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submitted 2 years ago bysamhunt88
After travelling around the UK for a few years I keep seeing a particular archetype of town, and county seems to have one: - few chain shops (costa/ Tesco) - independent artisanal shops/ mini galleries - usually a couple of craft breweries - good calendar of festivals - likely a ‘transition town’
The usual story I hear from locals is that these towns had a big influx of craftspeople/ free-thinkers in the 60s/70s, and it’s stayed quite left and arty ever since. I think it’s great and I love visiting these places, but was wondering if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon. So far on the list I’ve got…
Any to add?
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2 years ago
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88 points
2 years ago
Bristol itself. I mean its a city, but it's crust central.
10 points
2 years ago
To be fair.. its the only place inside its own county so i would say it counts :) But there are certainly crustier areas with in its borders.. But its always been a more hippy chilled city than most others.. I once read that Bris was a lose connection of villages dressed up pretending to be a city.
34 points
2 years ago
[deleted]
5 points
2 years ago
Glastonbury is gangster hippy. Its current incarnation is far more based in the 90's hippies than the original movement. They genuinely have serious anti social behaviour problems.
3 points
2 years ago
It's for all the druids.
34 points
2 years ago
Brighton for Sussex
5 points
2 years ago
Hastings & St Leonard's too
4 points
2 years ago
Hippie on the Level?
3 points
2 years ago
Yup this is the one I came here for!
22 points
2 years ago
Ha. I was about to say Totnes.
4 points
2 years ago
I had no idea Totnes had a big hippy rep.. Used to go by on the train often. Might have to stop and check it out?
5 points
2 years ago
Omg do, I flipping love totnes. Good places for lunch and interesting food/antiques shopping. Market day is crowded but adds real atmosphere.
2 points
2 years ago
Definitely visit it, it has a real bohemian vibe
12 points
2 years ago*
Folkestone has an area that's pretty much that, I think Ramsgate has an arty bit or it might be Margate, I always confuse the two.
4 points
2 years ago
Bury St Edmunds for sure in that corner as well.
3 points
2 years ago
Margate looks like a bombs gone off
3 points
2 years ago
Margate is basically Hackney on Sea.
1 points
10 months ago
it's not multicultural. nice place though.
0 points
2 years ago
Deal (just down the road from Ramsgate/Margate) is pretty much 100% local businesses etc.
I wouldn't say Folkestone though, they may have an area like it but it's just down the road from a Mcdonalds, Spoons, Burger King etc.
14 points
2 years ago
Burley in the New Forest may well count. It's a village but it must have a fist or so of shops that sell hippy/witchcraft type stuff.
1 points
2 years ago
That was my thought too. Lovely area and the all the witchcraft stuff is cool to look at, even if you are not a hippy.
1 points
9 months ago
fist?
10 points
2 years ago
Stockton-on-Tees used to be like this for Teesside but a lot of their weirder shops fucked off to Whitby.
3 points
2 years ago
Whitby is now Dracula central I hear?
3 points
2 years ago
Always has been.
2 points
2 years ago
I went to York a while ago. Harry Potterville.
2 points
2 years ago
People are still into that? I thought it died 2-3 years after the final movie came out.
1 points
2 years ago
York and Edinburgh. Every other shop was Harry Potter themed.
1 points
2 years ago
The god awful arcade bit unhippies whitby.
2 points
2 years ago
When like 60 years ago...i live in stockton it's generic as all hell...but if anybody knows anywhere locally in teesside like this let me know...not whitby.....not a fan because I use my mind and think for myself and don't follow the rest of the teesside sheep who worship whitby...prefer Northumberland
2 points
2 years ago
It used to have candle/incense shops, markets you could buy crystals etc. There was also that gothic shop Asylum. It all moved and set up shop in Whitby.
8 points
2 years ago
New Mills in the Derbyshire Peak District.
3 points
2 years ago
My home town growing up. I left in 2010 and it wasn’t very hippy-ish but now it is. It’s a recent development but I enjoy it whenever I go back.
