Thetownend.com

Anyone ever been there / Lived there? Whats it like?

A lot like Swindon.

fucking shit hole.some surrounding areas are nice.

Slough in itself is awful

Awful,awful place, should be flattened and rebuilt.

Got a couple of really really good Italian delis though...

That seems a very strange wording of a sentence. Are you interested in philosophy by any chance?

A god-awful, hateful place. Even more concrete-y than swindon.

I lived there for just short of a year.  I wouldn't recommend it.

 In the words of 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 for 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 sports 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.

Betjeman quite liked Swindon...well railway Swindon..he even co wrote a History of Swindon to celebrate the 50th anniversary of amalgamation of Old and New Swindon into one borough in 1950.

Looking forward to your placement then Dave? :D

It's a total shithole.

If it is a placement, find somewhere in Maidenhead, and bus it back and forward.

Haha. I was

Was good to see you Saturday mate.

Had six weeks work in Slough a few years ago, my company arranged overnight accommodation Monday-Thursday.  After two days I told them to cancel it and I would travel everyday!!   They never did understand why, so I asked them to just visit the town and they would soon realise what an unfriendly dump it was!

Ah, cheers mate! Down there again tonight for the match. Was good to see you too - and was that Greener? It's been so long I've forgotten everyones names - bar you, Jim and Dan.

I live about 5 minutes from Slough, I try to avoid it as much as possible.  You'll probably hear about 10 different languages being spoken when you walk from one end of the high street to the other (if you don't get stabbed on the way that is).  I really can't emphasis enough how much of a shit hole it is.  If your in the area Windsor is much nicer!

It's a concrete grey hell hole that make Bracknell look appealing and Basingstoke positively a Utopian paradise.

Slough should really be pronounced Sluff. Because it sound a bit like slush. After snow goes bad, slush is a grey disappointing mess that nobody likes. Which also sums up Sluff.

Plus the traffic is always shit when I've been there.

Have a nice time :)

So in summary... the Swindon lot say that Slough is shit.

Sometimes life really does imitate art.

He was particularly fond of St Mark's church, I seem to remember.  Betjeman was also a bit of a snob, if truth be told.  In 'Motopolis', where he described the town/gown division in Oxford in the 1930s, he wrote:

'East Oxford, where the works are, beyond Magdalen Bridge, is indistinguishable from Swindon, Neasden or Tooting Bec.'

He wasn't trying to pay any compliments to Cowley there.

I used to have a place in Bracknell which was a horrible totally soulless non-town. Sometimes when it really got me down, I'd drive over to Slough to cheer myself up. It's that bad

Yeah, that was him, hoping to go up a bit more next year so should see you about more.

Slough really is a shit hole. From Cippenham to Langley the whole area is just a skid mark on the underpants of society. I can't think of any reason why anyone would need to go there. Maidenhead and Windsor are much nicer.

Isn't maidenhead by the seaside?

No.

Are we sure about this?

Are you thinking of Minehead, Dave?

That's Minehead

Oh. Quite possibly

Maidenhead is between Reading and Slough.

Oh right. I see now. How silly of i

Dave!! I can't believe after all this time I've only just realised your working for one of our clients!!!

Hahahaha

Mental!! Small world

Slough (west) is a real shit-hole, mind you not as bad as it was 40+ years ago, when you had clouds of smoke coming from the Horlicks and Mars factory chimneys. Apart from a few major companies the trading estate was made up with small dirty units, that has all changed these days and Slough Estates have totally modernised the area. Traffic lights through the industrial estate they can be a nightmare, a bit of useless information - if you drive at 25mph and go through the first light on green you will make them all.
The population of Slough is very cosmopolitan, about 25% white British at the most, the rest a mix of all-sorts. The eastern block have moved in big time over the last four or five years and you can walk down Slough High Street without hearing a word of English.
A favourite letter of mine published in The Windsor & Eton Express a couple of years ago stated:
We need to make sure these people from Eastern Europe can speak English before they are allowed to move into Slough it is not good for the local community. It was signed by Mr. Singh - it made me chuckle.
Dave to work in Slough I believe you will quite enjoy it, to live in the centre or west you would probably commit suicide within a week.
Move to the east of Slough and you have some very sought after property in beautiful countryside - Farnham Common, Stoke Poges.

PS I lived in Slough when I was 16, I had left my home in Windsor and the only place I could afford was a two-bedroom room, I moved out after 3 weeks. What a culture shock.

Thanks Dell. I lived in Slough for five months, then had enough and moved back to swindon to commute for a month. I didn't live too far from the horlicks factory, but it was a bit of a dive. Ace chinese takeaway just round the corner though.

I know what you mean about the traffic lights in the industrial estate. I came off the motorway too early once and had to drive through the industrial estate at half 8 in the morning. Took me half hour to get to where i work, opposite the police station. Madness, especially considering traffic lights only appear to be optional warnings for most drivers in slough

I wouldn't say 8.30 is too early.

Ho ho ho. I see what you did there

Deliver to ICI alot on the Wexham road...a blot if there ever was one,theres not much good about dear old Slough...the sewage works welcome dosnt enhance its status either.

Fucking hell Dave, I worked for 18 months in Westminster House on Windsor Rd, dead opposite the police station

We went through this at brentford didn't we ? :)

I work in Charter Court. I think its on the opposite side of the road to westminster house

Did I go to Brentford ?


Cant remember that !

I spent quite a few hours in that police station in my youth - drunk and disorderly and a mass punch up in Britwell - The Good Old Days!!!

Yess!!

You always see the slough police station on those police camera shows, and sometimes see my office 8)

In 7 days though i'll no longer have to come to slough. wooooohoooooooo