h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Rhyl Beach does not hold the Blue Flag award and hasnt done for at least the last 6 years. This year it got an mandatory (amber) rating, meaning that it passed the legal minimum standard; last year it failed.
I also think that your comments regarding council housing are a little extreme, to say there is only a thin band of private housing in the East end is just plain wrong.
Otherwise i am in complete agreement with your comments, Rhyl is a disgrace and is not helped by the constant strem of people that come into the town seeking to live off benefits.

i was having to rely on information from others in regards to the flag the beach was awarded. the housing was only ment in comparasum not an actule exact but i am glad other people have read this entry.

The further East down the prom you go, the more upmarket it gets: particularly as you pass the hospital. (neat idea to have the hospital on the seafront; from a point of view of convalescence, it seems v. appropriate!)

Everything turns inland as you run out of prom, and you are in what has aptly been described as Bungalow City, the upmarket residential East End of Rhyl running seamlessly into Prestatyn.

Conversely, the further west, the deeper into Chavsville, what might be described as Benchill On Its Summer Holidays. (Wythenshawe is an area of Manchester with a reputation for being one solid council estate. Benchill is its most deprived, some say depraved, ward)

I guess the equipose point between East and West Rhyl is the shopping centre, which begins at the town clock: Queen Street is the heart of it. When I last knew the area well, there was a Welsh-language bookshop down there - is this still about? Also nice to know some things from childhood persist: Pooles' model and toyshop is still going strong!

Also have to say that if you take your very life in your hands and walk unafraid through the valley of chavs, you arrive at a gaily painted blue bridge. (which on closer inspection was last painted twenty-odd years ago and is not just peeling, it's rusting. For goodness sake, Denbighshire, it's not the Forth Bridge, what would it cost to slap some more blue paint on it? A rusting neglected bridge is not a good welcome to town, but it does, in one visual image, sum up Rhyl as you approach it from the West! You cannot miss it, it's big brash and in yer face, it has very clearly seen better days, and is currently in a state of severe neglect, which could become structurally unsound if allowed to deteriorate further)

Pass this bridge and you are on the Ffordd Road leading out towards Towyn and Abergele. This is an echo of the East End, or seems to be, composed as it is of well-kept though visually drab bungalows which suggest fairly affluent owner-occupation.

Then Trailer Park Country begins - hands up, who had a childhood holiday at Winkups? - but that's a different story altogether.

I was in Rhyl last weekend (Oct 06) - I see they've finally repainted the bloody bridge, then!

Question - has somebody from Rhyl Council logged on here and read these comments? Ah, the power of hootoo...

So what about the collapsing decaying properties on the promenade, then, what are you going to do about these apart from turning them into DSS hostels?

well from what i recall of when i showed the local mp a vidio of going along the prom from east to west his reaction was

*sits up strate looking proud* "thats my constituency" !hit the bad bits! *shrink down going read* "we'r planing to do something about thoes"

though from what i can remember from pooping home in the summer not much has been done.

going back a few posts the hospital on the see frount is actully manly used for convelessing and as a residential hospital for eldaly. the only time i've been there was when the radiology department in the main hospital couldnt give me an appoitemnt for a check on my knees.

Just realised.

"it's not the Forth Bridge..."

Oh yes it is, as it leads to the Ffordd Road... therefore Ffordd Bridge...