People On This Group Are Sharing Examples Of ‘Urban Hell’ That Look Like A Dystopian Movie But Are Sadly Real (40 Pics)
Not every building is as beautiful as the Palace of Versailles. Or blends into its surroundings as well as the Macallan Distillery. On the contrary, there are many structures across the world looking like outcasts that will fall apart during the next storm. In some places, they aren't isolated examples, either — even an entire neighborhood can be an abomination. And you can find them on r/UrbanHell.
It's a photography subreddit of "all the hideous places human beings built or inhabit." The online community invites everyone who wants to explore the darker side of the cities, towns, and villages in our shared world and welcomes any photos which show either ugliness, or a problem in urban development. Rural and suburban nightmares are also allowed.
Below you will find a collection of pics that perfectly describe what this subreddit is all about.
This post may include affiliate links.
The Annual Monsoon Ritual Of Mumbai's Ocean Giving Back What Has Been Dumped In It
If only nature could actually give back all the trash to us, maybe we will see the damage we are doing :(
Hong Kong Street Life
About half of the global population already lives in cities, and by 2050, two-thirds of the world's people are expected to live in urban areas. But as you can see from some of the photos in r/UrbanHell, in cities, two of the most pressing problems facing the world today also come together: poverty and environmental degradation.
Bad urban development isn't just ugly aesthetics. It's also poor air and water quality, insufficient water availability, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption, all of which are exacerbated by the increasing population density and demands of urban environments. Strong city planning is essential in managing these and other difficulties as the world's urban areas grow.
New Delhi - During Lockdown vs. Now
For a few months earth took a breath, then humans came back with a vengeance :(
Hong Kong
Beirut Port
Some of the biggest problems caused by urbanization are:
- Intensive urban growth can lead to greater poverty, with local governments unable to provide services for all people;
- Concentrated energy use. It leads to greater air pollution with a significant impact on human health;
- Automobile exhaust produces elevated lead levels in urban air;
- Large volumes of uncollected waste create multiple health hazards;
- Urban development can magnify the risk of environmental hazards such as flash flooding;
- Pollution and physical barriers to root growth promote loss of urban tree cover;
- Animal populations are inhibited by toxic substances, vehicles, and the loss of habitat and food sources.
Uae Nad Al Sheba III Neighborhood
It's Baffling How Fast It Changes
Mumbai, India
yep, that's how Trump likes it. He's in his gold-covered chair, you're dying at his feet.
Solutions might include:
- Combat poverty by promoting economic development and job creation;
- Involve local community in local government;
- Reduce air pollution by upgrading energy use and alternative transport systems;
- Create private-public partnerships to provide services such as waste disposal and housing;
- Plant trees and incorporate the care of city green spaces as a key element in urban planning.
Ultimately, cities can bring us obstacles and opportunities as well as freedom and captivity, and it's up to us to get the most out of them.
People Offering Prayers At River Yamuna, India, Which Is Frothing From Industrial Waste
And none of these fools has the sense to even consider that bathing in industrial waste speeds up your reincarnation process.
Hotel In Łodz, Poland
Its not a nuclear cooling tower. It is for a heating, electric and hotwater generating plant ( TETS in Russian) most are coal or gas powered and that is for releasing steam.
An Interesting Perspective I've Stumbled Upon In Macau A Year Ago
The difference between the have's and the have not's, in one photo.
Petare, Venezuela
Before And After A Desert Is Turned Into A Soulless Suburb Of A Desert. Jk, Its A Single Photo Of Arizona
The water waste hurts. Why do you want lawns in a desert? If you want green lawns, move to England (no offense, England. You have the rainfall, is all.)
Not A Very Romantic Scene
Blame your government’s. This is their fault . They buy rubbish from countries and do not dispose of it correctly.
Naples, Italy
People Living Next To A Helicoidal Street In Chongqing
Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong. Comparison Of 1964 - 2016.
