Ashford, Kent

Ashford is where Kent goes to be on the way somewhere else, and it has made its peace with being excellent at it. Fast trains to London, a motorway that turns into a lorry park whenever the Channel sulks, and a Richard Rogers designer outlet that most visitors mean when they say they've been to Ashford. The ring road got rebuilt as shared space with an art installation whose main achievement was confusing drivers, which tells you how the town feels about anyone who stops. Even the First World War tank in St George's Square only survived the next war by moonlighting as an electricity substation, the most Ashford career path imaginable.