The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Basingstoke, Hampshire*

Basingstoke, Hampshire Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• The AA Building, it looks quite funky.
• Burnham Copse Infant School - got an architectural award when it was built.
• SunLife building
• The AA building, as I know I am on the way out of Basingstoke
• The train station - so you know you are leaving!
• The Museum/Tourist office in the centre of town. Just because everyone seems to think its shut and sales right past it.
• The Train station going home
• willis museum
• Basingstoke Ice Rink , because its home of the Bison of course!
• It has got to be the feathers pub, if not for the building itself at least for the fact that everyone in this fabulous town has been threatend there by one of those 25 year old escort owning meatheads who go out with 14 year olds with perms
• Barclays Mercantile - what else.
• The Gatehouse at the entrance to The Holy Ghost Cemetry...when I lived in town I always dreamt of owning it...weird maybe, but you've gotto admit iss a fine looking house!!!!
• Cranbourne school and QMC.
• A nice church next to the precinct. If you stand with your back to the shopping precinct you could be in a country village. If you stand with your back to the church you could be in architect's hell. You'd be looking at the biggest expanse of brick wall outside of China/Mogolia border.

Demolish It Now Building

• A lot of those Dallas style sky scrapers. I would say NCP carpark but its going, although what replaces it will probably be not much better.
• The old Civil Service Building, IBM Building, most of the concrete monstrosities in Basing View, Oakridge Towers. Basingstoke will look nicer without these concrete disasters from the 60's.
• Jubilee Centre on the common. At least they took out the windows to stop it being vandalised, but they should have just bulldozed the ugly eyesore when they had the chance.
• Brook House
• The Brookvale Project House - what a waste of money....councillors must live in the area.
• Those ugly flats you see just as you drive around the one way system coming from the reading end.
• Allsports. nuff said.
• Luckily, the entire town centre including the NCP seems to be slowly being demolished
• Berk House (Basing View)
• IBM, Alencon House, Alencon Link
• Oakridge, Popley and Black Dam and half of the people that live there
• All the Popleys.
• The whole town centre
• police station
• John Hunt of Everest School please.
• The AA building. The anvil. The shopping centre.
• That eyesore..oh god what's it called, near the hospital...you know!....Nelsons' lodge???? for homeless geezers...Poor guys,even homeless people have taste!!!!
• Masonic centre up by Star Video (That can go as well). Basically you can take your pick of almost any development in the town.
• The whole town centre.
• Oakridge tower block, why not the whole of Oakridge.
• The NCP carpark. Although (as of Aug 98) they actually seem to be starting a demolition job of the 'Bottom of Town' area which will hopefully get rid of one of the worst eyesores I have seen in any town, in any country.
• The new market square/ bus station, etc., my wish has come true, it will be demolished soon!!
• Chicago Rock Cafe, preferably with all the slappers and tossers in it.

