Harlow in general.... Jeremy Kyle-esque? (Harlow in General)

Member Name: katykicker

Product:	Harlow in General
Date:	12/04/09 (37 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of shops, some good bars & lots of nice takeaways here.

Disadvantages: Some of the people are just atrocious.

I have lived in Harlow on and off for around 7 years now and have seen quite a few changes over time.

Harlow has a few main areas such as The Stow, Staple Tye, Potter Street, Old Harlow & the main town centre. Each place has it's own shops, pubs etc and generally if you ask someone in Harlow where they come from it'll be "The Stow" or "near Potter St" rather than "blah blah street".

There are two main shopping areas in the Town Centre and these are the Harvey Centre & The Water Gardens both within two or three minutes walk of each other and hosting a variety of bars, cafes, restaurants etc and some of the big stores such as Primark, Next, M&S, Top Shop, Jane Norman, JD Sports, Burtons, etc and there are also Supermarkets in the form of Tesco & Asda. There are lots of stores to visit here and you can probably find pretty much everything in the town centre somewhere. The main store that I'd really like to see here is a Lush store but I don't think there are any plans for that at the moment which is such a shame as I adore Lush (in case you couldn't see from my reviews!).

There are lots of pubs in Harlow both in the town centre and dotted around but the only ones I tend to visit are actually in the main town centre (Wetherspoons, Liquid, Quattroz) but I don't have much of a desire to visit very often as I just don't like the trouble that normally ensues at the end of a night and people being sick etc everywhere.

I think Harlow has quite a bad reputation (like most areas in Essex no doubt) and probably about 80% of the people here do live up to that reputation. Wide boys with rubbish cars and girlfriends who look like they are off for a night out when they're going to sit in McDonalds car park or just generally girls on a night out who look like they're on the game.

I don't really know many people here except my family but my other half has some lovely friends who live here so I guess it goes to show that it's not everybody who has that Jeremy Kyle aura about them.

I would recommend visiting the town centre if you live in a smaller town or village as there are a lot of shops here but occasionally I like to go off to Chelmsford just for a change of scene (and Lush of course!).

There are quite a few nice places to eat in Harlow; Nandos, The Three Horseshoes, Harlow Tandoori. There are also quite a few good takeaways places here (and some bad of course) so it's not all bad!

Harlow also has a cinema and a shopping area on Edinburgh Way which has the larger electrical retailers Comet etc and there is a giant Tesco, B&Q, Homebase, Mothercare etc all located within about a mile of each other so there is a lot of choice for furnishing your home or dressing your baby etc.

Not everything is bad about Harlow, there are lots of nice fields and parks to walk in and there is the River Stort with a lovely path to follow, especially nice during the summer months. There are also a few nice pubs such as the Harlow Mill which is great for sitting by the river in summer. I am therefore rating Harlow 4/5. You can't help the kind of people that are here, you get them everywhere really these days (unfortunately!).

Summary: I would recommend giving it a visit, even if just for La Senza!