Hayes : My Hometown. (Hayes in general)

Member Name: candymarie

Product:	Hayes in general
Date:	19/07/02 (2281 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: shops, entertainment, choice of schools

Disadvantages: Hillingdon Hospital, graffiti, litter

Hayes has been my hometown since I was 4 years old, which means I have lived here for nearly 10 years. In case you didn't know, Hayes is a town in Middlesex, West London. The nearest towns to Hayes are Uxbridge, Southall and Hillingdon. There is a wide range of people in Hayes, from lots of different cultures, like British, Asian, African, and Irish.

To get to London from Hayes, you can either drive, or get several buses, but the easiest way is to get the tube from the station in Uxbridge.

Hayes is near to these well known places:
Heathrow Airport, which provides jobs for lots of people in Hayes and the surrounding area,
RAF northholt,
And the Heinz factory (look on a tin of baked beans!)

Hayes is not a particularly attractive place, as there is a lot of graffiti and litter. The Hillingon Hospital, the nearest hospital, hasn't got a particularly good reputation, as it is not very clean, the waiting times are high, and a patient was recently raped by a nurse in the Hospital toilets. There is also quite a lot of crime in Hayes, with incidents like assault, muggings, and a high rate of drug use, especially in youngsters (You see 10 year olds smoking weed in the streets, not bothered by who sees.) There's a curfew of 10 O'clock in Hayes Town, as there is a lot of trouble there after dark.

Now I have told you about the bad side of Hayes, I'll tell you about the good points:

EDUCATION: There are many schools in Hayes, especially Primary schools, so if you have kids, you will be spoilt for choice. There is a college in the area, and it has 2 sites, one in Hayes Town and the other in Uxbridge. There is a University in Uxbridge(which is about a 45 minute walk or 15 minute bus drive from Hayes) called Brunel University. Lots of sports activities take place here.

TRANSPORT: Hayes has a train station, but I've never been there, so I can't comment on it. I have, however, been
in the Uxbrige tube station, which is situated next to the Bus Station, so it is in quite a convienient place. Hayes is one of those places where you wait ages for one bus to come along, then 2 come alon
g at once! The bus I mainly get, the 207 to Uxbridge from Ealing, is usually quite clean, as they are relatively new, but if you are unfortunate to have to get the old type of 207, they are dirty and smelly.

SHOPS: Hayes is quite good for shops, as it has lots of them. A particulary good place to shop is down the Uxbridge Road, which is in Hayes, not Uxbridge. It has a variety of shops on 3 or 4 parades, starting from the Beck Theatre, which I'll come on to later, to the Grapes. It's best if you walk, as there are limited parking spaces. There are shops like Woolworths, Londis, Spar, Nisa, Wimpy, hairdressers, take away shops(fish and chips, Indian, Chinese....)bakers, grocers, a card shop, butchers, a pet shop, newsagents, estate agents and clothes shops(like Abbas, which sells fashionable clothes at low prices, and Morsons Kids, which sells uniforms from all the local schools.)
A few minutes up the road, you get to a retail park, called the Lombardy Retail park, which has shops like Sainsburys, Homebase, Mothercare and sports shops. Another few minutes up the road, you will come to lots of DIY stores. like B&Q, MFI, as well as Office World, and carpet stores.
If you want to get away from Hayes, and shop, good places are Uxbrige, which has 2 shopping centres, one of which is the Chimes, which is quite new and has a cinema, Hounslow, Harrow, or London.

ENTERTAINMENT: I have already mentioned the Beck Theatre, which is the main theatre in Hayes. It has lots of shows on, for both kids and adults( I remember my mum taking me to see Snow White and Postman Pat when I was little.) I also remember going to a beanie fair there a couple of years ago, so the Beck is also home to craft fairs. The garden is really nice too, a
s it has a coffee shop, flower garden and a big water fountain.
There are no cinemas in Hayes itself, but there is some in nearby Uxbridge and Feltam, which are only a bus ride away.

There are many pubs in Hayes, a lot of them are not very good, but there are a few popular ones, which have night time entertainment like live bands and kareoke.

There is a few parks in Hayes, but the best one is Barra Hall. It is in Freemans Lane, near Hayes Town and the Beck Theatre. It is quite big, and has the normal kids play area, with an assault course, as well as a bandstand, tennis courts and lots of open space. Lots of activities and events take place in this park, like the fair and carnival which has just been. There was rides and attractions, and lots of people visited and had fun. A new open air theatre is also soon going to be built there, as the old one is falling down. There is also a church in the grounds.

Overall, I think Hayes is not too bad, it has its good points, but it also has its bad points. I've been told its not as bad as some places, but it depends which area of Hayes you see, as some are ok, then some are really bad.

So there is my hometown, thankyou for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.
Marie .

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