 2010
4,906
Under the sea
I recall a recent thread where it was suggested we arrange for Crawley to be transferred to Surrey (probably on a "free") and get Tunbridge Wells to transfer into Sussex where a large part of it used to be.

But Tunbridge Wells is in Kent. Wouldn't we be doing a swap with Surrey?

We could do a lot worse than taking Guildford off their hands
 






Seagull on the wing

New member
Sep 22, 2010
7,458
Hailsham
Best: somewhere like Telscombe (the village, not Telscombe Cliffs, which I would put in the other category).

Worst: Buildings wise, I'd have to go for Peacehaven - plot lands, with no apparent controls of any kind on what was .
As others have said it depends what you want from where you live...I was born in Brighton and really loved the place...but I was young then and loved the 50s/60s nightlife...now older and I want less hectic lifestyle. The reason why Peacehaven is laid out that way was for cheap fabricated bungalows for housing after the war.
The prettiest place has to be Alfriston...the worst...Crawley.
 










SeagullAA

New member
Dec 19, 2005
58
Best place.... Hastings and Bexhill.

Worst place..... Uckfield.


Hastings does have bad press, but the community probably in the last six years at least are really held together.

The prostitution and kerb crawling has been cracked down on Silchester Road in the last two years
ALL CRIME in Hastings has fallen in the last year
We have a fantastic theatre which attracts National acts
Very bike friendly (despite its terrain)
Our streets are very very clean. Cleaner than Brighton as their is designated rubbish, dog waste, ciggerate and chewing gum bins located on EVERY single bin.
We have Graham Norton living down the road in Cooden and Emma Bunton was born here!
We have on nudist beach near Fairlight unlike Brighton and its several (this is where all kinds goes on - im sure some at home Brightonians will feel at home at that beach....)
Do not forget Hastings is the BIRTH of the television
Oh and we are TWINNED with NEW ORLEANS

Only thing we dont have is a pier. Tony Bloom want to invest £10 million?
 


SeagullAA

New member
Dec 19, 2005
58
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catfish

North Stand Brighton Boy
Dec 17, 2010
7,677
Worthing
Nicest places are Findon in Worthing, Lewes and Horsham.

Worst has to be Broadfield Barton in Crawley. My ex lived there and I'd always walk her home after dark to make sure she got back safely. St Leonards is also a bit grim.

I don't think some of the toffee noses in Findon would be happy to have it described as being in Worthing!
 




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