The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Barry, Glamorgan*

Barry, Glamorgan Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• Holm View Leisure Centre
• any of the 30's gems except for the one on the island trashed with upvc. The knap Pool.
• I loved Central park and had many adventures there. Now my daughter can't have those adventures. Not that I'd ever let her out of my sight in this town anyway.
• My favourite building has got to be the old town hall and library on king square, although thanks to our local councils "EXELENT" maintainance program it is soon to be demolished because it is so run down, it might be of interest to you to know that two buildings in barry have actually fallen down by themselfs in the last year, both of them on main roads! That is Barry council for you!
• the old fire station.
• Barry Railway Station - it gets you away !!
• barry town libary
• Barry Island Rollerdome
• The Ship Inn. Many happy memories. The one's I remember.

Demolish It Now Building

• All of Cwm Talwg, stuck up arseholes. Well most of Cwm Talwg I know some people there.
• The bloody fountain that caused such a fuss. Where could we improve Barry town??? try putting some water in the fountain duuuuh.
• Somerfield!
• Civic Offices, a building of corruption
• the carpark next to the old fire station.
• The ones at the Knap outdoor pool - before the council lets them fall down!
• Barry island pleasure park ( and its management )
• That block of flats on the Buttrills. You can see it for miles around and IT IS HIDEOUS.
• salvation army building barry it is an eyesore
• Civic Offices, and take all the Councillors with it. A bunch of people looking after them selves and not the best interests of the Town. Leader facing trial and sure to take more with himn , when they explain where all the money went, and why Barry Town football club had £86,000 of unauthorised Vale Council monies.
• Barry Boy's Comprehensive School.

The Best Things

• The Coast
• the out door pool down the knap had potential, but now it's all boarded up abandoned and decaying like the rest of the town.
• Everyone else in Wales lets you do what you want if they hear you're from Barry.
• Barry comes under fire all the time whether it be youth crime, lack of facilities or just the fact that a lot of things are so run down but the truth is there is no where else I would have rather grown up. I'm 21 now and I've met a lot of people from a lot of places and I realise that they havent had anything like a "Barry" life and even now I'm leaving Barry because of my husbands job and I'm going to see the world I know I'll always come home to Barry it has made me what I am and I like it.
• Barry is great with tons of stuff to do and if you can't find it in Barry you are sure to find it close by, which is sometimes better cos u don't sh*t on your own doorstep, do you?
• The best things about Barry are...er...um...Porthkerry I suppose and the fact that it is near an airport and major rail connections so you can get the f**k out.
• As a Canadian who was lucky enough to visit my relatives in Barry (and the rest of Britain), I was really surprised to hear all the negative things about Barry. Sure, I wouldn't go wandering the streets by myself at midnight, but I wouldn't do that here in Canada either. Personally, I love the beach at the old harbour. I spent many happy days there as a child, and having the fairground right next to it was an added bonus. I wouldn't say Barry's the most fascinating place to be if you're a teenager (or even older as I now am), but if you're kid, there's no better place to be and I'm sure everyone who's grown up there would agree.
• You're right by the Vale of Glamorgan - beautiful countryside and equally gorgeous pubs. The Blue Anchor in Aberthaw and the Fox & Hounds in Llancarfan come highly recommended.
• i could go on and on, but you know the best thig would be the people, yes there are some bad one's out there but the majority are kind happy and helpful, barry has been a holliday town for years and if the people were that bad the millions of holliday makers would not of come back.
• Barry Island. A wicked sandy beach called Whitmore Bay, Fairground, skating rink, Quasar, Harbour Amusement Centre for very latest machines. Porthkerry Country Park, Knap pebble beach, Romilly Park-----childhood football memories of 40-a-side games, a place full of nice people trying to do nice things, but with a very very small minority of people (about 20) who think they are the junior Krays, but our great Police keep them locked up....more power to the bizzies---keep our towm idiot free.
• You are guarenteed never to get bored as there is always something going on or something to do.
