Basildon

heard a story that the whole town centre was designed as a wind break to shield shoppers from heavy winds. Unfortunately they built the town facing the wrong way and the centre now acts as a wind tunnel.

This centre recently recieved a new clock tower that was opened by the Queen. The only problem since has been that the vicar in charge of finishing it ran off with the money. It has so far rung twice and may soon be pulled down.

The town itself offers a wide variety of nothing to do. Most people can be seen dragging their depressed and lifeless carcasses from Burger King to McDonalds in the hope of finding some variety. I once rang talking pages to find a resturant in the town and was given the number for a Pie and Mash shop.

The town has only three major employers left, Ford, the Social and the Mental health services.

Dull stupidity. Casual racism. In- bred sociopaths. Basildon

This is where your fav band is from--Depeche Mode:D

Oh my God, I'm gonna be sick !

Basildon is a shithole, and is indeed the place where Depeche Mode are from...

Some of the Prodigy are from there, as well, if memory serves me correctly?

Digi Mike Binoche wrote:

Dull stupidity. Casual racism. In-bred sociopaths. Basildon

And NOOL!

Check this link out about Basildon's 'Celebrity Culure' LOL!

http://knowhere.co.uk/391_heroes.html

BTW I worked in Southend for a year so I'll do my own little critique on the area later this evening - in work at the moment and very very busy Cheers!

Not all of Depeche Mode was from Basildon, though. Alan Wilder was from London, I think, or near London.

As I mentioned earlier I used to live/work in nearby Southend my work used to take me into Basildon so naturally I have an opinion of the town. Basildon is like every other annoymous 'new town' which was created post World War 2 in Britain. The hope and optimism quickly evaporated around the 1970's/80's replaced with nothing but failed dreams and promises. Despite being just 15-20 miles away from London Basildon is almost another world, a concrete jungle filled with mainly white working class overspill from London. The over 50's hanker after the 'good old days' (sic) in the 'East End'. Conversely Basildon's under 50 indigenous population have no sense of belonging (pride) to the place and either escape the town at the first opportunity or get sucked into a 'League Of Gentlemen' fear of anything outside Basildon. The late 1970's recession didn't help Basildon as a lot of it's industry closed and the mainly unskilled, working class population were faced with high unemployment. Attach that philosophy to a couple of generations and you get a significant scally/chav population who's only pleasures in life are vandalism, petty crime, drug taking/dealing and causing s*** for people regardless of whether they get in their way or not. Despite it's close proximity to London it's transport links to the capital are diabolical so Basildon doesn't attract the 'commuter' population other London satelite towns do so nothing really changes and it's most likely correct to say it's no different today than what it was in 1977, '87 or '97. If you were to move to the Basildon IMO Wickford and Billericay tend to be it's nicer areas with more owner/occupiers and higher employment levels. Conversely Laindon and Pitsea tend to attract more of the anti-social element but it's like anywhere you could run into more trouble in a leafy village than in the inner city. Despite the negatives there are good people who live in Basildon some of which try their best to improve their lot and raise the profile of the town overall. There is the 'Thames Gateway' project which will encompass Thurrock, Grays and Basildon and may see it become more identified with Greater London than Essex. Moreover for a 'new town' there is little or no high rise estates and Basildon's road system is well planned and gives good 'driving' links to other parts of Essex, Kent and London. However if you were moving to south Essex my personal preference would be Leigh, Rayleigh, Rochford, Shenfield, Shoeburyness, Southend or Westcliff and this is no disrespect to any one from Basildon just my opinion of what the town is about. Still it gave birth to the nucleus of Depeche Mode and is miles better than Thurrock, Grays and much of what lies in East London up until Canary Wharf. Cheers!

Yup, I too used to work in Southend (on the end of a very slow train line from Liverpool Street that takes an hour to arrive... )... :dead:

Basildon really doesn't have very much to offer it, and this is from someone who was born and still lives in one of the first "new towns". It's shopping centre is really depressing to walk around, completely pedestrianised with not that many shops anyone in their right mind would want to visit...

As I asked a mate of mine who was born there, what it was like, and he replied "depressing", and hasn't returned since!

Nick King wrote: Yup, I too used to work in Southend (on the end of a very slow train line from Liverpool Street that takes an hour to arrive... )... :dead:

Basildon really doesn't have very much to offer it, and this is from someone who was born and still lives in one of the first "new towns". It's shopping centre is really depressing to walk around, completely pedestrianised with not that many shops anyone in their right mind would want to visit...

As I asked a mate of mine who was born there, what it was like, and he replied "depressing", and hasn't returned since!

Hi Nick whereabouts in Sarfend LOL! did you used to live as I lived in the Prittlewell area for about a year which was reasonably okay and I'd kill for the flat I was renting there compared to my place in Kingston at the moment, Cheers!