Ouch!!! This place really is bad. Hull may have been voted England’s crappiest town – and after a couple of visits I can see why – but Ipswich has worse violent crime stats than Hull by a whole person. It doesn’t look as rough as Hull, most of the estates are comprised of terraced and semi-detached council houses in reasonable condition with only two tower blocks and a few areas of higher rise more run-down ghetto style council housing: but rest assured it is nothing less than an absolute craptank.
I’d wager that a good 80% of Ipswich’s residential is comprised of council estate – of which there are 5 main areas – all of them overly large. Whitehouse which is the Whitton Estate at the ASDA end of town, Stoke Park which is (I think) East Ipswich up from the train station, Chantry Estate off the London Rd (other side of station), The Nacton Estate: proud home to Holywells High School which received a special plan of action from the gov’t after a pupil got stabbed in the neck on the playground; and the Eastbourne/ Gainsborough end of Ipswich which – if I am to believe the graffiti opposite Zest – plays host to a group of pseudo-intellectuals calling themselves “Da Gainsborough Massiv”.
Nice.
There seems to be a disproportianate amount of black kids, decked out in the London style of drainpipe jeans and constantly pulled-up hoodies, who all talk in a faux Jamaican accent despite having never left Ipswich in their lives. And wherever there’s black kids talking in fake carribean, there’s white kids talking in fake carribean. I would laugh but for the fact i’d probably get “bored” (that’s stabbed to those of you not fluent in “street”).
Along with all the council estate you’ve got non council estate areas like the old Norwich Road which is just as bad – lots of colourful looking OTT FUBU n gold chain ruud bwoys limping their way out of the flats by the Y junction.
McDonalds in the town centre on a night or even a day is always brimming with so called chavs, rude boys and loud girls with staffie terriers and babies in prams. You can’t get through the front door without sampling the colourful local dialect up close and personal – not that I’d want to get through the front door of McDonalds for any reason other than to leave the place. And the Ipswich McDonalds is particularly bad – from what I remember going in there as a kid – people eating their “meals” in the toilet? You bet! Whole families sitting on the staircase enjoying their supersize relish-laden ultra-fatty s**t-a-brick-BSE-burger? Oh yeah!
What a s**thouse.
I remember one night I was out in Ipswich with a couple of friends and just between the hours of 8 and 11 in the evening we had 4 or 5 fights started on us by random, aggressive wasters. One of which was over my friend throwing a chicken wing (the picnic benches outside KFC in cardinal park) at my other friend and a tool on the next bench thinking it was aimed at his friend – who himself wasn’t even bothered. The lad I was with would have stretched this other fella out as well – people in this town don’t care who’s bigger or stronger, it’s all fair game if your attitude’s the size of the home counties.
The whole town seems to have the “what the f**k you looking at?!?” attitude, and unfortunately most are the types to do something about it.
And then there’s Kartouche nightclub – in a nutshell it was once called hollywoods – had a massive drug problem – the doorteam murdered a customer – closed down. Reopened as Kartouche (which was banging when it first opened in the year of garage 99/2000). It soon degenerated into a coke-fuelled fightclub, lads would bring guns up with them, the (same) doorteam murdered another customer, a girl was chased out of the club and raped under the nearby ancaster bridge, the heavy-handed doorteam murdered yet another customer and finally it was closed down.
It has recently reopened as Zest – I’ll give it two more years.
I could write all day about this craphouse of a town, which because of its sprawling and continually growing size applied for city status and was turned down by a panel of judges who spent a week “taking in the sights” and decided after careful consideration that they didn’t award steaming s**tpiles with city awards; but I won’t. I’ll just dispense some invaluable advice: Go for a day, cos the shopping centre’s not bad, but try not to go there for a night out and certainly don’t move there to live.
Not bitter about it, I understand some people like to live there. Suffolk is actually a pretty county and it has some strong commercial capability, enhanced by its proximity to London.
But like I said (or posted three years ago), my observations about the place were very negative, and largely focused on the feckless inhabitants. Loud aggressive peasants who, in previous centuries, would have been kept in check by respect for the local gentry, the Church, patriotism etc.
When Charles Dickens described Ipswich in The Pickwick Papers it sounded like a sleepy but friendly market town. Now? There is a reason its on Chavtown, honey.
I live on the West Coast now, there are districts I wouldn’t drive in without a 9mm under my seat. Likewise, I would not walk around Ipswich at night unless I was packing. Sad.
I had the unfortunate experience of spending a few years (8 to be precise) of my childhood in Ipswich. It is a toilet and most of the people there are nothing but degenerate, racist scum. I lived in the Stopford Court, area and remember the years of racist abuse and violence, front door being kicked in in the middle of the night, groups of people (from a well-known local pub) wanting to fight me (8 years old) and my family. And then there’s the police, lazy, incompetent and racist, threatening my farther with arrest for defending himself and his family (what a giggle they must of had at our expense). However, that did not stop my farther from doing what he was supposed to do and when the p**i bashers came to do their bashing they got bashed by the p**i instead.
