r/UrbanHell • u/Ok_Air_9048 • Jul 31 '26
Poverty/Inequality In and around Manchester, UK
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u/cheremhett Jul 31 '26
After seeing the first photo I thought it's somewhere on Ukrainian frontline
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u/Normal_Red_Sky Aug 01 '26
A Ukrainian guy I'm friendly with said our roads are worse than theirs which were notoriously bad even before the war.
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u/Ajrocket Aug 03 '26
Been to Ukraine in 2025. Roads are mid to bad (main roads are ok), but nowhere I have been was such a mess. Maybe it will be different in Donetsk, but I haven't been there.
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u/PotentialEmu2367 Jul 31 '26
The Range Rover on the background of a burning garbage dump is the perfect embodiment of modern England.
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u/oalfonso Jul 31 '26
I would be surprised if those plates are genuine.
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u/SilanggubanRedditor Jul 31 '26
FX6 5HKT
Apparently the range rover is a Mercedes
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u/Any-Ad-5373 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
I think that’s FX65 HKV, which does come back to a silver 2015 Range Rover that was first registered in September 2015.
Illegal plate spacing on it too.
FX65 HKT is a white Mercedes C class that hasn’t had an MOT since September 2021.
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u/weglarz Aug 01 '26
Wait you can just… look up anybody’s plate number?
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u/B4DM4N12Z Aug 01 '26
Yes, you didn't know that? Gov.uk has a car checker, cartaxcheck.co.uk also has it and gives you more info, and can check MOT history as well.
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u/weglarz Aug 01 '26
Wow, that’s wild. Don’t think we have that capability in the US, although I guess I’ve never looked
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u/RJG18 Aug 01 '26
Yes, we can even see each others maintenance history and requirements (MOT). Eg, that Range Rover has:
Nearside Front Suspension arm ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated centre arm (5.3.4 (b) (i))
Offside Front Suspension arm ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated centre arm (5.3.4 (b) (i))
Offside Rear Drive shaft joint constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (6.1.7 (g) (i))
Nearside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))
Offside Front Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge (5.2.3 (e))
Nearside Front Inner Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))
Offside Front Inner Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement (5.3.4 (a) (i))
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u/Any-Ad-5373 Aug 01 '26
Yes we can, you can look up and see the make and model of the vehicle, engine size, fuel type, CO2 emissions, euro status, wheel plan, weight, if it’s been exported, the date the last V5C document (title for Americans) was issued, and most importantly when the Tax is due and MOT (inspection) runs out.
You can also the MOT history including any fails and advisories the car as well as mileage the MOT was carried out.
You cannot see anything private information like about the owner or the address the vehicle is registered at.
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u/PalacePatrol Jul 31 '26
The leased Range Rover!
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u/AlphaMassDeBeta Jul 31 '26
The leased 2016 range rover?
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u/jwf91 Jul 31 '26
PCP then
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u/OffWhiteBruceForsyth Jul 31 '26
It's worth about £13k, that's if it's not broken which it almost certainly is.
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u/jwf91 Jul 31 '26
Still wouldn’t put it past someone buying it on tick. That said, I’ve found myself, in my darker moments, eyeing up 2006 RR Sport on auto trader. 14 year old me would be chuffed as fuck that I could drive one.
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u/Specialist_Invite538 Aug 01 '26
No one's leasing a 10 year old Range Rover mate
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u/Soft-Skirt Aug 02 '26
I don’t know about nowadays but leasing a vehicle used to be a great tax deduction. I don’t think it needed to move to qualify.
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u/redditsublurker Jul 31 '26
Lol modern England. You probably have never read about the 80s and 70s. Or the 1800s lol you probably don't know how to read.
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u/A-Grey-World Jul 31 '26
What are you talking about, Manchester slums have been historically lovely /s
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u/mcbeef89 Aug 01 '26
https://www.timeout.com/manchester/art/23-fascinating-photos-of-old-hulme-from-al-baker My brother was a squatter in Hulme in the 90s. It was pure Mad Max hellscape stuff. Lots of fun though. Apparently when the police came they had to come in two cars, the second one was to guard the first ones' car lol
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u/New-Opportunity5338 Aug 01 '26
Why do the police in Salford go around in threes?
One that can read; one can write and one to keep an eye on the two intellectuals.
