Crawley ranked one of the worst biggest towns in Britain by The Telegraph - this is why we don't think it is
Crawley has been ranked one of the worst biggest towns in Britain by The Telegraph.
In an article headlined ‘Britain’s 25 biggest towns, ranked from worst to best’, our town has been placed 24th with a rating of 0.5 out of 10.
The Telegraph's story is based around the UK Town of Culture 2028, which towns have been invited to enter.
Three finalists – one small town, one medium and one large – will be chosen. The winner will be crowned UK Town of Culture and receive a £3m prize to spend on delivering their bid. The two runners-up will each receive £250,000.
Chris Moss, Destination Expert for The Telegraph, said in his article: “So which of our largest towns already has plenty to offer visitors, and which could really do with a bit of funding? I’ve run the rule over the UK’s 25 most populous towns – all of which are in England – and given each a mark out of 10 based on the quality of their architecture, attractions, culture, dining and all-round appeal.”
And about Crawley, which was pipped to worst ranked town by Watford, Mr Moss said: “Very few of its modern constructions are noteworthy. The Church of St Edward the Confessor and St Alban’s Church are sleek but humble concrete blocks. St Mary’s has an eye-catching wall broken up by shards of coloured glass. Pevsner liked the bandstand when it was relocated from the buried former village near Gatwick Airport to Queen’s Square, inside the shopping centre (a tiny, symbolic rus in urbe reference point), but it’s now tucked away in the less contrastive Memorial Gardens.
“Crawley has a functional, manufactured quality and some of its boxy housing will appeal to the more avid clan of psycho-geographers who can glean artistry in a slab of reinforced concrete and social daring in a communal garden. Ifield Water Mill, a 19th-century weatherboarded watermill on the western edge of town.”
But we disagree, Crawley has plenty to offer. The beautiful parks including Tilgate, Goffs and Buchan. We have plenty of arts and culture thanks to Creative Crawley and the Hawth.
There is County Mall which is a shopping destinations for towns and villages around Crawley and new restaurants are popping up all over the place to make it a great destination for a night out.
And we have beautiful old buildings in the High Street and Ifield.
Let us know why you think Crawley isn’t one of the worst towns in Britain by posting on our Facebook page or emailing us at [email protected].