The sh*t continued for a couple years untill we moved to London and its been great ever since.
Wouldn’t piss on Ipswich if it was on fire!
Im not sure about this review..i was brought up in and around an east london council estate..moved to ipswich via a few places.Ipswich proberly has a few hotspots..but i dont see the amount of “chavs” or “rudeboys” that are around london..i find it to be s lot nicer,every town has these crime ridden areas mainly around the council estates..but please..dont even put it in a category of london,birmingham and the big cities..must be a local crew member that wrote the article to hype up his towns status ..!
pip, I also went to Holywells High school (now a prison / academy apparently), I straight-A’d everything. How I did it, I’ll never know – The rubbish I was at school with, I had many “associates” – I would NEVER hate my kids so much as to send them there. Ipswich is such a hole, those who disagree are critically ignorant, or maybe just have incredibly low standards & expectations. There’s a comment above, which states “excruciating arrogance of council-estate scum” – bang on the money.
The issue is, in UK you need to be lucky to find a good cheap place to live, the cheapest are council state which normally are full with problems. The whole country in decline regarding moral values and respect….i´m foreigner and i see that the part of the trouble are ENGLISH, very white and ignorant….of course there are immigrants who are scum bags as well..but..is like in any place….i believe 100% that outside uk, europe is much less violent and pleasent to live. The rich and high medium classe living in their world here…so…they dont experience too many problems….i recommend….go to live elsewhere in Europe….France, Spain, Swiss, Germany, Croatia……Italy….Poland…Finland…but here is getting worse and worse…..small villages still the best choice inless if you have a lot of money to live in rich boroughs.
I only moved to ipswich in 2009, I’ve lived in quite a few places across the UK including Dundee, Wolverhampton, high Wycombe, london I can honestly say ipswich is the nicest place I’ve ever lived, the people are nice, the town is beautiful as are the parks, hardly any council estates so gods knows what the 1st guy is on about. Chavs, and neds and all the other trouble makers can be found In every town city and village in the country but at least in ipswich the number is small and I know for a fact that ipswich has one of the lowest crime figures in the uk. So it looks like a few of the people on here need to go and check their facts and visit some really dodgy towns and cities and then they might appreciate what they have.
LOL, Well funny made me laugh, a lot.
I live in Ipswich and have spent most my life here with stints in portsmouth, parts of london, manchester and belfast as well as travelling the world for a year but in all honesty Ipswich is still my favourite place, yes it has it downs just like anywhere else you go, but it has a lot of ups, too many to put in here, i suggest you visit and explore for yourselves
I was born`n`bred in Ipswich but have travelled widely around the UK.
Ipswich has definately changed and appears to have become a more violent place to live but I put it down to the massive influx of immigrants and drugs. Take Norwich Rd for example? Most murders are drug related or committed by immigrants. Peace loving people aren`t really affected.
Having said that, I love Ipswich for what it is. It is a comparitively safe town when compared to other places.
Suffolk people are best described by the phrase ” we dowen`t lyke stran-gers rownd ere” and its true that Suffolk folk appear much more “offish” to outsiders than other places. Its a fact. I am one. Take the time to get to know us before making judgement.
I`d also like to comment about the bouncer who committed murder. I went to school with him. His name was Lewis and he was not a tough ruthless murderer on the inside. One time, aged about 17, we were cutting thru Chantry park late at night in the dark; he was petrified. A scared little boy who held onto my arm and hand, virtually in tears until we got out, where he then returned to his “I`M HARD” persona.
At the time of the murder he was on steroids to bulk himself up and I knew the reason for this was that inside, he was still that scared little boy trying to live up to his elder brother`s reputation and showing how “hard” he really was. He failed miserably and took advantage of his power over a weaker person. Basically a bully who “got off” on the feeling of dominating a smaller, weaker man while being full of steroid testosterones which prevented him from knowing when to stop. A poor excuse for a man and a disgusting mistake that should never have happened.
So, you cannot blame a whole town for the actions of one idiot. As for the gun incident at Kartouche, that was London boys not locals…
The moral of the story is…. if you don`t like Ipswich or are a little scared of being out in public…. F**K OFF back to where you came from and don`t bitch about a town that has Alf Ramsey, Bobby Robson and Giles as previous proud residents.
