Luton is pretty much how every town in the UK will look in 20 years.

I lived in Luton for three years. And I agree it is the worst place in the UK. I was chased by two people with a knife that had been trying to attack two kids before me. Ran around a corner and bumped into a police van. And I told them I was being chased by two individuals with a knife and they where just around the corner. They didn't even care. Someone sleeping rough with diarrhoea thought it was a good idea to use the communal area carpeted stairs where my flat was to go to the toilet. That was there for weeks before it was cleaned. I also saw a man injecting heroin inside the mall while school kids where walking past and no one cared. But I was ridiculed for wearing gym outfit on my way to the gym!

As someone who lived in Luton from Birth for 34 years, I can give you some insight. Stuart Hotel was council offices until it was too dangerous to work there and was converted to hotel back in 2013. The river lea is sewage back from the airport, the local sea cadets work with river charities use and clean it. It was open, clean and accesible until the Arndale "Mall" was built which closed alot of the river access and was used for sewage. The ABC cinema (08:43) was closed due to being priced out by cineworld but when it closed cineworld jacked prices up by 300%. Kenilworth is one of our best features which says alot... the people though, they are honest and so underserved. God Bless Luton. When the council actually care about lutonians you might see some improvements but as youve seen... its more likely other towns will follow the demise of Luton before anything picks up... RIP

You've got to be kidding me. Luton is infamous here in Poland as it's the place where one of our most popular Polish-British youtuber stays. He's accused of some pretty hefty charges involving sexual contacts with children and his name is Stuart - just like that hotel you've been talking about.

I've been watching videos of horrible towns in the US and UK - how are we going to fix all this? Our leaders have failed us.

When I starting watching this episode I thought my monitor was extremely dark. I started adjusting settings and realized nothing was working. Then I came to the realization that this episode was in the UK and my monitor was perfectly fine.

That's not Luton Station, it's Leighton Buzzard which is a completely different town 15 miles from Luton and on a different train line run by a different company. Trains from Luton get you to London St Pancras International in 25 mins (Midland Mainline) or 30 mins (Thameslink) every 15 minutes all day, they don't ever go to Euston. Most regular rail travellers in Luton are wise enough to save a lot of money by getting a season ticket, eg. for commuting to London for work, or a Network Card and save a third off off-peak travel after 10am. If you're really measuring how bad a town is to live in by its train service to London though, Luton actually does a lot better than most towns especially Plymouth. Trains from Plymouth to London take around 3 and a half hours in my experience, and they never arrive on time. I had to pay over £123 last month for the cheapest Super Off Peak Return ticket from Plymouth to London. I lived in Luton for over 25 years having grown up and lived in Plymouth until 18. So I have friends and family in both areas and support both Argyle and Luton Town equally! I only moved back to Plymouth recently having elderly parents here, but given the choice would much rather live in Luton, even with all its faults. But I really liked the video, so thanks for uploading it :)

I am from Luton, the Town Centre is indeed very grim, but most town centers all over the UK are, and I am sure some are far more grim too. Luton doesn't pretend to be anything it's not; it's a working class industrial town/commuter town. One thing which is great about Luton is that it is surrounded by the Chiltern Hills; what an incredible luxury this is to have.

Sadly most of Britain is going rotten and most of us know why but unfortunately no one can do anything about it

It's great to see you documenting the beautiful side of Britain Ben, and not just the rough parts.

My family moved from North Italy to Luton back in 2008- I was 8 years old then, but I can remember a time when Luton was not this grim and you had more options than multiple poundlands and savers. Since completing A-levels in 2016, I moved to sunny Brighton- only occasionally visiting Luton as my folks still live there, and it gets progressively worse each time I return... I never thought I'd be the one saying this, but Luton could do with some gentrification as things are getting out of hand

“Smells like orange juice from 15 years ago, blended with piss” killed me off that Ben 😂

£70!!! I recently booked a private room in a hostel for one night in Glasgow, and it cost me £23. My room was immaculately clean. Plus, that £70 room had single glazed windows, that's some 1970s shit.

