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

OK, so I am teaching an advanced English class. I want to look at some vocabulary for describing towns, in a sort of build up to getting them to write about their home town.

I have adjectives (upmarket/ vibrant/ seedy/ soulless etc etc etc).

I have some nice fixed phrases (wide open spaces/ world class golf course/ relaxing setting/ relatively low house prices).

I have verbs (X boasts/ offers, the cycle paths run extensively along/ through..., the apartment blocks towers over/ dwarf... etc etc etc).

I am, for some reason, getting stuck on the more esoteric words for *places* you might feel like describing. So far I have:

amusement arcade
retail park
pedestrianised shopping precinct
council estate

Any further ideas welcome for places, and indeed in any area.

*towns*

Blast.

Esoteric sounding places?
Nothing as mundane as "shopping mall", "city hall", "post office", "sights" (here is a word *everyone* remembered from our Russian class back in the time in the place: "dostoprimelchatelnostij"="Sehenswürdigkeit"="sights"...), "fire department", "police station", "railway station", "cinema/movie theater" and so on?

How about
"real estate agent's offices"
"correctional facility"
"lost property office"
"public transportation hub"
"leisure centre"
"red light district"
"infirmary"
"municipal hospital"
"municipal administration offices"

And suchlike?

Peace Walls (or just city walls)
graffiti and fly posting
view point
university quarter
railway arches
market square
bus depot
opera house
riverside boardwalk

Ooooh, lovely stuff both of you. Keep 'em coming.

Isn't Blast a town in Russia?

That would be Blastov, as in what the Russians do into space that the rest of the world doesn't anymore.

Oh and Yelbakk, my own personal fond memory of Russian classes is that it took me six months to say the name of my profession - prepadaVAtyelnitsa ( female teacher of adults). Wonderful language.

Hoping some of these fill the bill:

Ring Road
Congestion charge
Business district
Tower block
Cost of living
Crime rate
Pollution
Shopping facilities
Transport facilities
Commute/r
Historical sites
Sports facilities
Suburbs
Traffic
Traffic lights
Pedestrian crossing
Speed limit
Right of way
Town planning
Architectural styles
Neighbours
Terrace
Detached
Semidetached
Bungalow
Freehold property
Leasehold property
Landlord
Tenant
Lease
Derelict
Renovation
Garbage collection
Parking spaces
Clamp
The pound
Beggars
Sleeping rough
Parks

not sure if I mention something that has already been said. Here'S what I can think of:

skyscrapers
terrace houses
office blocks
(foodball etc) stadium
boulevards
avenues
city wall
castle
harbour
swimming pool
gardens
front yard
back yard
courtyard
porch
facade
statue
museum
town/city hall
schools
historic building
theatre
church/cathedral/temple
cafe
restaurant
bridge
river
lake
supermarket
cobblestone
asphalt
concrete
bricks
plaster
wood
half-timbered houses
arcades
fountain

I read the title of this as 'describeing toes and cities. so all my initial thoughts were a bit foot and toe related *thinks*

central bisuness disctict.
Bisuness park.
Science park.
University campus.
leafy suburbs.
Old town areas.
New developments.
park and ride.
Out of town developement.
retail park.
out of town shopping.
plastic redevelopment area.
characterful houses.
wide open spaces.
public parks.
Municiple swimming pool.
sports centres.
shopping arcade.
public greens.
commonland.
riverside.
bipass.
Ringroad.
multistorey carparks.
community centres.
historical buildings.

pubs.
bars.
nightclubs.


There should be, but isn't* a name, for those roads/areas in citys; where all the nightclubs and takeaways are; and all the 'plastic pubs', but I cna't really think of a proper name for them.....

Simularly the 'redeveloped' areas, taht are made into 'something', which never quite works... (I'm thinking the horrible area near me, which used to be the cattlemarket,and was filled instead with cinima, bowling place, and every concivible plastic aweful 'chain' pub, bar, and takeaway and resturant' possible hmmm... they don't have a name as far as I can think

Simularly; there should be a name for the area, of housing, light industry (if left), shops, pubs, and suchlike, in every town and city, found in the imediate vacinity of the railway station and sidings, they're always a specific kind of place with a city or town... kinda seedy, kinda older, kinda characterful...; until they build one million pound per one bed flats, of course...

Thanks guys. It really was very helpful. Nice, challenging lesson. Nothing worse than giving advanced students stuff they know already wordwise.

I shall come back here everytime I want to teach the topic too, because I think there is about five lessons' worth out of this!

Oh, and 2legs, in Stevenage that area for the nightclubs/takeaways/plastic pubs is called the Leisure Park.

"Universally disliked town slogan"?
"Graffiti-covered skate park"?
"Politically-motivated twinning project"?
"Central park acting as a junior cocaine academy"?
"Unloved identikit estates populated by chavvy 20-year old parents of six"?
"Urine-soaked war memorial"?
"Optimistic animal sculptures that are regularly vandalised and photographed in positions of abuse"?
"Large queue outside McDonalds at 3am"?
"Council flats full of the terminally unemployable"?
"Football team aspiring not to be relegated from the Conference North">?

...and welcome to Gloucester, by the way.

B

apologies for any duplications

industrial estate
windmill
refuge collection centre
elderly care home

Confederate memorial
equestrian statue
billboard
public art
petting zoo
allotment garden
municipal dump
levee
waterfront

Places of worship
Pier
Garden/ wall of rememberance
Fish market

Sol; I think 'Leisure Park', or even 'Leisure district', now you've said it, is the term used here too... They demolished a lot of old nice places to build the horrible plastic pubs and chain food places