To up sticks to Glasgow?

[MrTay]

Long term lurker, first time poster, but we are trying to make a big decision! Title says it all really, DW and I are considering moving from where we live currently in South Wales before DD is school age. We don't have an amazing support network here, and our families live a few hours away already so nothing there is going to change! I'm a remote working freelancer and DW is a SAHM so we have the flexibility to do it, but with something like this it can still feel a bit like a punt. We're pretty much set on Glasgow having been there before and loved it, so it's not so much a case of asking for opinions on places to go, more just checking that this isn't a frankly crazy idea. I'd love to hear from other people who have done the wholesale relocation thing, because I'm struggling to think of any negatives but I also want to make sure we think this through properly!

I'm english and have never experienced any anti English sentiment.

I'm probably the only Scot in existence who isn't overly enamoured of Glasgow.

But then again I'm more a lover rural areas.

I've visited Glasgow many times and just find it a bit underwhelming despite the galleries and museums etc.

I honestly don't get the whole "Ooh, Gladgow is amazing!" Stuff ... It's not all that.

I moved up 10 years ago from 'oop north', first 5 years Glasgow then moved out to the coast for family reasons. I love Glasgow even a day out is a real treat!

I've lived in lots of other places and yes there are rough areas but no more so or any worse than other cities in UK or Europe.

Very friendly people, loads to do and see for all ages and quick and easy access to the countryside, mountains, loch's and coast.

Go for it!

Maybe it's because I right beside mountains, lochs etc. that I don't get the appeal of a city.

I have lived in a city - Edinburgh - but for me, the scenery I experience on a daily basis is worth ten thousand cities.

I was brought up rurally and that's where I'm most at home.

Mind you, as cities go I prefer Edinburgh to Glasgow every time!

I like where we are now... But we did have the opportunity to move to somewhere lovely before kids... At the time I was happy with my job and dh was happy too.. So we didn't feel the need to move...

But... Now... I'd be happier to move now... But kids are very happily (as much as any kids can be!!) settled in school... Or in the middle of important exams etc!... So basically... If its somewhere you really want to be... Go for it! Before kids start school and you make a "life" which would be hard to leave behind.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

Go for it!...that's my advice...but then I'm biased - aeons ago used to work for the Greater Glasgow Tourist Board.

I've been down in the SE for two decades now but still really miss Glasgow - nowhere else feels like home.

I would echo a couple of really salient points made by other posters.
Schools - they're generally accepted to be better "over the boundary" in East Renfrewshire and property there bears that premium. I imagine that Netherlee/Clarkston would be less pricey than Giffnock/Whitecraigs.
Or have a look down the coast - Troon and Prestwick.

Jobs - as someone else said, good jobs aren't ten a penny and tend to be clung onto so you would have to ensure your freelance work wasn't put at risk by the move.
The weather - yes of course it'll be wet a lot of the time - but not every single day and the long summer nights make up for it - a little.
In short - go for it - after all Glasgow's Miles Better....

Another vote for Houston/Bridge of Weir/Elderslie

House prices in Elderslie are a bit more reasonable but the schools in Houston/Bow are excellent.

You're 15 mins to the airport, 25 into town and in the other direction 30 mins to Ayrshire and beaches or 40 mins to Loch Lomond. All in all really central.

I have heard a lot of anti-English sentiment too. Generic rather than personal. Not heard anti-Welsh sentiment though!

I'm from a large town about 6 miles south of Glasgow. I agree with PP that the south side is a great choice for relocation. LOTS of lovely Victorian sandstone villas for sale and plenty of shops and restaurants. Even places where I live are good.
We're a friendly bunch too.

Re the smoking...I spent years living on mainland Europe and the smoking up here doesn't compare to the Spanish. Plus there is a smoking ban in pubs so you're not exactly surrounded by it.

Ahhhhh go on, come up and see what you're missing

I live in Paisley which is about 15 minutes drive away from Glasgow.

I have lived in and around Glasgow since I was 6, my Dad is English and has never experienced any anti-English problems and he has lived here now for 28 years (still has an English accent)

I wouldn't move to Glasgow City Centre, you want to go somewhere you can have a garden and a bit of community spirit. I agree with the Bridge of Weir/Elderslie/ Houston comments.

Wherever you land, the transport links are very good and you are never far away from the City Centre.

The city looks like something out of the 1980s Eastern Bloc in winter. Everything is grey, including the sky.

Toadinthehole is right...

I'm probably the only Scot in existence who isn't overly enamoured of Glasgow.

Nope, me too.

I grew up in Edinburgh then moved to Renfrewshire for 10 years and now I'm back on the East Coast, although not in Edinburgh.

I just can't love Glasgow and I've tried. I find it confusing to navigate, dirty, the locals can be really coarse and the atmosphere is depressing.

