to be fed up of living in a deprived neighbourhood?

[fluffymouse]

We moved neighbourhoods in London to up size. Quite simply we could only afford a place big enough for us as a family in London in a dodgy neighbourhood. By any conventional marker the area is very deprived. It has a rather notorious reputation too, and has meant some people have been reluctant to visit us.

I have tried being positive about the area (it is on the up, like all areas of London that are not already up!). I am starting to think it would be nice to just move out to a nice village now.

Pros of our area:
Good community feel
Crime rate acceptable by London standards
Feels safe for the most part
Diverse neighbourhood - good ethnic foods

Cons:
Drug dealing neighbours who have been verbally abusive and threatening
Antisocial behaviour issues
Very few of the parents at dd's preschool speak English - limiting opportunities for play dates
Local schools - most do well considering, but children starting with attainment well below average, high turnover of pupils, and lots of pupils at early stage of English language acquisition
Very poor provision for children despite there being lots of children in the area - put simply no one bothers to provide as it wouldn't be taken up for the most part. No ballet, gym etc. Even the children centres offer very little.

WIBU to move us all out to a beautiful village up north where we can get a 4 bed house for the price of a bedsit here?

ramsbottom or ribble valley.

Yy to Heaton Moor, Chorlton, Monton, Sale, Worsley... All worth a butchers'

And Ramsbottom, Glossop, Ellesmere Park..

Saddleworth is shit. No one would want to live there.

Durham! Lovely small city, an hour to Yorkshire/Northumberland/Lake District.
12 mins on the train to newcastle or 2h 50 to London.
Great schools and lovely community feel.
Masses of houses for under 300k
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42869678.html

I am secretly hoping dd goes to university in Durham.

I could have written your post, OP. We live on a pretty (and expensive) street in West London and I would have never guessed before moving in how entrenched the antisocial element is. Brazen drug dealing (I'm not particularly bothered by drugs, but it is unsettling to live next door to obvious dealers), intimidating dogs & their owners, litter, dog poo everywhere, it's normal to walk around drinking a can of cider, etc. I'm looking forward to moving.

It's a wonderful place Exit I feel very lucky to live here my daughter would like to go to Durham as well, but feels she won't get the whole Uni experience being at home!

What I genuinely don't understand is how the people who are dealing drugs, littering, displaying antisocial behaviour can afford to live in these expensive places.

I think you should come up to North Yorkshire for a weekend and look around, particularly schools, transport, culture etc. York is fantastic for a small city, Leeds is bigger and more diverse. Harrogate and Durham are great but a bit more expensive.

I have lived I Newcastle and think it's pretty perfect as a city. Not sure what it's missing if anything!

We currently live about 45 mins from York, 20 mins from Scarborough, on the coast. DD goes to a superb village school. We often go on the beach on the way home from school as it's 5 mins from our house. We have the best of coast and countryside here. Crime is so low that we literally don't lock our door most of the time. I know no-one who has been burgled/robbed. We have friends who moved here from London about 3 years ago and go back regularly to visit friends and family. They say their standard of living is so much better here.

Downsides to here are having to drive if we want to do anything like the theatre, museums etc. But most can be found within an hour.

It certainly is NOT grim up North

What I genuinely don't understand is how the people who are dealing drugs, littering, displaying antisocial behaviour can afford to live in these expensive places.

They can't. They're in housing association flats at subsidized rates.

I see goodbye. So even in these stupidly expensive places there are plenty of HA flats?

Are you near Filey TheHappyCamper ? I love it there!

Move.

I really don't see why some people are making so many sacrifices to live in London unless they have very strong reasons to stay (family/job only there).

I can only speak for Fulham but yes- there's a lot here (I'm not certain that's what you mean by stupidly expensive,it's not Chelsea).
Having said that the most problematic house on the street is owned by a family who has been there since the 1950s.

And they own the house.

If you aren't too worried about leaving family could you come to Scotland? If you are going to make the big move anyway why not?
We live waaaay up north and after reading one of these threads recently I looked to see what my 4 bed barn conversion would buy me in London. (245k)
A bedsit about as wide as my hall with the kitchen and bathroom in a cupboard. I did look in central London tho but I was just amazed!

Here we have half an acre, 5 mins from the beach, 10 mins from supermarket.
When I wake up in the morning it's totally quiet, kids go out into the garden in their pjs to pick fruit and can make as much noise as they like!

Downsides are its miles from anywhere so I spend a lot of time in the car if we want to go anywhere. Everyone is very friendly tho which I didn't expect and I have made some lovely friends here. We moved from the bigger city in our area up here and I don't regret it at all.

Public sector job for dh is 10 mins away and I am a SAHM with a part time business. Love it!

By stupidly expensive I'm talking about where the op lives. But then most of London seems to be unaffordable to the average person.

Totally get what you mean. I'm in an inner city area of the capital and see the deprivation and anti-social behaviours on my doorstep daily - prostitutes, drug dealing, beggars, local alcoholics shouting their heads off in the early hours, poverty...it's seriously depressing and not something some parts of the London media like to focus on.

I would very much leave if I were you.

nowhere else is like London.
This is why you are being slated mumofwildthings. It's the implication that there is no culture in the "small towns" outside of London.

I'm from London. I love London. It is a great city. But I can have a much better quality of life in Manchester. We have excellent museums, theatres and galleries here.

the kids have seen shows in the West End, ballet, live music, they have dance classes in a world class facility, if they prove to be musical/ theatrical/sporty the opportunities are at their fingertips. They're kids of the world - streetwise but accepting and tolerant of different cultures, races and languages. What else do they need? Houses are small but there are parks everywhere

All of the above is true for our kids except we have a much bigger house and garden than we could ever afford in London.

I get so sick of the double standards on these threads. If you live in Yorkshire or Devon or Norfolk or Edinburgh or Cardiff or basically anywhere except London, it's fine to talk about how great it is and how much you love living there. If Londoners do the same they're being arrogant and think they're better than anyone else.
If I said that Yorkshire/Devon/Newcastle/Cornwall is a shithole and I'd rather eat dog shit than live there or that everywhere in Yorkshire/Devon etc is rude and unfriendly, people who live in those places would say I was being rude. But it's OK to say it about my home where I've lived for 25 years and raised my children.
I get that it's not for lots of people. Fine, no one is asking you you to live here.
It fucking pisses me off.

It's the way that some Londoners talk as though everywhere outside London is a wasteland that pisses me off.
You want to live in London, fine live there then, but don't bleat on about house prices.

Wouldn't it be great if all Londoners could just move out to where the house prices are affordable? You know, we all left our jobs and found new ones and moved to your towns and cities and villages. That's 8 million people relocating around the country and a great big empty hole in the middle of the south east.

If I want to bleat on about house prices in London I bloody well will! Ffs. Do you think people want to pay nearly a million for a terraced house in an ordinary neighbourhood?

Pipbin some Londoners may think like that. Most don't ,including me. You can't talk about 8 million people as though they're some homogeneous mass.
Maybe London should vote for Independence. Then we can keep all the taxes we raise and everyone can stop moaning about us.