The Knowhere Guide

Other Stuff in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire*

High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire Stuff You Don't Get Anywhere Else

The Stuff We Can't Fit In Somewhere Else

• Has anyone else noticed just how many crazy people there are here?
• HI BLACK GUY WITH THE MOHAWK ALL THO IM SAD TO SAY IT SEEMS TO BE GETTING LESS VISABLE IN YOUR OLD AGE.
• whatever happened to the "western sector" and whose brilliant idea was the fountain?
• wycombe is a decent place
• I came down here to start a new, hi-tech job, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. After three weeks I've had enough of High Wycombe, have handed in my notice and am going back to the West Country to get my life back. I didn't realise people lived like this. You poor, poor things. Listen, in nice parts of this fine country (and there are many) a house is described as having being in a 'sought-after' or 'desirable' location if it is in a NICE AREA. Here it seems to mean the hoouse is near to the fastest motorway or railway out of town. Recently I viewed a few houses here which wouldn't give you much change from a quarter-mil. I tell you this, to get the same types of house would cost you 130k in Dorset, probably 90 - 100k in Yorkshire, and get this - those places are actually NICE to live in. AND you can earn almost the same salary. I have lived, studied and worked all over the UK and this place is just plain wrong.
• high wycombe has a higher crime rate per square mile than new york
• there is a huge divide between the kevs and the grungers. mostly the kevs treating grungers like scum. and robbing them.
• re:Best place to sledge: Tom Burt's Hill, past the gasworks. Yeah would be IF, 1 - it had more than 10 snowflakes a year 2 - there were no tralvellers in residence
• DO NOT COME HERE. I CANNOT SAY THIS STRONGLY ENOUGH. THIS IS THE WORST TOWN IN BRITAIN, AND THE ONLY THING KEEPING ME HERE IS THE FOOTBALL TEAM AND I CAN'T GET INTO UNI!!! IF YOU MUST, WATCH THE TEAM THEN LEAVE!!! THERE ARE MANY EXITS!!! GO! GO! SAVE YOURSELF OR YOU MAY NEVER ESCAPE!!!
• Wycombe stands out for several reasons: It's the only town in the country with it's own riot force. Aside from London it's the only place where MacDonald's had bouncers. It has the highest population on bikers and Wiccans in the country. The high street, etc is reputed to be built on a graveyard. Four people have been shot so far this year (04/2001). But it is what it is, if you get used to the idea it's not like anywhere else, you learn to love it!
• Castlefield estate is plain scary - Cressex and Holmer Farm estates are trying for second place on the petty crime league tables. Micklefield estate has the same problems, plus lower investment from the council, but still isn't as bad as the first three mentioned here - dunno why, though. Funny old place that has lost it's heart since the furniture industry went tits up. I moved out as soon as I could.
• Wycombe is dull, boring,old, dirty, expensive, dull, smelly, overun by pigeons, boring, lots of frighting people who sing at you in the bus station and Boring.
• We all agree that witha few exceptions " Wycombe is the oldest scrapings at the bottom of the s*** bucket"
• If you live in an expensive area and only go the expensive places its ok, the rest is a dive. Wycombe is slowly going up in the world due to rising property prices. Cafe Rouge, ASK, a new wine bar near the law courts, an ace noodle bar etc. slowly but surely its going UP in the world !
• Wycombe's great if you like seeing greasy shazzas in all of their flourescent fila glory smokin endless fags, calling adidas adonises called 'dwayne' on their mobiles with permanent 'wanna slap?' expressions on their faces. Perfect for tips on topknots, d.i.y 'fix ya argos bought gold jewellery' techniques, elecution lessons (awrite babe, 'ows ya doin' kev?) and children's birthday parties. Who said Wycombe didn't have enough street entertainment?!
• Its really a nice place with not a lot to do. And a lot of idiots that say Innit into Mobile phones and think they rule the place.
• Goths are cool section
• Overall Wycombe is OK. But is let down by some crap inhabitants that litter the streets and make what is really a scenic valley town into a cesspit of pointless attitude, Stolen BMW's and Mobile Phones!
• Wycombe is a great place but it's worth getting out of town towards the villages. I have been born and brought up in the West Wycombe/Stokenchurch area and people need to see these kind of places to appreciate all that Wycombe has to offer.
• Go to the Rye playground late in the evening to get a glimpse of other people getting their rocks off.....!
