Where should I live in the UK?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We are probably returning to the UK (from Greece) in May. Previously we have lived in South London, but the expense and our 2 year old daughter make us want to move out. So where should we go? Here are some of the factors:

[ul]
[li]Price. I’m a travel writer which, whilst fun, doesn’t pull in the money. So we need somewhere where a two bedroom house with a garden can be rented for £500-600 or less.[/li][li]We want to be out in the country, but not a million miles from civilisation. Somewhere we can go on nice walks from our doorstep, but also jump on a bus to get to ok restaurants and shops.[/li][li]Most of our friends our London based and it would be nice if they could come for a weekend.[/li][li]We’re pretty outdoorsy so it has to be a beautiful place. I like mountains and my partner would like to be near / next to the sea.[/li][li]Need to be reasonably near a good airport.[/li][/ul]

So far we have considered:

[ul]
[li]Suffolk. My partner grew up here and knows it well. Our families are mostly here - good for babysitting but maybe bad for annoying interfering! Good for coastline but pretty bad for mountains. Close to lots of friends.[/li][li]Norfolk. Pretty similar to above but a bit further away.[/li][li]Northumberland. My partner went to university in Newcastle and likes the city. This seems to tick a lot of boxes, but we know little about the area and it is maybe too far away from friends and family.[/li][/ul]

I open to any ideas or suggestions - the more specific the better.

2

Tough to beat Edinburgh as a place to live in the UK. I live there, but have no particular flag-waving affiliation with the place - it’s just the most impressive city to live in I have seen in Britain, by some distance.

It fits into your criteria OK - it’s probably quite expensive as UK cities go, but you could rent a house on the outskirts for what you’re looking for. Airport is excellent and east coast train line from Kings cross is also decent. As far as access to the mountains, outdoors go then there’s no competition in the UK. Well, apart from Glasgow :slight_smile: The Highlands are a short trip away and there’s nothing like them in Europe. Is this a serious point for you, though? I see you mention Norfolk and Suffolk as possibilities.

3

We’ve thought about this before. My uncle lives there and I used to go when I was young. I have good memories of the city and I love the Highlands - my Mum was Scots. Where I live in Greece is actually oddly similar to the Highlands, but with more sun.

In fact weather might be an issue.

Also would there be any negative feeling to people moving in from the south? I certainly don’t sound half Scots.

And where in the outskirts would you suggest?

I’ve visited the area a lot in recent years and it’s grown on me. But I would miss the mountains.

4

I don’t htink you’ll get everything in your package, but I can suggest where I live - Rutland. :cool:

Some rental examples which meet your requests are here.

Oakham is in the middle of the countryside, but does have some reasonable shops and restaurants. The nearest cities are Nottingham, Peterborough and Leicester. All about 20 miles away. There are some buses plus a direct train service to Peterborough and Leicester.

London is 90 miles away (South of Oakham). There is a fast train service from London to Peterborough, then a local connection to Oakham.
By car you take the A1 - roughly 2.5 -3 hours, depending on traffic, time of day and starting point.

No mountains and no sea. :eek: We are about as far inland and as flat as you can get!
However we do have beautiful countryside and Rutland Water, which is magnificent.

The nearest airports are East Midlands, Stanstead and Birmingham International.

5

I’m English and it’s never been a problem living here. There is genuine resentment and distaste for the English football team but that’s hardly something that impinges on your day to day life.

Edinburgh is a dry city by UK standards, like all of the NE coast. So it rains less here than in London. It is darker in the winter though, and lighter in the summer. Can’t say for sure if it’s any colder - maybe a degree or so.

The bottom line is that it’s a world city, probably the only other one outside London in the UK. For a man of learning and culture like yourself this is something to be prized.

6

I grew up in Edinburgh, and have lived in Glasgow for the last 7 years.

I wouldn’t have thought so. There are a lot of people in Edinburgh that have moved up from the south, and there are a lot of native people in Edinburgh who don’t have particularly strong accents (myself included). I think you’d fit in fine.

