Luton dubbed 'worst place to live'
Luton has been dubbed the UK's worst place to live by users of the online forum Reddit.
In a thread titled 'What is the absolute worst place you have been to in the UK?', visitors overwhelmingly lay into the Hertfordshire town.
One dubs it 'the town at the end of humanity', while several others describe having had their cars keyed while they were in Luton. "Whenever I hear southerners talk about how bad the North is I just think 'Man, have you ever been to Luton?'," says another.
Even one local attempting to defend the town can't find much to say in its favour, commenting: "I'm not saying Luton is not horrible, just it is definitely not the worst place in England."
And there's some evidence for this view. Last year, property website Rightmove asked people to rate where they live, and found that Luton was eighth best on the list - Barking and Dagenham was rated worst, followed by Hounslow and Brent.
But the town's never had a great reputation: as far back as 1776, Robert Gough called it 'a long, dirty town of one street, meanly built. Six years later, another visitor described it as 'a small dirty town', and in 1828 Sir Richard Phillips said it 'evinced marks of decadency'.
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Luton's tourist board, though, has a slightly different view. Describing it as 'a bustling and lively place with a strong cosmopolitan feel' it recommends visiting the town's Wardown Park Museum and Stockwood Discovery Centre.
And Luton is by no means the only place in the UK to come in for criticism on Reddit. Other places cited in the thread as the worst in the UK include Blackpool, Stevenage and Rhyl, along with Glasgow's Easterhouse estate - described as 'grim, at best'.
Blackpool is apparently 'depressing, cold and windy', while Rhyl is described as 'a s***hole of monumental proportion, with inhabitants who are some of the most self-entitled chavs in existence'.
Meanwhile, in a separate Reddit thread, users share their opinions of the UK's best places to live. The Isle of Skye, York, Sheffield and Bristol all come in for fulsome praise - but so far nobody has suggested Luton.
