You could make almost anywhere look this grim, in B&W on a rainy day. That said, I spent much of my childhood in south wales in the 1960s and 1970s, and it had grim writ large through it. Not always, but often.

Also places of stunning beauty, and history. You have to know how to pick.

Contrast this with e.g. rural japan (Toyama fishing harbour) which has gutted fish heaps, rotting jetties, next to amazingly cared for plants wrapped in hessian with bamboo struts, Onsen, amazing Kaiseki food...

Rhyl can be lovely. Rhyl can be cold and forbidding. the 1970s were a time of 17% mortgage interest, rampant inflation, mass unemployment... I went there hunting diesel shunting locomotives in my train spotting days.

If you want grim wales, Barry Island. But then, steam engine burial ground. Yes, grim, but also amazing. Like chernobyl but for steam engines. (maybe thats gone now)