I grew up on the south side (Morningside), and somewhere near there, like Liberton, would be my preferred option if I was ever to move back, but looking at espc.co.uk, it looks like you would be hard pushed to rent a house anywhere in Edinburgh for the money you are talking about. Might have more luck on the west coast near Glasgow (see gspc.co.uk). There is better access to more hilly countryside (Trossachs etc) and good links to the south. The only (major!) downside would be the weather, which is noticably wetter than in the east.

I would recommend Edinburgh, though, over the west, but that is because, like others have said, it is a wonderful city.

7

Seems like you picked a good time to be looking for property, anyway!

From personal experience, some parts of Hampshire are nice, and very handy for all sorts of other places. Where I live, for instance, I’m 20 minutes from places like Reading, Farnham, Guildford and deepest leafiest Surrey. The houses aren’t cheap, but they’re not hugely expensive, there’s tonnes of greenery and we’re less than an hour by train from London and less than that by car to the coast. No mountains though :). Obviously handy for airports - Heathrow, Gatwick even the minor London ones.

We are surrounded by Ministry of Defence land where we live, so it’s protected from development. There are so many places to walk here we bought a labrador to give us the excuse! The schools seem very good and it feels like a safe part of the world for our daughter (she’s also 2).

I have to be down here for work, but I grew up in the North and that’s where I’d be if I could. Have you thought about Derbyshire/the Peak District? Housing as cheap as chips, fewer of the big city issues for your daughter. The Peak District National Park is breathtakingly beautiful and though you don’t get the sea, there’s water all over the place. East Midlands is an international airport, and you’re not far from the big Northern cities, plus the M1 shoots you down to London if you have to. Places like Matlock and around there are just beautiful in parts.

8

I’ve lived in Edinburgh for six years now, and I’m English. I’ve never had a problem, other than teasing over football, and I’ve been to all sorts of football matches, including Old Firm ones over in Glasgow, and had drinks in less than salubrious establishments. In fact, Edinburgh’s really an English enclave in Scotland, and there’s thousands of English living here permanently or transiently (as there’s a big student population).

There are disadvantages to living in Edinburgh. Chief amongst them is limited driving and parking (Edinburgh has very few public car parks, so all parking is on-the-street), but the public transport system is pretty good, and is going to get better soon (they’re currently installing trams on Princes St.). Also, the shopping is pretty limited for a city, but Glasgow is only an hour away by train, which has much better facilities.

However, Edinburgh really is a nice city. The city centre is a UNESCO world heritage site, and as such is protected from the horrors of modern architecture. It’s also fairly safe: I’ve never been mugged, robbed, burgled or threatened, and insurance premiums reflect this.

(As an idea of property prices, I rent a shared flat in Newington, 15 minutes walk from Princes St. and the Royal Mile, directly in front of Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags, and it costs me £300 a month, or £600 for the whole flat. There’s a shared garden included. I’ve found similar prices in Marchmont, too. Both Newington and Marchmont are considered more upscale than average, but not like Morningside. Renting further away from the city centre should be a lot cheaper.)

My other suggestion would be living in one of Manchester’s suburbs. It’s cheaper than Edinburgh, you have easy access to both the Peak District, North Wales and the Lake District, as well as rural Lancashire and Cheshire. There’s also the Fylde and North Welsh coast lines. Oh, and Manchester airport, too.

9

If you don’t mind me asking…What sort of travel writing do you do?

10

I’d go for Newcastle - in fact, I did. Moving here was for work reasons, but I didn’t regret it a bit - the cost of life is lower, the city is compact and nice, with the countryside just a little away, and there is such a lot to see and do here and in the surroundings! Being a travel writer, consider that Northumberland is a place that doesn’t get much attention, to the best of my knowledge.