Electrical Wiring And Water Pipes In A Brazilian Favela
Johannesburg, South Africa
Literally, Just Thanksgiving Traffic In La
Private Houses On The Roof Of An Eight-Story Mall In Zhūzhōu, China
Cairo, Egypt
Downtown Seattle, In The Heart Of The Retail District
I don't understand how the US can have money to make bombers but not to help citizens who need help.
Progressive Insurance's Call Center
Hyderabad, India
Ghost City In China, Made To Be A Replica Of Paris - Tianducheng
All Residents Of Whittier, Alaska Live Inside One Building
Manila, Philippines
One More Lane Will Fix It
In my country the biggest highway is 3 lanes. No city has more than 3 lanes. And we consider it an achievement. I am amazed at this picture honestly!
Somewhere In Brazil In The 90's
@WilvanderHeidjen They absolutely are homeless. They are squatting in a utilities access cabinet.
Baghdad Between Then And Now!
Billionnaire Vijay Mallya's Mansion Atop A Skyscraper In Bangalore, India
The Capital Of California
Dubai, The Hollow City Of Artificiality
Chongqing, China
Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often you don't even notice it.
Mirny In Siberia, Russia
All of those houses and infrastructure was built die to that mine . It’s still a working mine right now . Giving ppl jobs homes lives
Ah, Good Old Car Culture...
This is not an urban nightmare (whichever you're reffering to). Also, it's like comparing a clouds and grapes
Block 23, New Belgrade, Serbia
At least they have friendly neighbours. My neighbor wouldn’t take my washing in . 😆
16-Lane Highway Built Through The Downtown Where A Market Square Used To Be In Moscow, Russia
Again context is great. This was done to facilitate troop movements quickly in and out of the capital which proved vital in WWII as the soldiers from Siberia crossed Red Square in the May Day parades and went straight to the front lines to repel the Nazis. The French similarly built huge boulevards in Paris to facilitate troop movements and to keep people from being able to build barricades, which is a French national tradition.
Nobody: Southwest Us Developers:
We urgently need to take better care of our planet.... Birth control and a ban on plastic sound like a good start
Some posts are tragic and a lot are just "I've lived this great life so I can decide anything not idyllyc is hell." Which is just like kicking the terrible photos in the teeth. Urban living has metropolis solutions, which is hardly a hell in most of these photos.
So many of these images indicate just how jam-packed our world is becoming, especially cities. The overwhelming problem (and all of the world's problems, including global warming) stem from overpopulation. While the deniers will down-vote me, there's an incredibly eye-opening and brilliantly well written thriller novel called 10:59 by N R Baker that contains so many terrifying facts about this issue. It's not my book, so not a self-promo, but I highly recommend that every human on Earth reads it if our species has any chance of survival.
A lot of these are not "urban hell", they are poverty and decay hell. And those things don't look prettier in the countryside.
Too many comments from narrow-minded people who pass judgement on a place based on a single photograph and have never seen it in person. You all need to travel more and see for yourself rather than through the lens of someone else's opinion/perspective.
There are pictures here of pollution, homelessness, and poverty. These are important problems we need to fix. But this article seems to suggest that living in apartment buildings and suburban developments are equally bad. People have to live somewhere and holiday traffic is a first world problem. And keep in mind, country dwellers, if we all moved to you, you would end up living in a crowded city.
Hmmm…. Interesting. Not one of the actual largest slums (all in Asia) but a lot of people judging places they have never been…. Just interesting.
To her fair works did nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved my heart to think What man has made of man. -William Wordsworth
A lot of these images are of one street or location in one city, so it's unfair to judge. Some of the issues raised are not the fault of urbanisation, people have to live somewhere, if not in the cities then where, but down more forward for land? Over population, it's easy to say don't have children when you're in a first world country with health care, social support and child life expectancy is high! What I'm saying is we shouldn't be too quick to judge!
And let’s be frank. We can sit here and discuss how appalled we are, or, we can stand up and do something to make this planet a little better. Just imagine 7 billion random acts of kindness at the same time.
