UKH

Locals often give nicknames to the places where they live. You can usually buy T- shirts or posters with the humorous version on them. Here are a few  from the North East. Do you know any more from your part of the world? 

Spennymanure   (Spennymoor)

Afghanistanley    (Stanley)

Bish Vegas           (Bishop Auckland)

Monte Darlo.        (Darlington)

Disney Towers (Poundbury)

Torbaydos - Torbay

Stalyvegas - Stalybridge

I ve got loads of un sold memorabilia on my storage unit . Every time something happens here I get something made up to celebrate . Non of it seems to catch on . After the big flood I has a  1000 t shirts made , hardly sold any .
“ l ❤️ Cock “ t shirt anybody ?

Doggie          (West Cornforth)

With all the building work. My daughter's group call Cambridge "Cranebridge"

Down the road from me...Smacclesfield....for it's volume of drug users!

I think just about everyone seems to put "-vegas" on the end of the first syllable of their town and I find it amusing. Loads of Chesterfield locals call it Chesvegas and seem quite tickled by that.

I first heard it in the early/mid 90s with Glasvegas, but I was living in Glasgow then so Weegies probably weren't first to make the joke, although it works better than probably any other UK town I can think of. Indeed Mark Garthwaite immortalised in a climb name around then - let see - yep, UKC has it: Viva Glasvegas (VIII 7)

If it ll sweeten the deal sone of them have “ ermouth “ on the back ?

Newt on a Cliff

Near me we have:

Creepy (Crawley)

I always liked Men's Pants (Penzance) from my Cornish girlfriend.

This reminds me of a joke about a rough part of town when I was at school:

Hey man, where did you get that scar?

Got it in 'Nam.

You was in Vietnam?

Nah man, Tot-Nam. (Tottenham)

More of a saying than nick name but 

"Throw a stone over Minehead and Watchet"

Oh and "Shit and Smell It" (Shepton Mallet)

Crawleyside above Stanhope too, though its other name appears to be Accident Black Spot

I can remember hearing Teeside being called the Dodge City of the North in the 70s

There is a village near is called Cowie. For some reason it is known as Coconut Island. No one really seems to know why 🤷 

Shilbottle of course doesn't need much imagination.

Is there an "in" somewhere?

The thing about Glasgow though is that it's a big city with a lot going on, and the xxx-Vegas is generally meant as a sarcastic comment on the place being sleepy & boring.  So in that sense Ches works better than Glas.

Best example I can think of though is Castleford and Pontefract on the outskirts of Wakefield - not the most exciting two little towns, widely known to the locals as Cas Vegas and Ponte Carlo.

I used to drive between Newcastle and Edinburgh quite regularly, and it always used to make me chuckle slightly driving past the doctored road sign on the A1.

Didn't someone do a standup routine about that? 

I've definitely seen it, quite a while ago now - I think it must have been Stewart Lee.  (Seems like his kind of thing - repeat until it's not funny any more and keep going until it becomes funny again.)  Maybe in one of his 'Comedy Vehicle' programmes on the telly.

Any fans of obscure bits of 'local' humour who don't already know about it should definitely check out Mark Steel's "In Town" series on Radio 4 btw.  All 12 series available on BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b00rtbk8

Barrybados

Yeah I first heard Chez Vegas used to describe the new (then) cinema complex but it quickly expanded to cover the whole town. It's almost replaced Chezzy. 

I always think of St. Ives as Stivvies, ever since I heard a tourist refer to it as that.

There was an article in the paper last week about places that didn't need new nicknames as they already had funny ones:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jan/21/next-stop-twItt-my-tour-of-...

(you'll have to replace the letter 'I' in 'twitt' in the URL as it wouldn't let me post it otherwise)

There's Saint Evenage and Saint Reatham, but my favourite is Saint Ockwell.

Yes, it was Stewart Lee.

Despite my forum name I grew up in Dorchester and when I was very young lived in Pummery (as the original - real - Poundbury area of Dorchester was known). One of the new developments on Duchy land was known as Rapunzel's Tower when it first went up in the early 90s, so Disney Towers is in line with that!

Witton Giblet.

And the most changed road sign in the north, correctly known as Low Jobs Hill, but often slightly modified.

