Fenham - Newcastle

[hellouthere]

Thoughts on Fenham as a place to live with a young family? Are schools nice? Friendly area? Is there a high street, or place to meet others?

Are 9-5 at the RVI or shifts? That may make a difference for public transport and commuting options

Would you consider cramlington in Northumberland? You will get a really nice house for that money. Its semi rural with some lovely countryside and lots of parks and green areas. Whole town is connected by cycle paths and great for young families. Theres a large shopping centre/retail park, cinema, fantastic sports centre( Concordia) and nice central village with pretty church and some pubs. Its 15 mins from the coast and has a train station with links to Newcastle and North to Morpeth and Edinbuŕgh. The buses are not bad too and stop very close to RVI. Some good junior schools and nurseries, but the High school is pants and you will prob need to travel to Morpeth for a good one.
For what its worth I grew up in Fenham but I love Cramlington. Theres a few new build estates gone up lately, but Cramlington South/west and North are the best areas.

Not fenham. I work there and wouldn’t ever live there!!

There are some nice pockets of Fenham, like this one just next to St James and St Basils.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126775976

Definitely not Fenham.
Cheap areas West of the centre that are less rough are eg Kenton, Cowgate, Kingston Park. All have great transport links (buses) into town.

Colgate? Less rough? 🤯

Cowgate. If autocorrect hadn’t thwarted me.

Cowgate is horrendous!!! Way worse than Fenham!

I commute by metro daily from North Shields, which is on the coast. 20 minutes on the metro. Good choice of good secondary schools at the coast. Whitley Bay could also be a good shout.

I'd want to live on the metro line. Maybe Benton or Four Land Ends is worth looking at.

Please please please NOT Cowgate !! I lived there as a kid and still have links to the area. Think of the worst social deprivation you can imagine- then triple it !!!!!

Agree about Benton and Heaton being good options.

The Catholic school in longbenton is the highest performing secondary school in the NE according to the most recent performance data which has just come out.

There are ok parts of fenham though.

We live in Kenton, on a lovely street, but the local schools aren't great. Wherever you end up, OP, I'd echo the recommendation of being near a Metro station, it's a generally good service.

wow thank you very much. I will take on board what people said about fenham, I'll keep an open mind about it and take a good look around the areas mentioned as nicer. I will be commuting at rush hour, so much prefer the metro if at all possible. And by the sounds of it, it's a reliable service? I will prioritise a metro station, although, from Heaton, I think, a bike or walking will be ok. I'm looking closer at Heaton and also Kingston Park right now. Both seem to fit the bill. I'd love Whitley Bay or Tynemouth, but the extra commute in cost and time will be difficult to reconcile with the relatively high house prices. I bet they are lovely places to be though. Thanks again, very helpful.

Whitley bay and Tynemouth are on the metro too. But you have to buy an all zones ticket.

Newcastle is pretty small. And the metro is very easy to get around on. Your budget will get you a 3 bed in many parts of Newcastle (or larger, tbh). Even the bits people say are ‘posh’. 🤣

Have you looked at Gateshead? Easier commute to the centre of Newcastle than many places in Newcastle.

Spitaltongues- right next to the RVI and the houses on oxnam crescent are lovely.

I’m honestly amazed at people saying Fenham is rough. I just spoke to my mum who lives there still and she was confused too. @Ithinkimightbebroken would you mind telling me where you work? I would avoid crossing the west road-I don’t think it’s really Fenham over there and who thinks Cowgate is better? What?! Sick to the area between the 2 churches and you can’t go wrong. Avoid Benwell, the west road, Arthur’s hill, none of which are Fenham really. Wingrove Road going down from the west road is student central but Nunsmoor Road up to the church is lovely. I used to live in Moorside South, lovely street.

Kenton has some great houses, schooling is poor. My best friend lives there and her postcode is apparently ‘socially deprived’ and she gets funding for her dd’s hobby.

Yes Dame Allans is in the heart of Fenham so it can't be that rough!

Take that as your central point, don’t venture too far from there, you can’t go wrong!

Depends which part of Fenham, it's quite big. Heaton is more studenty than high Heaton. Benton and some parts of Forest Hall also commutable to RVI. The hospital runs a free bus between hospitals so if in High Heaton you could catch that from Freeman for free.

For schools, all the primaries in Heaton are great and the secondary (JPA) is much improved since being in special measures a few years ago.

@Brigante9 Kenton has some great houses, schooling is poor. My best friend lives there and her postcode is apparently ‘socially deprived’ and she gets funding for her dd’s hobby.

Yes, we got a really nice house in a lovely street. Our DC would be eligible for "contextual offers" at university based on postcode (oldest is there and it didn't apply) which feels all wrong to me because they go/went to an independent, but it's checked automatically.