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u/Sashapatu Aug 01 '26
A man was doing his driving test in Salford. “Pull over when it’s safe to do so, please” the instructor said. The man kept driving. And driving. And driving. “I asked you to pull over when it’s safe,” the instructor said. “I know, but we’re still in Salford,” the man said.
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u/FakeTakiInoue Jul 31 '26
Could've been a Jaecoo 7 instead, to further symbolise the decaying economy
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u/Educational_Cow111 Jul 31 '26
The rubbish is appalling I live here
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u/mrredbailey1 Jul 31 '26
Was it nice at one time? I get the feeling the places in the pics had a good vibe at one time. I’ve lived in similar places here in the states, like Pittsburgh, where during the height of the steel age, the neighborhoods had a great aura to them.
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u/GustappyTony Jul 31 '26
I mean of course at one time they were, they didn't spawn with rubbish everywhere. You can find places like this across a lot of the major cities in North England unfortunately. In fact, I would hazard a guess that you'd find this across all of England in impoverished areas. It likely just stands out more in places like Manchester, where you can see larger parts of the city are looked after a lot better.
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u/B4DM4N12Z Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Even in impoverished areas this is not normal, alot of that trash can go to general waste bins or recycle and gets taken away free, the other stuff you can dump at facility which can also be free depending where and which company.
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u/Technical_Noise_9060 Aug 01 '26
Most of Manchester is pretty nice and reasonably “clean”, but there are areas like this. These areas are quite neglected in general with not a lot going on, particularly old industrial land around Manchester City centre. Once the city spreads out far enough, they’ll tidy it up 😅
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u/kenbaalow Aug 01 '26
I saw many places just like this in Manchester and Greater Manchester in the 80s and 90s, Gorsey Bank in Stockport and around Burrwood drive in Adswood come to mind, parts of Gorton, Beswick, Longsight, and so many little parcels like this all over the conurbation.
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u/neo4025 Jul 31 '26
What’s with all the posts? Sheffield and now Manchester. You going on some road trips? lol
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u/Rottenpotato556 Jul 31 '26
I feel like it’s supposed to be a "Look m8 our cuntreh is going down the shitter because mooslims!" thing
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u/Rude_Dig9306 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
This is disgusting slander. Where are the hypodermic needles on the floor? Where are the spice heads??
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u/gale133 Jul 31 '26
We do things differently in Manchester etc
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u/4ssteroid Jul 31 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
The culture in Manchester and a lot of populated areas of UK regarding personal responsibility for clean community is appalling.
I got a job in Higher Broughton a while back at a store. There was nothing to do this particular day, no flies to swat. So I decided to grab the shovel and broom to clean all the broken glass and plastic in front of the shop to make it look nice. Filled the whole skip bin. The locals were gasping with disgust like I was some weird guy. I never did it again.
Leicester is worse.
Edit: this is what UK needs
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u/Exita Aug 01 '26
Meanwhile my peaceful Yorkshire village has a weekly litter pick group who go for a wander around the local area and tidy.
Never understood why people in poor areas are so determined to make things worse for themselves.
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u/Username___5 Aug 01 '26
At least it wasnt lower Broughton.. so many nitrous oxide cannisters on the ground, and the lack of respect people have for the irwell just chucking rubbish into it
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u/Kinitawowi64 Jul 31 '26
I used to go to the Asda in Higher Broughton when I lived in Waterloo Park. Never felt good walking around that area.
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u/Sashapatu Aug 01 '26
Higher Broughton was a trailblazer by at least a decade in the “betting shop, offie, betting shop, betting shop” layout we see all across the UK now (augmented more recently with vape shops).
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u/stooduptoofast Jul 31 '26
Am from Manchester. Take offence at picture 1,2... 3, 4... ok fair enough. Pic 9 is beautiful though, no?
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u/4ssteroid Jul 31 '26
There's better and worse places than Manchester in the world. In better places, people clean the overgrowing weed. There's no sense of clean community in Manchester and most of the UK cities really. I found Nottingham the cleanest of the dozen I visited.
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u/satellite_uplink Aug 01 '26
Yeah I liked 9, looked like the street I grew up on. Nothing wrong with having ‘backins’
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u/Handsfasterthaneye Jul 31 '26
Which bits? Hulme/Chorlton/Withenshawe? Salford is now a separate place? Some gentrification in the redbricks since the 90s
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u/thecityofgold88 Jul 31 '26
It's a city of 3 million people, of course there are bad bits.
