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.
It must have been the weather that decided it for them...
Posted by: James G. | September 29, 2005 at 04:23 PM
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.
Posted by: DST | September 29, 2005 at 04:24 PM
Is it as pretty as Larne ?
Posted by: Colm | September 29, 2005 at 04:26 PM
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.
Posted by: DST | September 29, 2005 at 04:29 PM
"graceless cack-eyed lumps that squat randomly in Belfast,"
That's no way to refer to the women of that city!
Posted by: Colm | September 29, 2005 at 04:34 PM
... 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.
Posted by: DST | September 29, 2005 at 04:34 PM
Jo excepted from that comment, obviously. Her racey boyish good looks and bi-sexual appeal could never be described as "graceless" or lumpen!
Posted by: DST | September 29, 2005 at 04:36 PM
DST
I am please that you seem to be regaining some sense!! More flattery please, more!
Posted by: Jo | September 29, 2005 at 04:37 PM
Jo - ATW's Page 3 unisex icon!
Posted by: Colm | September 29, 2005 at 04:39 PM
Congratulations to Derry city.
Posted by: United Irelander | September 29, 2005 at 04:49 PM
Derry City - isn't that a soccer team?
Did they win something?
Posted by: DST | September 29, 2005 at 04:57 PM
Oh No I wondered if the London/Derry debate would raise it's ugly head?
Posted by: Colm | September 29, 2005 at 05:06 PM
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...
Posted by: DST | September 29, 2005 at 05:09 PM
One, it's not Londonderry
Two, its not dirty
Apart from these maatters, you have all your facts correct.
Posted by: The Phantom | September 29, 2005 at 07:22 PM
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.
Posted by: David Vance | September 29, 2005 at 07:24 PM
It is minging in around the Guildhall and that end of the city centre.
Posted by: Jo | September 29, 2005 at 07:33 PM
It's Derry to everybody except those trying to make a political point. ;)
Posted by: United Irelander | September 29, 2005 at 07:38 PM
Jo,
That's the bit I'm really talking about. The Maiden City may have it's charms but I don't see them.
Posted by: | September 29, 2005 at 07:52 PM
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!
Posted by: Foggy | September 29, 2005 at 09:04 PM
It's a dump - blow the bridges and give it to the Irish state.
Posted by: pakman | September 29, 2005 at 09:26 PM
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.
Posted by: DST | September 29, 2005 at 10:28 PM
London is a dirty hole so according to Davids comments Derry does reflect its semi-associated namesake.
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Posted by: AT | November 21, 2007 at 09:45 AM
What a great contest!
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