I'm stunned they left off two of the most horrific: the Johannesburg Tower slum (which was supposed to be a modern miracle, but, well), and the Divis Flats in near Belfast in Northern Ireland. Most of the Divis Flats have been torn down (I think the tower is still standing).
I quit after 4 or 5 pictures. It just made me ill to think & see how so many poor people have to survive. AND how so many rich people do live.
Just makes me think more that we don’t enjoy life anymore. Just work and more work.
We just going to continue being gaslighted and go with the lost flow? Elites won't get the fury of justice all we can say it "birth control" "we must take better care of the earth" etc. Really that's all? Force the injection? Never the government that are governed by companies. Never the shells, coca-colas, P&Gs, Nestless? No? We take the blame and the iron first of tyranny but we do nothing. Come on people. This is not conspiracy that ship has sailed this is real scary life realise it becaue your ignorant minds are costing us all on this ONE earth we have.
So all corporate and elite Gov will never be judged as humans we will bare the blame? People, us, are the ones callin on birth control and adding to the maddness to control human life. What about absolute power control? Why cant the monsantos, BP's, Shells, coca-colas, governments, monopolies get the rage of justice???? Why are we so accepting of all this GASLIGHTING? Because conspiracy is too easy of an escape than to admit that it's real life and our HOME Earth is being RUN into the ground by elitists families and close friends. Divided and concurred. Votes continue, consumption continue, we just continue until a brave magician comes and wipes it all away while we just get to sit, relax and watch? STAND UP FOR YOUR SELVES this complacency is killing us all all they do is stack up the bodies. Are we so scared to loose convenience?
I love all the typical BP finger-wagging on this post. I'd like to know how many of you have given up your nice suburban homes and sterilized yourselves to solve the population problem. Or do you just come here to virtue signal and think that suffices?
I feel like this wouldn’t be happening if an entire generation wasn’t so keen on making everyone have kids, even if they didn’t want them
The biggest offenders of urban hell in North America is the endless parking lots in the commercial areas of the suburbs. There is zero sense of community in these car dependent areas. Where do people go to gather and have fun? It's depressing.
Ik this is gonna get downvotes.... but the order and artificiality of some of them bring happiness to my mind. I'm not sure why. I do agree its horrible, i just like looking at it since it's already here.
All these people need to be able to see things through different people's eyes
I agree with this-cleaning up and taking better care of our home is more urgent than ever now. Because we're very close to the point of no return if not already. I read an article about records in the Arctic circle being shattered. 118 degrees. Sad!!! Our glaciers are nearly wiped out now.
These are all terrifying reality. During the heigh of COVID-19, we saw people at their worst and Mother Nature at her best. The skies were blue again, and crime was down. They lift the quarantine and the skies are brown and crime is like an out take from Purge movies.
Much of what's pictured are buildings that were built decades ago, so how do those somehow foretell our 'dystopian future'? That's actually just our awkward past. Also, how is this all bad? Cubicles? Each person in one is paying their bills that way. Housing? Well we all need that don't we? People hanging clothes to dry on lines between urban buildings? That's classic old NYC type stuff, but actually that's more eco-friendly than using a dryer. Awkward urban design? Well okay, but there's some of that in every city. Pretty stupid listicle.
I thought I had seen all the scars humanity caused. I started crying somewhere in all this misery, and now I can't stop anymore. We did ALL of this, and I'm just so, so ashamed. The fable of Noah and the flood never made sense to me, but now....
These are some amazing photos!! Here I am in the middle of the country in my state. Closest neighbor is 1/4 mile away. I've never lived in a city so it hard for me to relate. But the photos are still amazing!
Time to move back to the countryside and become self-sufficient. Oh, wait! The government overlords don't want you to become independent.
This isn't a recent phenomenon though. Seeing scenes like these over the decades in three continents has made the now graying me grateful I don't live forever. What we're doing, isn't sustainable. Our economic model isn't sustainable. I don't have anything better and can only hope someone out there does. Or I kick the bucket before the brown stuff hit the spinny blades.
