The Knowhere Guide

Best and Worst in Luton, Bedfordshire*

Luton, Bedfordshire Triumphs and Tragedies

Favourite Building

• Luton Central Mosque
• The old buildings they destroyed building the Arndale
• My house - it provides me with shelter.
• the cultural centre bury park any bodies welcome as long as the are from kashmir.
• Luton Hoo
• Hartwell Ford Garage on Dunstable Road because it always reminds me that it's nearly time to get off the no. 31 from stinking Dunstable on my way home from work each night.
• The Old Moat House Pub and Restaurant, Moat Lane,Limbury (or Biscot?),Luton
• The view looking down Castle Street from outside Barclays Bank. Luton 6th Form College and also the Woolwich building society in George Street are great Art Deco buildings. Some of the old hat factories are pretty cool, as is the refurbished Artezium in Bute Street.
• Got to be the Town Hall. That huge clock tower is so optimistic, built when the town could do no wrong
• The Town Hall is quite impressive
• THE OLD LION PUB WHICH I HEAR IS NOW SOMETHING ELSE
• Kenilworth Road Football Stadium (Home of English Football) Bath Road Swimming Pool.(it is just like one of them old fashioned Municipal Pools from the old days)
• St Marys church

Demolish It Now Building

• The COGIC place thats just opened in Bury Park. Its ugly!
• The high rise flats
• the mosque westbourne road fucking eyesore
• The multiplex
• I'd like to see the town hall burnt down again - we could do with another one... I read that the good people of luton played "we'll keep the home fire burning" and the soldiers based at biscot mill wouldn't leave their their base to stop them
• The ugly multi-storey car parks in town. The Galaxy (especially Brannigans).
• Dysons Cycles in Dunstable. Full of kids bikes and old wankers!
• Poundstretchers. Or at least do it up. When you think this used to be the majestic Carnegie Library. The bus station - although apparently Railtrack have big plans for a complete transformation of the ugly gateway to the town.
• Why did they ever build the Arndale Centre? If it hadn't been built Luton would be a much nicer place and the dead zone around the railway and bus stations wouldn't exist. Granted the re-furb has made it better, but it's still a bit crap.
• Kenilworth Road, home of Luton Town Football Club
• vicarage road
• ALL THE FLATS IN WAULDS BANK THEY LOOK TERRIBLE,I KNOW CO'S I USED TO LIVE IN ONE.
• Bury Park, quickly turning into a slum area.
• That student accomdation next to teh rail station - there is so munch crap housing in Luton - why do the students get the decent flats

The Best Things

• Definitely the people. I'm not from Luton originally, and have lived away for years at a time, but it's still a lovely town. We know we don't have a great reputation, but who cares - we're happy here!
• Student Nights, Fairy lights, Bare bloke frights. 3 years gettin naked. Chicken kebabs from sammys No. 2 Near the Zone. My mum wasn't there to see what I was up to.
• the town centre looks better than it did but entertainment needs to be improved with more independant night clubs instead of commercial ones. Luton has some good real ale pubs.
• Everything. Live there for a while and you'll see thats its a great plece to chill out, and if you want entertainment, London's only down the road.
• Plenty of green around, especially on Marsh Farm home of two riots.
• London is just up the road and it's not Milton Keynes!!
• giro day you can afford at least two pints.
• It's not as bad as its image
• me, my mates and sammy's "special coffee" - an ideal addition to any kebab
• Luton Town F.C. ....not!!!! WFC 4-0. Come on you Horns.
• Luton Town FC
• Luton is pretty underground. We've just moved back here after living in Cardiff, and Luton beats it hands down as the people are real and not full of shit. The wages are better here, believe it or not, and accomodation is half the price. The youth system set up by lennie Lawrence at Kenilworth Road is something to be proud of too.
• The nearby countryside- Barton Springs, Sharpenhoe Clappers, and only 40 minutes to Moorgate in the morning to work (pity about the fare).
• Luton in Bloom - even our roundabouts and central reservations on "A" roads look really picturesque especially in spring / summer. The pedestrianised areas of town (George Street and Market Hill) The new Luton Mini-Guide produced by the Borough Council - with Harry the Hatter on the front cover! Being SO CLOSE to London yet the prices of property, even close to the railway line, is so low! It just doesn't add up! St.Albans is less than 15 mins away yet a one bed flat near the station will cost around £70,000 - in Leagrave or Luton a two bed house can be snapped up for £45,000! Yet St.Albans is full of drunks! Even Bedford or Harlington is more expensive!
• 30 minutes from London and wherever you are in Luton in 10-15 minutes you can be out in open countryside. Some of the nicest countryside in the south east. Stockwood Park is great, and the town centre is getting better all the time.
• ARE THERE ANY? MAY BE THE NEW CINEMA COMPLEX AND THE NEWT AND CUCCUMBER PUB WHICH IS PROBABLY THE BEST PUB IN THE TOWN
• The best thing about Luton is that the mighty Watford came to town in October 1997 and walloped the hapless hatters 4-0. 10 years - but worth the wait. Up The hornets.
• The fact that the population can laugh at itself. We know Luton has nothing to recomend itself for, BUT it is still a nice place to live, Honest Guv!!!!
• When i lived in Luton in the 70's there was an exciting music scene, out of which came Paul Young amongst others. Does anybody remember Cat Cool and the Cool Cats, Lamiajanx, Lizarde, Felix etc? There was also Friars aylesbury and the Dunstable Civic. Did i imagine it or were Quantum Jump and half of Jethro Tull (Mick Abrahams certainly) from Luton?
• Driving upto Dunstable Downs in the middle of the nights - please remember if you are not a police car then drive around teh car park once before stopping
• Leaving Luton and, come to that, the UK.
• Whipsnade Zoo - a major outdoor zoo specialising in breeding, is 15 minutes from Luton.
• Luton has one of the best town cricket clubs in the country. I should know, I spent most of my childhood Sundays there while my grandfather was out umpiring.
• Nice spots: The top of Warden Hill, Stockwood Park and The Bird and Bush in Bushmead.
• The best thing about Luton is, of course, Bury Park with the widest variety of shops takeaways etc.
• The cost of housing which is low.

