The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Bridgwater, Somerset*

Bridgwater, Somerset Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• the train station
• Palace!!
• Blake School - so many memories!
• there is a new asda which has opened which is the best building in bridgwater!
• Megabowl. It has DDR ^_^
• Castle house which will be on TV on restoration, every body vote for it. The oldest concrete building in the world.
• not really a building but all the chimneys in town have snakes going round them which is kinda cool. ohhh and shottie castle in blake gardens, my brother unknowingly had wedding photos taken in there I could never tell him what it was usually used for.
• Favourite building for me has to be corn hill. It is disgusting
• palace nightclub
• the cornhill market
• Galleries. I only noticed about a month ago myself, after 2 years of drinking there - go upstairs and look at the ceiling!! honestly its like being in Venice or somthing (you possibly have to be drunk to make this connection, but thats ok coz Lukey works in the top bar, and he'll sort you out with a "monkey brains" shot-cocktail).
• A pity they knocked down the YMCA building. (the old one).
• anything in penal orliel
• The old boarded up folley which is burnt out and now used as a hole for squatters, yes, the one with the demolition order for unsafe structure, round the back of Boots.
• argos
• Nat West Bank. On Pay Day.
• The old Amateurs shop (now sadly closed). If any one has seen the film cocoon they will understand this shop. The staff never got any older, even from when your Grandad went in there as a child! It was staffed by men who seemed to spend all their time leaning against the radiator and denying all knowledge of selling anything you asked for, even if it was in full view of both yourself and them.
• I don't live in bridgwater, I live in Puriton and I have to admit I will spend £5 to go to Taunton on the bus to avoid it and the bus still goes through Bridgwater centre!!! I am going to college in Taunton which will cost £175 a term to get there which just shows what one will do to stay as far away as poss' from 'Shits Ville' aka Bridgwater!!!!!!
• Bridgwater College. Only place (bar Admiral's) with decent people in it.
• Safeways..........Yea thats what I said Safeways , Broadway

Demolish It Now Building

• sydenham school (some other name now but still useless)
• Registry office, build a new one (which doesn't resemble something dodgy from the 50's/60's/70's???
• i think i would like to see one of the charity shops demilshed - no offence but we have too many on st. john street!
• Angel place should be flattened immediately. Also splash another modernist monstrosity, and parret house that contains evil argos.
• the mingin toilets should be demolished, half the population of gays and drug dealers hang out here
• The 'Rollercoaster' centre on Parkway. This was built to try and stop youths hanging around the shops but it obviously hasn't worked
• the old printers near macdonalds and the smellothane factory
• can i only pick one?
• every standing brick between spaxton & dunball
• It would have to be Bridgwater police station. Typical bad cop, bad cop mentality found generally in the Bill by the shifty ones on the take. Burn the building down with em all inside.
• I wish some body would demolish Tamlnys letting agency...they piss me right off. You rent from them and they think they own you.
• The Palace
• any down by chilton trinity technology college-the people kepp staring(perverts)
• smelly factory
• the Palace creche
• Toffs (Sorry, "TDF") not just coz of the obvious health-issues, but because the place sums up worst parts of the town. It MUST go, along with its exploitative entry policy (where "my voice has dropped" seems to be taken as a valid form of ID), rancid punters and god-awful play list (it's actually a tape of Orchard FM circa April '93 - somtimes the DJ goes for a pint and you hear that "Hi there its Chris..." advert or the Riders jingle start up before he runs back and fast-forwards to SCATMAN or Whigfield)
• I wouldnt like to see anywhere demolished- but would just like to see the town painted - smartened up. Why they spent millions on the rope walk, I'll never understand. All Bridgy needs is a good lick of paint!
• The block with argos in it.
• Chilton School! - Just for a laugh, even though I never wetn there!
• Lets see; the following estates: hamp, sydenham, eastover, northfield (particularly the high rise flats), newtown......... fuck it, the (w)hole of bridgwater!
• Hamp and Sydenham estates - to get rid of the majority of the criminals and dole bludgers in the area...
• Kwik-save
• The whole town...should only take a good gust of wind!
• The entire place should be demolished and started again. It really is the arm pit of the universe, full of decaying, seedy council estates (Rhode Lane, Parkway, Hamp, the list goes on...) and scruffy, obese, greasy, stinky dole-ites and freeloaders. They're all claiming every benefit going and working on the side. And, why do they all smell of rotting baked beans? Gross beyond compare. Not to mention all the thousands of single, under-age mums. I've never seen such a down-trodden hole. Flatten the entire repugnant cess pool, I say.
• The new B&Q - eyesore monstrosity and has replaced teh legendary Slocombes Nursey which was a Bridgwater Institution
• everything else not argos.
• Hamp Community, it needs to be demolished its a health risk !
• West Street flats definitely has that 1970's-concrete design look, doesn't it?
• Cellophane then maybe Bridgy wouldn't only be known for the smell!
• The whole place needs tarting up, badly.
• Can I say the whole town? Failing that, East Bridgwater Community school. (Sydenham to those who know.)
• East Bridgwater Community School
• Bridgwater tax office

