Crawley .... like being in a third world country

[wellquickwoody]

Go have a night out in Brighton down Queens/North Street, worst place in the world on a Saturday.

The comment itself blew your whole opinion out of the water, the fact that you cannot even name the roads that you actually mean just compounds the irrelevance of your thoughts. Crawley may feel like some strange Utopia after London if you actually live there, if you are more used to quaint old coastal Sussex then it might feel a little alien by comparison. Either way, one of the two has far higher property prices, make of that what you will.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

I knew that Crawley has been a dump for a long long time, but having avoided the town centre for a few years I had not realised just how much it had deteriorated. Today I had the misfortune to spend an hour in the town:
- English was the minority language
- many of the shops looked like the type you find in souks
- lots of "shoppers amusements" shops ... presumably full of slot machines so the unemployed layabouts can gamble away what little money they do have
- charity shops everywhere
- Lyca Mobile signs all over the place
- every third shop offering to "unlock mobiles"
- boarded up shops abound
- the white faces were mostly Eastern Europeans or chavvy overweight English people

Awful, awful, awful.

An embarrasment to the name of Sussex.

Easy jet are happy
regards
DR

 

[Soulman]

See there I disagree, as a doorman for approx 20 years and having worked in both Brighton and Crawley for long periods of time. Brighton is far far far worse than Crawley. There is more violence and more drugs in Brighton as you'd expect in city compared to a town.working the door in Crawley is a doddle compared to Brighton.

Fair enough, if you were a bouncer for 20 years, you probably know him anyway.

 

[Red Side Of Sussex]

See there I disagree, as a doorman for approx 20 years and having worked in both Brighton and Crawley for long periods of time. Brighton is far far far worse than Crawley. There is more violence and more drugs in Brighton as you'd expect in city compared to a town.working the door in Crawley is a doddle compared to Brighton.

Did you ever work at the Oasis night club in Telford way ,Crawley ,during the late 90s.?
They had the biggest,meanest doorman I've ever seen.Now that place was violent.It was eventually closed down after Sussex police said enough was enough.There wasn't a nightclub in Brighton or anywhere else for that matter that I'd been to that touched that place for out and out nastiness and violence.

Who remembers the Dance factory (Cinderellas) in Hickstead during the 80s.That place was the Wild West most weekends.Quite a few scrapes there between Crawley and Brighton lads.

 

[sir albion]

Was there myself a couple of weeks ago...Thought it was o.k to be fair and much worser places around.

 

[Simster]

What a crap thread. 70% of Crawley is very nice. The town centre is ok. Not the best but certainly not the worst. Have you looked at haywards Heath. Burgess hill Newhaven seafood or most of Brighton recently all have dire areas and non English people. I live 100m fromTilgate park and I would put that as one to the most beautiful parts of our county and wouldn't move if given the choice.
This thread is a load of boll ocks

Correct. It's no worse than 90% of similar sized towns throughout the country. But I'm tired of defending the place. You and I both know that some of the clowns banging on about it either a) have hardly ever been there so will form an opinion based on one grey day or b) live in one of Sussex's numerous drearily dull towns that really couldn't hold a candle to what Crawley has to offer.

And some of the ones taking the piss out of Crawley but living in Brighton spend 3 hours a day on the train just so they can pay the mortgage, and another 3 hours a day at the weekend just stuck in traffic trying to get somewhere else.

 

[Worthingite]

Having lived in 'Crawley' for the past year I find it a little bit insulting that someone comes on here having spent 10 minutes in the town centre and labels the whole place with the same brush. I am sure he lives in just the best place known to man, somewhere around Whitehawk. None of your (racist remarks) eastern Europeans or Muslims where I live, Did you come where I live on your amazing trip around the town. What a seriously deluded and utterly wrong post.

Has anyone ever told you that perhaps you offend too easily?

 

[Shoreham Gull]

I hate Crawley !!

Has got worse as a place, have friend who lives in ifield. ( close to where someone was burnt alive inside a car boot )

We joke about the troubles Crawley has, he calls Crawley his ghetto!

But he says you call Crawley a s..it hole, well you should live in broadwater , Worthing that's worse then Crawley.

 

[wehatepalace]

How can you hate a county?

If you came into a lot of money (maybe you are already rich) and had the opportunity to live in, lets say, Sunningdale or even The Wentworth Estate, the snobbery in us all would come out and you would very seriously consider it, or would you say, no chance, I am not going to live in Surrey.

Sorry maybe I should have added one of these tongue in cheek !

