Northampton, a once-proud market town with its own identity and a long, distinguished history of boot and shoe manufacturing has now fallen victim to the Burbonic plague. Some blame this on the close proximity of Corby (AKA “Little Scotland”, the place with the lowest life expectancy levels in the whole of England), whilst others blame it on the fact that Northampton (or “Norfam’un”) became a London overspill town in the late 1970s. Whatever the reason, Northampton is now as chavvy a town as you’re ever likely to find. Abington Street in particular is a chav magnet, though the sight of all the “goffs” and “grungers” hanging about is enough to make any lone chav quicken his swagger by about fifty percent for fear of one of “them weirdos” trying to bum him. Wellingborough Road is fine for the advanced chav spotter, as it is virtually impossible to walk from Abington Square to Abington Park without being accosted by some zit-faced, trakkie-clad lowlife asking for “30p so I can phone me mum” or offering to buy a cigarette from you. The fearless may wish to check out the Grosvenor Centre and the Weston Favell Centre, both of which are hideously ugly feats of “don’t give a shit” mid-seventies architecture and therefore attract the aesthetically ignorant charvers in their hundreds. Here, the gangs of chinless, gimlet-eyed, shifty louts congregate outside Tesco Extra and HMV, daring each other to gob on old folk or clobber disabled / mentally defective shoppers “for a laugh”. Chavvy hangouts include virtually every nightclub and bar, in particular those on Bridge Street, whilst the “family chav” may be located in Aldi, Lidl or Netto – we’ve got them all. The chav demographic is spread far and wide, but most of the hardened pikeys and benefit cheats live in what is locally known as “the Eastern District”, a densely-packed clutch of incredibly rough estates with inviting names like Ecton Brook, Lumbertubs, Goldings, Lings, Blackthorn and Rectory Farm. Local postal workers have been known to change these names to “Rectum Brook”, “Scumbertubs” and “Smackthorn”, as many an innocent postie has been verbally and / or physically abused by the residents of these districts on his rounds. Police investigation usually results in an oft-repeated claim that “I ent dun nuffink”. Days out for the chav family usually take in the annual balloon festival, the annual street fair in the town centre, or trips to Sol Central or the Sixfields multiplex.
The Northampton “yoof chav” typically wears a light grey or white tracksuit with the bottoms tucked into his white market stall socks, whilst older chavs may plump for the Adidas trakkie in bilious / clashing shades, coupled with the none-more-pikey three-for-a-tenner black t-shirt with a tasteless design featuring Native American legends, big motorbikes or a tiger’s face, again “off the market”. Accesories include the obligatory mobile phone, a packet of cheap fags, sovereign rings and chains (Argos, or Warren James for the “upscale” chav) and a Staffordshire bull terrier.
Guys, chill! I think this is all meant to be taken with a pinch of salt and read as a bit of satire, not taken seriously!
I live in Chavhampton! It isn’t actually as bad as you are making out, although I’ve never ventured over to the Eastern District, because every one has pretty much said exactly what you did.
I would like to point out though, that just because you own a staffordshire bull terrier – doesn’t make you a Chav. I have one, she’s the most adoring loyal friendly beautiful dog, and she’s excellent with my 7 month old son!
I would say that the majority of our chavs don’t have that chavvy mean attitude! They just think that they look nice with big earings and shell suit tracksuits and the like. Which is fine, each to there own, whatever. Its not to my taste, but I do rock grey nike trackies here and there, they are comfy so what! Lol!
Anyway, the point it, yes we have chavs, yes we have a serious immigrint issue, but where doesn’t?
I live in Northampton……..this made me laugh quite alot! Don’t take it too seriously people, it’s mostly true hahaha. I will say however that the town is getting a hell of alot better and has some great shops etc. Also, parts of rectory farm are quite nice, my girlfriend lives there and not one of her family even resembles a chav. This was very funny though, well played sir!
Chavs are just the same in any town you go to. I’ve lived in Northampton for nearly 20 years and there are some (not many) good things about it. If anyone can tell me those good things, please let me know. I work at Tesco and nearly every night, we have the same group of chavs hanging around with their cash in hand waiting for someone to come up and then ask them to buy them cigarettes and/or alcohol. These kids don’t cause that much trouble but they look like the kind (and some of them are. I’ve had the displeasure of having to deal with a few) who have no respect for anyone but themselves.
Northampton itself, however, has gone down the pan. Main hangouts for people such as Radlands and some youth clubs have been shut down. I remember talking to someone about Radlands and he said it’s (at the time) one of the most famous skate parks in England. Previous to that, I’d never been there so I didn’t know that much about it. Having been there since that time, I loved the place and went when I could, despite being shit at skating. A person can dream. When I found out it was being shut down, I was mortified. The only decent skate park we have and it’s gone. There’s also a mini one in Briar Hill but who’d risk their lives in that cesspit.