The Best Things

• just to let all you non locals know,not everybody is related to each other,and if you took the time to visit the war memorial at kings square you would see that a lot of bridgwater men gave there lives for this country in almost all millitary campaigns in the last 100 years.this town is no different to any other working class town up and down the country.if you dont like this town then dont come here .
• good transport infastructure to get out to a nicer enviroment such as hackney or baghdad
• Bridgwaters weather is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get
• Some lovely scenery OUTSIDE.
• Carnival and cheap easy to get in pubs!! And all the funny weirdos!! (Ya have to laugh)
• The Rugby club, 'Spoons, my mum!
• Polden Virtual Shopping Mall on www.polden.com Shop securely from recognised UK companies
• they say soon the cellophane factory mite be knocked down which will get rid of the smell!!!
• The inbreds. They're everywhere!
• I've just seen the Environment Agency flood map for bridgwater, RESULT!
• Less dangerous than Taunton, which aint saying much.
• colour of the water in the river parret, level 7 computers, secret world animal rescue
• um it's crazy people. the carnival is something to be proud of I think.
• Bridgwater is a fantastic place full of interesting people, and once evolution catches up some of those inbreed fuckups should be ready to live in a pond
• Has anyone noticed how clean the windows are on the buses,thats because the locals licked 'em clean
• The best thing about Bridgwater is it would make a great location for an airport after it's been levelled
• Loads of scrubba dub dubba's!
• The best things has to be having about 1000 mates.
• The best thing you could do with bridgwater would be to turn it into a car park or airport for Taunton
• palace megabowl
• the locals
• drinking at the river parrett, the farmers market the carnival
• Without meaning to sound hypocritical (I now live in Taunton), Bridgwater aint actually that bad. Look what its got going for it...Carnival (the largest lit show on the planet), Carnival concerts (a bit of entertainment), Bridgwater Fair (the second biggest fair in England, to t he Goose Fair). Also I would just like to point out that I lived there for the first 18 years of my life and never had a single indecent assault til moving to Taunton!!!!!!! Be respectful of your town....you could be living in Manchesters Moss Side!!!!!
• The fact that the scales are starting to tip in the favour of half-decent people. As the college gets bigger and more popular it will atract more and more normal young people who have got more qualifications than an E in GCSE woodwork and a smack habit. Although alot of these decent people live in the villages and places like Burnham and Weston, some will HAVE to move here for work. Before you know it, they've started a normal family and will actually have somthing to say about the councils policy of re-locating all Sedgemoor's scumbag doleite families to Bridgy coz "its a hole already".
• the Labour Club. (Cider a £ a pint)
• Thompson Brothers Ironmongers - they sell everything
• the northern distribution road is the best thing to have in the town because of the traffic problems as for all the snobby bastards that live up wembdon and think there shit dont stink if they dont like it why dont they fuck off somewhere else and live.
• Bridgwater is actually a very pleasant town with a lot of history and atmosphere.
• The M5 is close by - so you can escape pretty quickly!
• The carnival !!
• Not applicable!
• the best bits - you can walk or stagger to everyting without having to drive anywhere,houses are cheap, fish n chips are good, a few new shops open ( and close ) every month - latest is a cool Thai style shop on Eastover, lots of mobile phone shops have opened up
• WHEN TONE VALE (THE NUT HOUSE) WAS CLOSED BRIDGWATER GOT A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF THE INMATES. THEY ARE GREAT FUN TO WATCH.DOSE THEM UP AN LET 'EM GO! THORAZINE I BELIEVE IS THEIR DRUG CHOICE.
• the likelyness of it being destroyed in a nuclear war.
• ???????? Good Take Away Food cheap housing
• Sorry, but Carnival. For those who like it, it's free and gets a lot of young people out and about raising money for light bulbs, and for those who don't....... well, it is optional you know!.
• The mad people, going out an getting hammered, the weirdness of the whole place which makes it unique, the beautiful countryside around it which makes a nice contrast, all the fond memories of growing up there and learning about life!

