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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to wonder what's so great about York?

195 replies

FartBlossom · 13/05/2012 20:00

Everytime someone mentions going to York, living in York, visiting York there is lots and lots of people saying ooh its lovely there, wish I lived there I love it there blah blah blah. Why?

I was born and bred in York and have just moved out of York so have lived there for 33 years apart from 3 years at Uni in Manchester.

I have got nothing against it, but really don't see its wonderful appeal at all. Is it because Im so used to it I dont see what others see? Is it because I know about a slightly darker side to it? Is it because it truely is wonderful than a lot of other places, but I dont know that as I haven't lived in most other places?

OP posts:

Kaloobear · 14/05/2012 08:04

BellaVita I will! I used to volunteer at Oaklands before it merged (with the other school whose name I can't remember) to become York High and it was very rough back then, but we're talking 10 years ago.

Original poster

FartBlossom · 14/05/2012 08:05

I went to Fulford school - it was shite!!! Sorry for the language, but its got this good reputation and its not great at all. It encourages those few who will do well anyway, but forgets about everybody else. I hated it there and I did much better once I left and repeated my GCSE's at the college before doing my A levels and going on to Uni. That school certainly failed me.

I dont know where the best place is, but York isnt as nice as what people make out IMHO and I certainly can't see what all the fuss is about.

OP posts:

crazyspaniel · 14/05/2012 08:08

Kaloo- just because you have walked home at night and nothing has happened to you, doesn't mean that it is safe to do so. Have a look at my post of p.1 - both muggings happened to me walking home at night. I should have known better after the first time, but thought I had just been unlucky, then it happened again. Please be careful. One time was on one of the numbered avenues you mentioned - admittedly not a very good area.

skirt · 14/05/2012 09:22

I think there is a problem in some places with locals disliking students. It was the same in Durham (I lived there for a couple of years around aged 15) and it was understood and accepted that the locals would take the piss out of the students. I didnt get involved as I wasnt old enough to go drinking etc, but there was definitely and undercurrent so I guess it may be the same in York.

Locals do laugh at the students, thats for sure - an example is we own a tiny terrace house in a street where the rest of the street is let to students (ours is the onlyone not a student let). The landlord of all the other properties loves early June not for the warm weather, flowers or holidays but because he drives his van around the studenty area and takes all the furniture and stuff they have dumped outside at the end of their tenancies. He then sells it on in his 2nd hand warehouse. He's said to me so many times, how can these people be so stupid - not all of them can be rich? So yes student's arent valued in my view as sensible, committed members of the local community. They are seen a bit as cash cows.

BellaVita · 14/05/2012 09:28

Kaloo - Lowfields.

Kaloobear · 14/05/2012 09:40

That's it-one thing I'll definitely say for York High is the pool is fantastic, though I don't know whether they own it or whether it's owned by the council.

Crazyspaniel I know obviously me not being mugged doesn't mean I won't ever be or that it's the safest city in the world etc, I just mean that given every city, every where, has some crime, in the grand scheme of things the levels in York are very low. I'm so sorry you were mugged though-horrible :(

ChickensHaveNoLips · 14/05/2012 10:09

I liked York. They do a mean south east Asian tapas. And they have creepy guesthouses where the owner vanishes along with the towels and room keys. And some brilliant people live there. On the rough front, I did see a very well groomed young woman go for a piss outside of McDonalds. But to be fair, she did warn us.

StealthPolarBear · 14/05/2012 10:23

Chickens did you stay in a b&b in Clifton beginning with a?

Kaloobear · 14/05/2012 10:23

Do you know, I think the only time I've seen people being really 'badly behaved' in York is outside McDonalds and KFC...A York phenomenon or is this true nationwide?!

ChickensHaveNoLips · 14/05/2012 10:31

No. Or maybe yes. This classy establishment goes by many names. It was just along the road from the hospital

StealthPolarBear · 14/05/2012 10:37

Same name as a famous 80s or 90s pop singer, rick? :o

CallMeAl · 14/05/2012 10:39

Wigginton rd., But no, no Astley.

Worse reviews on trip advisor I have ever seen.

noyouhavehadawee · 14/05/2012 10:42

its great for going under the pretence of a shopping trip with the girlies for the day then actually just ending up sitting outside the lowther gettign trollied . I am probably the reason you dont like it - drunken day trippers...