• I have lived in Wycombe about 4 years, it is like any big town, if you live in the expensive areas then you see no problems. If you go to cafes and the theatre there is no agro, the pubs are full of drunks - like most places. If you like pubbing then go to marlow or henley which are down the road and much more civilised. Wycombe is slowly becoming divided due to rising house prices versus large council estates, more cafes and restaurants are appearing BUT the odd strangely dressed nutter can still be seen around town. In short, treat it like london, avoid the dodgy bits !
• Did you know that HW has the largest retaining wall in Europe, it prevents Amersham hill Falling on top of the railway , quite important if you are particular about leaving in a hurray from our wonderful town!!!
• My family and ancestors have lived in High Wycombe for many generations, and had a lot to do with the furniture industry there. Yes, most of Bucks is interbred. We've migrated a whole 10 miles away to Chalfont, which is also here on KNOWHERE. High Wycombe is a dump. It IS even worse than Aylesbury, and those concrete balls are revolting. Also RGS is crap. That being because I have just left DCGS in Amersham. ElevenSEVENTY are actually quite a good radio station though. - Tim D
• GRAFFITI:Some of Wycombe's best at Sunny Spot
• Wycombe struggles to improve despite a hopeless council focussed on discouraging motorists from the wealthy surrounding areas from coming to town, and offering maximum opportunity and flexibility to the multi-racial community which has taken over the centre of the town and who are dissaffected. Native Wycombites have become cynical and tired and so exacerbate the problem themselves.
• Granted, I may be a Yank who's as thick as a whale omlette, but I really enjoyed the two years I spent in High Wycombe (from 1991-1993). I enjoyed walking down the path from the US air base into the town centre and just taking in some of the atmosphere and locale of the place. If you really think HW is a garbage dump, I'll gladly swap locales with you (I live in Benton Harbor, MI...murder capital of the U.S. per capita)...anyhow, just thought I'd throw an outsider's perspective in there...I plan on coming back for New Years', so look for the blond Yank if you have any questions/comments/desire to scrap/desire to buy me a pint/desire to kiss me (ladies only)/etc. --Kurt (kurt1@qtm.net)
• Did you know... Wycombe has more CCTV cameras than any other town in Britain!
• I have lived in Wycombe for 28 years (my whole life). I have live in other areas for periods of 1 to 4 months like Bristol, Birmingham, London, and I can honestly say that Wycombe is a good place to 'Live' but not to socialise. In fact I hardley ever go out to any of the pubs in Wycombe because they are so shite! London here I come...
• I forgot to add my name & email address to the info I just sent in ...the one listing all the "famous" junglists/rappers etc from Wycombe.
• While admitting that it is not exactly Monte Carlo, I think all this talk of the "Wycombe curse" etc is complete twaddle. So Oxford Road is not exactly Oxford Street - if that is how you judge a town we would all end up living in the Metrocentre or Brent Cross. Just for the record there is a theatre, six screen cinema, several decent pubs (particularly the Rose & Crown) plus good local beer, the Blues, nice countryside, and even three naff nightclubs. Its not packed with tourists, its well served by public transport and Alan Smith is now only an evil memory. Clearly those sophisticates who need a 24 hour club scene would do well to give the place a miss, perhaps they should try Blackpool instead? One word of warning though - the crispy Mongloian lamb in the Peking Inn is most certainly not crispy, and I doubt it is from Mongolia either.
• C'mon guys! High Wycombe isn't that bad. I have lived here all my life (I know, I know!) and it is actually quite a good place. The recent additions have livened the place up and the Western Sector Development should (!) make HW rock. The people who go around in souped up metros with darkened windows playing crap music and trying to look hard are VERY sad. I won't mention the name of the place but if you go to a certain club make sure you don't get your coat pissed on. Someone I know was a victim. Just stay away from dodgy areas at night, make sure you look as though you can handle anything and you'll be fine......and there is nothing wrong with the Royal Grammar School! It's excellent. Have a good life.....see you around.
• world famous for witchcraft and stuff like that
• 20 years saying "I've got to get out of this toilet". Finally managed to escape the Wycombe Curse and happily living in London... Hope to go back as little as possible.
