To find the suburbs a bit depressing?

@BourbonBon I count places like Wimbledon, Balham, Streatham, Richmond, Carshalton etc as London suburbs. All those areas have some roads with driveways & garages although many of the garages are now converted.

Ok, well fine. They like it and are talking about it. Like I said, people are different.

Sounds a little like your friends got your back up and you've come on here to slag them off.

I’ve just googled surburbs of where I live and we apparantly all live in them because it’s just another word for towns 🤷‍♀️

There is Nodnol for a start …

Funny I have relatives there.

I have realised I don’t know what a suburb is. Does anyone know a true London suburb? I live on the zone 2/3 junction. It’s not central London and definitely not a village. In my head suburbs are places with family homes with drives and garages, not like where I live. I don’t feel at all like I live in a suburb, more part of London. But who knows?!

Maybe I am in suburb denial?

I think there are nicer suburbs and not so nice ones. And how far out you are that can count. Walk into town or city, great. A bus journey away , okay.
Too long, and loads of high level traffic = horrible.
Much of the UK is overwhelmed traffic wise. At some point we will come to a standstill.

Well I live in a new built and I’d be the first to admit I’d rather live in an old house as long as it was in the middle of nowhere

Sometimes I can't help but think there's a jealous element to some of it. I can't live in new homes so I'll bash them to feel better.

Others are just being weirdly snobby about living in old homes.

I didn't like to live in city centre. I don't want to live rural either. We are now living in leafy suburb of big city. I can walk to gp's, dentist, library, primary and secondary schools, restaurants, shops, pharmacy and parks. City is fifteen minutes drive away and busses go frequently. We lived in this area first in smaller house but we needed more space so we bought bigger one in same area because we like here.

The obsession Mumsnet posters have with new builds is weird. People have to live somewhere; unless you're giving up your 3000 year old homes with character, new houses need to be built.

It really depends although I do know what you mean with some suburbs, particularly in England they can kind of feel like they've had the oxygen sucked out of the air and it's insta-depression.

I lived in one that in general had dull-as-shit architecture, mostly bungalows, but did have some art deco gems in one section... however it was built up the side of the downs with sea views, many people had lovely gardens, so that wasn't in the least depressing.

It depends which suburb, tbh. If London, Streatham and Wembley are depressing, Barnet is lovely.

I live in a lovely suburb. We walk or cycle to school on well lit, wide cycle paths. Walk to sports activities in the area.

There’s a pharmacy, GP, supermarket, dentist, butcher, dry cleaners and a gym within a 10 minute walk of our house. Public transport links are good.
Love my garden. I have nice neighbours too which makes a big difference. We’re 20 minutes drive from a big city and 15 minutes from the mountains.
Not all suburbs are created equal.

It all depends on what you like really.

I do enjoy being on the water.

I lived rurally right on a bay but you had to drive 30 minutes at least to get to the grocery or anything. Decided to move after calling for an ambulance took over an hour to get to me plus exH didn't drive.

Absolutely loved that house and property.

We lived temporarily in 1 bedroom in another beach town but shops all around plus train about 20 minutes to the city plus hospital. I'd live there again.

Then moved to a big mansion on the water and again loved that house. Bus and shops easy to get to but it just had the one limited shopping centre.

So for me, being on the water is 1 and a decent amount of shops, vibrancy, and hospital near.

So I rambled on and still don't have a specific name for the area I like.😂 Can't really call it a big city, suburb, or rural.

Define suburbia please OP.

I live in a suburb of a medium to large city. We have our own high street which is vibrant and has farmer's markets and street markets , fairs, loads of community things going on. I can be in the city centre within 15 mins either on a well served bus route, by car, bike or a 30 mins walk down some lovely canals. There are two very famous sporting venues within a 20 min walk. There are so many facilities within a 15 min drive: swimming, ice skating, canoeing, rowing, football, cricket, skateboarding ,athletics, so much green space. The housing stock is varied and dates from beautiful victorian houses through to more modern stock .The residents are diverse and you know what, its a great place to live. We may not have museums and art galleries nearby but the place has a great community buzz .

There is always something to do and enjoy here.

I like suburbs, but can understand why people don't like them. You have to drive everywhere etc. and if you like to see some life going on through the window, then yeah, suburbs don't offer them as they're rather boring.

I grew up in a suburb, on a newly built estate with breeze block garden walls and poured concrete roads. It was awesome ! Lots of families, lots of children, never a dull moment. We could not have cared less about the lack of museums and theatres and countryside, and tbh my son (8) doesn't give a shit about those things either - he just wants to hang out with his friends.

As a young adult I was excited to live in the city centre, but I always thought fondly of the suburbs. I wish I could give DS my suburban childhood because he would have loved it.

I live in the middle of a small but lively city but I find these threads that completely slag off where other people live - wherever it is - both fucking smug and insulting.

It implies that people must be a bit shit to actually live there and like it, god forbid, compared to the people dissing it

I think the OP is imagining the sprawling, new build estates outside cities.

Who knows what she is talking about. Every suburb is different. It's weird to talk about "the suburbs" as this one homogenous mass. It's like people saying they don't like any of Spain, based on a weekend in Benidorm.

www.housebeautiful.com/uk/lifestyle/property/a40373145/most-desirable-suburbs-uk/

If you google Didsbury you get "suburban village". I'm just pointing out that "suburb" is probably not the right word for the OP's issue.

I don't like living in cities so the suburbs are just city sprawl to me. But I guess some suburbs are better than others. Ealing was pretty good as far as suburbs go when I lived there. I really don't like those huge estates they just stick up on the edges of town and cities though, totally soulless IMO and always seem to have all sorts of social problems.

…describing not “ imagining”…

Re Morningside:

I wouldn’t say Morningside was a suburb - it was once a village, after all. It’s an area in South Edinburgh. I think the OP is imagining the sprawling, new build estates outside cities.

I found the matching range rovers on every driveway rather depressing too. Big monster one for dad slightly smaller beast for mum with the obligatory naff personalised plates and cockerpoo on the back seat.