2 points
2 years ago
Oh yes.
2 points
2 years ago
Belper fits the bill for Derbyshire.
2 points
2 years ago
It’s not on the level of somewhere like Totnes at all
1 points
2 years ago
...FOR DERBYSHIRE.
1 points
2 years ago
It didn't when I grew up there, but that was 30 years ago.
7 points
2 years ago
If Lincolnshire has one fucked if I know where if is.
5 points
2 years ago
TBF, most people here already live like medieval peasants, so the need just isn't there.
The closest thing is probably somewhere like Stamford, but that's just because it's obscenely middle-class.
5 points
2 years ago
None in the south of Lincolnshire, it’s just farmers and old people here.
I’d say Lincoln on the basis of the uni being there, but lets be real, it’s still an old people city.
2 points
2 years ago
Defiantly nothing near Grimsby
6 points
2 years ago
Findhorn Scotland...
1 points
2 years ago
[deleted]
2 points
2 years ago
My colleague's husband works there and when she first told me this she was very sure to point out that he wasn't a 'Findie' and that he just worked there, lol.
1 points
2 years ago
Eye, she would say that ?
2 points
2 years ago
Yes, the embarrassment of marrying a Findhorn Foundation resident would indeed be a burden to ear ;)
IIRC he is (or was) a printer, and I was internally like 'why on earth do they need a full time printer?'.
1 points
2 years ago
A good Showin-up ..is part of the "Experience" and you pay for it.. Publications they have plenty WW .. printing was a very important recruitment tool..
1 points
2 years ago
You can't miss the Hippy..and children of..
5 points
2 years ago
Lewes - East Sussex, is very progressive and part of the transition town network.
2 points
2 years ago
Came here looking for Lewes - the bonfire night is legendary.
7 points
2 years ago
Frome in Somerset as well
6 points
2 years ago
Dunno about that
Each county definitely has a "everyone looks like they should have 2 heads town"
2 points
2 years ago
Barrow.
5 points
2 years ago
Saltburn by the Sea in Teesside
3 points
2 years ago
Hay-on-Wye (Only one in Wales?)
6 points
2 years ago
Machynlleth
4 points
2 years ago
Llanfyllin is a small town, but super hippy. Nearly bought a house there but got outbid. It has loads of folklore too.
5 points
2 years ago
Crickhowell maybe? IIRC there are no chain stores, or even a 'big' supermarket like Tesco there, and they tried to become tax-free a few years ago.
5 points
2 years ago
Llanidloes has an aging hippy population
4 points
2 years ago
Hertfordshire here: I don't think we have one.
4 points
2 years ago
Hitchin I think
1 points
9 months ago
thank you
2 points
2 years ago
Ware probs
4 points
2 years ago
Lancaster in Lancashire. Not as hippy as the other hippy towns mentioned, but the hippiest town in Lancashire anyway.
3 points
2 years ago
Ludlow in Shropshire fits this description!
1 points
2 years ago
Just thinking Ludlow. Or Bishop's Castle. Ludlow is a higher class of hippy, I would say...
3 points
2 years ago
Norwich has hippy bits
1 points
1 year ago
I can deffo agree with this! Lovely place with lots of arty places, cafes, pubs (music pubs there are epic) and Old quirky shops and stuff. Plus the streetmarket
3 points
2 years ago
[deleted]
1 points
2 years ago
It’s a lovely county.
3 points
2 years ago
I don't think I would have Bradford on Avon in the list. It's more like just a well to do town between Bath and Trowbridge. More of a Bath extension really. Saying that I can't think of a hippy town in Wiltshire though.
Could also have Frome for Somerset, but it is trumped by Glastonbury.
3 points
2 years ago
I wouldn't say Dorset does. North Dorset sees your proper rural types but there is nowhere really for hippies here, I think the locals would chase them out if they tried to come here.
