Am I too posh for Cambridge?

It's like that in Arbury, Fen Ditton, Chesterton and Mill Road but most areas are ok. The areas around the botanical gardens are lovely (apart from having to avoid the herds of bullocks). The city centre was quite shocking last time I ventured in. I don't live there currently but I used to drive to posher areas to walk my dogs because there was a bit of an xl bully problem in some parks.

I don't understand the post though...if you don't need to get to Cambridge you could live anywhere so why Southwold? I'd live close to the railway track towards Suffolk. Or if I didn't have a budget I'd choose Saffron Waldon, The Shelfords, The Abingtons....most of the villages south of Cambridge are lovely. I'd rather not live in the fens.

Like other posters I live in Cambridge, in a small village. From my experience of life living in upper and lower socioeconomic environments. There are issues within sectors of society. The difference is the upper socioeconomic environments of drugs and CSA they are just covered up or referred to in a different manner. Ely has pockets of poverty as do all rural environments. Cambridge is a city very much divided by gown and town. Cambridge college students misbehaving referred to as youthful exuberance and residents local students misbehaving referred to as drunken thuggery. Community is partly what you make it, unfortunately community can be difficult if you are an outsider or deemed as a different social class.

A majority of people do not report crimes now. Therefore if not reported cannot be counted in the statistics.

Bollocks is it. As someone with a police officer for a child, I can tell you that people just don’t bother reporting a lot of crime as the police don’t do anything. Even he didn’t bother reporting it when his motorbike got nicked, it wasn’t worth it for an old runaround and they wouldn’t have done anything anyway.

There is something every week now where I live. We’ve have 3 shootings this year, there are regular stabbings, arson, you can’t walk through the park now as there are so many muggings.

Perhaps if you read the Mail instead you would think we are at an all time peak point for crime!

YABU because you’ve described living in a city, unfortunately. You either need to find a more naice (expensive, leafy, probably white middle class) area or move out to a small town. I live rurally near a small market town not far from you (commute to London 2/3 times a week) and recognise none of this.

Crime is out of control in most parts of the UK

And yet I was reading in the Times today that crime is the lowest it’s been for 25 years.

I think we live in a different Cambridge from you, OP.

For a start community is what you make it. What have you done to try and find community?

Crime is out of control in most parts of the UK, not just Cambridge. Until we have a justice system worth it's salt, things will just continue to get worse.

What’s being posh got to do with it?

It's an unfair reputation. We stayed in Luton overnight recently before a flight and I felt positively privileged to come from Peterborough. Both have been voted the UK's worst places to live. No comparison as far as I'm concerned! There are nice parts of Peterborough, just as anywhere. And yes, much cheaper!

I see Cambridge and I raise you Dudley. Now, this is a shithole. Moved here 5 years ago from the Home Counties as we had to and Christ, I was shell shocked 🤣

GPT

This isn’t my experience at all. It’s probably at its least pleasant at the moment because of all the tourists walking extremely slowly everywhere, but there’s so much to do within walking and cycling distance.

Every city has its issues. Cambridge is town and gown city. Poverty vs extreme wealth. You will get beggars, homelessness , drugs in areas of the city centre but overall it’s a lovely city. Never felt unsafe and I used to cycle home late at night. Ely is also lovely but quite dull. Not sure about Norwich.

😀

I live in Cambridge and I don't recognise OP's description of it at all!

What the heck? My husband is from Shelford and it's really pleasant there. Our DD is due to start at Cambridge in October subject to Alevel results next week. We live in the North West and Cambridge always seems lovely when we visit. Which area are you living in?

Plus, live surrounded by lakes and beautiful countryside

I live in a village in the e mids. 30 min commute to Leicester or Nottingham, where I work. Experienced 0 crime and v v little anti social behaviour

Quite a general post. It really depends where you are living and what you are doing. It’s a city so not immune to any antisocial behaviour just because it has lovely colleges and a river.

Depends if you went to a prestigious boarding school or not

Wondering if one is ‘too posh’ for anywhere or anything is usually a sign that one definitely isn’t!

Where do you live @BeAmberWasp ? If you live in Arbury then maybe, but otherwise Cambridge is generally a good place to live. Bear in mind it is a big city which has grown hugely over the past 20years or so, with a large international population, 2 universities as surrounds by very rural areas, so it is going to be a massive melting pot with lots of variation.

Ely is much more parochial but has quite a lot of poverty and problems in areas, as do most places. Norwich is something else entirely. Sounds like what you really want is a village, maybe try the swaffhams, Wicken or haddenham, but you’ll be trading in a lot of other advantages.

Yes, loads of places are free of people like that. I doubt there are actually many in Cambridge. I grew up in Sussex and there weren’t many people like that there (certainly none in my school), and I now live in London and don’t cross paths with anyone like that despite working in a hospital in a deprived borough.