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

[Mowgli37]

"Just a shit town near Horsham...shit town near Horsham"

 

[Sussex Nomad]

"Just a shit town near Horsham...shit town near Horsham"

Says the man in Sheffield

 

[Red Side Of Sussex]

Crawley and Horsham are worlds apart .They have absolutely nothing in common at all.I've lived in Crawley 50 years and this is the first time I've heard someone say Crawley is like Horsham.
The people are different,the landscape is different,attitudes are different,accents are different,I bet the water tastes diffrent too.

 

[wigman]

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.

Have you been to Bognor recently ?

 

[looney]

Crawley and Horsham are worlds apart .They have absolutely nothing in common at all.I've lived in Crawley 50 years and this is the first time I've heard someone say Crawley is like Horsham.
The people are different,the landscape is different,attitudes are different,accents are different,I bet the water tastes diffrent too.

Different number of chromosones as wellI'd guess.

Crawleyreminds me of Norwich in a way in that it can be discribed as about a dozen villages stuck together. Yes some parts are quite reasonablebut towns image is based on its centre, what impression it leaves. And Crawley is about as Turgid as it gets.

If its not semi derelict its an over supply of kebab shops that nobody uses or the over priced shopping centre barring Primark, a magnet for the less articulate members of Crawley. I have found the Asians to be generally rude and stuck up and wont give them the time of day. In fact the nicest people appear to be the homeless, and I'm not joking here.

Went to the Toby Carvery last week and had a fantastic meal, but then thats Manor Royal I beleive. Crawley is somewhere I would describe as a right off.

 

[Triggaaar]

It depends what you base it on triggaaar. If you base it on Brighton it really is a lost argument. If you base it on London, I would rather Crawley, through experience. If you base it on Hassocks, again no brainer, Hassocks hands down. Where I live is really on a par with Horsham. Sad you have to use all those silly whatsits.

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.

But being the biggest town in West Sussex it will have its bad bits. I love Brighton really, but it too has its bad bits.

Of course. As a new town, Crawley has always had a bad reputation, and for whatever reason it's still got it. Maybe Crawley's not as bad as many of us think, but on a Brighton footy forum you're on a hiding to nothing.

 

[Soulman]

Very worryingly, that is awful, I haven't seen the reports or anything on tv. However, doesn't that happen all over the land? Having lived in London that was a daily occurrence, does anyone post threads remarking on London? To tag Crawley as a shit hole is just so naive and childish. Go have a night out in Brighton down Queens/North Street, worst place in the world on a Saturday.

My mate was a bouncer in the clubs in Brighton and also Crawley..... Brighton clubs were far less trouble than the ones in Crawley.
I worked in and around Crawley, had not had much dealings with Horsham until i visited the town centre a couple of months ago.....i was quite impressed and very little comparison with Crawley.
I used to take the kids to Tilgate Park, nice park.

 

[chucky1973]

Whilst I don't agree with the OP, I think you might need to get out a bit more

I said that tongue in cheek. Tilgate really is a beautiful part of the county. I can walk for hours around those woods to lease pottage and not see a soul. I can spend hours up there either on foot with the dog or riding the mountain bike.

 

[chucky1973]

Horsham town centre is very poor. It has one nice part where there is some lovely restaurants and bars but apart from that it is not great. I went on a stag do recently and we met at a wetherspoons pub by Sainsburys at 10am. There were 30 or 40 people already in there drinking shorts and beer. They looked a horrible group of people. My point being all towns nice and not so nice have bad areas and good areas. Look at some of the outskirts of Brighton. I wouldn't walk there in the dark through fear of attack

 

[chucky1973]

Sounds like we're all quite close as I too walk out of my back gate straight into Tilgate forest.
As I said The outskirts are really quite nice, I'm not overly keen on the town centre though.

I walk up there every morning and every evening including winter with my spaniel Dexter. Generally round the golf course as I can take a club and play golf throughout the summer and not see a person. Love it.

 

[Mowgli37]

Says the man in Sheffield

Having lived in Horsham for 18 years prior to moving, try harder

Always fun to play up the stereotype, in reality Crawley has its smooth and rough edges same as any other town.

 

[Murray 17]

Does anyone know if the boarded up shops in Crawley town centre are down to lack of demand, or are they being redeveloped?

 

[Juan Albion]

Having lived in Horsham for 18 years prior to moving, try harder

smooth and rough edges same as any other town.

Burslem.

 

[kevo]

When the post-war town planners designed the new towns, I wonder if this is what they envisaged? All of them are now terrible places to live.

Personally, I always think of Crawley belonging more to Surrey than Sussex.

 

[wehatepalace]

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.

My mate was a bouncer in the clubs in Brighton and also Crawley..... Brighton clubs were far less trouble than the ones in Crawley.
I worked in and around Crawley, had not had much dealings with Horsham until i visited the town centre a couple of months ago.....i was quite impressed and very little comparison with Crawley.
I used to take the kids to Tilgate Park, nice park.

 

[wehatepalace]

Personally, I always think of Crawley belonging more to Surrey than Sussex.

Why is that ?

I've lived here for most of my life and always felt very much part of Sussex.
I hate Surrey too.

 

[daveybgtt]

To get to Tilgate park you seem to drive through a pretty poor looking area with raggedy England flags on poles and shoddy off road parking solutions that reminds me of the Quadrant in Durrington, yuck.

 

[looney]

Does anyone know if the boarded up shops in Crawley town centre are down to lack of demand, or are they being redeveloped?

Lack of Demand. Combination of factors, home shopping, county Mall and the lack of choice all add up to make the place look a bit desolate and tragic imo.

 

[ferring seagull]

I worked in Crawley and lived in Worth on the outskirts which was wonderful as within a few minutes walk one could be watching the deer watching you.

That was almost 25 years ago so I am sorry to hear of it's demise though it does not surprise me due to the proximity to Gatwick Airport with the inevitable associated problems.

 

[Raleigh Chopper]

Why is that ?

I've lived here for most of my life and always felt very much part of Sussex.
I hate Surrey too.

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.