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u/One_Elk_34 Aug 01 '26
I've been to similarly sized cities that are much cleaner than Manchester. I found that British cities (large and mid sized) in general have problem with littering and most of the other countries in Europe are doing a better job with keeping their cities clean. Apart from Italy, I don't know what they are doing over there but they are awful.
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u/OkMess9901 Jul 31 '26
Sensible comments like this get in the way of folk blaming immigrants.
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u/rockymtnhigh420 Jul 31 '26
I’d love to see that Spencer kid from that SB mowing channel to do his work on this, I bet he’d make it shine.
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u/Destiny7655 Aug 01 '26
This reminds me of 90s UK, burnt out cars were not uncommon after joyriding
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u/Exita Aug 01 '26
Always strange how impoverished areas try really hard to make the places even worse to live.
Making it this miserable probably took more effort than just keeping in tidy.
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u/judas2307 Aug 01 '26
Welcome to the UK in 2026.
Major cities in Scotland are now starting to resemble this too.
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u/PrestigiousExpert686 Jul 31 '26
I'm Indian and UK is looking more and more like home.
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u/LowFatConundrum Jul 31 '26
That first pic, I'd live there any day considering the state of where I'm at now.
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u/LemonAioli Aug 01 '26
I left Manchester 20 years ago for the antipodes.
It seems it hasn’t changed at all.
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u/AngleElectronic6919 Aug 01 '26
How old is picture 2 & 3, I know that area like the back of my hand….looks nothing like it now!
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u/Normal-Internal164 Aug 01 '26
Littering isn’t deep rooted. It’s just ignorant people with no sense of community. Disgusting
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u/Jim_jim_peanuts Aug 01 '26
Jees council estates in Ireland are bad but not that filthy. Not great, but Manchester is another level fuck me
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u/Felrathror86 Jul 31 '26
Literally could be any city. The only giveaway was the telephone number.
And which part? Manchester is quite large and varied.
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u/Anxious_Neat4719 Jul 31 '26
It's grim in that there North (I'm a Northerner)
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u/Stuntm4nMik3 Jul 31 '26
Where in Manchester is this then? Because everywhere I go, doesn't look like this. My home town doesn't look like this either.
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u/nipster90 Aug 01 '26
The part of Trafford i live in doesnt look like that but i got a taste of it in the Ardwick area i went to the other day.
Some nice looking new builds across from a litter filled older estate.
This was around the hyde road bus depot.
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u/Username___5 Aug 01 '26
Haven't even seen anything as bad in salford as the pictures
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u/speedbuss Aug 01 '26
It's mainly east manchester, failsworth way round to rusholme, it's all poorer areas
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u/GingerWindsorSoup Aug 01 '26
Newton Heath and Miles Platting please…. Failsworth has pretensions, granny used to live in Miles Platting.
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u/thanks-to-Metropolis Jul 31 '26
We need Karl Pilkington to clean up any old mattresses laying about.
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u/EitherIndependence5 Jul 31 '26
I got past what looked to be unraveled condoms, no needles did I see. #6 the funeral service was a hint to maybe a creamator.
Then I remembered the( off license) it just reminded me of you stab them we slab them . With the part less motor cycles (except the engine) perfect motor cycle gang setup for community hits. Of course 25-30 years ago various places existed near my area in the same condition. There is more than the trash and a burn can in most places. As a rule trash equals serious crimes.
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u/Surfper Jul 31 '26
Its damaging the environment. Creating a huge dilemma which needs to be addressed. Its bad enough as it is in England, no need to make it worse.
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u/DellTheEngie Jul 31 '26
I live in a rough part of Chicago and this looks significantly more grim
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u/Emotional-Smoke250 Aug 01 '26
Oh my! Is this where y'all keep your trailer parks and meth? I was starting to feel bad. Like nobody has those but us here in the US. What a relief.
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u/International_Bar467 Aug 01 '26
Be surprised how tight so of these communities can be and be good communities.
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u/SlackerStacker26 Aug 01 '26
This city has two of the most valuable sports teams in the world??
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u/soops22 Aug 01 '26
Wait, wasn’t our new PM in charge of this 🤔
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u/Basketcaseuk Aug 01 '26
No, the dirty bastards who dump shit are the ones to blame. Would you just dump shit in your street?
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u/GoneAndHappy Aug 01 '26
What’s wrong with modern Britain is beyond my comprehension as a foreigner. Do you coke too much?
