A BLOOMIN' DISGRACE

Have a look at Londonderry - voted tops in a UK wide competition to find the prettiest city in the UK! Now I was wondering if the judges suffered from some visual impairment, or perhaps had been drunk when making the decision. Londonderry City Centre is a dirty hole, in my opinion.

Comments

[James G.]

It must have been the weather that decided it for them...

[DST]

Londonderry *could* be lovely... with a little judicious bulldozing in some areas. And in others, forcing the owners of C19th shirt factories that "mysteriously" burn or fall down to pay for their complete restoration.

[Colm]

Is it as pretty as Larne ?

[DST]

oh ... and ensuring that no architect from Northern Ireland should have a hand in any regeneration. That might help make L'derry look better.

Does NI have the worst architects in the world - or is that just an impression I get looking at the graceless cack-eyed lumps that squat randomly in Belfast, with no relation to traditional street layouts or older buildings.

And while I am on a rant. PVC windows. In old buildings. Look at the Electricity Board Shop on High Street in Belfast. Disgusting.

Evisceration too good for these people. Nonetheless I am prepared to perform it.

Very upset now.

[Colm]

"graceless cack-eyed lumps that squat randomly in Belfast,"

That's no way to refer to the women of that city!

[DST]

... It's like NI is engaged in an ugliness competition. With itself!

Let's rip out the character from our towns and cities. OK - if we can't actually pull down a building we can put in inappropriate windows. Or cover it with grafitti and "murals". Or pave the street outside with vile bacon-strip brick sets.

People won't want to come to L'derry or Belfast to see our modern rubbish. Or dual carriageways like the Dunbar Link - thanks DoE Roads Service. If they come at all it will be for the stuff that makes us fell different and welcoming and interesting to the eye.

God now I have completely lost it. Very angry - and distracted from my work.

Curse you, NI architects and townplanners.

[DST]

Jo excepted from that comment, obviously. Her racey boyish good looks and bi-sexual appeal could never be described as "graceless" or lumpen!

[Jo]

DST

I am please that you seem to be regaining some sense!! More flattery please, more!

[Colm]

Jo - ATW's Page 3 unisex icon!

[United Irelander]

Congratulations to Derry city.

[DST]

Derry City - isn't that a soccer team?

Did they win something?

[Colm]

Oh No I wondered if the London/Derry debate would raise it's ugly head?

[DST]

I was only joking!

I don't want to see that stroke thing getting underway again either!

But all the same, I am laughing manically as I type this...

[The Phantom]

One, it's not Londonderry

Two, its not dirty

Apart from these maatters, you have all your facts correct.

[David Vance]

One, as a matter of legal fact, it is Londonderry.

Two, each time I have visited the city centre, I found it dirty.

Apart from your first two sentences, you have your facts correct.

[Jo]

It is minging in around the Guildhall and that end of the city centre.

[United Irelander]

It's Derry to everybody except those trying to make a political point. ;)

Jo,

That's the bit I'm really talking about. The Maiden City may have it's charms but I don't see them.

[Foggy]

I'm a native of Derry, and I can categorically confirm that the place is anything but sweet smelling and easy on the eye!

The few Fridays that I do disembark from the 212 at Foyle Street, I am greeted with the most overpowering stench that's been hanging in the "Derry Air" of that particular enclave since I arrived on Planet Earth some 26 years ago!

When I eventually escape the clutches of the demon Foyle Street Fog in search of a Joe Baxi, I then have to negotiate the assault course that is the Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place. I’m afraid the dulcet tones of Gordon Burns are absent when I’m dodging patches of Vomit courtesy of the many Alcoholics that hang out there, the aforementioned alcho's themselves trying to bum a fag off a being who doesn’t even smoke (this argument never persuades them that I don’t actually have fags on me), or scores of underage teens throwing missiles and insults from the 300 years old walls.

Stevie Wonder with a cold must have been judging that contest!

[pakman]

It's a dump - blow the bridges and give it to the Irish state.

[DST]

I don't know why the Republican interlopers who moved into Londonderry (to escape their rural hovels and get low grade, but infinitely better, jobs in shirt factories) are so funny about the London part of the city's name.

I think it's hugely flattering that this unprepossessing backwater should be privileged with having London in its name.

I may be a native of Belfast but I fear my heart is now in London. It's the greatest city in the world and Londonderry should consider herself lucky to bask in its dimly reflected glory.

That said... I've always had a good time in derry and met some fantastic people.

[Nationalist]

London is a dirty hole so according to Davids comments Derry does reflect its semi-associated namesake.

[AT]

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[generic viagra]

What a great contest!