There is indeed an apparel supplier based in Bish Vegas who does a fine line in this sort of stuff, and also many of the fine boozers in Newcastle and Sunderland that hold fond memories for those of us of a certain vintage.......

I've always taken it to mean the opposite - lots of drunken partying and poor behaviour, "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" and all that. I can't say I've ever been out in Chesterfield as although I actually live in Derbyshire now, I'm still just closer to the centre of Sheffield than the centre of Chesterfield, and am a bit of snob that Sheffield's just more hip than Chezzy. But I have picked my wife up from Xmas work dos in Chesterfield and it does strike me as lots of fake lashes and spray tans. I think medium sized towns are always a bit try-hard when it comes to night life. Girls in mini dresses and lads in smart shirts and shiny shoes but they'll still end up fighting at throwing out time. Yep, there's that in big cities too, but you've got the student scenes, specialist music scenes etc. which might be pretentious in other ways, but at least you don't need to dress up like you're going to Y13 prom!

Not my area but Kinmel Bay / Criminal Bay up north Wales is a good un

Then there's the band of that name (c. 2003), but they seem to deny it's related to the Glasgow/Las Vegas portmanteau.

You might be right. 

We could both be right, they're not mutually exclusive after all.  (Especially not from my PoV, and I'm guessing yours too - lots of drunken partying and poor behaviour is extremely boring.)

Couple of strange ones from Aberdeenshire where the place names on the map bear absolutely no resemblance to what they are known as locally.

Auchleven - known as Premnay

Aberchirder - known as Foggyloan or Foggy

I've also heard “Ponte Cassino”, due to the amount of fighting on a Friday. Also loved “Doncatraz” for HMP Doncaster. 

Now I've moved to West Cumbria I have Scaryport, Shitehaven and Egscremont.

Ha ha.  That's ace, I'd never heard that one before.

Scumdee seems to be reaching common usage.

When I was a student caver in Manchester we used to refer to our rival uni colleagues up the road in Lancaster as 'W@nkfaster'

Happy Valley 

Padstein Cornwall, in honour of Padstow's famous restaurateur.

Back in the day we used to invent stupid posh-sounding names for cheap south of the river locations in London, eg Claarm (Clapham) and BattERRsea. Now mostly worth a fortune.

dont know if its in common usage but Stalingborough (next to Immingham) seems to be commonly referred to as 'wtf is that smell'

Chemical works/fish factory/recycling centre etc possibly

Madchester

EebaaGum for York as a copy of Eboracum the Roman fort that was there.

Although not long after, Gunchester. In fact I think I have a book somewhere about gang warfare in Manchester called "Gunchester". 

And Penge pronounced Ponge.

given the sewage releases (thanks Southern Water..)

Shitstable - Whitstable

Or 'the Bubble' as it is or was compared to a lot of north kent a few years ago

Chaversham - Faversham

Shittingbourne - Sittingbourne

Hernia Bay - Herne Bay

My home town Leighton Buzzard, commonly known as Leighton Bastard or Leighton Buggered

Went to Uni in Aberystwatch

Cowie is called coconut island due to the caberboard factory, it used to spew white flakey residue all over the village. 

Bread and lard Island

Inverness gets called Snecky for some reason 

Ah, interesting! Thanks!

My wife refers to Penge as Minge.

Corstofini - Corstorphine

Fundee - Dundee

Ainster - Anstruther

Carsnootie- Carnoustie 

And for the fans of Billy Connolly 

Kirkcaldy -whit’s that f’kn smell

As a kid I always used to hear Aberdeen referred to a furry boot city. 

Yes, it's alleged that an Aberdonian inquiry about your origins is 'Furryboots dae ye cumfae?'

Somehow, I never expected Spennymanure (my home town) and Doggie to appear together on a UKC thread. However, in homage to the above, I would like to add Turdhoe (aka Tudhoe). Meanwhile, as an exile from the land of imaginative place names such as Metal Bridge, I now live near the quaint village known locally as Shat. And, of course, the curse of the unwary announcer - Penistone!

I'm currently living in a temporary homeless flat. My nickname for it is 'that f*king sh1tty dump in Denny'. Actually f"king sh!tty dump is my nickname for Denny.

There's still that factory there.  What do they make these days?