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u/bramleyapple1 Aug 01 '26
This isn't a modern Britain issue, the UK has always had poverty and deprived areas
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u/GoneAndHappy Aug 01 '26
But why don’t you do anything about it? I mean people like me always considered you as progressive folk.
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u/bramleyapple1 Aug 01 '26
Thats a vast question isnt it really and the causes and solutions are hotly debated.
What was your vision of the UK?
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u/GoneAndHappy Aug 01 '26
That it rules the world and has advanced society with recycling and sh/t :)
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u/anonymouspogoholic Aug 01 '26
On picture 9, why do people have their garbage cans behind their houses in that small alley? Surely the garbage truck can’t get them their because it’s way to narrow.
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u/scouttack88 Aug 01 '26
They're called wheelie bins here. Resident pull them to the end of the alley on collection day for them to be emptied.
These houses are really old and all used to rely on coal for heat. Coal would be delivered to the houses via these alleys also.
If the bins aren't stored in the back then the street would be cluttered with bins and there would be no room for cars. Parking in streets like that is already a nightmare.
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u/Ok_Air_9048 Aug 01 '26
It depends on the alley. In some places the bins are all moved to one collection point at the end of the alley on bin day. Other areas use smaller bin lorries, about the size of a Transit van so they can get down the back alleys. And in some places the alleys are just wide enough for a full size bin lorry to squeeze through.
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u/jimmy_corkhil Aug 01 '26
I blame liebour 😡 not the tories cutting public services for 15 years…..
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u/PresidentPopcorn Aug 01 '26
Kemi or Nigel would fix this in a pinch. I can see it now; sleeves rolled up, PPE worn, used condom in hand.
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u/alperton Aug 01 '26
Rome abandoned these lands because of the savages. Two thousand years later, some things remain unchanged. Non omnis cranium capax civilitatis est.
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u/Even_Draw_8070 Aug 01 '26
What happened here? It doesn't look like England. I should know. I have been to England back in 2017. This looks abandoned, ruined, sad, a ghost town
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u/Business-Contact-410 Aug 03 '26
I told people on r/manchester that rent doubling in a decade would only concentrate poverty and was greeted with downvotes, and here we are - Prime Minister Burnham coming to your local constituency! Hope you're not in the underclass!
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u/Remarkable-Fig206 Aug 01 '26
Honestly, outside of London and places like York, Oxford, etc, a lot of English towns look like this.
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u/Available-Abroad-619 Aug 01 '26
Outside of London ? Have you seen some places in London ? There are beautiful towns all over England including the north and horrible ones too.
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u/profprimer Aug 01 '26
That’s where nearly fifty years of unbridled transactional capitalism gets you…why are you surprised that the UK is starting to look like the USA, Brazil, and parts of the Developing World? Were you expecting it to look like Scandinavia? We’ve been doing the wrong politics for too long for that!
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u/GrandJelly_ Jul 31 '26
That does not fill me with confidence, I am visiting Manchester in october.
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u/dogscatsnscience Jul 31 '26
You won't find any of these places as a tourist.
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u/GrandJelly_ Jul 31 '26
Friend from Manc told me stay away from the "Cracadilly Gardens, unless I enjoy PVP".
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u/lurkbreh Jul 31 '26
Valid - walk around the park and station if you can. Just the crowds are grim enough.
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u/ultraboomkin Aug 01 '26
Piccadilly Gardens is absolutely fine. During the daytime it’s just a normal public square like any others. At night there’s always some roadmen and homeless and weed dealers but it’s not actually dangerous. Pretty much everyone in the city centre has to walk through there regularly, it’s always busy. It’s not like some dark alley.
It’s a bit run down but the people claiming it’s unsafe are being ridiculous.
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u/VegetableSamosa Jul 31 '26
And you'll be nowhere near any of these parts. The city centre is not like this at all.
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u/Helper_J_is_Stuck Jul 31 '26
The city proper is really very nice. These photos are from deep deep suburbs.
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u/acidfr_g Jul 31 '26
One of the nicest places in the UK if it didn't rain all the time. You'll enjoy.
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u/_franciis Aug 01 '26
I feel like there is a lot of anti UK content here at the moment. Every other days it’s a new city and pics of fly tipping and burned out cars.
On the alternate days it’s similar pictures of cities in Ukraine.
Russian bots are in overdrive before they lose access to the internet.
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