Lol all of you please stay in your city squalor! Us living in the mid west be winning with our gardens and land! You voted for this and keep voting for this!
the worst pollution is humans, the world has become trash, both figuratively and literally.
Boston Terrier puppies. 1 male, 5 females. Both parents are on site. This litter is doing very well and all have nice markings. They are getting coordinated, beginning to show personality and beginning to play with their litter mates. Text Or Call +1 303 479 4513 They will be ready to go on soon and will have their 1st shots and well-baby checkup at the vet by then. Please Email Charlse at https://miraclebostonterriers.com/ to see the litter. Update: the male is spoken for, as well as 3 females, so 2 still available.
Mr. Smith from The Matrix had a point in the first movie. Humans are just like a disease. Infecting one area, leaving it dead after it can't serve a purpose anymore, and going off to kill more areas.
Disgusting what humans have done to the planet! And we just sit back and allow our elected twits to just carry on and make the most ridiculous decisions.
I feel extremely privileged to have lived most of my life in central California, Oregon, and now Virginia. I am by no means wealthy, probably close to poverty level. After seeing these pics tho, I feel wealthy beyond my wildest dreams.
Found all the photos interesting and sad. It lets me know that I have it pretty good.
That's. Scary. I think the biggest city I've ever seen is Jackson Mississippi
This post, has been a learning experience, things I was not aware of !!!
My mouth hung open in shock as I looked at these photos. I live on a little farm in Central Wisconsin, USA. I can't see any neighbors. The land is lush, green, peaceful and has a variety of wild animals. I love it here, and after seeing this article, I am so VERY thankful for all my blessings. My farm is called "Bountiful"!
In the late 1960s ZPG became a prominent political movement in the U.S. and parts of Europe, with strong links to environmentalism and feminism. Yale University was a stronghold of the ZPG activists who believed "that a constantly increasing population is responsible for many of our problems: pollution, violence, loss of values and of individual privacy (from Wikipedia) Sound familiar? And we didn't listen...
Manilla, for example, has a population density of far over 100,000 people per square mile. At that population density, the entire Earth could live in a small portion of a single municipality in northern Quebec. People live together because other people offer people opportunity. What you see in the monsoon washback on the Indian coast exists because their socioeconomic development is about where the U.S. was around 1980. And frankly, our trash in the 1980s was pretty damned gross, but we did have more land. And India was where were were in around 1880 not very long ago at all.
So, when are we going to stop pointing fingers and blaming and fighting and correcting and just talking about what needs to change or be done differently and actually start taking action to stop these things? When are we going to stop fighting with each other and being against each other's nations? When are we going to unite as human beings and stop relying on our governments to take care of problems for us? When are we actively going to change this whole world TOGETHER as human kind?
What this planet really needs is an extinction level event to get rid of all these ugly pink parasites, until the planet's population is back down below 1 billion.
The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Humanity's worst enemy is itself.
The planet doesn't have enough resources for everybody in the world to live like we do in the western world.
We urgently need to take better care of our planet.... Birth control and a ban on plastic sound like a good start
Some posts are tragic and a lot are just "I've lived this great life so I can decide anything not idyllyc is hell." Which is just like kicking the terrible photos in the teeth. Urban living has metropolis solutions, which is hardly a hell in most of these photos.
So many of these images indicate just how jam-packed our world is becoming, especially cities. The overwhelming problem (and all of the world's problems, including global warming) stem from overpopulation. While the deniers will down-vote me, there's an incredibly eye-opening and brilliantly well written thriller novel called 10:59 by N R Baker that contains so many terrifying facts about this issue. It's not my book, so not a self-promo, but I highly recommend that every human on Earth reads it if our species has any chance of survival.
A lot of these are not "urban hell", they are poverty and decay hell. And those things don't look prettier in the countryside.
Too many comments from narrow-minded people who pass judgement on a place based on a single photograph and have never seen it in person. You all need to travel more and see for yourself rather than through the lens of someone else's opinion/perspective.
