City Living

[citycitycity]

Please help me with your city living recommendations.....

I want to live in a city. I want independent cinemas, shops and cafes. I want art galleries, theatres and lectures on many, many subjects.

I need a good sixth form college for DD1 and a good selection of independent secondary schools for DD2 (would also like to look at state schools, but wouldn't be in catchment at the right time).

I have always lived in London commuter belt, in towns without much going on. While I can fairly easily travel into London I want everything on my doorstep.

I can't move now, due to DD1 exams, but I plan to start looking at areas to move to.

I'd like to live city centre, but DH wants a garage so I think I'll need to compromise,ise by living on the outskirts.

Can anyone recommend the right city for me?

Bath or Bristol.

are there any areas of Bath and Bristol you can recommend?

Glasgow

Could you move into London? We're in Waltham Forest and have independent shops, restaurants, cafes, William Morris gallery and Vestry House museum, then it's under 30 mins by tube into central London for theatres, museums, galleries there. And we still have very easy access to green spaces (Walthamstow Wetlands, Epping Forest).

Manchester fits the cultural part of your requirements and if you want to head back to London to visit friends it's only a couple of hours on the train.

Depends on what size of property you need but the properties in St John's all have garages and off road parking, it's a nice quiet place and only a couple of minutes from Spinningfields so you are right in the city centre.

I've no idea about school and college quality I'm afraid.

@BearsoFair I would love to live in London, but I'm not sure I can get the space I want for my budget. I will do a quick Rightmove search on the areas you mention

Leeds ..once Covid restrictions lifted! There are plenty of flats with garages. Leeds has all the things you mention although of course not all are fully open at the moment

@serialreturner - we do like Scotland - what area of Glasgow would you recommend?

I'd recommend Edinburgh if you are considering Scotland. If your coming from England you might find it a better fit than Glasgow. There's a huge amount of private schools. Though Scotland doesn't do sixth forms. There's a completely different education system. So your older child would be in school. Edinburgh is quite expensive though - won't be much better off than south of England.

Glasgow I'd consider west end if you want to live in the city. Again it's expensive but very cosmopolitan.

Brighton

how easy would it be to move from English to Scottish school system? We will move when DD1 finishes her GCSEs.

So what would your budget be? I do wonder if I could find you somewhere in London as it’s not all 2M/house.

Cardiff

Leicester, Cardiff, Norwich or Glasgow.

Brighton would tick all those boxes.

Oxford and Exeter are 2 more to consider, although Oxford is not much cheaper than London. It's probably where I would choose to live as a second choice after London for the cultural life sorry that sounds pretentious. There is so much going on. Plus it is close enough to London to go out there for an evening (the Oxford Tube takes an hour if there is no traffic).

Exeter is small but it does have the advantage of being near beaches. Exeter College offer the IB, as well as A levels, and get outstanding results (one third of students achieve above 40 points, which is higher than most Oxbridge/med school standard offers). There is a 2 hour fast train into London.

Newcastle,Belfast,Manchester newcastle and Belfast definitely get a lot more for your money

Edinburgh, or Glasgow. Not such an easy move if you are rooted in England I suppose.

Second Bristol. Clifton or Redland areas would fit your specifications nicely.

York? Might be a bit small though.

Budget?

Birmingham or Nottingham

but given the state of our economy who knows what will still be open next year?

Thanks for all the replies. In terms of what I like, until recently I would have said I quite like the slower pace of being suburban, but I went back to work in London and I really enjoy being able to go out to to many different places. More recently with lockdown I have realised that my local area is really quite dull (now the children are growing up and we don't get so involved in the kids things).

Although I like going out, I also like to pick up the children from school and spend time with them, so I think ideally I would live somewhere that I could be at home straight after school and then go out later in the evening. (This is all obviously after Covid!)

We have been looking at houses locally and it's then that I realised there isn't actually much to do here. My eldest DD also wants to be somewhere livelier and I can see my youngest going the same way when she is older.

DH and I both work in London, but his job is going to be primarily WFH (and was going that way before Covid) and I will look for a new job. If he has to go to London a couple of days a fortnight he has family he can stay with 9and we have done this in the past).