People On This Group Are Sharing Examples Of ‘Urban Hell’ That Look Like A Dystopian Movie But Are Sadly Real (40 New Pics)
4.2 billion people live in cities worldwide. That's more than half of the population. By 2050, it's projected that more than two-thirds of us will reside in urban areas.
But denser doesn't mean better. This environment can pose a lot of challenges, including noise and air pollution, lack of green spaces, and inadequate transport. And there's a photography subreddit that documents them.
It's called 'Urban Hell' and the people running it say it's dedicated to "all the hideous places human beings built or inhabit." They invite us to go there for aesthetic appreciation of the darker side of the cities, towns, and villages in our world, promising rural and suburban curses as well. So let's do that and take a look at the pictures that have recently popped up within the subreddit.
For more, check out Bored Panda's earlier articles on it here and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
Dhaka, Bangladesh
This Is The Most Apocalyptic Image Of Modern Cairo, Egypt, I Have Ever Seen Anyone Take
If I saw this without the pyramids in the background, I'd tell you it was from an apocalyptic movie.
Of course, city living has a lot to offer. From local coffee shops and restaurants to attending cultural events and meeting people from diverse backgrounds, spending your days in a metropolis can be exciting.
But some of the issues that are evident in these pictures don't just look bad. They also damage our health. And we're not talking about minor annoyances. Constant stimulation from a busy city living can take a big toll on your mental well-being.
The Before And The After Of My Hometown, Hungary
One Of My Most Hated Buildings Finally Got Destroyed And Replaced By Something Beautiful
Compared to rural residents, researchers have discovered that urbanites are 21 percent more likely to have anxiety disorders and 39 percent more likely to have mood disorders. A 2017 meta-analysis also found that rates of the following conditions were also higher among those living in urban areas:
- PTSD;
- anger management;
- generalized anxiety disorder.
The same was true for more serious disorders like schizophrenia and paranoia.
Welcome To Texas
This is one of the many reasons not to live in Texas
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Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky-tacky... *sing*
Just to play devil's advocate, it's probably a new development before they have put in the landscaping.
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Lmao, this is Lynnwood on Bangor Ave., North side of Lubbock, at the end of that road is a field, it's flat here, it's also dry, we irrigate crops. Lubbock is actually a beautiful city.
I knew it would be west Texas! Haha I was saying “these look like Betenbough homes”. Which they probably are!!! Haha
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That is one of the most unsettling movies I've seen that doesn't even go into gore. The "son's" voice gets under my skin.
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I was raised in Texas. Republicans have literally destroyed Texas. It is not recognizable to the once great state that it was. Very sad.
Yesterday, Austin Texas was under a boil order. A boil order. This is 2022. Because Republicans refuse to invest in infrastructure. We won't even bring up the power grid. Yes we will. The company that made $4 billion off Texans with astronomical electric gouging during last year's ice storm, just gave $1 million to the governors campaign.
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Why? Where are the trees, the flowers, bushes? Bikes, Skateboards?
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That looks like the homes in Lubbock meant only for Texas Tech students. That is not common neighborhood in Texas.
I feel like we've entered an alien-colonized town, or is it Area 51
It's a depressing photo but kind of a silly caption. Texas is so enormous! There are so many different types of landscapes, microclimates, environments regardless of the political situation. You could find places that look just like that or even worse in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, anywhere in the Southwest plus there are some pretty depressing places and other states as well regardless of how much beauty they have. The caption just simply should state what it is, another crappy soulless neighborhood that certainly does look like that creepy movie vivarium!
In our defense, where this photo was taken electric and water are practically unaffordable. So unless you are a dual income household you can't afford to water your lawn.
People shouldn’t be planting lawns...gardens of native horticulture are always going to be your best plan!
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Is this like a regular street and people live in these houses or whatever?