Llantrisant is home to the Royal Mint and is therefore known as the 'Hole with the Mint'.
Still in Llantrisant and the then newly opened Royal Glamorgan Hospital was nicknamed the 'Camilla' as it was half way between the Prince of Wales in Merthyr and the Princess of Wales in Bridgend. 

Some type of chipboard/fiberboard sheeting.

I've never been in the place, just used to work with a guy who lived next to it. The whole village was a bit nuts back in the day, so probably another reason for the nickname 😂

Ta. 

Ainster. 🤗😙 Best chippy in Scotland. And a Michelin starred restaurant. 

Beijingstoke due to the large Huawei offices there (Basingstoke).

Ah, makes plenty of sense. Thanks, I should have considered the Doric angle.

Stop it. I'm just thinking of ha'ing a chippie now.

see also whaley vegas

There certainly is still a factory which is still working. I have never seen the coconut effect though! I sometimes cycle past it on one of my wee local loops

That's hilarious.

When I lived down the road in Alton we called it Basingrad because of all the Brutalist architecture. I remember going for an interview in one of those buildings, the AA tower on the ring road, in their publishing department. By way of small talk in a lull during the process I innocently asked about the company's relationship with the OS, being a keen user of OS maps if not the AA's green guides. There was a stony silence. In an amazing coincidence, the following day on the front page of The Times the news broke that the OS were suing the AA for plagiarising their maps. I never got the job.

On a related note, it's refreshing we no longer hear much about Londongrad.

Bradley Stoke (North Bristol), known locally as Sadly Broke because vast swathes were built and bought just before the arse fell out of the housing market in the 90s leaving everyone in negative equity.

the Muff (Weymouth... Weymuff)

this is what me and my brother -in-law call it. neither of us are locals so not sure where we got it from or if any other Muffians call it that?

when I lived in Weymouth that's what I heard it called too, except with a hey in the middle...Wey-hey-muff

I also lived in Hove for a while, often known as Hove Actually, the standard response to being asked if you lived in Brighton. From my time in N Devon I remember that Combe Martin was appropriately named Gloom Martin, given its atmosphere for at least ten months of the year.

Skegness is Smegness 

Formerly know as Boringstoke or Basinggrad. 

And I have never quite come to terms with the district called Top-of-town getting its own road signage when it was just an indication that one half of town center was slightly higher than the other.

Cue Viz ... 😀

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Skegness++viz&t=fpas&iax=images&ia=im...

If Typhoo put the T in Britain, who put the c**t in Scunthorpe?

Derbados - Derby 

Chezzvegas - Chesterfield

The Dronx - Dronfield 

I live in Midsomer.  You can write your own jokes, as long as they're written in blood.

T.

The scruffy end of Ramsbottom is Lower Ramsbottom. The posher end is Upper Ramsbottom

When I was growing up one of our local towns was referred to as Shit and smell it….a nod to it being a bit of a dump.

TBH I’ve only ever driven through Shepton Mallet a few times and didn’t really take much notice. 

Nohopeton (Northampton). Fortunately I don’t live there anymore…

There was a period in Knebworth's history (I suppose it must have been in the early 60s - before the pop festivals arrived) when it was commonly referred to by young people as 'Deadworth'. 

St Awful & Snozzel (St Austell)

Devon has enough funny names as it is without needing nicknames! Crapstone, Chipshop and Mousehole to name a few which spring to mind.

I think they pronounce Mousehole 'Muzzle', don't they? Or is that another gentrified affectation?

The Hillsboros have eyes  ... Hillsboro, Sheffield (quite apt if you look at the folks in Morrisons)

Tadagasca                         ... Tadcaster                     

More like 'Mowzzl', I think, if we mean the Mousehole that is in fact in Cornwall, just along from Penzance.

Love Tadagasca 

I always carefully pronounce Brighton as B-right-on

And I did hear (non humorously?) some <"silly"> estate agents trying to pronounce Streatham as St Reatham 

St Reatham and Cla' am ( Clapham as in the famous junctionsounds like Clarm) were in vogue in the 80s I believe

I always imagined St Reatham was to draw attention away from the Cynthia Payne association

I'm sure I've heard Cla'am much more recently than that. 

