moving to exeter

[leavinglondon2020]

Hi everyone, my husband and I are moving to Exeter from London. We are also expecting our first child and looking for recommendations of areas of the city best to live. Coming from south west london we love having cafes, bars on our doorstep but want a family friendly area (safe) as well. We've looked at St leonards, are there any other recommendations? St Thomas?

St Leonards is lovely. St Thomas less so when I lived there but it was a few years ago.

As previous poster said St Leonard’s Is a very nice area, easy walk into town and not from Magdalen road with a nice deli, bakery, couple of niche shops, coffee bar etc St Thomas is certainly not somewhere I would chose to live. Pennsylvania is also very popular although not so easy to walk into town from.
Where will you and you husband be working?

I moved from London to Exeter. I hated every second I was there. I lasted just over a year and moved to Kent.

@Nearlyadoctor we are both working from home but he would need to travel to London occasionally so close to the station would be great. coming from london we still want some buzz (cafes etc) so not looking for villages etc quite yet

@leavinglondon2020 - therefore definitely somewhere like St Leonard’s or even down on the quay but St Leonard’s side of the river. St Thomas will have a buzz but I don’t think you’ll find it’s the sort your looking for ( I wouldn’t walk there alone at night)

The other place to consider would be Topsham, really nice area/town still on the train line and very artisan type cafes, restaurants, shops etc and only a 10 minute drive / 5 mins on the train into city.

thanks so much @Nearlyadoctor it's so hard when you don't know an area so really appreciate it. We found somewhere south of the river Maritime Court, Haven Bank but that sounds like it's probably not such a great area now. We'll check out Topsham for sure

@Nearlyadoctor sorry to bother you again - how about Newcourt or Lower Wear? There aren't many properties in St Leonards or Topsham so widening our search. Properties look good, seem to be more new build estates. Is it a safe area?

@leavinglondon2020 Newcourt I don’t really know, it’s a fairly new area so I would assume nearly all new builds. Lower Wear is between Exeter and Topsham, the Topsham end I think is slightly nicer. Safety wise I don’t really know with either. Sorry I can’t be more help.

thanks x

Lower St Thomas is fine! It’s hardly a ghetto and if you’ve lived close to London you’ll be amazed anyone batted an eyelid. It’s a bit more boho than St L which is pretty yummy mummy and has a bit more of a SW London vibe. Best schools are St L or Stoke Hill near Pennysylvania. Pennysylvania can be a bit student city depending where you are.

You might like Topsham too.