• Come on Wycombe is not that bad. I agree the moronic minority do fuck it up a bit and you do need the physical dexsterity of an olympic athlete to plod up and down those hills each and every day. The so called 'curse' of Wycombe is bollocks, ive left and returned several times and have been quite happy to do so i could leave forever or stay forever. All the people who slag Wycombe are here out of choice, if it's that bad why dont you go and stop grumbling, there's no trap it's bollocks. True Wycombe is not that flash, it's no London, but if thats what you want go there and stop taking my seat in the Antelope. If you want worse there are many, start with Milton Keynes, Slough, Amersham, Manchester, Liverpool etc etc. If you dont like my town stop grumbling or fuck off
• Am in Trieste, Italy at the moment studying.Think it might actually be more dead than the village. Actually miss Little Chalfont-weird!!
• I always thought Wycombe was OK as a place to work, but I wouldn't want to live there
• For all everybody has said about High Wycombe I spent 28 years quite happy. Mind you I am going back to the 60's. Before I lived in HW I originated from Malta. The only problem that comes to mind is the Police as they are very unsociable, the people were very friendly and you could always find a job. I am back living in Malta now but I still wish I lived there. High Wycombe is not as bad as people make out.
• High Wycombe isn't so bad. It has quite a high Cult population, and lots of wierd people, but at the end of the day, if there were no students, with an underground night life High Wycombe would be a ghost town. There is not much to do in the day, bar hanging around the town or drinking in the Hobgoblin or the Antelope (the only two pubs worth mentioning though there is a Firkin pub and a Hoggs Head opening soon). Mostly stay in a late opening pub, Antelope or Goblin, have a drink, then follow the crowds of people up to London to club and Party! Thats the best of it!
  Oh, it's supposed to be quite Haunted, the Antelope pub most certainly is and there are lots of interesting ghost, and nasty experiences type stories to be told, best to ask the drunkards whore in the pub all day every day!!
  Avoid areas such as Penn, they are all interbred. If you like the countryside, and stuff, head out to Chinner, Haddenham and Thame, they have a population of a ghost town, but they are pretty!
  In Cadsden, they have some wicked woods parties near a pub called the Plough, usually end up nicking the Plough's benches and using them on the fire, sometimes when there's a big crowd, you get the big soundsystem, and is cool.
  All in all, it aint that exciting, used to be very big with Bikers, and the Windsor Hells Angels take out The Nags Head (gig venue) and White Horse once in a while. Anyhow, make of it as you will, some of us have to live there!
• Let's be fair about High Wycombe. It's not JUST a dump. Nooooo, it's Britain's answer to the Bronx. The only decent people I've met were people who were either passing through (they thought HW was a service station on the way to London) or students who got out of there as quickly as they could. I've heard other people on the net, mention: THE WYCOMBE CURSE! Well, it DOES exist. Once you're there, you're life will self-destruct and the worst bit of it all is that you can't get out!!!! I was there for 3 years, 3 months, 2 days, 26 minutes and 15 seconds... and it was H-E-L-L! But wait! There is more... check out this URL for another view!http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/pgg/article/High+Wycombe,+Buckinghamshire,+England,+UK,+Earth Yes, that was an URL and not my shopping list. Anyway... my first fond memories of HW, were either the gunshots outside my house on the first weekend of being there or the knife pulled on me at lunch time? or... umm... oh yes, the joy rider going head on with a police riot van outside my flat. (Let's not forget the mental woman next door laughing at the wreck!) Ohhh such sweet memories...
• I felt I really had to respond to this article. Wycombe is a dump of the highest proportions. I worked there for four years and lived there for one until splitting up with my girlfriend. I got out fast as well and happened to land a nice little job in Bermuda which is quite a change from Wycombe. Wycombe is however slightly better than Slough (but not much). You should mention West Wycombe and in particular "The George and Dragon" which is probably one of the best pubs in the country and the food is magnificent. Also a lot of pubs in the surrounding areas. There were no clubs in Wycombe until last September unless you count the Bell (not) that place is a real shithole. Well give my love to Wycombe and especially Haines Watts Chartered Accountants, I'm going to stay in Bermuda thanks!
• Best place to sledge: Tom Burt's Hill, past the gasworks.
• Goth population decreasing. More housey/clubbing peeps.

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Last updated: 2008-07-25