Reminds me of Sun City, AZ. Whenever I visited my Mom, I would inevitably get lost. EVRYTHING was beige - the retaining walls along the road, the houses, the sand in the "planting strips". Luckily her place was really charming, but UGH.
Miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles... and Ted Cruz....
It's hilarious that so many idioric comments being made about a photo that isn't even close to being representative of Texas. Then the liberal crack heads king their plight in Texas. Please...all liberals...belive this photo is what all of Texas is like and make sure you never come here. And those who are here...I bet we could raise.a fund in seconds to help you love our!
Why aren't there more windows? There's also just a few colors on the houses. How do you find your house?
Maybe that housing development was just built and they haven't done the landscaping yet? Maybe?
This is actually that planet from a wrinkle and time except with more Dolly Parton playing probably
Are you referring to the book a A Wrinkle *in* Time ?
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Looks like the buzzards are moving in but considering this looks like death warmed over, I suppose that's to be expected.
Weirdly, this is how I imagine it. Reminds me of Kind of the Hill. All lawns, no trees.
It is unfinished. See pictures of a finished neighborhood.
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I've been to Texas! It is beautiful there! This is one neighborhood, which is not bad!
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Had the unfortunate experience to spend some months in Texass on two occasions. What a cess pit of bigotry, racists and misogynists... couldn't pay me to live there.
Sounds like you know Texas pretty well. When's the last time you were there?
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That's a very insightful statement. When were you last in Texas?
Load More Replies... This looks like a penal colony. Living there would be absolute hell.
Ugh - yet another reason to avoid Texas. Can't we let it be its own country again? Please?
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
There's Cities, There's Metropolises, And Then There's Tokyo
Psychiatrists think it's because the constant stimulation of city life can put you in difficult situations where you get the fight-or-flight response, which in turn alters how you cope with stress.
But the problems don't end there. City living can also chip away at your psychological immune system, which can be precarious for those with a family history of mental illness. According to experts, this environmental stress can increase their risk of developing a psychiatric condition, such as anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder.
50 Lane Traffic Jam - China
(Oc) Hebron’s Multi-Story Borders: Ground-Level Palestinians Construct Fences Above Their Streets To Protect Themselves From Upper-Story Israeli Settlers Who Throw Trash, Furniture, And Rocks Down On Them
Concrete Canyon In Manhattan
I've never been to a city so large that the buildings block out the sun. I think I'll keep it that way.
18000 People In A Single Building. (Saint Petersburg, Russia)
But even though urban life may lead to emotional distress, shame and stigma can stop young adults from talking about their struggles. This may explain why they feel lonelier than older generations, according to a Cigna study. What's more, young adults, especially millennials, often feel burned out.
Some folks view them as incompetent adults who shy away from responsibility, but as Anne Helen Peterson explained to Buzzfeed, millennials have "errand paralysis" and think they should always be working.
Lagos, Nigeria - The Overcrowding Is Terrible
Egypt, What Is Wrong With You?
Newly Built Housing. Samara, Russia
Saint Petersburg, Russia
these type of compact apartment townships are becoming quite popular throughout the world
City life can also affect our physical health. A 2017 study suggests too much exposure to air pollution and city noise may cause damage to a person's cardiovascular health.
For instance, never-ending traffic noise may interfere with our sleep quality and cause cortisol, the stress hormone, to spike. Over time, elevated levels of this hormone can increase our risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Do Not Show Partiality To The Poor Or Favoritism To The Great, But Judge Your Neighbor Fairly
New Residential Block In Malaysia
View From The Bathroom Window, Belgrade
When I lived in Belgrade, I had a similar view from the bathroom. Maybe some won't understand, but for me it was nice. I knew everone who lived around, it was cosy and safe. The feeling of home, if you thought of asking for toilet paper, I'm sure someone would throw it to you through the window. The outer side od buildngs where the rooms, kitchen and living are, had an open view. Kinda miss it
Why Does Delhi Looks So Dystopian
It also seems urban dwellers may be more prone to insomnia and sleep difficulties. In a survey of more than 15,000 individuals, researchers found that the bright lights of a city can dampen a person's ability to get a good night's rest.
