Avoiding Valentine's Day?: Top 10 least romantic UK towns revealed

Slough has been voted the least romantic place in Britain - but could you be heading to one of the other top 10 this Friday?

Slough has been voted the least romantic place in Britain - but could you be heading to one of the other top 10 this Friday?

Parts of the Thames Valley may currently bear a striking resemblance to Venice, but a survey has named the Berkshire town of Slough as the least romantic place in the UK.

With couples scouring the internet for inspiration on last-minute Valentine’s Day getaways, the website Hotels.com has helpfully revealed the list of British destinations that would perhaps best be avoided.

According to the survey’s 2,000 respondents, the business hub of Slough would be the worst place to take a partner on a passionate trip for two.

The town was famously the subject of a scathing poem by the late Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, who wrote: “Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough; It isn't fit for humans now.”

More recently, it was described as “much-maligned” but also “equidistant between London and Reading” in a musical tribute from Ricky Gervais (video below), who chose to set his hit workplace comedy series The Office there in 2005.

Coming in second on the least-romantic charts was Birmingham, which pushed last year’s winner Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, into third.

While the Scunthorpe Telegraph proclaimed that it had been “overtaken” today, a spokesperson for Slough Borough Council said: “Slough is not your traditional tourist area but more companies have their corporate headquarters here than anywhere else except London and it is in the workplace where many people meet their future spouse.

“We also have one of the highest annual birth rates in the country,” she said.

Hotels.com did also include questions on its survey about the most romantic destinations to visit in Britain, which was won for the second year running by the Lake District.

It was followed in second by the Cotswolds, followed by London in third. The capital actually also made it onto the least-romantic list in seventh – perhaps proving the old adage that love takes many forms.

For the full top 10 least romantic towns, see the gallery above

The 10 most romantic destinations in Britain

1. Lake District

2. Cotswolds

3. London

4. Cornwall

5. Stratford-upon-Avon

6. York

7. Edinburgh

8. Bath

9. Isle of Wight

10. Devon