Meanwhile, in non-humorous Sheffield gentrification news, it's amazing how much of what used to be 'Shalesmoor' and 'Neepsend' is apparently now pronounced 'Kelham Island' instead.  Oh and - speaking of the '80s - Sheffield used to quite often be referred to as 'Blunkettgrad' back in the days of the old Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire.  (David Blunkett was the Sheffield City Council leader from 1980-87.) 

Besides the 'Socialist People's Republic' thing the brutalist architecture was a bit more obvious back then too, before Kelvin and Hyde Park flats were demolished.  Which reminds me that 'Fraggle Rock' was a very common nickname for a large block of flats back in the day.

My adopted home town, but have never heard that!

Ah, yes. I had forgotten it was Cornwall (it's been 25 years since I lived down there, I was only a teenager!).

Indeed, not pronounced like it is written, but still a comedy name I reckon!

Heard it a couple of times from Dronfield born and breaders Like you, it's my adopted home town so still not totally familiar with the local lingo! 

Not where I live but nearby. Skelmanthorpe is known as Shat. Apparently it comes from a time when there where early iron works  there. Shatterers crushed the stone by hand. 

Not really a nickname but the local joke for Shap in Cumbria was "halfway between shit and crap" - always liked that  

Davie

A small village on the Mawddach estuary in Gwynedd is called Arthog. Some comedian has painted a W on the roadsign, so it is now WARTHOG.

Like an American who asked me the way to St. Aveley  (Staveley) and Ambleside ( pronounced Amblissidy like Yosemite).

In Perthshire there is a picturesque village called Blair Atholl which is affectionately known as Blair Arsehole in nearby Pitlochry. I believe the Arseholians themselves refer to it simply as Blair.

I had a French partner once upon a time who for about a year, bless her, thought that the town of Morecambe was pronounced More-cam-bay which meant she thought the big muddy bay was called Morecam bay bay. Was quite amusing when we figured it out.

Mowzel. According to 'The Mousehole Cat'

I did hear of "Lew-ger-boo-roo-ger"   or Loughborough  as we call it from an American

Although in the local vernacular; Mowzaw.

Kelham Island isn't a new name though, it's used in contemporary accounts of the 1864 flood. (As is Neepsend)

But yes you're right that the "up and coming" businesses/flats prefer to claim they are located in the (tiny) Kelham Island area, rather than admit to being in Neepsend with it's reputation of being a grotty red light district.

Estate agents used to list properties being in 'Sitterton', in Dorset. Rather than its actual name, Shitterton...

I remember picking up a pamphlet some months after the big flood had sort of put a lot of local shops etc. "on hold". Apparently it abated and many recovered as the pamphlet declared

Cockermouth: Open for Business. 

Which made me smirk in an immature manner

Local secondary school is on BENTS DRIVE, which when the kids annotate the B (P) and T (I) on the road sign becomes slightly rude.

well if we are discussing childishness, i'm going to offer up the reaction of me and my son, when my eldest daughter proudly showed off her new company car, registration number beginning EN15. A couple of mins with some black tape, and we were giggling, she was swearing and issuing threats.

Mind you, the whole graduate intake that year at this company had the same issue; they soon became known as "The Dick Squad", which I thought highly appropriate for a property management company.

Nechells in Birmingham, correct pronunciation ‘knee-chells’ however my wife being from Solihull and a pseudo snob, pronounces it as ‘neigh-shells’.

she should know better as she’s actually from Acocks Green - which has no need of any change to make worth a snigger, that along with Sarehole Road (you’ll get it eventually) just around the corner from Tolkien’s Sarehole Mill, makes for a full on snigger fest.

Shottingham for rather unfortunate reasons

Portishead used to get its sign modified on a regular basis, only recall Potting shed though

Not read the whole thread so sorry if this is a repeat. 

There are lots of names for where I live but the forum profanity filter won't allow them. 

And Ilkeston is known to its neighbours as Stabbo Town.

Belper is God 'elp 'er.

Kirk Hallam is Cock ay em (cock have them).

Cotmanhay is Fort Apache.

Langley Mill - Lanky Bill or Mankey Lil.

Loscoe - Little Moscow.

I was thinking much the same. One or two might just get a warning but listing even half of them would probably get a ban.

This often bypasses the filters:  

Y0rk$h!r@