According to the survey, 6 percent of people living in highly lit, urban areas slept less than six hours each night. Furthermore, 29 percent of these urbanites were dissatisfied with the quality of their nighttime rest.
Christmas In Grimsby City Centre, UK
Infinite Amount Of Concrete…
"Ocean Access" + Suburbs In Florida
It's Hard To Capture In Two Photos, But Here Is A Brand New KFC Sat In The Middle Of Cleared Rainforest In Malaysia, Ready For A Development To Be Built Around It
Trying To Cross The Street? Bummer. The Street Is Only For Cars. Tehran
A Lovely Day For A Picnic...
As someone who grew up in a big coal and industry city in between other big coal and industry cities, I can relate and say that those small green spots and the view on industry are not as bad as this picture seems. You get used to it and if you move, you kind of even miss it. It has some weird sense of peace.
Each Of Those Houses With A Garden Are £1+ Million. The Grass In All Gardens Is Astroturf
A Homeless Man Sleeps Next To A 50 Gallon Drum Of Burning Scavenged Wood In Front Of The World Trade Center Under Construction, New York City, 1970
Vorkuta, Russia. The Coldest City In Europe (Lowest Temperature Ever Recorded At -52 C)
Jakarta's Chinatown 1940s vs. Now
No Need To Worry, Elite Architects Were At Work Here
Advertisement On A Commercial Building, South Korea
One Of The Worst Traffic And Pollution In The World. Tehran, Iran
I Just Want To Get To The Other Side Of The Highway Man
In the Netherlands it's the other way round. You can get anywhere in a city in 5 minutes by bicycle, but it will take you 30 minutes by car to get there.
A Spiral Parking Lot Somewhere In Chongqing, China
Duisburg, Also Known As The Ugliest City In Germany
The Entrance To A Shopping Mall That Is Still Alive And Well, Despite The Visual Evidence To The Contrary
One More Lane Will Solve This. Cairo
The sign says Carve Your Getaway. , Yup gonna need to carve out of that traffic 🙄
An Apartment In Istanbul Is Attached To Another Building
Abu Eir, Alexandria, Egypt
White And Beige Nebraska *oc
Note: this post originally had 85 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Most of these pictures give me anxiety. So many people, so cramped, I'd die. I'm already stressed about having to deal with one neighbour, I can't imagine having to deal with so many people.
As depressing as the number of homeless Americans in full time employment?
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We are too many. Make child-free the norm. Children are luxury bones.
Yes Anna. My thoughts exacrtly. Too many humans. I am child-free, 38.
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Simple observation to all those pictures is "humans are too much" - in case of poorer countries - too much humans in general. Less childrem = less crowd. Noone needs 17 children. - in case of Murrica - too much cars and too much square meters of housing per person. You do not need McMansion and 4 cars for one family of 3.
17 children is hardly the standard. Cities grow bigger, because we want things. It's what we do, we live and we want things and then we die. There's no use deary. It just is.
Load More Replies... This was so depressing. I am very thankful for where I live, something I take for granted every day.
"By 2050, it's projected that more than two-thirds of us will reside in urban areas." Because we will have paved over so much more of our lands. The only way to stop this is birth control. Free birth of any type to anyone and everyone who wants it. No lectures, no pamphlets, no sermons, no questions. That could save the planet and our species.
That, and putting iron oxide in the ocean's dead zones. Fertilizer and manure end up in the ocean every year, adding extra nitrogen and etc. But iron only gets into the ocean at the normal rate. Plants, like algae, need both. They use up all the nitrogen and run out of iron. So, adding iron would super-charge the ocean's ability to produce oxygen and trap Co2. Currently, the ocean is already where we get most of our oxygen and stuff, so this would be huge
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I feel like there's no way someone can argue that climate change is a myth or that humans aren't affecting the planet any more than Mother Nature with these pictures. It seems like right here is the very exact irrefutable proof of our negative and altering effect on the planet... But I know the are those out there who will still deny it with every ounce of their faith and conviction.