CallMeAl · 14/05/2012 10:42

As for the undercurrent of threatening violence on the streets of York, the only thing I was threatened with in the city centre on a sat night was a hug from a man dressed as a gorilla.

Limelight · 14/05/2012 10:43

DB lives in York. It's lovely. DM is on a constant mission to convince me to move there instead of living in 'that London'.

Ah, the north/south divide in action!

ChickensHaveNoLips · 14/05/2012 10:45

I fucking KNEW that was you!

CallMeAl · 14/05/2012 10:52

Indith · 14/05/2012 11:01

Well to answer the OP, I grew up in Hull so in my yoof we went to York for shopping because it had actual shops other than NewLook and bargain basement shite. It was so exciting, the buildings were pretty, there were shops that sold nice clothes. There was a Lush! (height of teenage sophistication). There days Hull is much improved so I doubt it would have the same appeal.

Now I don't live in Hull but I still like York because it is pretty, it still has some nice shops and it is a lovely place to potter. We went yesterday to see a friend who lives there and to go to the NRM because ds made us promise to take him (he has got sick of the branch near us) and have ended up promising to go back over the summer to walk the walls and go to the castle museum because "look mummy a castle! (yes dear but you know we live in durham, we have a castle too!) look mummy walls! I can see shields on the gates of the walls!" I don't know if I could live in York though. Very pretty houses and lovely places to live not far from the city with nice little parades of shops and cafes but the traffic and tourists would drive me mad. York just wasn't built for cars! We have similar traffic and tourist problems here but on a much smaller scale, no way could I handle York on a daily basis.

KitCat26 · 14/05/2012 11:19

We've got friends in York so have been there a few times. We really like it (and our friends who live there like it - moved from the south). Its pretty and got nice shops. Its got history and there is a lot to see in a smallish area. I guess you just get used to where you live and sometimes miss the good things.
Actually, we heading back there this weekend. Our first childfree night or two in 3.5 years and we are staying in a hotel and going to visit said friend who has just had a baby (we are taking cake )

Original poster

FartBlossom · 14/05/2012 11:27

Im going back this weekend too, but only for the day on sat and only to visit MIL so not going into the city itself. We are going early so we can get back early.

Kaloo I think the swimming pool you may be refering too is Energise which is next to York High School as part as their gym.

I never said I didnt like York (after all it is my home town and there is some bias there), just that I wonder whats so great about it and a lot of you have told me what you think is great about it. I just dont see it, but then again Im used to seeing all the prettyness (sp?) so dont walk around marvelling at it

OP posts:

NicknameTaken · 14/05/2012 11:50

I've lived in York for nearly five years and love it. It's really beautiful. My DD is mixed race and I've never felt like her face doesn't fit here. I love cycling around the place, walking to the city centre along the river. Love the walls, love Museum Gardens. Great library (I'm more of a bookworm than a night owl). I love the history and have gone on a couple of archaeological digs.

And it's not Tory - the local MP is Hugh Bayley, Labour, and he's great. His office was really helpful when I needed a bit of help with bureaucracy-gone-mad.

That said, my friends are not really York natives, but blow-ins like me. I think it's a great place to raise a child.

notjustamummythankyou · 14/05/2012 13:21

Agreed, nickname.

Someone upthread mentioned that York people could be cool and hard to get to know.

When we moved back here a couple of years ago, I knew more people by name in 3 weeks than I did in nearly 5 years of living in a largish city elsewhere in Yorkshire. A lot of the friends we had in the city had also moved on and, apart from my family, we didn't know many people at all. We were made to feel very welcome.

notjustamummythankyou · 14/05/2012 13:23

By knowing people by name, I mean neighbours, not that I'm billy no mates!

insancerre · 14/05/2012 18:23

I've just been into college and was thinking about this thread on the way back on the bus.
My college is in Blackpool and I really don't get what attracts so many people about it.
It is filthy, run-down, full of drunks, tramps, druggies and cold and windy.
Now if this thread was called 'to wonder what's so great about Blackpool' I would agree with the op.
But York is niace

jamdonut · 14/05/2012 18:36

York is lovely, but like anywhere it has its good bits and its crap bits. I feel the same about Watford. As far as I'm concerned its the pits and I was glad to move ...to Bridlington. Everyone who has been born and bred in Brid can't bear it and wants to move...but I think it's lovely and has beaches and views to die for. Well, David Hockney loves it .

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