 

[wehatepalace]

Did you ever work at the Oasis night club in Telford way ,Crawley ,during the late 90s.?
They had the biggest,meanest doorman I've ever seen.Now that place was violent.It was eventually closed down after Sussex police said enough was enough.There wasn't a nightclub in Brighton or anywhere else for that matter that I'd been to that touched that place for out and out nastiness and violence.

Who remembers the Dance factory (Cinderellas) in Hickstead during the 80s.That place was the Wild West most weekends.Quite a few scrapes there between Crawley and Brighton lads.

Yes I did, and boulevards before it !
The doorman you are thinking of was Paul..........an absolute monster but a lovely fella.
The club wasn't really that violent, but towards the end it attracted the wrong element as by this time ikon & diva and brannigan had opened so oasis were left with dregs.
It wasn't actually shut by the police (although they let everyone believe that) it was owned by a father and son, The father was the licence holder and they fell out big time, the father asked for the license not to be renewed out of spite as he new the son couldn't get a license due to a previous bankruptcy !

 

[Sussex Nomad]

The silly whatsits are just because I thought the comparison with Horsham was a bit mad. If you had said something like 'I like living where I am as much as I did when in Horsham' (obviously you may not have lived in Horsham, it's an example) I'd have understood, as places have pros and cons, and a lot of people will dislike the style of a town like Horsham (just as some people would dislike the type of place that Brighton is), but it sounded like you were saying it was similar to Horsham, which it isn't (IMO). Horsham is what it is partly because of it's town centre, so it's part of any comparison IMO. Otherwise and estate of the edge of Horsham could be like an estate on the edge of anywhere.

Fair point.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Did you ever work at the Oasis night club in Telford way ,Crawley ,during the late 90s.?
They had the biggest,meanest doorman I've ever seen.Now that place was violent.It was eventually closed down after Sussex police said enough was enough.There wasn't a nightclub in Brighton or anywhere else for that matter that I'd been to that touched that place for out and out nastiness and violence.

Who remembers the Dance factory (Cinderellas) in Hickstead during the 80s.That place was the Wild West most weekends.Quite a few scrapes there between Crawley and Brighton lads.

You never went to Sterns then.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Has anyone ever told you that perhaps you offend too easily?

Because I defend a West Sussex town? Fair enough.

 

[Chicken Run]

Crawley is fine, try walking down Boundary/Station Road in Portslade!

 

[blue'n'white]

This is all a bit silly - yes there are bits of Crawley that are most undesirable but there are bits of Brighton that are undesirable too. There are bits of virtually every town that are undesirable. I live in Reigate - "the friendly little town at the foot of the Downs" as it is wont to describe itself and there are bits of that area that I feel concerned about visiting. Probably 90% of the OP's point could be made about most towns in the South east of the country (and likely further afield too) with their identikit shopping centres, boarded up shops,black (and white) faces speaking incomprehensible languages,drink and drug related problems etc etc
I used to have to visit Hampstead and I previously had had the impression that Hampstead was a decent place but I soon discovered that next to the really nice roads with their big houses, expensive cars and all the trappings of middle class sophistication were really bad, run down areas. It's the same everywhere

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Which of these, apart from perhaps the language, would you expect to find in a third world country?

I think the OP thinks Eastern Europe is classed as third world.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I think the OP thinks Eastern Europe is classed as third world.

He went shockingly quiet after his ridiculous post. Probably a wind up mixed in with a bit of racism.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Always seemed a bit dodgy trips to Crawley as school kids we got threatened by a rasta,as a teenager the clash concert was pretty rough and most recently watching my son play footie there a player gets stabbed these sort of things do taint the image a bit. Sorry And don't get me started on maidenbower

 

[alfredmizen]

You never went to Sterns then.

I went to sterns a couple of times, never saw any trouble at all.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Always seemed a bit dodgy trips to Crawley as school kids we got threatened by a rasta,as a teenager the clash concert was pretty rough and most recently watching my son play footie there a player gets stabbed these sort of things do taint the image a bit. Sorry And don't get me started on maidenbower

Maidenbower is an 'ok' place to live, the houses are nice, but it is a bit turgid come any type of neighbourly atmosphere. Again, much like any new estates anywhere in the country. The council tried really hard apparently, I've only been here a year so can only go on paper stories, but they tried really hard to inject some dosh into rebuilding the town centre. I don't disagree that it isn't a great face for the town, but much like Harlow, it is just a grey boil on the arse of society. Crawley is, as said previously, a bunch of villages put together to make a town with the unfortunate centre being made grey. But to brand the whole area is just ridiculous. It is a really nice area to live in and I spent most of my life in East Preston, so I do actually know nice, and spent a decade in London, so know bad too! Crawley fits somewhere in the middle. Horses for courses really.