Life as a proud Slough resident can’t be easy – the Thames Valley town has taken its fair share of beatings over the years, including featuring as the dreary backdrop for Ricky Gervais’ mockumentary sitcom The Office in the early 2000s and, most recently, being named ugliest in the UK by the Telegraph.
As far back as the 1930s, it has been an easy target for detractors – with John Betjeman’s famous protest poem calling on “friendly bombs [to] fall on Slough”.
Campaigners suggested in 2016 that a change of name would help to reform the town’s public standing – with its dictionary definition as “muddy quagmire” creating a “social stigma” that has impeded its development.
The campaign, reported in the Slough Express, was quickly broken up, and even more bad press has attached itself to the area in the years since, with its high street getting a reputation as one of the unhealthiest in the UK.
This is due to its “preponderance of takeaways and lack of leisure facilities,” writes Sally Howard in the Telegraph’s renewed ranking of the best and worst towns in the country for 2024 – in which Slough, perhaps unsurprisingly, retains its infamous title.
“Pound shops colonise the stores that cling on in boxy 20th-century shop fronts,” she adds, in what amounts to a pretty dismal portrait.
The town, which has a population of around 160,000, was given a 0/10 score for shopfronts, 2/10 for historic architecture, 0/10 for views, 3/10 for low traffic and litter, and a 7/10 for greenery, bringing it to an underwhelming total of 12/50.
Change could be coming in the form of a £110 million makeover reportedly planned for the area in coming years, however, giving it a chance of catching up with far prettier surrounding Berkshire spots including Windsor, Eton and Stoke Poges.
There is one saving grace, at least – an “excellent baked potato stand on the High Street, run for 32 years by local John Hughes”, which Ms Howard “won’t hear a word against”.
And locals are quick to jump to its defence. Kate Pratt, 51, who has lived in Slough for 24 years, told Express.co.uk: “It’s not a tourist attraction – other than for a couple of years when The Office was at its height and people visited to look at the roundabout and buildings that were in the opening credits!
“But it is a place where people from across the country and across the world have come to work, to make better lives for themselves and their families.”
On the bright side, Slough has seen a recent rise in popularity among first-time buyers, with analysis from Halifax suggesting that homeowners were attracted by its commuter connections and proximity to London without the eyewatering costs.