The Best Things

• there alot of bad things aboout it but there are also alot of good things the further away from the town centre the worse it gets the best thing about basingstoke is that me and me boys live ap tp mz and dd and also the alcohol of course
• If there ever was a nuclear war it would be one of the first places to be hit thanks to the close proximity of Aldermaston, the Thames Silicon Valley and Bovington.
• If you grew up in Basingstoke you will always be a part of it - Being able to walk into most pubs alone and know at least 5 people in there!
• Cheap food aplenty at the market on a Saturday - perfect for skaters on a budjet. Majority of the Skaters are really friendly, so if you see some go over and say hello and get a good skate sesh goin!
• My family, meeting up with old friends, I really like the swimming pool in the sports centre as its not too busy and quite relaxed. QMC rocks! The Rising Sun. Memorial park and Eastrop Park. Ease of access to beautiful Hampshire, brilliant cycling country. The comedy announcement at the station, 'basingstoke, this is basingstoke' (said in a very slef-important manner), this stupid 'welcome to basingstoke, home of winterthur life' signs, I quite like the Haymarket, close to london and Winchester, its prosperous, wages are high, but so are house prices.... Sainsburys. Cliddesden Rd area.
• It's near to London, the seaside, Oxford and the countryside. Good employment rate. People. Live scene of quite a few local bands (against all the odds due to lack of support)
• The new swimming pool is pretty cool, the new library is, well, full of books...
• Half way between London and the coast.
• Seeing basingstoke in your rear view mirror
• Skaters. Skater Chicks. Porn. Easy Women. This is a completely un-sexist view of course. I'm sure there is alot for women too.
• The memories of the George Pub
• Used to be Brookvale until someone decided that it was far to nicer place to live and built on any single empty space going. Is nothing sacred, someone even built a house on the alleyway between Southend Road and Victory Green.
• A good group of metal/Industrial/Goth scene people, when you can find them. There are no good clubs and pubs for that sort of thing in B'stoke so we all decamp to Reading or London of a Friday/Saturday.
• A lazy sunny afternoon in the park
• The best things in Basingstoke is the Bison Ice Hockey team , all my mates and the fit lads!
• The best thing is the number of really terrific looking girls with perms. Thank god for Basingstoke, I unfortunately had to move away about 5 years ago, but I always remember that, whatever the fashion for female haircuts in the rest of the country there will forever be girls in the Stoke with a stylish perm, plus one of those sexy litlle fringe efforts.
• My Mum!! A right old trollop called Kerrish Mac Gow Goon and numerous other good friends who I miss...!
• The best thing to come out of Basingstoke is the A34 Northbound.
• Leaving for long periods of time. It is always good to pop back to the town every now and again to remind yourself that things could always be worse. My House. The fact that you know that if you go into town, you will always see people you know. Basingstoke Town Football Club always being shit so you can take the piss.
• Relatively quiet and fast road system. Despite the number of roundabouts it is easy to get into and, more importantly, get out of the town.
• Great Basingstoke-based Band called "The Kettleheads". See 'em if you can. KNown to play at Shamus's now and then.
• The best view of Basingstoke is through the rear view mirror of your car when you're driving OUT of town.
• Leaving!!
• It's about equi-distant to Bristol and London, the only two places I go out these days and it's only an hours drive from both...
• Getting better - 10 screen cinema, though they're beginning to rip people off as their prices have gone up twice in the last year, there's no cheaper "family" evening and as for student rates, they're even more restrictive. Anvil and Haymarket put on some good stuff but not enough West End shows such as Joseph, Fantastic Voyage, etc. Shops are slowly improving. It's a pity about the good ones that open and then close within a month.
• I was born there and no matter how bad it is it's home. Queen Mary's aint a bad old place.

