What's interesting about the town/city that you live in? i.e. Is there a famous person from there? A significant event? Any interesting trivia? Tell me something cool about the place where you live! Hopefully you UK folks have some interesting stuff, since your towns are way older than ours. I'll start, I live in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. The term "hobo" [refers to a homeless person, specifically one who sneaks onto freight trains] came from "hoboken", because it has been a major railroad hub for a very long time. It was originally an island, then dirt was filled in around it, so it is now part of a peninsula between the Passaic river and the Hudson river. The town was originally purchased 380 years ago for some beads and cloth, 12 kettles, 6 guns, 2 blankets, and half of a barrel of beer. The first baseball game in the world was played here. Frank Sinatra was born here. Who's next?
I live in York (no... the PROPER York) Comes from the Roman's name for it (Eboracum) and the viking name for it (Jorvik) If there was a period between 0 and 2000AD worth hearing about, York was a major part of it, until about 1945, when Birmingham grew stupidly large and everyone started flocking there for business (as London was too crowded) Marc Almond and Dame Judi Dench were both born/grew up here, and my mother actually used to dance with him in a club near York Station ...oh and Tony from Dinnerladies lives literally 3 streets from me
I live in Rushden, apparently the 5th largest town in the country. We have an Argos, and a Waitrose, and the author H.E Bates was born/lived here.
I live in Clevedon, which is sort of interesting. We have one of only two Grade 1 listed piers in the country, the other being Brighton's West Pier which was mostly destroyed by fire. The Curzon Cinema is the oldest purpose-built, continuously operated cinema in the world, opened 1912. Clevedon Court is one of only a handful of 14th Century manor houses left in the country. The tidal range at the pier can be as much as 46ft, the second largest in the world. Clerical Medical, part of HBOS, have their headquarters here...for some reason.
I live in Aylesbury, Large-ish town in Buckinghamshire -Remnants of an Anglo Saxon hill fort from 650BC were found under the town centre -Aylesbury was a major market town in Anglo-Saxon times -Yhe burial place of Saint Osyth -A Giant Blue glass leaning building in the centre is home to Halifax Bank of Scotland, and when built the giant wall of glass was thought to be a hazard to motorists, dazzling them, so a line of trees was planted outside There used to be a club in Aylesbury in the 70s and 80s called the Friars Club where a lot of the top bands of the time played, including The Clash, Genesis, U2, David Bowie, Marillion and The Ramones.
The guy who used to own the house next door was a parliamentarian and signed the death warrant on King Charles I at the end of the civil war.
I live in Exeter. We have the narrowest street in the world, at its narrowest a mere 18 inches wide. It is from the time of Oliver Cromwell, when he declared that all towns and cities should have a street named Parliament Street. Exeter was a major monarchist stronghold, so none too chuffed with Cromwell, and so applied the name to the narrowest street going. Diagon Alley in Harry Potter is based on a section of Gandy Street in Exeter, as Rowling went to uni here. As did Tom Yorke of Radiohead. Given the age of Exeter, there are shed loads of historic things, none of which spring to mind, nor are staggeringly interesting.
I think Wiki explains mine best: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portsmouth Most notable is the historic dock and ships. Also the birth place of Charles Dickens. Home of Rob Hayles (Olympic cyclist) and also for a time HG Wells.
I live in Wantage, birthplace of the only king to be given the title great (Alfred the Great). Nearby is Oxford, we all know what that's famous for. Didcot is also close, famous for being a bit of a shithole. Wallingford is close, that's where Charlie Brooker went to school.
I live in Bradford. It's also full of chavs, plus we get occasional visits from the BNP who stir up lovely racially-motivated riots that destroy large chunks of the city. On the plus side, we've got Lister Park - which was voted Best Park in Britain - and excellent curries, including Omar's, which boasts the largest naans in Yorkshire.
I live in the small town of Armadale in West Lothian, and other to be being the home of the Edinburgh Monarchs speedway team there's not really much to tell. We sit pretty much half way between Edinburgh and Glasgow, have a population of between 10 and 15 thousand. We are an ex mining community, however there is little evidence of that nowadays as most people work outside of the town in either Livingston or Edinburgh. We are getting a rail station, connecting us with Edinburgh and Glasgow by rail for the first time since the 60's (Beeching Report) Bathgate, the adjoining town is(was) home to a few famous people. Sir James Young Simpson, discoverer of the anaesthetic properties of chloroform. Dario Franchitti , IndyCar champion and Indy500 winner. Bernard Gallacher, former Ryder Cup captain. David Tennant, The current Dr Who.
I reside in the city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. It was named after the well known Newcastle Brown Ale, which is exported all over the world. Clearly. Famous residents include Ant & Dec, Sting and that bloke what does the voiceover on Big Brother. In newcastle, 'chavs' are actually called 'charvs' and it is believed the concept of such fine members of society was indeed created in Newcastle in the early 1990's. The Rough Guide listed Newcastles nightlife as britains #1 tourist attraction. Clearly nobody from said guide has ever ventured down 'the bigg market' of a saturday, where one can catch glimpses of wonders including middle aged mothers urinating in the street, men in tea towel shirts and ben sherman footwear enthusiastically beating the **** out of one another, and streaky fake tanned 'beauties' wearing exceedingly little and defying the subzero temperatures of the winter. That said, I love this place
Bristol has far too many awesome facts about it to list. The village I was born and live in, Oldland Common, which was consumed by Bristol long ago, is the birthplace of Sir Bernard Lovell, there's a school named after him which I used to live next to which Marcus Trescothick attended and my mum gave him his baby jabs. Apparently Philippa Forrester lives nearby too.
I live in Lincoln, whose name is derived from the Roman 'Lindum Colonia', which was basically a retirement settlement for old soldiers. 2000 years later, its still full of old people, some of whom look like they are still here from the Roman era... The council is the worst in the country, with mismanagement in its wake. The High Street is stagnating, the developments have been unsuccessful and the local economy is pretty ****. A business earns about 20% of what it would get in any other city, except Primark, which is the only successful shop here. We have more supermarkets than people. We have some of the highest taxation, and the lowest government spending, and we were the last area in the entire country to get hot school meals, to the extent that Jamie Oliver had to step in. The crime rate is generally quite low, but the council estates are still very rough... my dad's friend's son got murdered the other month. The demography is predominantly ethnic White, but we have a growing muslim community which the White population seems keen to suppress, hence the arson attack on the new mosque, frequent articles in local newspapers and high BNP vote. All in all, Pretty sh*t. Can't wait to leave. MGT
Shepherds Bush - West London..... Home to 1908 olympic games BBC television centre 3 largest shopping centre in UK (largest inner city one in Europe) 5 tube stations (sheps bush market, sheps bush, wood lane, goldhawk road, white city) + overground station Home to QPR Lots of chavs, drug dealers, etc etc
i live in telford. i hate it. seriously, i have NOTHING good to say about this place. i've lived in scunthorpe and brighton in the past. i could think of something nice to say about all of them quite easily.
Since a few other people have been talking populations, I thought I'd add that according to the 2001 Census Clevedon has a population of 21,957. 98.8% of which is white...I have no idea where the 1.2% of minorities are to be perfectly honest.
