How now, 'unfriendly' Slough?  A survey claims Slough is the
UK's least friendly place to work – but isn't it time we gave
the town a break? slough roundabout Is Slough really the UK's
least friendly place to work? Photograph: Dan Sparham/Rex
Features  What is it about Slough that people find so
disagreeable? So repelled was Sir John Betjeman by its 1930s
factories that he recommended, in verse, that the place be
carpet bombed. When Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant needed a
location to complement the gut-wrenching agony of The Office
they looked no further than Berkshire's second-largest town.
Even the KGB, normally so meticulous in their plans for Cold War
world domination, couldn't be bothered to make a map of it.
Perhaps it's the fumes from Slough's sewage works that waft
tantalisingly across the M4, encouraging you to speed up as you
drive past. Or the fact that Jimmy Carr grew up there and hated
it. Or even just that Jimmy Carr grew up there.  In recent
years, though, the town has fought hard to dispe