great photos S.G.

The difference between where you live and where I live is that YOUR town has a sense of itself as a community and looks like it was charmingly planned. MY suburb is a post-WW II sprawling utilitarian zombie town, utterly devoid of any charm, community, history or pride. Everything that is here was built in the 1950's and is gross. My house is one of about only five different styles in the neighborhood and while there is an arts center and a lovely park (with made-made lake they had to drain once a little girl went permanently missing) at one end of my street (Rosewood Park) there is a low ceiling'd 1960's-style bowling alley round the corner of the other end of my street. It's a schizophrenic kind of place.

You live in Coventry?

Slough
by John Betjeman

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens
Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,
Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,
Tinned minds, tinned breath.

Mess up the mess they call a town-
A house for ninety-seven down
And once a week a half a crown
For twenty years.

And get that man with double chin
Who'll always cheat and always win,
Who washes his repulsive skin
In women's tears:

And smash his desk of polished oak
And smash his hands so used to stroke
And stop his boring dirty joke
And make him yell.

But spare the bald young clerks who add
The profits of the stinking cad;
It's not their fault that they are mad,
They've tasted Hell.

It's not their fault they do not know
The birdsong from the radio,
It's not their fault they often go
To Maidenhead

And talk of sport and makes of cars
In various bogus-Tudor bars
And daren't look up and see the stars
But belch instead.

In labour-saving homes, with care
Their wives frizz out peroxide hair
And dry it in synthetic air
And paint their nails.

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
To get it ready for the plough.
The cabbages are coming now;
The earth exhales.

Not being rude about Aylesbury here, just Bri's comments made me think of this poem.

The responses of two other Brits speak volumes. Aylesbury is nasty, nasty, nasty. If you grew up here and therefore have no choice but to love it, you'd find flattering angles too. Visitors generally focus on the nasty though.

Picture Aylesbury as a country virgin. Pretty, unworldly, charming and innocent. Then picture the town planners as evil, spiteful, malicious rapists. There you go, that's pretty much the 60s situation. Okay, not really fair, but those of us living with the consequences would love to smack them upside the head.

Until now I've taken pics of Olde Aylesbury because I'm trying to show you what you don't have at home. And because I do love my home, despite everything. I'll take some Nasty pics though. Just to show how badly those that call themselves Town Planners can plan. And it is bad. From the 60s onwards.

Ahem ... "Not being rude about Aylesbury here," ...

Oxford is worse.
Because parts of it are so damned beautiful.
And modern parts are ugly enough to make you heave.

Do I really want to hold my home town up to ridicule?
Yes. Although I might start another thread to do so.
Rude About Aylesbury maybe ;)

I didnt say anything bad about aylsebury....I said something bad about Coventry

The problem with Coventry and Oxford is the don't have SG in residence.

I didn't think you did darlin'. You can say it after you visit ;)
You lovely chap.
Time your visit to match Dana's. Except the night time :joylove:

I have seen Aylesbury IRL - just not the lovely bits as shown here by SG!

All my bits are lovely ;)

The truth is I do live in a town hammered by the 60s. I decided overnight that I will show you some of the badness in this thread, after all it's not called "Lovely, lovely Aylesbury". I'm at the charity shop tomorrow (in the town centre) so I'll take some pics then.

But it has been nice showing some of our beauty. Many people that drive through or stop off here only see the bad parts. And we Brits do love a good moan after all. So I've felt very positive about showing the decent parts to people who wouldn't realise that the rest isn't like that.

I can beat all this; I am sadly now living in a dreadful city, if you can call it that by the name of Leicester. After living around the country and a few years overseas, I have ended up in Leicester, How….Why, what did I do to deserve this? The people are full of themselves, not to mention aggressive. Oh well, I have my little house, and the only other good thing I found in Leicester I married. Now where are those lotto numbers?

um....mike?

Sundae is from Leicester! Not originally! just lately.

She went from Leicester to London (Greenwich) and now is in Aylesbury. You'd count yourself lucky if you ever ran into Sundae, no matter where it was - she's a real gem.

what Bri said. Don't be dissin' SundaeGirl