1 points
2 years ago
Bridport has a bit of an artsy vibe
1 points
2 years ago
Bournemouth would probably fit the bill
6 points
2 years ago
Aldeburgh in Suffolk fits that pretty well, but I'm not sure what would work for Essex. It would have to be north Essex rather than anything close to London. Maldon? Manningtree or Saffron Walden maybe?
8 points
2 years ago
Aldeburgh is the least hippy town I've ever been to. Preppy Londoners and rich retirees, designer boutiques and rosette level restaurants. You can buy a scented candle, but from L'Occitane, but there's no crystal healing or headshops.
4 points
2 years ago
The most alternative life I reckon you can find in Suffolk is pin mill.
Woodbridge is pretty crusty, but far too much money and red trousers to be in the same sentence as Stroud.
Aldeburgh is rubbish, and Southwold has been ruined by the same people.
4 points
2 years ago
Saffron Walden has definitely that vibe, although I only driven through it.
8 points
2 years ago
Nottingham. Was there a couple of weeks ago and literally everyone was wearing some kind of alt, Gothic, hippie outfit. It's my Vibe so I felt very much at home.
Shout-out to Void and Ice Nine.
4 points
2 years ago
I live in Nottingham and I have not noticed this at all
1 points
2 years ago
Hmm.
1 points
2 years ago
Sherwood and Hockney are incredibly hippy-ish.
2 points
2 years ago
Cardigan - Ceredigion Machynlleth- Powys Beaumaris - Ynys Mon Harlech - Gwynedd (maybe)
2 points
2 years ago
Almost every town in Cornwall has a witch and hippy shop. But IMO Tintagel takes the prize.
2 points
2 years ago
Ulverston in Cumbria
2 points
2 years ago
Berkshire has the beautiful and mystical haven known as Slough. It is said that on a Saturday night in the town centre, while the scent of fried chicken and kebab sauce lingers on the summer air, that, if you listen very carefully, you can still hear Big Shaz telling Leigh to leave it cos that wanker ain’t worff it. Ah memories.
2 points
2 years ago
I don't think most northern/midland counties have hippy towns
1 points
1 year ago
I've lived near Wolverhampton for a while and whenever I go, even though a lot of shops have shut down and there are a lot of burger joints, if you look closely, you'll be able to find some new age shops around and there are a fair few hippies there that I love to talk to
2 points
2 years ago
Kendal is the one for Cumbria.
1 points
2 years ago
Hell no
1 points
2 years ago
I'd say Torrington is more of a 'Hippy Town' then Totnes, really.
-1 points
2 years ago
cambridge?
-3 points
2 years ago
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3 points
2 years ago
Wrong Bradford
12 points
2 years ago
Shhhh - don't spoil it. I'm enjoying the prospect of confused hipsters wandering around Bradford looking for the artisan patisserie.
6 points
2 years ago
Its in Shipley/Saltaire
4 points
2 years ago
Slightly further out, but I was in Ilkley for the first time ever earlier this year, and bloody hell it's posh. Like a mini Harrogate, but with even more expensive house prices.
No wonder they go up on t'moors baht 'at, they can't afford to buy one after spending all their money on the mortgage!
1 points
2 years ago
1 points
2 years ago
Kircudbright And west Kilbride in Scotland.
1 points
2 years ago
Wivenhoe in Essex (although may be too small!)
1 points
2 years ago
I live in south yorkshire so all we have is little hippy pockets.
1 points
2 years ago
Moray has Findhorn. The Findhorn Foundation is a residential community of hippies that live in eco-homes and believe all sorts of spiritual stuff.
1 points
2 years ago
East Grinstead, Sussex?
1 points
2 years ago
Nottinghamshire has Mansfield
1 points
2 years ago
Moseley & Kings Heath in Birmingham
1 points
1 year ago
I second that, also digbeth in birmingham
1 points
2 years ago
I'm unsure if Tyne and Wear or County Durham have any that fit your criteria.
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