Crap Towns

Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire was the 2003 'winner'.

Luton, Bedfordshire was the 2004 'winner'.

Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK^[1] and Crap Towns II: The Nation Decides^[2] are a series of humorous books edited by Sam Jordison and Dan Kieran and published in association with UK Quarterly The Idler. Towns in the UK were nominated by visitors to The Idler Website for their 'crapness', with the results being published in The Idler and in the books. A sister publication, Crap Jobs, was created by similar means, and Crap Holidays was published in October 2006.

The books brought controversy,^[3] with many notable figures being quick to defend their respective towns. These included a number of MPs such as Michael Howard, MP for Hythe in Kent, which appeared at Number Four in the 2003 edition. In towns across the country, a number of local newspapers urged their readers to boycott the titles in protest.

In 2006, The Idler website developed a 'Crap Job' section to capitalise on the writing abilities of the magazine's readership. Crap Towns became the next item on the 'Crap' list.

Controversy

Publication of Crap Towns brought widespread criticism from residents, politicians and other notable figures from the towns listed. The editors of the book wrote to "local worthies"^[4] in each of the nominated towns to gain their responses and views. Local newspapers, such as the Stockport Express^[5] were also quick to defend 'their' towns, whilst some national commentators, such as Sarfraz Manzoor in The Guardian^[6] tended to agree with the result.

Survey results

Readers voted for the top 50 crap towns in the UK. The top ten by reader votes in descending order of "crapness" (with 1 being the worst) were:

2003[1]	2004[2]
1. Kingston upon Hull	1. Luton, Bedfordshire
2. Cumbernauld	2. Windsor
3. Morecambe	3. Sunderland
4. Hythe, Kent	4.= Edinburgh (equal place with Glasgow)
5. Winchester	4.= Glasgow (equal place with Edinburgh)
6. Liverpool	6. Clapham, London
7. St Andrews	7. Bath
8. Bexhill-on-Sea	8. Nottingham
9. Basingstoke	9. Corby
10. Hackney, London	10. Middlesbrough

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Jordison, Sam; Dan Kieran (October 2003). Crap Towns: The 50 Worst Places To Live In The UK. Boxtree. ISBN 0-7522-1582-5. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Jordison, Sam; Dan Kieran (October 2004). Crap Towns II: The Nation Decides. Boxtree. ISBN 0-7522-2545-6. 
3. ^ Jordison, Sam. "The co-editor of 'Crap Towns' takes on the local papers". http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A1316396. Retrieved 2006-09-21. 
4. ^ Daily Telegraph (2003-10-05). "To Hull and back". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1443270/To-Hull-and-back-via-49-other-cp-towns-in-Britain.html. Retrieved 2006-09-28. 
5. ^ Stockport Express. "Residents defend town against ‘hell-hole’ tag". http://menmedia.co.uk/stockportexpress/news/s/311/311200_residents_defend_town_against_hellhole_tag.html. Retrieved 2006-09-28. 
6. ^ The Guardian (2004-09-29). "Don't knock crap towns. We need them.". London. http://society.guardian.co.uk/urbandesign/comment/0,11200,1315358,00.html. Retrieved 2006-09-28. 

External links

• BBC News — “UK’s ‘worst 50’ towns revealed” — with list of the ten worst
• BBC News — “Luton voted Britain’s worst town” — with list of the ten worst in Crap Towns II