Going onto that, Briar Hill is one of the most notorious places in Northampton. You mention that place to someone and it’s like mentioning Voldermort to Harry Potter or telling Mark Zuckerberg that Google + will surpass Facebook. I went to a 6th form party at the now deceased Double Four pub. Before I went, I told my parents about it. My dad, being a police officer told that ‘they’d frisk you to make sure you HAVE drugs’. Obviously an exaggeration but you get the idea.
The schools in Northampton are/were (I finished education) fairly bad as well. At least, some of the students were. I remember walking through school one day with one of my friends and seeing red dots on the floor. I asked him if that was blood and he said it was probably one of our other friends who was playing with a red pen. Turns out it was blood, spilled from the torso of a lad at our school who was stabbed by a guy from another school. You know when I fight is bad when someone has to commute from one school to another just to stab someone. At the same school I went to, I remember moving up to year 12 and seeing all the little years 7 shits coming up from year six thinking they’re ‘all hard and that’. Half the time they’d end up getting a clip round the ear by someone from one of the older years.
This is where the chav wheels will be set in motion. These kids think they’re so big and cool and will do anything to prove that theory including bunking from lessons. Then they wonder why they’re stuck behind the counter at McDonald’s serving burgers to their friends who probably stole the money from their parents who are living off of benefits because they’re too lazy and bone idle to get up off their arse a get a job. I heard a good joke which goes like this and may ring true, how ever wrong it sounds but in this town and country, after watching snippets of Jeremy Kyle, wouldn’t surprise me. How do you know when you live in a bad council estate? When you see and sign on a roundabout that reads ‘Happy 25th Birthday, Nan’. I found it amusing but that’s just me.
Chavs will always thing they’re tough and when they get to 17/18 and they learn to drive, you will always hear coming from a mile off with their shitty 2 foot wide exhausts and their fake music playing out their huge sub woofers that take up so much room in their boot that they can’t fit the booze in so their friends now have to walk because their seats are taken up by too much piss water, in the form of Fosters and Strongbow. This is the reason why I will always blast my metal music when going past them , with my windows down. Whether it’s raining, snowing, sunny… I don’t care what weather, I will blast a nice bit of Iron Maiden or Children of Bodom when going past, just to see their faces. Always a good sight.
Oh, well. I’m going to end this essay and leave you all be. Chavs are scum who need to learn respect and ways of life if they’re going to get anywhere in it.
Firstly I would like to agree with the notion that Elo is a chav and would also like to add that Elo sounds like the worst kind of scumbag. Elo could well be the kind of person that would attempt to shaft 50p lil as she’s going for a shit. Elo would be watching with his mates on abington street and mount this poor lady rather than pay her usual rate of 50p. If I see you whilst i’m out on patrol i’m going to tazer the chavness out of you sonny boy!
Right ..
I agree that there seems to be and endless stream of so called ‘Chavs’ and ‘Goffs’ .. which I’m pretty sure is supposed to be spelt ‘Goths’. But like somebody said in their comment, it’s just a phase. The Goths have literally disappeared from Abington Street .. the chavs are still about .. but there lack of brain cells means they are not likely to leave there in a hurry.
I live in Northampton .. I have done for the 19 years I have existed on this god-forsaken planet. I’ve always lived in a little village called Bugbrooke, just outside the Sixfields perimeter. It’s always been a relatively nice village, but does show signs of the towns influence. The closer you get to the town, the more ‘chav’d up’ it gets. But this is life, find me a town centre that DOESN’T have a bunch of kids with a collective IQ in the single digits.
Northampton has a worse problem with immigration than it does with a chav presence. The town centre is a minefield of eastern europeans and africans .. you’d do a good job if you could spot a chav amongst them all. It’s unfair to brand every ‘yoof’ the same way, there are some very bright and very talented young people in Northampton. Granted, there are a select few that can’t even spell their own name right, but they don’t account for all of us.
I don’t know why you’d even mention the architecture .. There is nothing wrong with the Weston Favell Shopping Centre, It’s a nice clean place, plenty of decent shops and very friendly staff .. can’t go wrong. The market square is a beauty to behold, if seeing market traders making a living by shouting the good old fashioned “Pound a banana!” means Northampton is a craphole .. then you are quite frankly a moron.
