The six worst places on the Isle of Wight

As an Island resident I feel the ferry companies have a lot to answer for. Sometimes the last high speed passenger ferry to the island might be 10pm which is great when you've travelled to Portsmouth to see a band who might finish at 10.30pm. That is not "service". Neither is their extortion.

I grew up on the Island and only moved away about 5 years ago. Sandown deserves its TT status, but it never used to be like that; when I was young it was rammed during the summer. All the shops would stay open until 9 or 10pm, the guest houses were thriving, and there were far more arcades and way fewer boarded-up buildings. Unfortunately, the greed of the ferry companies has severely impacted tourism to the island, and Sandown seems to be the worst casualty.

A Cheaper ferry service would get more people coming in.

I was born and raised in Sandown but have lived in London for the last 30 years. I find it supremely painful to go back to what used to be a vibrant holiday resort. It used to have multiple nightclubs, tons of stuff for kids and young people to do, good shopping, great pubs, and a super friendly atmosphere. Carnival and Regatta in the summer - a bit sleepy but pleasant in the winter. My home town for all my formative years - the Commercial pub my local when I was (almost) old enough to drink. Now Sandown is like a disgusting rotten tooth, full of decay and crumbling with nobody seeming to care. The people who are left are either too old to move away or too apathetic to care what a cesspit such a lovely little seaside town has turned into. As someone else said, the disgusting greed of the ferry companies, the withdrawal of the little bit of Island industry like Plessy Radar, British Hovercraft , Elliot Turbo etc that kept full time employment going out of the holiday season badly damaged the island economy along with package holidays. Hoteliers also have to shoulder some of the blame - many 'scalped' the tourists during the season then buggered off to the south of France or Spain for the winter without investing any money at all in getting their hotels up to modern standards. It's not all circumstances that are out of local inhabitants hands: as teenagers we used to call the lack of get up and go on the island the 'Island Disease' - so the inhabitants must bear some of the responsibility for the decline too. Retirees from the mainland who want no progress, deeply conservative with large and small 'C's have strangled their own paradise. Sandown is rotting in it's own juices - and sadly I've seen now it so my lovely memories of it are tarnished.

I live on the island and knew instantly the worst would be Sandown. The issue with the hotels there, are a "developer" buys then, gets refused planning permission and then theres a fire. Has happened multiple times. The derelict buildings also end up trashed by "squatters"

Both Wroxall and Ventnor could be dramatically improved if the railway from Ryde was reopened. Just a few years ago there seemed a real chance this could happen using "reverse Beeching" funds the government made available. But local people seemed to oppose it - wanting to keep part of the old line as a foorpath. Seems to sum up the attitude of the whole island.

Sadly the IOW harks back to a golden age, Queen Victoria loved the place her favourite residence I believe. I have pleasant memories of the Island, fossil hunting with my young daughter and long summer evenings. Now she's grown up and I'm a fossil myself, still the memories last forever...

Just booked a holiday to tenerife yesterday, for next month. So while watching this, I thought I’d see how much it would cost for the same dates, two weeks in the isle of white. Starts at £1,488 to £9,000! That’s accommodation only. My two weeks in Tenerife in a really nice apartment I’ve stayed in before, is only £600, and flights £250… no wonder tourist are not flocking there anymore. It’s cheaper to go abroad.

As an Island native, gentrification and people buying second homes has absolutely devastated us. Locals can't afford housing, and prices have hiked so much that what used to be a vibrant and cheap holiday place sees tourism die.

The video has had an effect. Since it hit the local papers I've never seen so many shops with scaffold up getting done up in Newport. Obviously the council has taken the shop owners to task on the poor state of the buildings.

''Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'' If you are looking for bad things, they will undoubtedly be found. But....look for pretty out of the way places, walks, meadows, copses, stunning scenery, best sunsets ever, hidden coves, amazing gardens, dinosaur fossils, nature reserves, history and best fish and chips ever in Cowes and a Donkey Sanctuary et al, then look no more! Pop your rose coloured spectacles on and see through the grey & enjoy the feeling of being away from Mainland Britain. I do agree with Sandown though...once a go to vibrant fun place, now a distant memory of times that were.

Born and bred on the Island, trouble with the tourist towns is its cheaper for people to go abroad than to the Island, that's why so many hotels and holiday camps have closed, but it the same all over the country no matter were you go

You are right about the Isle of Wight as few of the towns are truly bad by comparison with others you’ve listed before. Class A drugs are a problem here, but so so in much of the urbanised south coast from Plymouth to Dover and beyond. Seasonal unemployment is high and hits the locals hard as do house prices. The best part of Shanklin is the old village which is really quite pretty. Newport has always served like a functional central point with all the main meeting points for transport and services so never needed to be pretty, the legacy of which is today’s ugly road network. Sandown is very sad -10 years ago it was quite like Ryde is now, 20 years ago it was probably the busiest resort i visited on the island. East Cowes was supposed to be the worst place back then.

Been visiting the island since childhood in the 1970s and witnessed the decline in some places. It's very sad because it is a special place but nothing is forever and I hope that the island and Caulkheads have a lucrative renaissance at some point.

Just for the record in Ventnor, Miss Rene Howe was my first-year primary school teacher. She was also the boss of the Girl Guides

A few years ago, my wife and I ended up in Oxford overnight. Wr booked into our room and headed out into the town for the night. We ended up in a Chinese restaurant which was actually quite nice. Next to us was a younger couple, early 20s maybe. Possibly on their first or second date. She spent most of her time either gazing at him with a glassy look in her eyes, or playing on her phone. I don't think I heard her speak the entire time. He, however, spoke quite effusively. His favourite topic of conversation was himself. The dog meat he'd eaten when he spent a summer in what he called "third world village". How well he'd done in university. The rough schools he'd taught at. This boy had taught at some of the roughest schools on the isle of wight, and to him, this was a significant achievement. We held our giggles and left. I'd be surprised if the relationship between them went anywhere. Last year, we went to the isle of wight, in search of these rough schools. I've lived in rough areas before, arguably rougher than anywhere on the Isle of Wight. We didn't see anything that we'd have described as rough. Maybe this boys definition of rough involves slightly shabby wisteria or something m

I'm from South Yorkshire. I always remember my Auntie going on holiday to Sandown on the IOW because it was seen as quite posh. This is going back nearly 20 years now. We were a poor family usually going on day trips to the Yorkshire coast. My mum once won some money on the bingo and splashed out on a week in Torquay back in 1987 which was seen as extravagant. How its changed!

I have lived in the island all my life (40 yrs) and it is such a shame it is going downhill. Watching this video it was upsetting to realise how bad it had got. I actually currently live in Sandown and most of the hotels that are derelict have been closed since before Covid I think. About 10 years ago it was a great place and even had a nightclub (wasn’t the best). If you had walked down the steps next to the lift in Shanklin you would have seen a nice beach and the derelict building you were talking about.

You’d do well to highlight the absolute chasm between the life expectancy and poverty of areas in Ryde and say, Seaview or Bembridge which are just 3-4 miles apart. It’s not about which town is the biggest turd, but which towns have the biggest contrast. Context in place is everything.

Love this channel so much, massively underrated. The drone footage looks amazing. Can't wait until you get round to east/west Sussex, Surrey and Kent.