To hate living in Manchester (and North in general)

[ILikeMilk]

Moved here four years ago to be with DH, and I still cannot get used to it. We are in a nicest area of Manchester, and it is still feels very provincial and boring. I dream about living in London, but DH does not want to look for a new job. I feel like there is no point and don?t want to decorate the house, make friends, etc, I just fantasise about being in London every single day. There is not much to do here, no nice streets or galleries, not much to do on the weekends as a family. I went to London this weekend, it was so painful to come back. Does anybody else feel this way?

back in the day before they changed the dialling code Afflecks palace used to sell T shirts with the slogan 061 the state of the nation that is all.

Noooooo, us Londoners don't want you!!!

What a shitty attitude you have, it's quite embarrassing really.

I live in a Glasgow suburb which is very similar to Hale or Didsbury. Yes it's quiet and there's not wall to wall excitement all of time but I quite like it that way. State schools are excellent, loads to do for the kids, friendly people.

London is great for a holiday and there is indeed loads to see but it's so busy and crowded that it stresses me out completely after about a week. Can feel my blood pressure lowering as soon as the train pulls out of Euston. From my windows I can see snowcapped hills, there are deer in the field behind the house, we heard an owl hooting last night and this weekend my daughter is off to guide camp in one of the most stunning areas of the UK which is 70 minutes drive north.

OP would probably have a nose bleed if she came this far north though, or be one of those people who seem astonished that we have electricity, schools and supermarkets in Scotland.

It's awful when you're stuck someone you don't like OP so on that front I do sympathise. I know it can be incredibly lonely when you're somewhere that doesn't 'fit'.

However some of the statements you've made are ignorant and bound to get people's backs up. Perhaps your problem was living in Hale rather than Manchester. You say that you were the only foreign parent at your children's school for example. That's very different Manchester to the one I know. I've been here 7 years and have some good foreign friends who have decided to live in Manchester.

You also say there's no stimulation..Perhaps you weren't looking hard enough? Manchester will never be able to compete with London in terms of the amount of things to do but there is stuff there and it's disingenuous to say there isn't. And how many hobbies does one person need? There is plenty here for most of the time and has been said it's only 2 hours to London for when there's a particular event or theatre on etc.

Examples that haven't been included here already...I'm currently learning a language at cactus at picadilly gardens and DP sometimes goes to mutually beneficial conversational language exchanges at a restaurant in South Manchester. Manchester and Stockport is also home to some of the best sports clubs in the country....Think cycling and swimming.did you ever go to the velodrome for example? That's definitely a different activity for an afternoon.

Anyway it's all irrelevant now and I'm glad you have found happiness but I do resent the implication that we're all uncultured and I guess, if no mental stimulation, thick too.
The fact is far from it.

You can't have spent much time in Chorlton for example....You can't go anywhere there without meeting an academic or someone wanting to get you involved in some activity or other.

And suburbia isn't for me either OP .That's your mistake....I wouldn't want to live in Hale but I love living in manchester.Manchester is an extremely vibrant place if you had just looked for it. Not London vibrant obviously but certainly vibrant full of people from all walks of life.

Haha I'm rude? Hilarious.

I love London but I wonder if "your" London is a bit of a fantasy. You may not make friends there. You still have to make the effort to go out/get jobs etc etc.

I got plenty of friends. Old ones and also new ones through DC schools, activities, etc. I don't work but since the move back my life is very busy. Sometimes it's too hectic but I like hectic :)

Hectic is what fascinated me about London! Ok I live in the Pennines where you can hear a mouse fart at 3am with the windows shut so staying at a hotel round the corner from Earls Court Station is what you might call 'an experience' !
I still love the place but it would drive me batshit if I had to live there!
I think I get it but you really haven't put your point across well at all, you just came over as a snob.

Fascinates not fascinated. Me and autocorrect are having an argument about whether I'll be going back down any time soon...

Maybe just me, but having lived in London and Hale, I preferred Hale. Central London is fun once in a while but where I was living (Clapham and Kensington) were very samey.

I used to work in Hale and I can safely say there were plenty of non-British people there. Maybe it wasn't due to the fact you are not British but the fact you come across as such a snob??