Brutalist architecture should be torn down and rebuilt in a more human way
This makes me glad I bought the lot beside my house, so I could build absolutely nothing on it!
You SHOULD build on it though, or at least, plant on it. Create your own Allotment, that way you end up with fresh tasty veg, and doing something great for the environment. (and also that feeling of fulfilment at the success of growing your own food, but that might just be me. I grow a lot of herbs etc even though my garden is small x3)
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This is our future 🙂 However, it is possible to change it. The main problem here is overpopulation and low standard of life. Wanna fix it? Start thinking outside the box. Our economy is old and outdated. It's based on infinite profit and population growth. Even a child can tell you it's impossible. It worked in the past but it doesn't anymore for obvious reasons. What will replace it? That is something to think about. Overpopulation is harder to tackle because people take freedom to have offsprings very seriously and not about to let go. It's a cocktail of religion, tradition and culture. However, it doesn't have to be a strict and monitored population control. If a proper education is used then it is possible to overcome this problem. The main problem is to unite the whole world to take action.
Go watch the opening animated sequence of The Fate Of Irony. It perfectly encapsulates the soulless mass housing units we see more and more frequently.
People! Stop making people, then will be less urban hell, less global problems, less of any s**t. Why nobody make such commercials?
But by all means, keep popping out kids into existence on this miserable planet. They'll surely thank you when their in s**t to their knees fighting for basic survival necessities
These remind me of the current Beijing Winter Olympics with the nuclear power plant in the background.. FOREIGN202...508672.jpg 
Again . . . fewer people, less crap like this. Birth control is EVERYTHING!
The population of the 75 largest cities in the world is nearly 1 billion. Their combined land area is about the same as New Mexico, population 2 million, or Bulgaria, population 7 million. What you see is often the result of state policies to move people into cities, where they are easily controlled. (Notice the abundance of cities shown in China, Russia, Egypt, Iran, etc.) Amazingly but not at all coincidentally, these nations have been about the worst at preserving natural areas. Also, the most densely populated city in the world is a suburb of Paris, which attracts people who are clearly "in the 1%."
I'm reminded I need to be grateful everyday for the end terrace(former council house) with a bit of wild garden in front and back that I share with two felines...
Human population expected to peak at ten billion around the year 2050. It will get worse, then slowly better.
This is the problem. Overpopulation. I keep saying. Have 2 kids not 4 or 5.
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Nobody's "dunking" on anyone except the cheap, lazy governments who built these monstrosities.
Load More Replies... What? I lived in housing like that, I wasn't happy with those circumstances although I appreciated the nearby facilities and public transport. A lot of this is also depressing because there is no way to get around. People are just writing down what it looks like to them. There's nothing elitist about not wanting to live in one building with 18000 neighbors so closeby or having to walk 35 minutes to cross the street.
Load More Replies... Most of these pictures give me anxiety. So many people, so cramped, I'd die. I'm already stressed about having to deal with one neighbour, I can't imagine having to deal with so many people.
As depressing as the number of homeless Americans in full time employment?
Load More Replies... We are too many. Make child-free the norm. Children are luxury bones.
Yes Anna. My thoughts exacrtly. Too many humans. I am child-free, 38.
Load More Replies... Simple observation to all those pictures is "humans are too much" - in case of poorer countries - too much humans in general. Less childrem = less crowd. Noone needs 17 children. - in case of Murrica - too much cars and too much square meters of housing per person. You do not need McMansion and 4 cars for one family of 3.
17 children is hardly the standard. Cities grow bigger, because we want things. It's what we do, we live and we want things and then we die. There's no use deary. It just is.
