Taking Sides: Preston vs Southport

who sez im not cosmepolitan

I pity you Sean. I feel your pain. I feel Sarah will be better off recommending places, though you could go famous footballer spotting in Southporot, I believe a few LFC and Everton players live around there. and Mark Lawrenson.

I have only ever lost a wellington in the sands at southport. I only ever changed trains once at preston.

A chicken chaser? I know what an "egg chaser" is. It's what Wigan Athletic fans call Rugby League fans.

GOSH hello obviously the answer is PRESTON! There are many pubs, a beeeeyootiful park for lots of exploring (Avenham Park), a wuvvly RIVERSIDE WALK which culminates in a v nice pub HURRAH (do we sense a theme awyeah!)... um... Action Records top indepdent rekkid retailer with LOTS of top stuff, the Harris library and museum which are BOTH gorgeous and can while away a lot of time in, and not forgetting OH NO, THE BIGGEST BUS STATION IN EUROPE! Woohoo! And the jacket potato seller in Flagmarket! And the great charity shops and the 2nd hand bookshops on Friargate... *sigh*... oh yes, and wide avaliability of Seabrooks Crisps and PROPER CHIPS AND GRAVY!

Also there is GRATE PRESTONG NITELIFE at Top Alternative Nitespot The Warehouse on Friday nights (bottom floor = punXoR/80s yay, middle floor = same mix of Nirvana and ahem Belle & Sebastian sigh the times had changed last time I went there that you could expect in most indie places, and top floor = DREADFUL ROCK but apparently a good hour before I ever got there from 10-11). And you could go and visit my old college and walk round the pond and sigh at how beautiful it is and you want to live there still but in another way you don't and... w-w-w-waaaaaah what am I doing with my life waaaaaaaaaaah OH Buffy is on tonight? BUT I DO NOT GET TO SEE SEASON SIX chiz chiz oh well regular Buffy will do.

I do apologise, I seem to have slipped into nostalgic madness. Seriously, you'll find more in Preston than Southport and that's not even me being ahem, 'patriotic for preston' here. Also, Preston train station = BEST EVAH IN UK and I will stand by that for all time.

Preston: I barely know the place but the year I lived in Southport was the dullest of my life: a beach, but no sea, a large gay community but next-to no nightlife, a fake continental boulevard but no decent cafés, endless granny farming Nursing Homes (where I was employed), local 'sandgrounders' being patronising about Liverpool, + a lot of people named 'Rimmer'. Just to rub it in it was a Tory gain in '92 (at least I got to hassle the MP).

yes...i haf met one of the three generations of jimmy rimmers in hesketh bank. Thanx for the advice kind souls !

PRESTON PLAYS A TASTY SOLO IN "GET BACK"

SOUTHPORT = ERIC CLAPTON'S NICKNAME

I used to live in Southport and I've got to say that Stevo's description of the town is extremely accurate. In fact, Southport seems to have become even worse recently. Venues no longer support local bands, the only cinema in town may possibly shut, and the Arts Centre plays host to Meatloaf and Cher tribute bands.

I don't know Preston very well but I'm sure it is quite easy to see good films and bands there. I'd say that Liverpool and Manchester are the best places to go if you want a good time in the North-West.

One good thing about Southport - Lib Dem again since 1997.

my beautiful and terrible girlf hails from Southport (her mam live just round the corner from Alan Hanson and she went to school with Kelly Dalgliesh, so the footy families rumours are true). It's a pretty town with a lot of expensive homes, but underneath the veneer there doesn't seem to be much going on, and I am assured it's as boringly violent as any one-horse mill town in the NW on a Friday night. However, B&M bargains = the best poundshop/remaindered tat shop in the universe bar none.

My mates Gawen and Ted hail from Preston, and seem keen on spending as much time away from it as possible. The bus station was superseded a few years back in size by some other burgh, I can't remember where.

So basically move to Manchester or Liverpool.

Well yeah there is a bigger bus station that they built in Turkey. Apparently it's still the biggest one in Europe though. I find this hard to believe, then again, I find it hard to believe how teeny and rubbidge all other coach/bus stations are. I mean, Chorlton St is TINY, as is Victoria! Then again I R used to BIG BIG BIG.

Films and bands are also quite easy in Preston, there are a few cinemas and bands play @ the Adelphi a few times. TBH no-one really big plays there that often, but there are such easy train links to Manchester (trains run all night) that it's a piece of piss to hop on over there if you're coming back to Preston itself. It's the getting back to Preston, then getting a £20 cab or so back to your middleofnowhere village that was the worst thing about living there and kept me in. A lot.

I've spent far too much time waiting for horrifically delayed connections at Preston station to have much fondness for the place. Nice gallery/museum though. And there's always Deepdale (see Who's going down? thread). Southport only exists in faded instamatic shots of me in red shorts looking none-too-thrilled with the prospect of a narrow-gauge train-ride round Funland in 1972.

Do Southporters (Southportians?) loathe their association with Liverpool as much as some folks from the Wirral (I hear there was [orderly, not too wild] dancing in the streets of Heswall when the postcodes were changed from L to CH a few years back)?

And what of the train link between the two towns? Was that something Dr Beeching eliminated?

Southport locals rejoice in the name of 'sandgrounders' (don't ask me why), generally look down on Liverpool and loathe being incorporated into Merseyside.

"And what of the train link between the two towns? Was that something Dr Beeching eliminated?" Mike, I think you have to change at Burscough. In fact you may even have to change at Burscough Bridge and walk to Burscough Junction. Or vice-versa. Two stations in one poxy little village? Oh, Doctor Beeching.

I believe you can change @ Wigan but apart from that it's a BUS for you my good sir.

I think you have to change at Burscough. In fact you may even have to change at Burscough Bridge and walk to Burscough Junction. Or vice- versa. Two stations in one poxy little village? Oh, Doctor Beeching.

Yeah, how did Burscough escape the 60s purge? Pretty such there was a direct service at one time though - perhaps following the routes of the A565 and A59. Christ, this is interesting.

sure, not such

THIS IS PROBABLY MY MOST POPULAR THREAD EVER - HUH ???