I don't see how you can describe it as being "in the sticks". There is a train station, tram station, 5 minutes from Manchester Airport, close enough to Manchester City Centre.

I wish I had enough money to think Hale was a shithole living in Sale.

Some people...

Manchester smells of chlorine. The butch lesbians on canal street are hetrophobic. The campest gay men are nasty bitches. It's too small to keep away from the horrifically dodgy areas. The locals have permanent scowls on their faces and Corrie actors are everywhere. And it's no where near the seaside.

Worst 3 years of my life.

Shitbags!

I lived the gay clubbing scene back in the day - mancs are pretty lachrymose tho

It's 2 hours to London on the train. Manchester really isn't Siberia.

If the OP has issues because she lives a 2 hour journey away from a particular place that really reflects on her not the places or people involved.

Oh I did too stopfucking, in the right doses. We just had to walk round the back -past the bins of the traditional gay pub at the top of the street to avoid the anti-hetro heckling from the very scary lesbians!!

And then there were all the gay men who used to eyeball my DH - heeeelllooooo I'm right here!!!!!

Sheffield however, totally different kettle of fish. Loveliest people ever.

Wow. Nice to know that someone who's got as far as Manchester thinks that the north is some kind of wasteland and can't compare to the glorious London. (And in a funny way the OP seems to represent all the stereotypes I try not to have about arrogant Londoners)

Out of interest, are you aware that arts and culture spending is given disprolortionately to London? That more is spend per person by the tax payer on arts etc than anywhere else? That schools have had a preferential funding system in London. All this whilst other areas of the country have been ran into the ground.
But its fine because stuck up individuals want to swan around bemoaning how the rest of the UK doesnt match their idealised lifestyle.

Have you actually realised there's stuff going on in Manchester? Have you actually realised youre not somewhere North of thr wall? Have you been to York, Sheffield, Newcastle? Have you travelled to the pennines? Or the Lake District? Or Yorkshire Dales? Have you actually considered booking to see shows etc when they're on tour (or do you feel entitled to have everything when you want it on demand?)? Are you willing to do what most of the UK does and travel an hour to a concert? Are you aware that places like MIMA in Middlesbrough have had Picassos there? Have you actually looked into supporting smaller performances (after all there's a conservatoire in Manchester)?

I'm going to say probably not.
(Yes, that was a massive rant. But the golden roads of London vs this awful thing known as the north irritates me)

My mum was like that when she first moved to Lancashire 40 years ago - back then the town my dad got a job in was a bit of a dump! It's not now and she loves it dad died I live down south and she wouldn't move back here for all the money in the world! She has everything she needs in Manchester so why would she want London she says?

My first job in London was in 1990's Willesden! Now that did make me want to cry - it was scary! Far worse than Stockport station believe me

London has world class museums and galleries. I miss being closer to them. The only things about London I miss.

London museums are great! There is a David Hockney exhibition right now at Tate Britain! It's not quite the Whitworth gallery of course ;)

Yep London galleries are great, I went down to see one on Saturday. 2 hours on the train. It's a miracle! The great iron horse lets you travel at speed!

I was home in time for a meat pie and then bed.

Charlotte, I try, but there is nowhere to go. We are in Hale, it is just a built up resedential area. No nice walks, hardly any parks, etc.

Forget parks, you can get to the dales, the lakes and the Peak district. You are not far from the Forrest of Bowland - if you can't find somewhere to walk in those places you are ... well not got a word for it.

You are an hour away from the Yorkshire sculpture park.

Try thinking about things in hours rather than distance. You could spend an hour on the Northern line getting to Camden on a Sunday from lots of London, in an hour you can get much further in the north.

For shopping try Southport or Leeds if you don't like Manchester.

As for exhibitions - Manchester has galleries, what are you doing about getting the exhibits you want there?

theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/articles/the-artist-s-city-ten-manchester-art-galleries/

Get a job....

Well, I am not in Manchester anymore, but by walks I meant walking while kids at school. I mean now I can just drop kids at school, walk for a few hours, pop to a book shop or stop for a coffee. I could never do that in Hale. Where do you walk to? Do you walk along the busy road to Sale? Or down the motorway the other way?