Charging 70 pounds for that should be a crime

I turned the video on, he said "good morning" and my 2 year old daughter waved and said "hello" 😂😂 bless her lil heart

Lorraine chase and the Luton airport TV commercial always comes to mind

I live quite close to Luton and there is something that just can't be conveyed in a video. It might not be the ugliest place ever, but jt just has a depressing ,unsafe atmosphere. You always feel on edge in Luton

In fairness Ben "a pile of vomit next to a vodka bottle" is the official Luton Coat of Arms

Nice video, I never would have thought such a town would be like this. I'll thought other towns would be bad and they were further north but this. Wow, just wow, it is pretty bad!

A lot of towns are like this unfortunately the councils just cannot manage finances at all. They spend money on vanity projects and not on stuff that actually matters like making the place look nice and fixing the roads.

I've been to the UK a few times over the last years, and was really shocked with how dirty it is everywhere, almost as if people just gave up...

We've had previous recessions but the levels of deprivation in towns and cities across the UK is off the scale. I believe this is being done intentionally.

I used to live in Luton and it was such an amazing place to live. Looking at this video today is a sad reality of most towns in Uk not just Luton. Luton bets a lot of stick but I will always love it and it holds a special place in my heart.❤

This hasn't happened recently either. 20+ years ago when I lived in Cheshire, I applied for a job at Luton Airport. It would've been a step up for my career. On the day of my interview I remember turning off the motorway and as I was prety early, I took a quick spin round the town. To cut a long story short, 10 minutes later I was back on the motorway northbound, after calling the company to cancel the interview. I have no idea how the job would've worked out, but nothing could have made living in Luton worth it. One word... GRIM. More recently I've found myself flying in and out of Luton Airport a couple of times, because the flights were cheap; I never went near the town itself, just straight off/on the motorway, but even the airport, compared with airports, seems to represent how Luton town compares with other towns; grotty, chaotic, crumbling, littered with garbage and just plain ugly. I don't want to put people down, I feel sorry for those who have to live there, but I didn't feel too much at ease with some of the characters lrking around either. Enough said about that. I have travelled a lot in my time, and spent a lot of time in Eastern Europe not long after the breakup of the Soviet Union,; I also traveled across Ukraine and Russia. I have to say Luton depressed me more than anywhere in those countries, even then. About the hotel... I once stayed in a hotel that was actually on a similar level to the Stuart, from what you showed us (maybe even worse, and in a smaller room.) To be fair I should mention that it wasn't in Luton (there's no excuse for spending a night there, except for research as you did!) Not only did I sleep fully clothed as you did, I also kept my shoes on, I didn't want to touch the carpet with my feet. I used the bathroom just for a piss and checked out early after a sleepless night without even brushing my teeth or having a shave!

I lived in Luton for a couple of years, from 1999-2001. I still haven’t got over the experience.

I grew up in Luton and used to work at the shop at 11:12 it used to be a stone masons back then. I had a good childhood but the town took a bad turn when I was about 15. In 2005 I was able to move my wife and kids to Ireland for a better life. Thankfully I was able to see how things were going. Clear to see I made the right choice.

Plenty of places with similar "feel", try walking outside MK shopping centre and see the tents under the bridges. Stevenage, Bradford, London. If grime is what you're after you can find quite a few competitors to Luton

I lived in America for more than 2 decades. The biggest differences since returning & visiting big cities are diversity (foreign language), general dirt & rubbish in the streets, closed shops in high streets etc. We remembered that British people were not good at customer service. Living in Dallas, Texas (mostly) might have increased my expectations but it’s definitely worse than I remembered! Buying a house & applying for permits to make alterations & build was a truly shocking experience! Everything costs a lot of money but nothing is done with even basic competence AND no one holds any responsibility for the work they’ve done! By comparison, in Texas you hire experts to take the responsibility from you.

The English people deserve much better than this. We are led by treacherous politicians and councillors. I would like to leave this broken country.....

Great to see Timmy back in good health. Looking forward to the next video!!

