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.
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The BEST and the WORST places to live in Sussex...?
- Thread starter Bry Nylon
- Start date
West Hoathly Seagull
Honorary Ruffian
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.
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.
Leekbrookgull
Well-known member
Lindfield,Danehill,Horsted Keynes. Love em.
West Hoathly Seagull
Honorary Ruffian
Traffic is a nightmare too, which is why I didn't list it in my best places to live.
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
brakespear
Doctor Worm
Best: Hove
Worst: Worthing
Worst: Worthing
Colossal Squid
Returning video tapes
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 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
Norman Potting
Well-known member
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
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
How dare you! Hare & Hounds is a splendid proper little pub with bar billiards!
Seagull on the wing
New member
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.
Sompting_Seagull
Well-known member
Sompting_Seagull
Well-known member
StillHateBellotti
Active member
Worst: Lancing! Its Dogs shit
Best: Anywhere in the country with a nice local!
Best: Anywhere in the country with a nice local!
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?
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?
I don't think some of the toffee noses in Findon would be happy to have it described as being in Worthing!
Ali_rrr
Well-known member
Best: Haywards Heath
Worst: Although I live here, Peacehaven is pretty bad
Worst: Although I live here, Peacehaven is pretty bad