And lastly, the bit I’m most annoyed about .. you say everyone you meet in Northampton is rude and asks for a fight? .. Where the hell did you go to be treated like this? .. The town centre is full of friendly, hard working people .. it’s the old phrase of ‘be nice to someone and they’ll be nice to you’ .. and never a truer phrase was said when talking about the town centre. People are friendly, smile at each other and someone even give the old ‘You alright m’duck?’ every so often ..
You can walk down Abington Street, the Wellingborough Road or any of the streets in Northampton without being hassled .. I’m no expert, but you must be doing it wrong.
I think your comment was a little unnesesary. Im in abington street atleast once a week walking through and I never get that kind of approach from anybody. I agree that Northampton isnt the best places to live, but i can tell you of worst places to live with high rates of gun & knife crime, etc. You will find problems wherever you go.
i’m fourteen years old, i live in a large house on wellingborough road.
i have nice clothes, jewelry, laptop, smart phone.
i go to northampton school for girls.
i have lived in northampton all my life, as have my parents and grand parents.
and i am just an average northampton girl.
i don’t wear tracksuits or plan to be a young mum living of benefits.
i don’t smoke but i drink at parties moderately.
now, the reason you think of all northampton youths as chavs, scum and lowlifes is because you only see what you want to see, you choose to see the 30% that aren’t up to your standards.
you choose to ignore the 70% that are just normal british children.
so, northampton may be a bit dirty and not all the architecture is up to scratch. but it’s producing some brilliant people, it’s a shame you cant see that.
thankyou.
i live in npton (born & bred) & there are some good ppl here however- i tend to agree that slowly the increase in chavs is apparent- my little bro was beaten up by chavs for no reason.
There are some good points to northampton like some schools e.g Northampton School For Boys -but now theres a few chavs being accepted there too
Chavs are scum, worst thing is the chavs dont even see themselves as ‘chavs’
Chavs anywhere in the UK have total disregard for others, total disregard for anything for that matter. Look at that incident not long ago in Luton where these chavs totured & killed a guy they kept in a basement.
I come from a poor upbringing however I was brought up to have respect for others & for oneself (even though we had to make do with little, we were content with it, we didnt go around robbing/ asking ppl in the street, doing illegal things for money) we have manners & be civil & not use foul language. Another sad/ criminal thing is…that these chavs when they become adults they have jobs like in social services & other places where theyre just messing things up with their chav outlook on life/ the way they do things is just pure chav/ disgusting.
I have a dream that one day we will live in a chav free society.
BTW by these chavs doing what they do is destroying the social fabric of society..look @ the pregnancies, the crime, the violence against innocent ppl, go to A&E @ the hospital on a friday or saturday (or most days) & you will see the amount of chavs there, its unbelievable.ALL their chav actions affects decent ppl.
chavs you suck!
Northampton was by far and away the most grim, disgusting, wretched place I’ve ever encountered. I lived there for thirteen years, on Victoria Road right by the hospital, when you grow up there, maybe it doesn’t seem so bad, sure people don’t look at you unless you’re in for a beating, but isn’t England just LIKE that? The sad answer, is no, no it isn’t. Chances are, if you haven’t been asked for money, it’s because you’re the one always the retail price short of a bottle of Lambrini. The problem with the place is that you get so used to it. It doesn’t seem all that bad because you utterly become enveloped in it, where the hell are you going to run to? Milton Keynes? You accept it, force jingoistic bile from the pit of your stomach to it’s defence, you become PART of it.
I moved, at last, to a little town in the north of England recently, and it actually came as a shock that the childrens’ play areas were not being used as hangouts for heroin addicts, that there was no mental hospital near the primary school, that I didn’t live down the street from a brothal. Get the hell out, it doesn’t matter if you think you love it. You don’t. You really, REALLY DON’T.
Dc Rio, as much as I hate to disagree with someone who puts such a lovely spin on a terrible place, this is not a phase. These people are having children. These CHILDREN are having children. It cannot possibly pass when kids are growing up with parents who’ve not grown up, and think books are great coasters, and some of the longer words in Heat magazine are a challenge. Here’s a social experiment for you, why not stand outside Waterstones, and see just how many young mums pop in to pick up something to wet their youngsters literary appetite?
Then stand outside JobseekersPlus and justify that festering sore of a town.
there’s something in the water in Northampton. It’s the most unfreindly town I’ve lived in.The locals will
fight over anything,this goes from the young to the old…possibly the result of tiny minds and small lives.