• Gibbonsdown residential estate was knocked down and new houses were built to accommodate all the former residents. Though to be honest some of them should have been accomodated in the chalets on that dreadful excuse of a holiday camp called Majestics. The Barry docks redevlopment program continues at a pace on par with continental drift. We all may be hit by a meteorite by the time its completed. As soon as its built with housing, restaruants, shopping facilities, DIY centres, Cinema's etc the better. Its about bloody time it was developed and will benefit the town immensely. Those who disagree are those who are diagnosed as suffering from Altzheimers or some other mental disorder. Some of the pubs are OK (ive been to most of them),My favourite is the 3 bells in Cadoxton (at least you'll get served quick and they do a range of good pub lunches and the beer doesnt taste as if its been modified). Barry also has agreat rail network and local bus service to almost anywhere, and if you get fed up of the locals then you can always go to Cardiff (much better). But at the end of the day I will still live here.
• Good points. Um... (I still live here)
• The Park Hotel (Park Crescent) on a Sunday evening - definitely the place to be if you don't mind being squashed.
• Firstly, Barry is good. I have lived here all my life so far and considering I'm a seventeen year old male of medium I.Q. I have had a wonderfully unclutered view of things up until recently. I aim with the help of some of my friends to change the somewhat gloomy idea of barry that the last substantial updater to this page had. (James)
  I'm seventeen too, I've lived here for ten years now after moving from Scotland. So far Barry has always proved to have what I want in it so unlike the last sadly disalusioned user I, and my colleagues, here in Barry are happy. (Dave)
  Hello. I would simply like to remind people Barry is not Hades. It is not Hell. It is not a cellar in Cromwell Street. No! Barry is good. Radiance pours forth from its majestic splendour. (Neil)
  Right thats quite enough of that. Lets get down to what you, the user, is really here for (unless you made an error typing 'Burry' on your net searcher). I should just like to clear one aesthetic point up, Barry no longer has the highest crime rate in Europe, indeed, thanks to several novel crime prevention techniques and strongly planned policing the crime levels have dropped considerably (You may have seen the town centres video camera net featured on ITV in the programme 'eyespy'). Barry isn't just the bouncing fun/night life capitol of the area, oh no! there is a host of other recreational activities, and days out to choose from. Barry has two major tourist beaches, Whitmore bay and jacksons bay, for long summers days. Both of these are within short walking distance of the Barry island resort and, of course, the funfair. This last attraction is under relatively new management and has been showing a marked improvement in recent years.
  If you want to do water sports the the old harbour is the place for you, there are a number of jetties and in the summer there is a large out door pool.
  For the more natrually minded there are two large country parks near to Barry. One, Porthkerry, is very large, and has all woods, streams grass, really super furry animals, and 18 hole pitch and put courses that are needed for a nice day out in the country. Cosmeston lakes, although not in Barry, is near enough to get a mention. Its quite big too and has, unsurprisingly a lake.
  And now I will give you a sample of the veritable plethora of things to do in this town.
  There is a Golf club on the port road. About 500m down the five mile lane is the famous welsh hawking centre. Further down the five mile lane The Amelia Trust farm is an intiative that allows unprivaliged city childrean to gain experiance of the workings of farms, (it's open to the public too). From Barry you may catch a regular boat to the Flat holm nature reserve. There is a large central leisure centre with two pools, a slide, squashcourts, a high tech gym and sauna/health spar. There is a healthy Saturday morning football league, and games are played at the Barry sports centre on Colcot Road.
  Talking about football....Barry Town football club became professional at the start of the '95/'96 season. We won the Welsh cup in '95 against Cardiff city, back when we were amateur and after a year of an average year we turned professional in order to compete with the rest of Europe. This lead to the winning of the league last season and another place in Europe. The ground (Jenner Park stadium) to hold in excess of 6000 supporters and has now got many new facilities. At the beginning of this season they were able to progress through the prelims of the U.E.F.A. cup culminating in a first round tie with Aberdeen (who we completely out played and should have beaten) Barry remain unbeaten and look on course for the treble this season (Jon)
  The point of all that is that because of this the morale of Barry as a town has raised considerably and the place is probably a lot happier now than it was when the last guy was writing about it.
  So in summary, I would just like to say "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilogogogoch" but I can't so instead I'll say "come to Barry, it's good, and any one who says it isn't is wrong".