There are pictures here of pollution, homelessness, and poverty. These are important problems we need to fix. But this article seems to suggest that living in apartment buildings and suburban developments are equally bad. People have to live somewhere and holiday traffic is a first world problem. And keep in mind, country dwellers, if we all moved to you, you would end up living in a crowded city.
Hmmm…. Interesting. Not one of the actual largest slums (all in Asia) but a lot of people judging places they have never been…. Just interesting.
To her fair works did nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved my heart to think What man has made of man. -William Wordsworth
A lot of these images are of one street or location in one city, so it's unfair to judge. Some of the issues raised are not the fault of urbanisation, people have to live somewhere, if not in the cities then where, but down more forward for land? Over population, it's easy to say don't have children when you're in a first world country with health care, social support and child life expectancy is high! What I'm saying is we shouldn't be too quick to judge!
And let’s be frank. We can sit here and discuss how appalled we are, or, we can stand up and do something to make this planet a little better. Just imagine 7 billion random acts of kindness at the same time.
I'm stunned they left off two of the most horrific: the Johannesburg Tower slum (which was supposed to be a modern miracle, but, well), and the Divis Flats in near Belfast in Northern Ireland. Most of the Divis Flats have been torn down (I think the tower is still standing).
I quit after 4 or 5 pictures. It just made me ill to think & see how so many poor people have to survive. AND how so many rich people do live.
Just makes me think more that we don’t enjoy life anymore. Just work and more work.
We just going to continue being gaslighted and go with the lost flow? Elites won't get the fury of justice all we can say it "birth control" "we must take better care of the earth" etc. Really that's all? Force the injection? Never the government that are governed by companies. Never the shells, coca-colas, P&Gs, Nestless? No? We take the blame and the iron first of tyranny but we do nothing. Come on people. This is not conspiracy that ship has sailed this is real scary life realise it becaue your ignorant minds are costing us all on this ONE earth we have.
So all corporate and elite Gov will never be judged as humans we will bare the blame? People, us, are the ones callin on birth control and adding to the maddness to control human life. What about absolute power control? Why cant the monsantos, BP's, Shells, coca-colas, governments, monopolies get the rage of justice???? Why are we so accepting of all this GASLIGHTING? Because conspiracy is too easy of an escape than to admit that it's real life and our HOME Earth is being RUN into the ground by elitists families and close friends. Divided and concurred. Votes continue, consumption continue, we just continue until a brave magician comes and wipes it all away while we just get to sit, relax and watch? STAND UP FOR YOUR SELVES this complacency is killing us all all they do is stack up the bodies. Are we so scared to loose convenience?
I love all the typical BP finger-wagging on this post. I'd like to know how many of you have given up your nice suburban homes and sterilized yourselves to solve the population problem. Or do you just come here to virtue signal and think that suffices?
I feel like this wouldn’t be happening if an entire generation wasn’t so keen on making everyone have kids, even if they didn’t want them
The biggest offenders of urban hell in North America is the endless parking lots in the commercial areas of the suburbs. There is zero sense of community in these car dependent areas. Where do people go to gather and have fun? It's depressing.
Ik this is gonna get downvotes.... but the order and artificiality of some of them bring happiness to my mind. I'm not sure why. I do agree its horrible, i just like looking at it since it's already here.
All these people need to be able to see things through different people's eyes
I agree with this-cleaning up and taking better care of our home is more urgent than ever now. Because we're very close to the point of no return if not already. I read an article about records in the Arctic circle being shattered. 118 degrees. Sad!!! Our glaciers are nearly wiped out now.
These are all terrifying reality. During the heigh of COVID-19, we saw people at their worst and Mother Nature at her best. The skies were blue again, and crime was down. They lift the quarantine and the skies are brown and crime is like an out take from Purge movies.