My first question is are you still alive??
after reading your post I was annoyed and angry at what you had to say. There are much worse places to live then ipswich I myself come from ipswich and have lived here on and off for most of my life. ipswich is not mostly council estates or even council owned if you bothered to look before you opened your mouth you would see that. Also the comments you made about the black kids and there fake jamaican accents I thought that took the piss I am a youth worker and the kids i work with don’t talk like that and the ones that do are often of west indian heritage and there parents or grandparents have an accent so they speak the same. My 3 children are of duel heritage and do not speak in fake accents. Your comment on getting “bored” I no alot of street slang and I must say I have never heard that saying before.
And lastly do your research there was not 3 murders by the same door staff at the hollywoods kartouche and zest club there was 1 murder committed by a doorman and his friend I no this as I no the persons involved as I once did the door in various clubs. and that rape correct me if i am wrong but did it not turn out to be a fake story? can’t remember but the reason zest was closed down was because of some pricks from london who came down and had a shoot out but that happens at clubs all over the country.
in a nut shell I think you are a sad,lonely,racist,bitter little man who has nothing better to do then moan about nothing really if you really want to see bad areas why don’t yoou try some areas in london or manchester or something and try running your mouth about them.
you wouldn’t last 5 seconds
You’re hardly a good example. There ? try their !
Duel ? what trying to kill each other , it’s dual you illiterate.
Was he wrong talking about the council estates, No
Was he wrong about Feral youths………..No
McDonalds in the town centre, I don’t think so.
I’m sorry to say but there is a sizeable minority who have a chip on their shoulder and feel violence is the best way of dealing with it.
Ippy 1 you’re a youth worker, therefore it’s not surprising that you don’t like adverse comments about your ‘clients’
You present a very poor argument.
Anybody who has lived in ‘Ippy’ for any length of time, knows it is a hole. I spent 12 years working all over town, & know it intimately. Massive, massive hole, I’m leaving in a few months for more rural pastures. & I’ll never EVER come back to this pit. All the best people I’ve known & worked with, are all long gone. & they don’t come back either. I’ll finish this in true Ippy-Chavtastic style, “F**K OFF IPPY, YOU C**THOLE OF A TOWN, OR I’LL STAB YA – YEA???”
Attack the chav-scum at your peril, unless armed or you can at least equalise the numbers, chav-scum prefer the odds to be 20-1 minimum, 30-1 is better, but if you have a mate or two with you and the odds become say 20-5 or 6 you’ll have little trouble though you may get Stanley knifed around the knee caps by the brave 8 year olds who operate the standard pack mentality, useless on their own but in a crowd they’re very brave!
SCUM!
I dunno… me and my ex split up over me not wanting to move to that place… I really didn’t like the vibe and a lot of the people I met there had never left which I found really shocking as it isn’t all that big. I don’t doubt some people from Ipswich do move around, but in all honesty, if you can settle down anywhere why would you chose Ipswich of all places? If it is your home town, I get it… kind of. But, there are so many beautiful places in the world, let alone the country. I am sure there is worse, but I am yet to see them.
Hello Don,I had the very sickening misfortune of having to live there for 9 years before I left.The attitude was disgusting,excrutiatingly irritating,extremely spiteful,vicious & has left me psychologically hurt for life.i have been living abroad now for 20 years & I miss the village i lived in before Ipswich because in the village the people were decent.The worst ones were that spiteful managerial crowd at Burgher king,the snobbery of places like Amberstone “books” & Willis Coroon.They took fiendish delight in putting me down because I am Catholic-{goading & spite the order of the day}
I’ve lived in Ipswich all my life and never had a problem with it. Of course there are estates that are worse than others, but there are towns and countries worse than others. If you have the attitude that everyone is ‘giving you well bad evils’ then you yourself are passing off negativity! How do you know what that person is thinking when they have a frown on their face. You shouldn’t pass judgement onto someone else just for their looks. And shame on the racist above. Just because someone has a different accent, doesn’t make them less english than you! The polish are the ones who are doing the jobs that the ‘chavs’ aren’t!! The problem with Ipswich isn’t due to the town, it’s due to people like ‘chloe’ that think they are above everyone else.
I’m disgraced by what i have read today, clearly you have lived in Ipswich before. My children attended Holywells high school, now known as Ipswich academy, and has never had any trouble my son left with excellent GCSEs and i’m expecting me daughter to do the same. They’ve never hung round street corners. and you are making Ipswich sound worse than it actually is,I’ve lived in Ipswich for over 30 years now.
All of you stop complaining. There are far worse places in the world to live. All of this is pointless prattle which does no more than demonstrate what easy, comfortable lives you all lead (myself included). I was born and raised in Ipswich and moved away to broaden my horizons, not because I considered it “A s**thole”. There is something unique about each and every place and you should embrace that experience as it adds to your understanding of the world. Ipswich in still a nice place to live by any standard. As for the negative media coverage think about what sells papers. Most places get into the news for the wrong reasons. I think Ipswich is alright.