I worked moving an entire office out every night for a week about 4 years ago in the town centre my god is was winter and so bleak ,the cold wind blew down the street and it stank I was so happy when we finally left that place

I'm Australian and visited family in the UK (including Luton) just before Covid and was shocked at how filthy the place was. It's honesty something you'd expect in a third world nation not the UK. Brits also litter a lot more compared to Aussies, you should be proud of the country you live in enough to keep the place looking decent!!

If i wasn't depressed before entering that hotel i would've been by the time i left. Thanks for heroically standing on the Frontlines for us and documenting your experience. You deserve the purple backpack medal for your service bravery and heroism in the face certain unpleasantries. Truly first class. Keep the good fight going sir we appreciate you🫡

England is just shameful now. I really hate it here.

In 2008 my dad had decided he wanted to move our family out of london and he started house hunting, it came down to a house in luton that was in our budget or a house in milton keynes that was a pricier but in a much nicer area. Thank God he didn't cheap out! Milton Keynes has it's dodgey areas, sure, but I had a great school and work experience living there (don't what it's like now though as I moved to Denmark in 2016. another epic decision on my part this time. So clean and safe here. Sad to see how England is getting so much worse than ever)

such a candid review

Hotel is shocking, you enter your room and you see someone’s backpack on your bed and water bottle, bed is un done too, truly shocking.

The stamp machine at 10:00 hit me hard. What contrast between the faded beauty of the old stamp dispenser and the complete and utter ugliness of everything else in Luton. We've lost so much...

Reminds me of Croydon. numerous places in the UK are just as grim. At least Luton has an airport to get out to the Med. I've left the UK altogether tbh.

Is it easy to pull at the.pubs here? Even if you're old, overweight etc. ? Does Stuarts have an attached bar/lounge?

In the 1970's, Luton was the industrial engine of the South East of England with a booming town centre & jobs attracting people from all over the UK. Successive Labour councils have presided over the decline of a once prosperous town.

I was born in Luton, grew up just outside it in Dunstable, and worked there for a couple of years, two minutes from the shopping centre. There's small pockets near Stopsley and Warden Hills which aren't too bad, but most of the town is a fucking abomination. It was always pretty rough, but I think the closure of the Vauxhall factory around 25 years ago and the influx of migrants took things to another level of shit.

Luton isn't completely bad, there may be a high crime rate and a lot of people sneaking in from other countries along with a underqualified hospital but it has a cheap airport along with cheap housing and the schools/colleges are very good too. I grew up in Luton and it was pretty decent, especially the LU2 area.

I spent some wonderful time with my family in Luton between 2005 and 2008. It also received the title of the worst place to live but we enjoyed it nevertheless. Went back there for a bit in 2016 and still feel an attachment with the town. Even worked part time as an IT assistant in the central library in 2008. Hope the town will become better. Love from Kuala Lumpur.

Amazing to think this place is only 15 minutes from Harpenden/St Albans. Some of the most affluent towns in Britain!

Luton, Bradford, Burnley, Blackburn you see a pattern.

This looks like a small northern german city in the beginning 1980's...out of a transistor radio I can hear "Baggy Trousers" by Madness...😮

Well, in fact, I had a feeling of going back in time in the East London 25-30 years back. I used to live in Hackney (never mind it is now all posh and expensive and been done up in the past 15 years), but 25 years ago Hackney or especially areas around Leytonstone and even Stratford looked quite similar to what Luton is now. Not sure if Leytonstone is any better these days would be curious to have a quick peek at it ))

Its actually inconceivable that Luton is in an even worse state now than it was when I lived there back in the day. Back then at least the different groups of thugs and crews would stay in their lane, stay in their own pubs, and if you minded your own business you could mostly stay out of bother. It was really poor but at least it was relatively clean, people made the best of it, and despite being run down you could find things to do and find friends. The Arndale Centre wasnt without problems but back then it was clean, had lots of security, and it was unimaginable that someone would shoot up there.

I cycled 2500 km throught the UK in summer visiting cities like Sunderland, Hull, Middlesbrough and Wigan. The bad roads you can see in Luton is more or less the standard quality in most english regions. Infrastructure is really run down in the UK.