The Worst Things

• The number of dumped cars at the mo - it seems to be an epidemic. Although some of the dumpers show great flair when it comes to dumping positions - some of them truly are praise worthy!
• Many people in Luton have no respect for their environment, litter everywhere, especially in Bury Park and town centre
• Vauxhall ( never mind they've all lost their jobs now and perhaps we'll get a new cinema on the bsite.) Bury Park Need I say more
• Bloody students and other migrants
• that someone has not bothered to blow up that black bury park area or blown up Luton. Fucking trendies too many of e'm in Luton they like to cause trouble with anyone who wears leather jackets. The smell of vineager looms in the air with so many people with a chips on their shoulders. Well what can i say Luton is a town full of Bullies.
• luton has still got a problem with racists both black and white who have a tendancy to go around smacking people, well the closed curcit tv must have helped catch some of them but not all. This is a very serious issue of using violence for the hell of it and then playing the race card or saying you didn't know what you were doing because you were drunk. The town should be made safe for all.
• nasty pigeon-poo covered railway bridge with assorted beggars- not a great introduction for newcomers to the town
• The people who don't like the immigrant community and the Muslims(why are we hated so much). We will rule the town soon.
• The high rise flats and the dirty nappies and other objects people hurl from them. I nearly got killed by an iron bar as I was walking past once. Also I was a bit peeved when I had a shotgun stuck in my face during an armed robbery while I was working at the local co op in the Purley Centre in Marsh Farm. The Purley centre is a total shit hole.
• Bury Park - what a dump
• Luton Station is an eyesore seen by everyone travelling through on the train. Railtrack have plans to build a shiny new one which would give Luton a positive image and clean up the land on the approach to the station. One person, however is holding the whole thing up by refusing to allow them to use the land occupied by his pub - even though they have offered him pride of place in the new development. So as usual the majority have to put up with a station which looks like a toilet.
• the taxi problem i dont speak hindu kashmirie urdu
• Its image. The council who couldn't give a s**t about its residents - any of them. It's disappearing in a sea of enforced positive discrimination.Trying to get a parking space on match day (when you're not a fan)
• that watford still exist. harpenden. whitbread and vauxhall - rich as f*** and yet they still won't buy our club and make us champions of europe
• Luton university and it't accommodation!!!! Why???
• Racial prejudice from all angles, from everyone to everyone. Taxi drivers can't drive and everyone slags Exodus off because they are absolutely terrified of things they can't put a price on.
• Rubbish jobs and low earnings.
• People writing on Luton websites that Watford beating Luton 4-0 was a good thing. Please! A few diehards who will always slag Luton off yet still live here. Kids dropping litter everywhere. The Big Issue sellers in Luton can sometimes be aggressive and say "arsehole" if you pass without buying a copy.
• The fact that the people who live there slag it off so much. I've lived all over the place, London, Newcastle, Sydney, Russia and I'm now back in Luton. Believe me it ain't that bad.
• Houghton Regis, a small town glued to the side of Luton full of inbred halfits (Cletus's)
• The growing heroin problem
• As well as Marsh Farm estate the careful visitor should avoid other council estates such as Lewsey Farm and Hockwell Ring (the latter being the hotspot for the local gun men).
• Don't walk along the Marsh Farm estate at night, it's not cos the violence, but cos people try and OutPiss on to you from the top storeys of the high rise flats. It happened to me, and I got totally soaked, plus a jet of piss from 50 feet up hurts!!!
• Living there, that is why the cost of housing is low (I should know because I live there!)

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Last updated: 2007-10-06