You don’t have to live in Newcastle proper if you like. You can live in one of the smaller market towns around here, like Morpeth and Hexham, which are quite beautiful. I’d move there myself, and am planning to in the future.

You mentioned an airport. Newcastle has quite a good one, with many connections to the rest of Europe and the world. I would not be surprised if it is better connected than the airport of Edinburgh.

And speaking of Edinburgh? Wonderful city - and it’s, what, a couple of hours away? You don’t need to live there, strictly speaking. You need to be able to reach it to enjoy it. And furthermore, if cost is an issue, then the nice bits of Edinburgh could be out of the question.

If you do decide for Northumberland and/or Newcastle, do let me know - I’d be glad if you’ll get in touch with me, and show you around a bit.

11

Yeah, that’s a point. Neither Edinburgh nor Glasgow airports offer the same sort of connections you can get from an airport like Manchester or Heathrow.

12

Chiming in to add my vote to Northumberland - I grew up there. It’s not too far from London for friends to visit - the north coast mainline is one of the best, and you can get from London to Newcastle in less than 3 hours, or less than an hour by plane. And we also have some of the best beaches in the country.

13

If you were considering Edinburgh and wanted a house, rather than a flat, you’d have to try a bit further afield than the Southside…
A suburb like Musselburgh is a little further away (to the east, on the coast) but still with v.good buses into town. It’s also pretty near to one of the out-of-town shopping complexes with a frequent bus right to it.
A house like this is around the price you want to pay. Or there’s probably others listed on that site.

14

Plus it’s not very far from Wigan and all the pie shops. :wink:

Excellent choice Captain

15

Seconded! The Peak District is awesomely beautiful, on a nice clear day.
Have a look at Chesterfield, one of the biggest towns in the UK. It has all the usual shops, good selection of restaurants, hotels etc etc.
It’s also home to the Crooked Spire (google it), the transport links are reasonably good, trains go to Sheffield in one direction, and Derby in the other, and from either you can probably transfer to anywhere you couldn’t make straight from Chesterfield.
Buses are ran by Stagecoach, can be a little late at times, but mostly reliable. Fares seem to be a bit cheaper than First or Metro buses too.
Sheffield and Meadowhall shopping centre are only an hours drive (maximum, in bad traffic) away if you can’t find what you want locally.
There are a few very good schools around the area, and more mediocre ones.

You also get the friendliness of the North, but without the incomprehensible accents!

Oh, and I live there…

16

How about the East Midlands? Newark for instance is a charming small market town but with excellent transport connections, being on the A1 and having two railway lines ; the East Coast Main line and the smaller line that connects Lincoln to Nottingham. Nearby is the smaller market town of Southwell (described as a Nottinghamshire version of Barchester). Twenty miles to the south is Grantham, also with excellent transport links. Housing costs in all of these places is reasonable and there is a wide selection to choose from.

17

If my interview tomorrow is successful, I’ll be looking to rent out my 3-bedroom (well, 2 + office) house in [del]Luton[/del] North Harpenden :). It’s right by the airport but not on the flight path, bus stop right outside, an easy walk to the station…

18

Sorry for not replying earlier, I was on the road all day yesterday.

Thanks to everyone for their replies and taking time to help us out. Loads of interesting info and ideas here that we will have a look through. I’ll let you know when we have more thoughts, but keep the suggestions coming.

That’s extremely kind of you. We know a couple of people up there already (which is one of the attractions), but always good to know more.

Any kind that earns money! I have a few articles published a year in newspapers and magazines, generally about Greece, and this last year I have been researching and writing a guidebook which will come out early next year. I also have a publisher interested in a proper book (a Paul Theroux type thing I mean), but that’s still in the process.

19

I bet I can see your house then from my office as I work at capabilities Green :smiley:

I haven’t had the guts yet to call it North Harpenden as too many of coworkers come from Luton

20

I used to work there - at Selex. My house isn’t quite visible - it’s just around the hill if you look East.

Any jobs going? My interview was not successful. :frowning: