From Dartmoor’s misty forests to the heights of the Cairngorms, the UK is home to some truly stunning scenery.
However, it seems not every corner of Britain is quite so beautiful – as a survey has revealed the least scenic locations.
Voters on the Scenic Or Not survey awarded the top spot to Basingstoke’s Newbury Road.
This unappealing location received the lowest possible score, with just one out of 10 for ‘scenicness’.
And while Cornwall might be renowned for its beautiful scenery, a rather less attractive part of the county – the Electricity Station in Landulph – joins Basingstoke at the bottom of the pile.
According to the researchers, these ugly areas aren’t just bad for tourism.
They could also be harming the health of people living locally.
Dr Eugene Malthouse, of the University of Nottingham, told the Daily Mail: ‘This is an important question relevant to public health because spending time in more scenic locations has previously been associated with greater happiness and health.’
According to the Scenic Or Not survey, the third least scenic location in the UK is Swift House in Newcastle Under Lyme – an enormous motor dealership in an otherwise leafy suburb.
While Swift House might be an eyesore for the people of Newcastle Under Lyme, they don’t have it nearly as bad as the unfortunate residents of North Muirton estate in Perth, Scotland.
This area of housing has the dubious claim to fame of being the only residential area to make it into the five least scenic places in the UK, with an average score of one.
Finally, rounding out the top five with another one out of ten score, is the Taunton junction in Taunton, Somerset.
According to Dr Malthouse, it’s no coincidence that all of these locations appear to be quite similar.
In a recent study, Dr Malthouse and his co–authors analysed data from 28,547 ratings of 3,843 images from the Scenic Or Not survey.
They then used Google’s Vision AI tool to detect features in those images that might affect their scenicness.
This revealed that urban areas score significantly lower than rural ones, with the average scenicness of an English urban area coming in at just 2.43 out of 10.
The Newbury Road roundabout in Basingstoke has been declared the UK’s least scenic location, scoring an average rating of just one out of 10 on the Scenic Or Not survey
Tied for the bottom spot with an average rating of one were the Electricity Station in Landulph, Cornwall (left) and the North Muirton estate in Perth, Scotland (right)
Dr Matlhouse says: ‘Based on our analysis of urban areas, several entities can reduce scenicness.
‘In particular, we found that features of the built environment, such as commercial buildings, land lots, and tower blocks, make locations less scenic.’
Dr Malthouse says this is ‘probably’ because scenicness is understood as being related to nature, which is often replaced by cars and roads in urban environments.
On the other hand, features like trees, lakes, and mountains had a positive effect on an area’s scenicness.
This likely explains why the UK’s most scenic locations are all rural areas with little sign of human activity.
The top three locations, all with a score of 10 out of 10, are Loch Scavaig in Sky, Scotland, Eilan Ruairidh Mor in Loch Maree, Scotland, and Polsue Burn South West in Cornwall.
These beauty spots are followed by Llynnau Cregannan in Wales, with a score of 9.9, and Loch an Obain in Scotland, with a score of 9.8 out of ten.
However, the researchers found that some urban features could be scenic.
Also ranking among the UK’s least scenic locations were Swift House in Newcastle under Lyme and Taunton Junction 25 in Somerset
In particular, their analysis found that areas where a listed historic building is present scored 0.61 points higher on average.
This ‘historical building effect’ was comparable to the impact of mountains or trees on an area’s scenicness.
This is why the towns of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire and Thaxted in Essex are able to score an impressive 7.2 out of ten, despite a lack of nature.
This wasn’t necessarily true of every listed building, with the grade two listed Clifton Cinema in Birmingham only scoring one out of ten on average.
However, older buildings typically increase an area’s scenicness by a significant degree.
Photographs in which the most prominent listed building was either grade I or grade II* listed were perceived as more scenic than those featuring slightly less historically or architecturally significant buildings.
Previous studies have shown that spending time in scenic areas can have remarkable impacts on people’s mental and physical well–being.
Likewise, a study using three years of measurements from more than 15,000 participants found that people are happier in more scenic environments.
The disused Clifton Cinema in Birmingham (pictured) has the dubious honour of being voted the UK’s least scenic listed building
This was true even when the researchers controlled for possible influences like the weather and activities people might be doing at the time.
This means that preserving older buildings, or adding trees, gardens, and ponds to urban areas, could be a big boost for residents’ health and happiness.
Dr Matlhouse says: ‘When constructing new buildings, we might take more inspiration from historic architecture, which tends to feature greater ornamentation, visual complexity, and use of local material.
‘For urban areas, our results suggest that preserving historic buildings is a good place to start!’