Look, I think you all need to get over yourselves, yeah Ipswich is a s**thole as are most English cities, CHAV’s galore, but whilst you all concentrate on that you’re never gonna go forward, PLEASE PLEASE get real and for f**k’s sake life is not as peachy as you think whevever you are. (I live in Belgium) but jesus educate yourselves, learn a foreign language for example, ignorance is NOT bliss.
banana_man – Clearly you lived in Ipswich once upon a time and I’m guessing you’ve since moved away. You seem awfully bitter about the place, which leads me to believe you were perhaps violated in some way during your time here. I’ve lived in Ipswich most of my life with the exception of 2 years spent living in Thanet (which I can assure you is far worse on all fronts) and a year in Norwich. All in all it isn’t as bad as some of you are making out. It has it’s bad areas like most large towns or cities, but there are some nice parts too. For example, Kartouche/Zest was somewhere I avoided as a local. Being near the train station, it was often used by people from out of town and as someone correctly pointed out, the bad reputation was brought upon the place by gangs from London. One thing I will agree on is the annoying fake ‘London’ accent that some of the younger generation use, although at the same time it is amusing. Oh and be careful about dishing out English lessons to people, when your own grammar isn’t exactly perfect (I refer to you to your initial post). For your information I was educated at Stoke and got a ‘B’ in the subject – nothing special, granted – but the point is that I got a normal education, yet still managed to grasp the subject pretty well.
I moved from london to Ipswich 8 months ago!! I moved here for ‘A BETTER LIFE’ yerrrr right!!! Ipswich is a s**t hole!!! thats been covered up by a pretty little river and marina that runs through it. If anything i find ipswich worse than london (croydon)!!!
People are friendly in croydon not like here, get dirty looks, people walk around with smug faces and to be quite frank the closer you get to town the more heroin addicts you see…… further more prozzies and perverts AND NOT TO FORGET CHAVS!!!!! this place is full of em have never seen so many! Nobody talks bloody english, its either russian or polish???????
The shopping is s**t and the person who posted the 1st ad is right about macdonalds!!! ive been out 3 times since living here and NO MORE, the girls are so rude and stuck up!!! NO RESPECT FOR OTHERS!! People e posting that people round here are ‘tyring’ to be like londoners??? If they had actually been there they would realise that londoners take pride in their appearence dont all talk like dikeds. London all in all is a nicer friendlier place to live, not in ipswich which is full of begits!
DO NOT MOVE HERE……. maybe come for a day…. or just dont waste your time!!
I think you have a problem with racism not Ipswich you stupid bitch
Racist bitch, get over yourself, the fact that someone speaks another language does not make them less English. Maybe you should try it ignorant bitch. LOL GET OVER YOURSLEVES ENGLISH BASTARDS (AND YES I HAVE A BRITISH PASSPORT) ignorant bastards thanks f**k I’M PART OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION. RASTAFARIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Ipswich used to be ok, lived there all my working life
As with all large towns areas have become bad to live in. usally council estates deprived areas.
I lived on Chantry and watched its decline, from a clean well looked after estate to what it is today a breading ground for drug users and unsociable idiots all trying to be harder than the next.(don’t ever consider living on that estate).
Reports of nice place are placed by people living in private areas ie park road area who don’t see real life. there are to many foreign people, when visiting the town centre seldom hear English being spoken close your eyes and you beleive your in another country.
Moved away now but frequently return to visit my Children, seeing more problems and violence every time I return.
To many arrogant young,to many do gooders,to many blind and wealthy people outside the area’s in question with blinkers .
Unless you like violence, drugs,confrontation. KEEP AWAY becoming more of a crap place to live every day.
look at the map of Britian’ Ipswich is as it show’s
The arshole of Britian.
I’ve lived in Ipswich all my life and its nowhere near as bad as that arrgoant f**ker is making out! Zest/Kartouche was shut down because their customers don’t know their limits and get rowdy! Yes, in certain parts of the districts if you’re wondering around at night on your own, then you obviously will come across crime, but in what kind of a place could you be walking around in at 11pm on your own without worrying about being the centre of an attack? In the daytime, going around by yourself is perfectly safe. 80% of ipswich districts are council houses are they? It looks like you had a crap education then mate if you cant even look up statistics on the internet, its no way near 80%! Love, your no better than any of those ‘chav’s’ in macdonalds so stop bigging yourself up and trying to appear so much better than Ipswich because mate, your not half as popular. Stop running your mouth and go and re-sit your GCSE’s in a ridiculously overpriced school that will get you no better of an education than state schools. Ipswich doesn’t welcome people like you.
f**k off you f**king c**t back to that s**thole you came from your f**king scum!!
ENGLAND!!