Much of what's pictured are buildings that were built decades ago, so how do those somehow foretell our 'dystopian future'? That's actually just our awkward past. Also, how is this all bad? Cubicles? Each person in one is paying their bills that way. Housing? Well we all need that don't we? People hanging clothes to dry on lines between urban buildings? That's classic old NYC type stuff, but actually that's more eco-friendly than using a dryer. Awkward urban design? Well okay, but there's some of that in every city. Pretty stupid listicle.
I thought I had seen all the scars humanity caused. I started crying somewhere in all this misery, and now I can't stop anymore. We did ALL of this, and I'm just so, so ashamed. The fable of Noah and the flood never made sense to me, but now....
These are some amazing photos!! Here I am in the middle of the country in my state. Closest neighbor is 1/4 mile away. I've never lived in a city so it hard for me to relate. But the photos are still amazing!
Time to move back to the countryside and become self-sufficient. Oh, wait! The government overlords don't want you to become independent.
This isn't a recent phenomenon though. Seeing scenes like these over the decades in three continents has made the now graying me grateful I don't live forever. What we're doing, isn't sustainable. Our economic model isn't sustainable. I don't have anything better and can only hope someone out there does. Or I kick the bucket before the brown stuff hit the spinny blades.
Lol all of you please stay in your city squalor! Us living in the mid west be winning with our gardens and land! You voted for this and keep voting for this!
the worst pollution is humans, the world has become trash, both figuratively and literally.
Boston Terrier puppies. 1 male, 5 females. Both parents are on site. This litter is doing very well and all have nice markings. They are getting coordinated, beginning to show personality and beginning to play with their litter mates. Text Or Call +1 303 479 4513 They will be ready to go on soon and will have their 1st shots and well-baby checkup at the vet by then. Please Email Charlse at https://miraclebostonterriers.com/ to see the litter. Update: the male is spoken for, as well as 3 females, so 2 still available.
Mr. Smith from The Matrix had a point in the first movie. Humans are just like a disease. Infecting one area, leaving it dead after it can't serve a purpose anymore, and going off to kill more areas.
Disgusting what humans have done to the planet! And we just sit back and allow our elected twits to just carry on and make the most ridiculous decisions.
I feel extremely privileged to have lived most of my life in central California, Oregon, and now Virginia. I am by no means wealthy, probably close to poverty level. After seeing these pics tho, I feel wealthy beyond my wildest dreams.
Found all the photos interesting and sad. It lets me know that I have it pretty good.
That's. Scary. I think the biggest city I've ever seen is Jackson Mississippi
This post, has been a learning experience, things I was not aware of !!!
My mouth hung open in shock as I looked at these photos. I live on a little farm in Central Wisconsin, USA. I can't see any neighbors. The land is lush, green, peaceful and has a variety of wild animals. I love it here, and after seeing this article, I am so VERY thankful for all my blessings. My farm is called "Bountiful"!
In the late 1960s ZPG became a prominent political movement in the U.S. and parts of Europe, with strong links to environmentalism and feminism. Yale University was a stronghold of the ZPG activists who believed "that a constantly increasing population is responsible for many of our problems: pollution, violence, loss of values and of individual privacy (from Wikipedia) Sound familiar? And we didn't listen...
Manilla, for example, has a population density of far over 100,000 people per square mile. At that population density, the entire Earth could live in a small portion of a single municipality in northern Quebec. People live together because other people offer people opportunity. What you see in the monsoon washback on the Indian coast exists because their socioeconomic development is about where the U.S. was around 1980. And frankly, our trash in the 1980s was pretty damned gross, but we did have more land. And India was where were were in around 1880 not very long ago at all.
So, when are we going to stop pointing fingers and blaming and fighting and correcting and just talking about what needs to change or be done differently and actually start taking action to stop these things? When are we going to stop fighting with each other and being against each other's nations? When are we going to unite as human beings and stop relying on our governments to take care of problems for us? When are we actively going to change this whole world TOGETHER as human kind?
What this planet really needs is an extinction level event to get rid of all these ugly pink parasites, until the planet's population is back down below 1 billion.
The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Humanity's worst enemy is itself.
The planet doesn't have enough resources for everybody in the world to live like we do in the western world.