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?

You could always walk in the countryside that is adjacent to Hale. You know where the grass is. And the trees. The bits really near Hale with no tarmac.

So you never went to Ramsbottom ,Greenmount etc?Theres loads of areas to walk around there Holcolmbe Hill, Reddisher woods, Holcolmbe Moor [krypton factor] or theres alot of canal pathways there was a great one near Radcliff and the walks by the River Irwell in Bury theres an awful lot of greater Manchester that appears to have passed you by.

Yes, along a busy road with nowhere to stop.

Oh yes, I could just pop to all those places with a pushchair, without driving.

Really Ilikemilk in the North we have things called footpaths. If you follow them in a short length of time you are in the countryside. There are signposts that you can follow. If you are walking for several hours a 10 minute walk along a road that brings you to a 'footpath' is not that bad.

I belive you must be, as we say in the North, 'taking the piss'. If you couldn't find your way to fields from Hale then you have bigger problems than MN can help you with

well no but your slagging off the whole of Manchester and greater Manchester based on your experiences of Hale Theres far more to it than you have clearly bothered to explore and granted you clearly dont want to be persuaded otherwise

Bitofacow

For balance, I lived in London for 12 months and hated every moment of it.

Our house would cost in the multiple millions if it were in London but we got it really, really cheap because it's in the North West. Not that we're bothered - we love it here, we're dyed-in-the-wool Northerners and were itching to get back. I fully intend to die in this house, that's how much I love the North.

The bane of my existence is posh Hooray Henries from London (pronounced 'Lorndorn') telling us how much better it is south of the Watford Gap.

I distinctly remember someone coming into our local paper shop and asking if there were any vegan bakeries in the area (fat chance) and then going into a full monologue about how it was run by Swedes etc. The lovely woman behind the counter replied "Oh, swedes? We mash them up with carrots round here, love!"

I did not want to go to fields. Who in their right mind wants to go to fields in a constant cold wet weather with a toddler in a pushchair? Just today we had left our house at 11 am and came back at 5 pm. We just walked around central London, along the river, stopped for lunch, went to a park and took kids to a children festival. I could never do that in Manchester. You can't walk around the city center for 5 hours without hitting the motorway.

meh walk around manchester city centre for a bit then pop on a tram to heaton park they have festivals there Pope john paul the second even had a big audience there andit also has scenery and a boating lake , then go to the trafford centre for lunch jobs a good un!

Ahhhhh a definite piss take.

and its not constantly cold and wet ,whilst London was freezing last summer here in Bolton it was boiling for weeks on end.

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?

Did you think of buying a map? Hale is within walking distance of Dunham Park, it's actually on the Bollin Valley Way and within walking distance of the Trans Pennine Trail, the Cheshire Ring Canal Walk and the Bridgewater Way. Tatton Park is a short bike ride away and places like Styal woods, Lymm Dam, Alderley Edge, Delamere Forest and Frodsham Hill are all less than 30 minutes drive away.

I will die before I move to live North of England.
OP - my heart bleeds for you.

Oh god, how on earth did you cope with central London op? I've been a few times back when I lived there, and HATED it.
So so glad we're back up north.

Manchester is the last word in cool. Oasis.
Gritty, gorgeous and graceful too. What's not to like?

And babies can enjoy babyccinos in a lovely indie cafe environment.

Yes, I had started this thread to complain about lack of buzz of a capital city in Manchester and people are sending me to a Trans Pennine trail... And yes, I've been to Dunham Massey and it is quite amusing for the first 50 times you go there for a visit...

Just walking round Central London for 5 hours with kids? I am amazed that anyone would find that enjoyable. We go walking along the canal, round a local country park with a cafe and lots of things for kids there, round a big lake in another country park with a stop into the cafe. And loads more besides. London is great for museums and galleries. It is not good for walks.

And with all due respect I suspect that Pope John Paul and I got completely different interests...

I challenge you to walk from Chelsea to Bishop's park and then to Kew gardens along the river and come back and tell me that it is not an amazing and inspiring walk! Much better than walking from Hale to Sale along the busy road with no trees. Or just going to the Battersea Park and walking towards the London Eye area. Though I admit I am not very keen on more touristy places like southbank etc. I usually cross the bridge and walk on the other side.

But I do love Lahndun too.

Brasty, I live in London and it's brilliant for walking, one of my favourite things about living here.

That surprises me. I lived in London for some years and that was one of the things I did not like about London. Kew Gardens is beautiful, and St James Park, but I actually have more beautiful places to walk where I now live.

Yes, I had started this thread to complain about lack of buzz of a capital city in Manchester

Maybe you intended to do that, what you actually did was criticise Manchester (where you didn't live anyway) and the 'North in general' and compare it unfavorably to London because "there is not much to do here, no nice streets or galleries, not much to do on the weekends as a family".

There's plenty to do in Manchester and 'the North in general' but clearly it isn't London, it isn't a capital city, it doesn't have Royal parks, the Thames running through it or the vast majority of national institutions based there. That's not unique to Manchester and the 'North in general' though - it can be said of the whole country outside London.

So really what you're saying is that you moved to Manchester without any consideration that moving outside London would mean that you'd lose access to what you like about London and without appreciating that moving to a smaller city necessarily means it is smaller and doesn't take as long to walk around.

Yes Hale's very suburban, and Manchester's smaller than London. Unsurprisingly Kew Gardens isn't in Manchester, nor is the Thames. It has no Royal Parks, no palaces, and very few national landmarks.

If you want things that are unique to London then London is obviously the best place to find them. It's not just'the North' that's lacking the features you're looking for though, it's the whole country outside London. More fool you for not realising that.