What is Walsall (England) like? I have to spend a couple of days
there, and I want to know how civilized it is.

I want to know whether there are any decent restaurants & pubs there,
and whether it's safe (or whether I'd be better off staying in
Birmingham for the two days and just taking the train in). If you can
find some balanced, objective reviews of Walsall, that would help.
(I've looked at http://www.walsallwonderland.ic24.net/ which put me
off a bit.)

I'd like to know if there are any bed & breakfast places in the town
centre ("no" would be an acceptable answer on this if you can't find
any).

Thanks,

iffy

Hi Iffy,

Although I lived in the UK for many years, I never visited Walsall. I
am not one to be fazed by rough areas, but after this search quest, I
get the impression that Walsall is not a particularly safe or
sophisticated place at nighttime. Perhaps staying in Birmingham is a
good idea, and perhaps your question is based on suspicions you
already had?


What is it like?
================

I have found varying opinions. 

My first stop was Virtual Tourist. It is great for unbiased
information on most destinations, however of the 426,145 travel tips
none apply to Walsall - but there's plenty on Birmingham:
http://www.virtualtourist.com/vt/4d5f5/

The Walsall Wonderland site you found seems to poke fun at Walsall,
but it is also the only website that offers a critical view of any
aspects of the town, especially food and drink. This site probably
wouldn't have come into existence without there being some underlying
truth to the picture they paint of the town.

Black County Tourism has some nice things to say, and the main
industries of locks and leather could interest some people:
http://www.blackcountrytourism.co.uk/walsall.lasso

Links on the above page are worth following to get an idea of Walsall
and nearby townships, although I doubt criticism is on their agenda.


Safe?
=====

This is very hard to gauge - nowhere in the world is 100% safe, and
even small towns can have their safe areas and rough areas. I get the
impression that Walsall is a working class town where the priorities
of many are football (soccer) and lager. My English housemate hasn't
been there, but she says it has a reputation for being rougher than
Birmingham.

Here's the local police force's annual report:
http://www.west-midlands.police.uk/annual_report/ocu_walsall.htm

A local Neighbourhood Watch Group has a list of crimes from earlier
this year - mostly minor theft and vandalism:
http://www.neighbourhoodwatch.net/local/northaldridge/Magazine%202.htm

Newspapers offer a good source of crime information - this link has
Walsall news from the Express and Star newspaper:
http://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/cat_index_119.shtml

The lead item when I looked was about two drunken brawls in the town
centre:
http://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/article_15705.shtml

The council site has dozens of articles related to crime reduction
strategies:

War on Walsall crime plan launched
http://www.walsall.gov.uk/newsdocs/NewsArticle.asp?NewsId=422

More via Google:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&safe=off&q=+site:www.walsall.gov.uk+crime+walsall


Pubs
====

The Local Nights website lists Walsall pubs, without really reviewing
them:
http://www.localnights.co.uk/main.asp?code=01922


Eating
======

The town seems to enjoy plenty of Indian and Asian food, although I
was unable to find any restaurants properly reviewed, and only one
with a website.

The Knowhere Guide is "a compilation of (unedited) information and
views supplied by users like yourself. It is not a conventional
tourist guide!". It makes interesting reading, but I wouldn't call it
"in-depth".
http://www.knowhere.co.uk/579_eatdrink.html

Sofia's Italian Restaurant
http://www.sofiasrestaurant.co.uk/

Accommodation
=============

Amongst the myriad of websites offering hotel rooms I found a
non-commercial page, which seems quite comprehensive, albeit a little
dull looking.

Walsall Library Accommodation List
http://www.walsall.gov.uk/cultural_services/library/information_services/accommodation/accommodation_list.asp

Two B&Bs are listed:

-----------------------------------------

Mrs Doubleday

232 Lichfield Road, Walsall WS4 1SA

Tel: 01922 723160

I twin & I double room

Tariffs: Double or twin  £32   Single Occupancy  £20

Spacious and comfortable Edwardian house. All newly appointed modern
facilities. Evening meals by arrangement. Located on AA461 Walsall to
Lichfield Road, approx. 1 mile from Walsall town centre.


-----------------------------------------

Westbourne House

50 Lichfield Road, Walsall

Tel: 01922 629903

2 bedrooms - 1 single, 1 twin (both ensuite)

Tariffs: Single B&B £23   Twin £40 (Single occupancy £25)

Victorian house within walking distance of Walsall town centre on 
A461 Walsall-Lichfield Road. Rooms are spacious and tastefully
decorated all have TV & tea/coffee making facilities.