The Worst Things

• the police ad their attitude
• Eminem wannabees and the barry "safe" crowd who haven't got two braincells to rub together, they all think they are black... nova driving w@£$nkers The barry attitude, respect you tossers
• THE DOG SHIT!-it's everywhere. LITTER-it's everywhere.
• the people who constantly harp on about how crap it is (which it blatently isn't) and then do NOTHING about it. i would love to overthrow Barry Town Council (REVOLUTION!!!!)because everyone inside is the most useless piece of shit with not an ounce of true interest and enthusiasm about what happens to this town. People should start taking positive action instead of moaning.
• The worst thing is the best the water it looks all full but it taste quite nice it got a tang to it that burns the back off your neck
• Gibbonsdown kids learning to spell, it detracts from their graffiti.
• Yhe baqd weather
• As you can see from most of the entries in this section, the worst thing about Barry is the peolple who live there. They take a pride in behaving in the most anti-social way they can and would go out of their way to do something unpleasant to anyone else.
• The people who live in the same street all their lives, don't bother thinking about which school to send their children, and generally think that the world ends on the outskirts of Barry. You know, the ones who go to Cardiff once a year to do their Xmas shopping. God help them if they need to take something back.
• People continuously moaning about the state of Barry when the are all guilty (as I am) of doing bugger all to get anything changed. I don't really think about problems of crime or vandalism because I live in a really nice area but it's up to people to control their kids (who contrubute GREATLY to Barry's problems) and to improve their area. Not all of Barry is a dump (although I admit many places are) and the good places are often overlooked. I know a lot of people from neighbouring towns who really look down on Barry yet I have a nicer home and surrounding area than a lot of them. People can say what they like about Barry because if they say it's a dump it probably means they live in a crappy area and what does that say about them?
• The holiday makers, that have been prevoiusly described 'as in their millions' is a load of old tosh. No holiday makers, except the odd one or two holiday in Barry. Come on, lets face it, Barry is a dump. The Vale of Glamorgan Council is the worst in Wales for corruption. The police do nothing, criminals get away with crime. My car got stolen, and all the police could do is drive past it. The litter, dogs mess, is desgusting. The Vibe disco that is held in the Memo Hall, atracts underage drinkers, drugs, and the tartiest slappers i have ever seen.
• The people! They really are the worst scum on the planet.They should drop a bomb on Barry and put it out of its misery.
• The Council. We're a defeated town, down in the dust, and very few of us are even attempting to stand up!
• barry has to have the most mums under the age of 18 bludging of tax payers in the Uk. the only way to fit in is to wear some sort of ugly body metal, favs seem to be nose, belly, ears etc you name it the'll piece it ! unless it slows down baby bratt prodction ! If russia has any spare nukes this dump really needs one
• Well, how much space have I got? Without a doubt its the people. Thugs and muttish women dressed in flimsy shellsuits. They have watery blue eyes(this is a result of generations of eating processed orange food ie. fishfingers, beans, orange squash etc.) The pubs are shit and mostly dangerous, populated by criminals or stuck up arseholes, accordingly. I left a few years ago and since then my quality of life has improved dramatically.
• People can be extremely narrow-minded. If you're a teenage boy for God's sake don't EVER try and come out as being gay! It will ruin your life in Barry.
• yes i suppose the crime, but with the camare's now installed it only has got better, but i think the one that stands out would be the town center, empty shop's. and rotten building's
• The way the old town hall has been allowed to fall into dereliction. An attractive building has turned into a serious eyesore through local politicians' indecision.
• Without doubt, the corrupt Councillors and Officials of the VALE OF GLAMORGAN COUNCIL......wait til May when you'll all be out on your arses, and probably into a cell near your leader Cllr Shaun Stringer.
• The police. A bunch of wan**rs.
• Barry Boys Comp. is the second biggest boy school in the UK and it unreally wild.DO NOT SENT YOUR CHILDREN THERE. They will NOT learn normal subjects, but insead they will learn how to break into a car, the best way to take a metal bar to someones face(and Im NOT joking), ALL the in and outs of drugs.But there they will learn how to fight(if they dont they WIll have the SHIT kick out of them) This school is so ruff other schools refuse to play them in sports(rugby).One game I played in when we started to loose the team decided FUCK THIS and started on them.(NICE stanping by Chad)After this the school was band for 4 weeks.
• Without a doubt the worst thing about Barry is the Huge chemical complex (reference project genesis) that has mushroomed up over the last few years. I doubt it very much if it totally safe. I mean Does anyone recal Bohpal in India which went "bang". Mind you if the same thing happened in Barry then at least it would take out the criminals with it. By all accounts property values on the Sully greenbelt area has dropped and on some days you can smell odd fumes in the air along the Bendrick Road. Some of the shops in Holton road are in a really bad condition, they may look ok in downtown Cairo or Kinshasa perhaps, but it isnt good. The local Council should be ashamed of themeselves. Relative high unemployment and lack of facilities for teenagers with low self esteem only promotes petty crime and yes we've had plenty of bit and pieces stolen from my parents cars and on the better days the whole car has been stolen. Fact.Dont eat from the Bospherous Kebab shop downtown near the power station unless you want the screaming shits, go home and have beans on toast instead. Local council tax has increased by about 10%, but dont expect a 10% increase in council efficiency. Some of the Local girls think that they are really beautiful and that you'd be prepared to give up your job for them (sorry sweeties!!!) others try to ignore the fact that they are dogs by hanging around with like minded dogs. I really do feel sorry for the residents who live in High street who wake up the next day to find that their porchways has been used as a urinal. Car joyriders, helicopter patrols (not fitted with surface to air missiles) make regular flyby's.
• Quid's Inn - one of the bouncers was shot dead in 1994. It's not just car crime...
• The kids in this town, when bunking off school, enjoy themselves by getting drunk on meths and smashing your car up. I have never once parked in a public place in Barry and not have my car tampered with. Barry is the Harlem of Wales, populated by the shell suited and pencil mustached. The only notable place is Barry Island, which has the closest fairground to Cardiff and a not a too bad beach. The place to go to drink warm lager while wearing Union Jack boxers in the summer.
• NOTHING GOOD about this place. DONT GO drinking on a Friday.
• This town has the highest per capita crime rate in Europe (official statistic). It is best avoided at ALL COSTS. DO NOT visit Barry, but if you do, STAY IN YOUR CAR and lock all doors and windows. Barry is the most God-forsaken hell-hole one's worst nightmares could ever conjur up.
• Bad points. Lots...

The Knowhere Guide started out as a list of places to skateboard in the UK. It is a compilation of (unedited) information and views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional tourist guide!

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Credits

Last updated: 2007-12-19