The Worst Things

• spending the first 14 years of my life there
• Well, no one seems to have mentioned that as well as a plastics factory (cellophane) we also have a nuclear power station not all that far away!!
• Too much bad stuff to list. In the words of another commentator - AVOID AVOID AVOID.
• It's all so grey. The poeple here look at you suspiciously if you wear colour or laugh on the street, and if you have an ambition KEEP IT TO YOURSELF they don't like that sort of rubbish here
• the people!! they creep me out a bit! and now there is a supposed 'flasher' on the loose in bridgwater!
• The inbreds. They're everywhere!
• lack of jobs and high house prices (Bridgwater really should be up north)
• The annoying people from hamp, sydenham or should i say vietnam and chilton that go around with their elver nets on the roof but still claim benefits grrrrr
• Bridgwater is full of pensioners from London, who are clogging up the health service, and taking over the housing system, all because they decide to 'retire' to the West Strangly, the 'Scope' Charity shop is raising money for people with cerebral palsy, but nobody in a wheelchair can get in there 'coz the shop has a huge step and no ramp! Ironic. The schools are now calling themselves 'Technical Colleges' in an attempt to sound better than they are.
• the council they have a fettish about digging up all the major roads for no apparent reason at least once if not twice a year ushally during the holiday season so as to cause as mutch misery as possible for anyone living here
• The smell, the loonies they are scary sometimes that dude that in the cardigan who checks the phoneboxes for changed once asked me if I'd like for him to take me from behind round an alley, I have never run so fast in my life some of them really do need homing.
• Take your pick
• nothing a "misguided" bomb wouldn't put right
• It stinks
• Loads of scrubba dub dubba's.
• Having 1000 mates
• about Bridgwater are generally that the ignorant people who have left the town for "greener" pastures. People like David Atkinson (son of Ron) who just return to this site to slag off the very place and people who made them what they are today... boring
• The inbreads walking loose
• celaphane peadophiles(i think but not sure)
• the locals
• the amount of pissheads there are the cinema the palace creche parking (or not)
• Entering Bridgwater
• The fact that for the time being, decent people are in a minority - but do bear with us. We'll win this town back yet (only a few hundred years ago, we we're bringing down monarchies and sailing all over the shop, so it goes in cycles, see)
• The people ( mainly from Taunton) who slag off Bridgwater but have never lived outside Somerset so don't know how bad some places can be.
• People from Bridgwater - usually adolescents - seem to spend a lot of time trying to convince the world that it's horrible.
• The worst thing about Bridgwater is all the stick we have to put up with for living here it really aint that bad!
• The smell
• SENATE ELECTRICAL -Must win the prize for the worst customer service (apart from amatures) possible . No of employees 4& quarter , No of employees that are useful , a quarter and thats the coffee machine in the corner. Now i know a couple of them look like they come from Latvia but do they really have to act that way I mean talk about slow your more likely to get what you want if you walk into KFC and asked for a small box of Beard Rivets!! Wankers. (ikse)
• The way people react when you tell them where you've lived for most of your life, ie. Spaxton which is about the most boring village in the history of the universe but more importantly near Bridgwater, which is one of the worst places int he country (except perhaps Swindon).
• Bridgwater, can't add anything else really...most people with any savvy want to escape as soon as possible!! the remainder just want to wallow in the myre that is the town itself..There is one notable entry though....Hamp estate AKA Little Beruit!! This is where the SAS go for training, in other words, walking from one end to the other of Rhode Lane, and back again..if they survive, well, yet to happen!!
• worst - lots of mobile phone shops have opened, kids od skateboards getting knocked over by careless drivers outside the Splash,
• DODGING 'ARD NUTS.
• bridgwater in general
• Lack of decent shops, to many big estate and bridgwater carnival commitee
• Residents who whinge all the time about how terrible it is to live here, then refuse every opportunity to get out. If you don't want to live here, fine, just don't depress the rest of us. Oh, and non-locals you work with who won't visit you because you live here, even when desperate to see your new baby. And who genuinely believe that everyone here gathers at the Docks for a fight on a Friday night. Get real. Bridgwater is commuter belt town, cheap accomodation near Bristol and Tauntonthe yobs are far between.
• Bridgewater is a piss pot and the people in it are turds floating about:so there.
• Bridgwater carnival. There seem to be only a few themes for carts and the clubs just swap them each year...if they had any sense they would also swap carts and save all the fund raising! And yes, I know...."We're very lucky to have Carnival".
• IT STINKS (officially the worst-smelling place in Britain, according to those comedians who do "This Morning with Richard not Judy) cos of the clingfilm factory!!!!!!!!
• Can be very frightening to newcomers! Lots of fighting and local shenanigans. If you get on the wrong side of certain people they never forget and your dead. Isn't too pretty to look out and can smell a bit.

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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Last updated: 2006-12-08