To move to Plymouth?

[PaintingOwls]

I'm sick and tired of my job in London. Someone said getting up every day was like a cheese grater to the soul, and that's exactly how I feel. I don't have time to do things like I like (without sacrificing sleep) and I live in a mouldy flat with DP. Every stereotype you can think of.

DP was looking at jobs (NHS) and saw a hospital in Plymouth was advertising and is thinking of applying for it. I'm not sure how serious he was, he said it in a kind of, fuck it, let's pack it in and live by the sea kind of way.

I've been looking at houses and they are SO AFFORDABLE! In theory we could survive on his salary alone, which is very exciting. Obviously I will want a job, but the idea is still incredible, given that we can only afford a tiny shared ownership flat in London if we were to buy.

Only trouble is, I've only ever passed through Plymouth in the train and coach to Cornwall, so I have no idea what it's really like. I don't know where to look, which areas are nice, good for schools, etc etc. No DC yet, but definitely in the pipeline for the next 5 years.

Can any MNtters (especially if you relocated to Plymouth) shed some light on what it's like to live there and which areas to avoid, etc?

God no. Don't.

@Kitsharrington so much.

It's 'interesting' how all the good schools listed are private or grammar...

Obviously there are worse places. I mean it's practically the local joke about Plymouth isn't it? 'well there are worse places to live'

There are nice parts of Plymouth and lots of places to visit within an hour, good access to the countryside and coast. But it's a long way to the rest of the country.
It can get quite crowded in the summer with tourists,(especially when it's raining as they take refuge there!) and there is a very large student population so you will be dodging groups of them when walking round town.
There are some very dodgy areas too.
The climate is quite wet and things stored in your loft/cupboards will tend to get damp.
A lot of people who were brought up there and have moved away, move back later in life. But a lot of people who weren't brought up there and moved there find that the locals aren't particularly welcoming of outsiders. And generally don't seem to have a great sense of humour, sorry if that's a vast generalisation but it's what my relatives found.

Plymouth has a statue of a Prawn. That's all I remember from visits to familt there.

Um.... Gin.

We moved from London to Devon. I really wouldn’t recommend plymouth to live in but there are nearby places like Tavistock, launceston, and surrounding that are lovely and cheap but easy to commute into plymouth from.

I absolutely recommend moving from London though. The quality of life down here is so much better.

We are in okehampton and it’s ideal for us. Can get into Exeter in 30 mins, we live right by the moors, or can be at the coast in just over 40 mins on either side of Devon.

I live in Plymouth, has anybody mentioned that the Water Rates in Plymouth and South West are the highest in Britain, and I mean high, the town centre consists of a Mall, the rest is just three streets comprising mainly pound shops, charity shops and not much else, the Mall doesn't have much to offer unless your a teenager, most big stores have closed down. The Hoe is just lots of grass and a sea view, the Barbican is mostly pubs and restaurants, lots of rough areas and homeless people about, I wish I'd never moved here.

Pottery I would far rather live in Plymouth than London; at least you can breathe in Plymouth and blow the cobwebs away at Devils Point.

Plymstock used to be a good comp, Eggbuckland isn't bad, Ridgeway is OK. You could say the same about Exeter. The only place I've found where the state provision is so good that there is no need to use private schools is Winchester.

I live in Plymouth, have done for 7 years now, it's better than where I did live (tiny rural Cornish town). It's got everything I need and I love living here. Although, I'm very working class so that's perhaps why...

@mismo I'm from Totnes (another no frankly) and you are so right, the cheap housing in these places are actually still more expensive then for us living in Bristol now because of council tax being higher, water rates, extortionate transport costs, food (less competition so actually more expensive often) ect, and as for the pay .

Devon is heaven they say, but only for the rich

My mother also worked in child protection for the south west, Torbay and Plymouth had one of the highest rates of domestic and sexual abuse in the UK.

I'm sorry but South Devon is soo overated unless your wealthy

I have relatives in Plymouth. I love it. I'd move there tomorrow if I could.

Leave the worlds most exciting city for Plymouth?

We go into plymouth now and again to shop and have a meal out and it’s fine. We went to the fireworks championships in August. There are always things to do in Devon that don’t cost a fortune and even the trip there is scenic. In London we rarely did much as it was expensive, crap being stuck in traffic, and we just didn’t have much money left after paying £1200 a month to live in a two bed flat with no garden and no parking.

We are about to get the keys to the house we are buying now (under £150k for a 3 bed with garden and views of the moors) and have been in a rented house for the last couple of years at £500 a month which has a garden and two parking spaces.

Wages are not vastly different down here for me and DP as we are in jobs which pay reasonably well.

We would never consider moving back to London.

@scaryteacher I'm very unkeen on Plymouth and London so that would be such a hard decision for me if I had a gun to my head. London and Plymouth/Cornwall are like my least favorite places...I'm very working class so this is not snobbery either, it's from having lived/experienced all these places and seen them change over the years too.