I lived in Luton for 4 years. I used to live in London. I can honestly say that that Luton is like every town, you have the horrible places and the wonderful areas. I absolutely loved staying there, I had access to local markets but lived in the new builds. I had the best of both worlds. There are also very expensive areas with amazing houses. The schools are decent as well. This is not a true representation of Luton, you only showed the dodgy sides

I've spent about 4 months working in Luton back in 2016, and I'm "glad" to see that almost nothing has changed in the 8 years since 😂😢😞

Looks like the UK has seen better days as a country based on your videos....

That little river was the River Lea, once a rare habitat chalk stream, but now 100% (treated?) sewage water.

I think this area in general has become the equivalent to your typical seaside town with how run down it is. I grew up not far away from here and I can tell you all the towns surrounding it bar a few like harpenden are the same. Look at Milton Keynes and Bedford. It’s a shame with how towns are going because I genuinely remember a time pre 2015 where Luton was okay, now although I have family there I wouldn’t go back unless I had to.

I lived in Luton for a couple of years and it's one of those places with a horrid mix of people, it's like all of the alcoholics, crackheads, gangs, hooligans and criminals moved to one town. The town centre is From Dusk Til Dawn at night and you need garlic and holy water just to buy some haribo from a local shop. During the day it's not too bad though and it has some nice parks and historical buildings.

The Vauxhall Factory that closed years ago had a huge Negative Impact on Luton, you could offer me a 3 bedroom house, Mortgage/Rent free in Luton and I still wouldn’t live there. Awful town.

God, how depressing! You deserve a medal.

Nothing beats Sparkle's hotel off the hagley rd Birmingham closed down now but who ever stayed there knows what i am talking about

If you go to any town and stay in the worst rated hotel it's probably going to be bad. What did you expect and what does it prove? Why didn't you just stay in a better hotel?

I dunno, the people you met in Luton were quite nice, it's a bloody shame that the city has fallen into such a state. I'm also glad you're back in the U.K. for the Christmas season. I'm also quite glad that Timmy is going to join you. What he endured in Central America with Mr. Bald was quite traumatic for both men. I hope you guys go to someplace nice, instead of another depressed city like Luton. In fact, none of the KZfaqrs ever go to anywhere nice in the U.K., I know they exist because my family is there, and I love visiting.

...that parking lot with the grotesquely huge pothole is where my mum parks as she works in one of the buildings in the area. Driving through that is no fun, and your video makes it look better than it is 😂

A wonderful insight to my lovely hometown. It definitely wasn’t that bad when I lived there.

Loved to see Timmy in the end lol, btw as someone who lived in Luton for 2.5 years i can say it's not that bad, it has a few really nice neighbourhoods and easy access to an airport/london but yeah...the town center is a bit rough

I am shocked to see how similar all these cities are getting across the globe, grey, dirty, soulless places. it's like people are just done being responsible for all this technological wealth. And just live in it, surviving in it like rats. That guy went to work there. I could not bring myself to smile aha. Strong!

I was in Luton over a year ago, it was okay, I would like to spend some time there as the airport is so accessible.......Thanks and Blessings........

I was living in UK for more than 10 years. Some of the most depressing years in my life.

Holy Chit!! Timmy survives the Darien gap wit Bald and appears in Luton with Ben!! 🤯 Brilliant!!

So bleak 😢. Great to see Timmy up and well. Looking forward to your next town 🙂

How full were the knife amnesty bins ?

Thank you for showing us some part of Luton, hopefully I could travel to UK…

Wonder why the Afghans are covering their faces, maybe they shouldn’t be here!

Poor Kat missed out on another quality establishment, you’ll have to pencil this one in for the honeymoon

how does that hotel operate in that condition? £70 per night, as well?

Sadly Uk is like Roman empire. From top heading to very bottom.

Shame on the government.

Really looking forward to the next video with exitment! Especially with this great duo

Thanks I tried to turn up my lighting but saw it was on full brightness.not as bad as Joburg.

I drove through Luton. I thought I was back in one of the grimy inner London suburbs. its full of Asian shops with garish cheap shop fronts. Has a really seedy feel about it.

