A man found Britain’s most miserable town as “the place locals do unthinkable things in public” during an eye-opening visit.
David Leafe encountered deserted streets with empty units, a stench of cannabis and disgusting toilets in Slough, Berkshire. He grew up there in 1960s, but he found a lot has changed in the decades since.
So much so, Slough was branded the ugliest town in the UK in 2023 in a national newspaper and last year was denounced as the UK’s most miserable town in a poll by property website Rightmove. David chatted to locals, including John Hughes, 67, who has run his baked potato stall in the High Street for the last 34 years.
Mr Hughes said: “The other day I saw a man defecating just around the corner. And my friend who runs another stall saw a couple having sex in the road just along from Boots – and this was in broad daylight. There are toilets in the shopping centre but people wee up the doors outside all the time. It’s like they just can’t be bothered to go in and nobody does anything about it.”
In the 1960s the town prospered with thriving retailers, including a branch of department store Suters, but it has now fallen into a state of decline – with hoardings hiding empty shop units instead.
David also spoke to retired quarryman Ken Fletcher. The 78-year-old man said: “It’s heartbreaking to see the High Street like this because when you came here on a Saturday afternoon years ago it was so busy that you could hardly move. Now it’s really grim. We’d rather drive to places like Bracknell. That’s a good shopping centre.”
Homelessness and crime remain challenges for the police and local authority in Slough, the Daily Mail reports. There were 1,196 recorded instances of shoplifting in Slough in 2024 – a staggering 51 per cent spike on the previous year.
It stretches the resources of Thames Valley Police and Slough Borough Council, which was declared bankrupt in 2021, after finding a “catastrophic” £100million black hole in its budget.
It means chances of any redevelopment in the town are slim, as much of it now belongs to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) which bought the Queensmere and Observatory Shopping Centres in 2016 but it has not followed through on plans to replace them with new businesses, shops and homes.
And, if it wasn’t for his loyal, regular trade, Mr Hughes feels he would struggle to make ends meet. The baked potato stall owner continued: “We’re still earning a good living because we know the locals but I wouldn’t fancy starting up a business here now.”
Britain’s most miserable town, it seems, faces a huge challenge to shake off the infamous tag. Like that waft of cannabis in the town centre, reputation sticks – and takes time to disappear.
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