God, Cornwall though takes the biscuit for me over Plymouth and London. Cornwall is a place to retire full stop but for anybody else unless your an artist or a ukipper stay away from that part of the country entirely

Mismo Drakes Circus looked OK in December when I was there, and Debenhams and Dingles are still going. I managed to spend a fair amount of money in about 4 hours and I'm 52, so it had lots to offer me, especially Waterstones, Joules, Boots and M&S.

Yes, the water rates are high, but you neglect to mention the rebate that is applied to all those bills.

The best bit about the Hoe is the sea view and the walk along it, especially when you can see the RN vessels coming home.

Nomore The stuff in my loft and cupboards never got damp in the 4 years I lived in Peverell. Janners do have a sense of humour, but it's quite dry and cynical.

@scaryteacher 4 years of university in Plymouth I bed to differ that you can breath there. Traffic is a nightmare and the air is hardly 'fresh'

Drakes Circus looked OK in December when I was there, and Debenhams and Dingles are still going

Possibly one of the most depressing things I've read about the place ever

The best bit about the Hoe is the sea view

and all the junkies that use that area to shoot up in?

‘unless your an artist or a ukipper stay away from that part of the country entirely’

Can you explain potteryprincess ?

Didn't Dingles close down a few years ago? I live on the Cornwall/Devon border and try to avoid Plymouth tbh. I'd rather go to Truro or Exeter for some shopping. I'd def look at living outside of Plymouth and commuting.

Exeter is a fabulous city though. We often go there for the night, book a hotel and go down to the quays for a few drinks and dinner then go shopping on the Sunday. And it’s only a quick drive home after 😁

Pottery I will be moving back to Cornwall from Brussels next year, and I cannot wait to get back there.

You ignore of course the fact that Devonport is the largest Naval dockyard in Europe, and that for many of us, living there meant being able to have a family life when our spouses weren't at sea. For many, they moved to Plymouth to study engineering at RNEC Manadon, and were then appointed to Hunter Killer submarines that were based in Plymouth, or surface ships. Many serving officers still live in Plymouth and (gasp) Cornwall, because that is where they work, still in the dockyard, or at Torpoint, or Culdrose, the largest helicopter base in Europe, (which puts £100 million annually into the local economy).

Having lived in close proximity to and in Plymouth from 1986 to 2006, when I reluctantly followed my military husband to Brussels, and still retaining a house in Cornwall to which I will return next year, you couldn't be more wrong about that part of the UK. It is gorgeous and I don't want to live anywhere else. I'm a military brat, born in Plymouth, but lived elsewhere in the UK for most of my life til 86. You can keep your built up urban conurbations, give me Dartmoor and Kit Hill any day.

I can get everything I need in Devon/Cornwall, and then some, but you carry on displaying your ignorance about a vibrant part of the UK.

Just as I'm starting to fall out of love with Plymouth, spring begins and I have the sea 20 minutes one way and the moors 20 minutes another way and I realise life isn't so bad!

This. I like living in Plymouth. I WFH and commute to London for about 2 or 3 days every 2 weeks or so, so I get the best of both worlds. I am also so pleased to get back to Plymouth from London!

It's not the world's most glamorous city but it's alright. We enjoy it. If you're not fussed about not having to drive everywhere there are plenty of beautiful villages around. I however, like not having to drive anywhere, ever. We are spitting distance of our school and church, 25 minutes from the train station and 30 minutes from the town centre.

@Littlechocola it was a horrible generalization, kind of a joke but based on some experience too of the place I promise. Mother lives in Cornwall and I am a local of the South west (thank god not any more) but only in the sense of those people that left London/Bristol/Liverpool ect in the 70's/80's wanting to bring up their kids in 'the country'.

So only first generation so to speak. We all left anyway, most of us priced out of the Market or just wanted to be somewhere more accessible, multicultural, happening, safe, not as depressing (the list goes on)

Funnily enough other then my mother 90% of those working class mums and dads who moved down and had us have either moved back to their respective cities or gone full recluse and done the whole 'move to the beach/moors' thing.

Luckerly those council houses they brought in the 80s were worth a pretty penny by now so they got out before all the next lot of londoners came in

So negative PotteryPrincess - I think we get that you don't like it! 😂

I think it depends what you want really. If you're after a thriving city by the sea with huge beaches, great wages and super cheap but lovely houses - well, let me know where that is!

I moved to Plymouth from London a few years ago (was early 30's), I have family in Cornwall & I was kind of done with living in London (lovely to visit now but that's it) I wanted a change of pace. I love it. The town is fine for shops, Exeter is close for a change of scene. Dartmoor, cliff walks & beaches are all nearby. I have the sea about 10 minutes walk from my house.

I can hop on a bus from work, be in my own home in 40 minutes and be at Royal William Yard sitting by the sea having a G&T within 30 minutes. I used to spend that stuck on the tube & go home to a shared flat cos I couldn't afford more as a PA. Plymouth isn't perfect but there's a lot of positives - I'm alright with that balance 😊