Many times I have visited places where the locals insist the place is "unfriendly" whilst being very friendly themselves and then everybody else you meet are also quite friendly....Funny that

Hey Timmy, nice to see him in your video. ❤

Im from Leighton Buzzard close to luton! Should come look around here mate loads of cool history around here!!

I stayed at Luton last year, for a couple of days. It definitely has a bit of an air of tension. Odd characters and incidents that just spontaneously happen (like arguments in the middle of the centre.) But i was welcomed when i came by a very friendly chap. Would i live there or visit again? No, probably not. But honestly, luton looks a little worse than when i went going from this video.

Very brave visiting Luton by yourself.

Boggles me these places aren't shut down due to hygienic reasons. This is Britain, not some other place where you'd be more understanding in ways.

It reminds me a bit of my home town in the supposedly affluent south-east. Down at heel, grey for 9 months of the year, asylum seeker hotels, tatty closed shops, town centre needing a lot of tlc, potholes everywhere. High point for the UK seems to have been about 20 years ago, we've just been stagnating ever since. My county council of Hampshire is on the verge of bankruptcy and is cutting back on so many services. How did it come to this?

People only go town centre for Galaxy; the cinema is pretty nice. Town is miserable but everywhere else is decent.

Haha this was a funny, but sort of dark episode of Backpacker Ben . It's sad how towns and cities can degrade and decay like this one here. The images of the pound stores reminds me of a television show i sometimes watch on the Public Broadcasting System about an English fellow who manages a small store like the ones shown here and has funny interactions with regular customers and the townsfolk. Ok i looked it up and its called "Still Open All Hours" LOL !!

Ah, I love seeing ben exploring his own country, won't miss any of them for sure !

Ben you need to get to Medway. Parts of Gillingham, Strood and Chatham (including our own Luton) will give Luton a run for its money

Practically every town and city has places like this. The local councils are to blame as investment isn't made in the right places. These towns have been on the decline for many many years

Thanks for mentioning Luton Town Ben. The capacity of our stadium is 11,000 now with the new bobbers stand..

I don't know why I like these "worst place" videos but they are fascinating. It's clear the government chooses where to spend the money and it isn't in Luton.

Thank goodness all I see of Luton is from an Airbus 320 as I fly between my home in Romania (14 years here) to Broken Britain to visit my family in Newbury, Berkshire and Petersfield, Hampshire. Straight out of the terminal onto a National Express coach and leave Luton behind as quickly as possible!

This is exeggerated. Luton is not that bad. You choose the worst corners of that city. And if something is true... as i thing it is... it has got its own wonderful angles ... as anything in the word. Cheers :-)

As some one that lives in Luton and grew up here, but also regularly travels, let me tell you it's not THAT bad. The exaggeration in the comments is hilarious. Depends where you live. Stopsley, Bramingham, Saints, Biscot are fine from my own experience. Never been mugged or given a dirty look. I've worked in the town hall. In the airport. I think the loss of our night life changed the town. No more clubs here.

You need to go to Rotherham,Grimsby, Stockton On Tees,Nelson,Oldham,Blackburn and Rochdale, they are even bigger dumps than Luton.

The central part of Luton has had many attempts at rejuvenation since WW2 , but none seems to have led to lasting change . Even the building of the Arndale Shopping Centre in the 1960's - then the largest shopping centre in Europe . Luton does however have some very nice suburbs , but the residents don't visit the Town Centre much . The Centre has always attracted large numbers of unemployed ,but in recent years , there are large numbers of homeless as well , just "hanging around" . I've heard Antisocial Behavior incidents per 1000 population are among the highest in England and there are about 3,400 homeless .

Great you covered Luton. It really needs a lot of investment, especially the football stadium. I met some wonderful people from living in Luton, the aesthetics don't do it justice and its not as bad as it looks. The council is trying to redevelop the town centre but not enough money. It is so depressing nowadays. Please put more money here ❤

I dont know why but countries where the emphasis on equality is greater than liberty, tend to have more ghettos, more shanty towns and slums.