I can’t wait to get a long way from it.
dc rio, i dont agree with your comment.
northampton is a crap hole and its getting worse all the time, the council spend pointless money on shit and close the towns best places like radlands, soundhaus and the grinder. Now they’ve gone and moved the balloon festival to chav ridden billing aquadrome because they cant afford to have the shitty racehorse anymore!
i hate the place to death, got nothing going for it and its in serious need of a revamp. The only good stores are two seasons and pmt, everything else is either closed or really shit lol.
id much rather go mk for shopping, and a job! no great young places to work at or hang out in northampton ‘chavhampton’.
I was born and raised in Northampton and also continue to live there. Northampton may have It’s bad points but It also has It’s good points. As does every other town, city and village everywhere.
Abington Street does have a few youths, also branded ‘chavs’, here and there but It’s nowhere near as bad as It used to be. The youths of nowadays are only going through a phase which will pass eventually. When’s the last time we’ve seen an adult ‘chav’ hanging around at the top of Abington street. They will learn like everyone else and come to realise that there’s a lot more to life than loitering Abington street. Everyone need second chances.
Abington street may be the main place where these ‘chavs’ decide to hang out, but there is never an overpowering number of them, and the number are decreasing as the days go on.
The Weston Favell centre has been refurbished since the article was first published and Is now very clean, fresh and new. There are plenty of well known shops and the whole atmosphere of the centre is very friendly and welcoming. I visit the centre frequently and every time I visit, I do not see any ‘chavs’ or youths hanging out. Only families and friends shopping in the many shops or relaxing in the cafes and food stores.
The Grosvenor centre has also had a few changes and is now purely a shopping centre where shoppers come to have a good time, and of course, shop!
There have recently been plans – which have been given the go ahead – to update and refurbish not only the shopping centres but the market square and quite a lot of the town centre.
Wellingborough Road can now be seen as more of an extention to the town centre with an additional food district. Wellingborough Road is home to shops and businesses that are not as big as the high street retail stores, but that have the same quality. It is also home to many quality resturants and take aways all with a unique menu and different flavours from around the world.
The Sixfields multiplex now has more of a welcoming family environment to It. It has entertainment venues such as the Cinema or Tenpin Bowling, resturants such as Bella Itallia, TGI Fridays, Red Hot, Pizza Hut and even McDonalds If you’re in a rush, supermarkets, stores like Boots, and even a football stadium. So Sixfields has everything a family would need.
In the original article, It mentions mid-seventies architecture. There Is fair amount of architecture around the town, which I think Is a wonderful historic feature of Northampton. The past is fasinating and some of Northampton’s past can be seen and admired.
So to conclude, Northampton may have a slight ‘chav’ problem, but compared to everything else that Northampton has to offer, It’s a small price to pay.
Judging by ‘Elo’s inability to write in proper English and the fact that they don’t see anything wrong with Northampton, I think it’s evident to even the biggest retard that they must be a chav.
PS: The reason nobody ever asked you whether they could borrow 30p is because you are a dirty moneyless chav yourself!
What the hell
im really annoyed about this and yes i no im commenting late
it is virtually impossible to walk from Abington Square to Abington Park without being accosted by some zit-faced, trakkie-clad lowlife asking for “30p so I can phone me mum” or offering to buy a cigarette from you.
why lie because i walk past there like ever day and i have never been asked for money
and if northampton is sutch a scum town move out of it then you prick
if you’r going to come to northampton f**king concintrat on the good stuff
you came to northampton in seacrch for bad sooo f**k you losers
mate im a student at northampton uni and lived there for 3 years and i agree with everything the guys above have said. Its a scum town where most people look incest. If it wernt for the uni, it would be even more of a shit hole!!!
you do realise that people who are commenting on this thing giving negative feedback proberly have never even been to northampton so really they cant say anything and the time when your refering to about walking up abington street was peoberly in the middle of the night which yeh u proberly will get mugged but your basically set yourself up for it so cmon dpont go throwing shit around if you have no idea on what your talking about. sort your fuckin life out !!!! cos its twats like ypou giving us a bad name
For a start, it would help if you wrote in proper English.
im from northampton my self born n raised! im onli 13 and yeh i may write differently and use different slag words than you but still we arent as chavvy town as u make out? yeh im 13 yeh i live in northampton but buy my clothes frm warehouse? so tell me how is that chavvy? yeh alot more peaople are smokin nowadayz includin 12 yr old gurls and boiiz it happens evry were u cant help that perosnally i wana clear northampton of its chavvy name and this is me trying… xXx
The last time I dared to walk Abington Street, 12 year old chavettes blew cigarette smoke over my chips. Probably envy over me having a hot meal? Another thing to add to the list is notorious prostitute 50p Lil, often seen pissing and shitting around town, wiping her poo smeared arse with newspaper found in a nearby by bin.