Load More Replies... This was so depressing. I am very thankful for where I live, something I take for granted every day.
"By 2050, it's projected that more than two-thirds of us will reside in urban areas." Because we will have paved over so much more of our lands. The only way to stop this is birth control. Free birth of any type to anyone and everyone who wants it. No lectures, no pamphlets, no sermons, no questions. That could save the planet and our species.
That, and putting iron oxide in the ocean's dead zones. Fertilizer and manure end up in the ocean every year, adding extra nitrogen and etc. But iron only gets into the ocean at the normal rate. Plants, like algae, need both. They use up all the nitrogen and run out of iron. So, adding iron would super-charge the ocean's ability to produce oxygen and trap Co2. Currently, the ocean is already where we get most of our oxygen and stuff, so this would be huge
Load More Replies... I feel like there's no way someone can argue that climate change is a myth or that humans aren't affecting the planet any more than Mother Nature with these pictures. It seems like right here is the very exact irrefutable proof of our negative and altering effect on the planet... But I know the are those out there who will still deny it with every ounce of their faith and conviction.
Brutalist architecture should be torn down and rebuilt in a more human way
This makes me glad I bought the lot beside my house, so I could build absolutely nothing on it!
You SHOULD build on it though, or at least, plant on it. Create your own Allotment, that way you end up with fresh tasty veg, and doing something great for the environment. (and also that feeling of fulfilment at the success of growing your own food, but that might just be me. I grow a lot of herbs etc even though my garden is small x3)
Load More Replies... This is our future 🙂 However, it is possible to change it. The main problem here is overpopulation and low standard of life. Wanna fix it? Start thinking outside the box. Our economy is old and outdated. It's based on infinite profit and population growth. Even a child can tell you it's impossible. It worked in the past but it doesn't anymore for obvious reasons. What will replace it? That is something to think about. Overpopulation is harder to tackle because people take freedom to have offsprings very seriously and not about to let go. It's a cocktail of religion, tradition and culture. However, it doesn't have to be a strict and monitored population control. If a proper education is used then it is possible to overcome this problem. The main problem is to unite the whole world to take action.
Go watch the opening animated sequence of The Fate Of Irony. It perfectly encapsulates the soulless mass housing units we see more and more frequently.
People! Stop making people, then will be less urban hell, less global problems, less of any s**t. Why nobody make such commercials?
But by all means, keep popping out kids into existence on this miserable planet. They'll surely thank you when their in s**t to their knees fighting for basic survival necessities
These remind me of the current Beijing Winter Olympics with the nuclear power plant in the background.. FOREIGN202...508672.jpg
Again . . . fewer people, less crap like this. Birth control is EVERYTHING!
The population of the 75 largest cities in the world is nearly 1 billion. Their combined land area is about the same as New Mexico, population 2 million, or Bulgaria, population 7 million. What you see is often the result of state policies to move people into cities, where they are easily controlled. (Notice the abundance of cities shown in China, Russia, Egypt, Iran, etc.) Amazingly but not at all coincidentally, these nations have been about the worst at preserving natural areas. Also, the most densely populated city in the world is a suburb of Paris, which attracts people who are clearly "in the 1%."
I'm reminded I need to be grateful everyday for the end terrace(former council house) with a bit of wild garden in front and back that I share with two felines...
Human population expected to peak at ten billion around the year 2050. It will get worse, then slowly better.
This is the problem. Overpopulation. I keep saying. Have 2 kids not 4 or 5.
Load More Replies... Nobody's "dunking" on anyone except the cheap, lazy governments who built these monstrosities.
Load More Replies... What? I lived in housing like that, I wasn't happy with those circumstances although I appreciated the nearby facilities and public transport. A lot of this is also depressing because there is no way to get around. People are just writing down what it looks like to them. There's nothing elitist about not wanting to live in one building with 18000 neighbors so closeby or having to walk 35 minutes to cross the street.
Load More Replies...