The Worst Things

• Price, pubs, people. Very depressing atmosphere everywhere.
• its rubbish and covered in townies
• Every time I visit Basingstoke I see lots of teenage mothers pushing prams and my heart sinks. Why would anyone want to live there, yet alone raise a family?
• The london overspill - They think that they are from Basingstoke but all put on fake London accents whenever you mention it.
• Some Townies will give you grief, but then don't they all?
• Homogenous. Horrendous teenagers everywhere. Cockney gone wrong accents, I started to catch one but made a real effort to lose it again. Town on a Saturday (night and day). Lots and lots of things I cannot be bothered to think of. The lack of interesting or exciting shops.
• Expensive housing, lack of clubs, violence/attitude of some of the town's youth, apathy to most things cultured (art/live music especially), the sculptures (trying to be artistic but alas), no University/student population. Not enough rock/pop artists at the Anvil. The Anvil doesnt seem to cater for the youth of the town. The only rock artists that have performed there that I can recall over the past 6 or 7 years - The Fall (they were awful), Roachford (they were excellent), Julian Cope (very good and amusing), Julia Fordham (yeah she was ok), D:ream (well, one-hit wonder really), and a few local band nights (one a year since 1996). So, if anyone from the Anvil is reading this, PLEASE put more on for the town's youth, and don't just put on classical stuff.
• NOWHERE TO GO WHATEVER AGE GROUP YOU ARE, UNLESS IT'S OUTSIDE OF TADLEY. NEAREST TOWN IS BASINGSTOKE...YOU SEE OUR DILEMMA?
• Litter, grass verges, archetectural nightmares, novelty fun things, road system, buses
• Arriving in Basingstoke to work beside a bunch of pimply faced temps derived from new age travellers who share a dog when visiting the DSS
• Townies. Mingers in short skirts. Any kind of shiny garment, i.e. Full Kappa Tracksuit.
• few decent pubs (one pub for the whole of Chineham??????), local ruffians, local tarts - thats why i moved
• has to be the Town Centre, at least someone (I suspect the enviromental health) decided to close down 'Food on Potters Walk' I also heard that New Market Square and the surrounding Piss smelling areas are to be demolished
• Fuckin' teeny-goth Manson Fans, wannabe Gangsta's and trendies. Pop tarts are nice to look at at least.
• The people who constantly slag it off but never leave
• I have worked in Basingstoke for 5 years and it has not changed (Shame) All the young people have all bonked each other and they are all happy to go into town every night and get pissed and meet the same old people. They think they have a Basingstoke accent as well (Ha! Ha!) This is one sad boring place where you have to Q to get in a pub. And as for that roundabout where they have all these daft cut out figures doing a Mexican wave what a waste of money when only the same place was flooded during the rains of June 99 and left a huge traffic jam. Sad sad hillbilly place is Basingstoke. Get a life you boring people.
• It's not Nottingham so there's not-very-much going on if you're into anything slightly off-beat (i.e. metal, rap, reggae). Better off listening to the stuff at home, it'll be more enjoyable than going into town to listen to samey dance stuff.
• A bloke called Richard Hart
• The Lack of entertainment thus leading to habitual substance abuse and all making for an aggressive atmosphere..unless of couse they're loved up and drooling!
• Nobody speaks to Northeners, nobody smiles, no personality, no life and never will it have any soul.
• The "1984" CCTV in the town Centre. All the townies who think they're so tough, you're not. If you were put into any major city, you would wet yourself. Knowing every single sad face in the whole town. Any project that is embarked on by the council is always small, for example the Anvil, how are you meant to attract any decent acts when the place holds just a few more than my house, maybe we could get the Manic street preachers to play in my front room. All the attempts at making Basingstoke somewhere interesting to live are a joke. The examples are endless: The Anvil, This new transport museum (who will go there?), the countless attempts at getting a decent club, the Wote street statue which is basically a giant penis, the Triumphal Gates which are useless and completely ugly, and so on and so on...
• Having to go back in University holidays and finding yourself in The White Hart.
• Not enough for youngsters to do. Not enough clubs, not enough clubs, not enough clubs, not enough pubs.
• How much space am I allowed? It has a yob culture nightlife. 'Top of Town' is a war zone at closing time. No character or characters just apathetic, lazy yobs who think Baz is OK because it's got a McDonalds. Despite being populated with ex-Cockneys I doubt if any of them would dream of getting a train to London for a decent night out. Hardly any pubs or restaurants for a town of this size, even less decent pubs or restaurants (Hees Chinese is sooooooooo expensive). Everyone is ugly, seriously. It's like the Greater London Council sent the ugly Cockneys to Basingstoke and kept the good lookers for themselves (see:- Pauline Fowler, Michelle Fowler, Dot Cotton, Cindy Beale). Purple Shellsuits and slippers. Not a combination you'd see in a typical shopping area in Milan I suspect. The lovely smell of urine anywhere that isn't constantly illuminated. The travellers with no imagination (why opt out and take your cardboard box to Baz when you could be in Brighton in an hour?)
• Going out around in town you are surrounded either by Sunday league football 'lads', or all the single mothers trying to find another victim to claim CSA money from!
• The people are far too cliquey. If you don't come from Basingstoke (like me) you don't stand a chance!! The only friends I have in Basingstoke are people who don't come from there. I never go out in Basingstoke anyway; I think I'd probably rather die than ever have to set foot in Ziggys or Martines again...
• The dreary people that wander around the shopping centre every Saturday. Also the Centre is dead in the evening, it's not even much fun to go window shopping - try Brighton, it's much better and the streets are humming!! Also why is every more expensive in Basingstoke?????? Petrol, cinema, food, clothes.
• Groups of 12-18 year olds who think they're kin ard and try to pick fights with skaters.
• The best thing about Basingstoke is the Basingstoke karate/kickboxing organisation. Work out to music, meet new people and hit them. Compete in obscure areas of the country, see the inside of many famous sporting venues. Travel for hours and return home tired but happy in the knowledge that you have gained a tasteful plastic trophy. Attract women with your newly developed manly smell. It's scientific! It's artistic! It's masochistic! Contact master, sensei, sifu teacher, guru, master (again) 10th dan in everything, Ron Peploe.
• I read your notes on Basingstoke with some interest, since I left the town some 15 years ago for the warmer climate of California. It would appear that not much has changed from when I left. I do get homesick every now and then but a quick visit to the town every couple of years takes care of that in short order. I grew up on the Popley 1 estate. Has it turned into a dump yet? It does appear that a pub or two has changed its name but the clientel remains the same. Oh well. I will keep reading for any new developments.
• Needs redeveloping properly.
• No Thai restaurants.
• Too many people bad-mouth the place.
• Awful Town Centre. Not enough specialist shops.

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Last updated: 2007-06-14