Edinburgh is beautiful even if the locals aren't quite as friendly. It's not as wet, but it is a bit colder. The west coast is more scenic, but you don't have to travel far north of Edinburgh to get some beautiful landscapes and a whole coast of seaside towns nearby. I haven't lived there since I was about 20, but I would move back in a flash if it suited my family (which it doesn't at the moment).

In spite of what others have said the schools in Glasgow are pretty grim in terms of academic performance with low percentages achieving the gold standard 5 Highers, unless you can get a house in the Jordan Hill school catchment area - you would need to check with school what this is as it postcode linked. The Herald newspaper published league tables last week and although Glasgow schools are improving they lag well behind national average. A few miles south of Shawlands is East Renfrewshire - the schools here (in the old Eastwood bit - Newton Mearns, Giffnock, Clarkston ) are excellent and are always at the top of the league tables by a mile. Can't comment of schools in and around Paisley but note they lag well behind East Ren schools.

Can't comment of schools in and around Paisley but note they lag well behind East Ren schools

The main reason I left that area is because of the schools. I had small children and I just couldn't contemplate sending them to any of the local schools. We moved to Fife and my kids have done very well educationally, especially my Dd who achieved AAAAA in Highers last year, something I doubt she would have managed in the school she was destined to go to had we remained in our area of Renfrewshire.

I'm in Renfrewshire and it's great. DP moved up here to try it from England and he's adamant he's not going back. It has rough places but so does everywhere. I found London terrifying in places it's just what you are used to really. Avoid West Dunbartonshire as it's quite a poor area. Beautiful countryside but low employment in lots of areas. East Dunbartonshire and most of Renfrewshire are fine and very close to Glasgow. This is behind my house if you walk about 10 minutes, yet I'm 15 minutes from Glasgow.

Pockets of Glasgow are lovely. But a lot of areas are just a bit grey and grim.

Will admit paisley is an anomaly. It's like a different planet to renfrew, the town just minutes away bizarre. At the same time West Dunbartonshire borders Argyle and Bute which is very lovely and fancy.

When you're in Paisley you can well imagine how wealthy and bustling it must have been in the Industrial Revolution, there are some really grand and beautiful examples of Victorian architecture. Sadly its heyday has long since passed.

If you decide on Glasgow then, like others are saying, East Renfrewshire and East Dunbartonshire have the best schools (if going solely on results and league tables?!?!?!) but they're very suburbia - place with most life n cafes n art venues n hustle bustle n independant shops n stuff going on n still near trains n underground is hyndland-big flats n high ceilings :)

Hyndland does sound nice, I'll add it to our list of places to consider! I wanted to ask, can you apply for school places across authority boundaries (so say living in GCC but applying for a place in ED/ER)? I know that's probably a bit cheeky but I'm trying to consider all the options, and as we're more comfortable as city-dwellers the schools thing is something that is now showing itself as worthy of further investigation!

I am from Glasgow and having lived in a few places I have to say that there are a few nice parts but many genuinely grim areas. People big up parts of the city like Dennistoun and say they are up and coming but the reality is poverty, litter and violence. I also found a lot of very insular closed minded people there compared to Edinburgh - many of whom have never left the postcode they were born in. Having said that I loved the west end and it's great for kids, I just got very tired of it! Good luck.

I live in the West End and love it. It's true that the school results are not as good as East Ren, but the catchments have a far greater social mix. Hyndland secondary gets about half getting 5 highers but has 40% living in the poorest postcodes in the country, albeit many living in some of the wealthiest pockets in the country. There are many kids getting 5 A's at higher (although sadly almost exclusively middle class kids), and a like for like comparison would knock the socks off some of the private schools.

There is a bit more transience round here because of the University and I think people are more open to diversity as a result. The big flats are great and the lack of gardens means that the kids are forced into the parks. Come to the West End!

I live in the West End and love it. It's true that the school results are not as good as East Ren, but the catchments have a far greater social mix. Hyndland secondary gets about half getting 5 highers but has 40% living in the poorest postcodes in the country, albeit many living in some of the wealthiest pockets in the country. There are many kids getting 5 A's at higher (although sadly almost exclusively middle class kids), and a like for like comparison would knock the socks off some of the private schools.

There is a bit more transience round here because of the University and I think people are more open to diversity as a result. The big flats are great and the lack of gardens means that the kids are forced into the parks. Come to the West End!

I moved to Glasgow from the north of England just under two years ago for a job with DH and DD.

To be honest the first year was hard and depressing, due to being a long way from family and friends and due to the weather, which can be relentlessly draining. Its better now we've bought a house and got DD into a nursery attached to her catchment school (East Dunbartonshire); I've also made some more friends and settled into work.

I think Glasgow has a lot going for it, but I do hope to go back to England in a few years' time to be closer to family and escape the constant rain. In the meantime I think winter holidays will save my sanity (if I can afford it after doing up the house!)