To find the suburbs a bit depressing?

Where do you live op? We are semi rural and love it. If we are going into the city we go for a reason like to visit friends or an attraction I could face living in a tiny flat with no space around us. We technically live on a housing estate but with decent plots. Most subscribe to the 1/2 children SUV life.

That's hardly the suburbs is it! Fields? Deer? Hills?

It's the suburbs to me. I guess it depends on your definition of suburbs but it's a suburb of a major city. I've lived in a city centre and it's nothing like that. I've lived rurally too and it isn't that either. It's between the two. I'm pretty much sandwiched between two towns and a road to a major city and the countryside that lines it.

I live in a townhouse in a market town centre. 3 minutes on foot to Sainsbury's, Starbucks and the cinema, lovely stuff. 2 miles out it's all 4 bed detached houses on estates off the dual carriageway but had we had one more child we'd have probably ended up there for the garden and 4th bedroom.

You can get an old detached house on a leafty street in town; I can see them from here - but it'll cost you an extra £100k v the suburbs.

I completely agree with you! We currently live in a very central part of a large city and while it‘s ludicrously expensive, noisy and crowded, we‘re also surrounded by interesting architecture, a huge variety of cultural offerings, nice shops and great restaurants. We’ll probably want more space and less noise in a few years but would never move to the suburbs - worst of both worlds with very few advantages! I grew up very rurally and would love to go back to that, but suburbia with rows of identikit new-builds is my idea of hell.

That's hardly the suburbs is it! Fields? Deer? Hills?

Isn't traffic worse in cities and parks packed full as many don't have gardens and lots of flats anyway?

I agree with you op - congested, polluted, grey, dull, culture-less. I guess it depends where you are exactly but there are a lot of suburbs which are super depressing! I'd rather live slap bang in the country or directly in a city.

I've just moved from the suburbs of a popular SE commuter town, to a nearby small city centre and oh I know exactly what you mean. It feels boring but stiffling at the same time.

Love the city life. Walk everywhere. Nobody nosing at your business. Lots to see and do on my doorstep.

It totally depends on the suburb. Some suburbs can indeed be very bland and samey with rows and rows of identical housing, some are charming, well-kept secrets.

Increasingly I actually think the suburbs in many big cities are actually more buzzy and interesting than some inner city areas.

Particularly in London unless you're a millionaire most people can't afford to live in the inner city. Where I live (S London suburbs) is really nice: it's greener than central London or the inner suburbs but not so hideously gentrified that normal people can't live there and quirky and full of character. Good shops and amenities, good transport links and enough to do that you don't actually have to go into C London much. I dare say there are similar suburbs in other UK cities.

I'm the same. We live in a flat right in the city centre (8 minute walk). We could buy a house 3 miles out for the same money but I don't want to.

Each to their own but I live in a suburb and I'm currently watching deer graze in the field of the farm opposite my home, and if I go into the kitchen I have a great view of hills. There's also a stream opposite.

I love being able to get away from the city when I want to, but still be close enough to easily access it.

I wouldn't care to live in one of those estates that's pretty much on the motorway with nothing round about it but I'm sure it suits others, but there's more to suburbia than that.

Right... where do you live? I can't work out if you hate it because you live in a trendy London loft or a farmhouse in West Wales.