-----------------------------------------

I also found a negative review of the Abberley Hotel in Walsall, at
Trip Advisor:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g186401-r414553-West_Midlands_England.html

Plus the local Gov't site has a listing of upcoming events:
http://www.walsall.gov.uk/whatson/

And some maps:
http://www.walsall.gov.uk/maps/maplookup.asp

Another guide to events is hard to navigate but worth a look (you need
to click on Search on the left, then Search Full Listing at the
bottom):
http://www.walsallguide.co.uk/

They have an attraction called Walsall Illuminations, which looks like
a collection of fancy neon signs:
http://www.walsall-lights.com/default.asp

The same site also lists places to eat:
http://www.walsall-lights.com/pages/default.asp?Page=Places%20To%20Eat


Search strategy:

walsall -football accommodation
://www.google.com/search?q=walsall+-football+accommodation

Google Directory - Walsall
http://directory.google.com/Top/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/England/West_Midlands/Walsall_Metropolitan_Borough/

I hope this helps you make your decision. If any portion of my answer
is unclear, please ask for clarification.

Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

Very good, thorough answer - thanks. 

I'm now convinced I'll be better off staying somewhere else for my two
days. Also, I happened to meet someone who knows Walsall (he advises
against it), and I've noted that upmystreet.com for Walsall makes me
feel it's not my type of area.

Cheers,

iffy

What's Wallsall like?  Well, I would say that the people there are
down-to-earth and friendly, although living in an "ugly" city.

Here's a description of the people from "long-term residents of
Walsall":

" Strangers may sometimes talk to you without this leading to them
begging for money or mugging you. This odd custom, known as
'friendliness', still exists in some areas outside the South East of
England. Most people will be relatively harmless, and if you engage
them in small talk they will eventually leave you alone. Offering
money to someone who is being 'friendly' may often cause offence,
although the money will often be accepted in any case. ...

" 'Politeness' is a phenomenon related to friendliness, and is
similarly prevalent outside the capital. You may notice, for instance,
that people who bump into you in the street in Walsall may well stop
and apologise. You can have a go at this quaint custom yourself - for
example, by holding a door open for an old woman or by using the words
'please' and 'thank you' in a shop. "

The tone is somewhat acerbic and double-edged, but that's a type of
humor you will find in England, and it can be fun when you get used to
it!

It's from the website mentioned above -- 

http://www.walsallwonderland.co.uk/localcustoms.htm  



Another observation:

Walsall is soccer-mad.


    SEARCH ENGINE STRATEGY
My usual techniques for finding out information about visitors'
experiences in a town, city, resort (note: in the USA) have completely
failed for Walsall. No matter what words I put into google, soccer
comes up! (Or some government health site, or publicly funded
whatever.)


    INTERNET CULTURE
What this indicates is there are 
 + fewer English people developing homepages, and online journals,
about their vacations,
 + fewer travel articles written or commissioned  about domestic
destinations (particularly industrial cities!)
 + fewer UK travel articles listed in the search engines (the
newspapers are not as well indexed as they are here).


  'UGLY WALSALL'
I also found another website much more critical of Walsall, but the
site was so popular that the developer got a job in sunny Spain!
http://www.uglywalsall.myhome.org.uk/


This prompted a search for "ugly Walsall," which revealed a mountain
of information, including this BBC story:


 Walsall rejects 'ugliest town in world' tag

Councillors in Walsall have leapt to the town's defence after a critic
writing in an American magazine described it as like "Ceaucescu's
Romania with fast food outlets".

Walsall council leader Mike Bird dismissed as nonsense claims
published on the internet that the Black Country was one of the "most
depressing areas of urban devastation" in the world.

Writing in the New Jersey-based publication New Criterion, critic
Theodore Dalrymple described Walsall as possibly the ugliest town in
the world.

'Urban devastation' 

His article, entitled Crudity Beyond Belief, describes the town's New
Art Gallery as resembling a post-modernist grain silo ....

The row comes only months after the town received a chunk of bad
publicity following the setting-up by resident George Roper of an
"Ugly Walsall" website dedicated to photographs of boarded-up
buildings, scenes of urban decay and other eyesores.... "  
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1101377.stm