To ask you where we should move?

[Buggritbuggrit]

We’re looking to move out of London, like everyone else. The issue is that we have no idea where. Neither of us is English, and we’ve never lived anywhere in England that wasn’t London. Please help!

We’re an interracial couple, so would ideally like somewhere with some racial diversity where neither we nor our kids were unusual.

DP loves the great outdoors and I love the hustle and bustle of Islington. We’d ideally like somewhere with both of those things, decent schools, house prices that aren’t insane and a manageable commute into London.

Apart from those criteria (and I have no idea if any of that is reasonable), we’d be happy with anywhere in the South East. Budget is about £600K. If anyone has any recommendations, I’d love to hear them. Ideally, I want someone to go ‘you have exactly described where I live, don’t worry about this anymore, move here at once’. So, if that were to happen, I’d be much obliged.

Worthing is supposedly up and coming more diversity than Winchester or Petersfield I think.
Bristol?

@Foxyloxy1plus1

There’s West Sussex. Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton for shopping. Chichester Festival Theatre, Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, museums, Goodwood, Singleton Open Air Museum,, the Witterings, South Downs, leisure centres et al.

Chichester is even more twee and less diverse than Worthing in my opinion

Southsea might be a good call

Definitely not Tunbridge Wells! Can't believe that's been recommended.

Is Birmingham too far away? It’s a very diverse city and there’s plenty of open spaces outside the centre. Property prices are much cheaper than London even in the naice bits.

We have family in Worthing and it's more diverse than others have said above. I do wonder how well people know towns before commenting.

Loads of people move there from London as it's much much nicer than Brighton and there is loads going on culturally, musically and food wise.

Not as white as people imagine. Definitely more of a younger family type town now. Still get pockets of retired people.

Most of the town is walkable to the beach. Short drive or walk to the South Downs and direct train to London.

My advice would be to give it a look.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

It's good to be aware that outside London is generally far less diverse, and the most diverse communities may be predominantly south Asian origin. That may or may not suit you.

Cities are far more diverse than towns. Luton and slough are reasonably diverse and quick to get into London but are maybe not necessarily mumsnet "naice".

I agree but living in a small market town which is not very diverse, I have a neighbouring couple who are both from different racial backgrounds to most of the people in this town and from each other. They really like it here because they say no one has preconceptions about them and it has been very accepting. Not saying that would be universal, but it has worked for them to move from a big city.

@thenewduchessofhastings

Leicestershire;Market Harborough isn't too bad to call commute into London on the train from

The multicultural Islington vibe of... Market Harborough???!

Reading? Newbury/Thame sort of area?

I have no direct experience of living there but it is an easy commute to London & easy access to countryside. Other people might have more developed opinions!

I live in Birmingham and unless you bought a house in the JQ (accessible for tram to new st) or Edgbaston near 5 ways station I think the travel to New St would just add too much time to a train journey of 90 mins or so to london. Public transport is HORRIFIC here with very few exceptions.

Southampton perhaps? Decent rail link to Waterloo. (If you live in the suburbs then you change at Airport Parkway for a fast train into Waterloo.) Bordered by the South Downs and New Forest and definitely multi-cultural so might fit your requirements.

Reading is also multi-cultural and you can be out in the countryside within minutes. Fast link to Paddington and Cross Rail when it eventually opens! But you have to get to the train station first which probably means a bus or drive.

Spend some time in any that take your fancy - not just in the city centres but in some of the suburbs as well where you have small high streets and get a feel for the place.

But with both Reading and Southampton, if you need schools they can be variable - don’t rely on the estate agents. Check the LEA websites to which ones you would actually get into most years.

Wild card--York amazing city with a buzz and completely different from anywhere else in the UK. Would probably feel quite life changing to move from London to
There. I love Brighton and Hove but IMO it's not that different. You are on a Main line to London. You could get an amazing house in a historic city

@Landofthefree I always think Birmingham is very segregated though. Massive Muslim population, but by and large confined to certain run down areas.

I'm in a white area (Sutton Coldfield) which has big houses and good schools and I'd say the local schools are largely white. You would get a 4 bed detached for £600k here but not with a huge amount of change!

And getting into town and then onto the London train could easily add another half hour to a journey. The public transport is woeful compared to London!

OP, I can’t tell you where to go, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that Petersfield and Winchester are so lacking in diversity it’s ridiculous that they’ve even been mentioned. Portsmouth is diverse, but a total dive tbh, ditto Southampton.

Nothing against these areas, just a local’s view.

Southend on Sea, leigh on sea, westcliff on sea, Thorpe Bay.....I'm sure many will say no but has a very good train service and not as expensive as many of the others..

There's literally nowhere that gives you everything you ask for OP. And this is why the best bits of London and the commuter belt are hellishly expensive ... they've got everything most people want, prices go up and up and up.

Winchester is nothing like Islington. It's a middle class city, very white, like everywhere else outside of the big cities in the UK.

Most of the posters in here have been spectacularly helpful. However, a couple of you...

Me: I want a bit of ethnic diversity, I’d like my kids to not be the only non-white ones in their class.

Them: XYZ is very white and middle class.

If a place isn’t ethnically diverse, thank you for flagging it, but I’m not clear as to why ‘middle class’ being presented to me like it’s at odds with racial diversity? I’m a woman in Islington posting on Mumsnet, I WANT middle class.

Then not Bath. I moved to Bath from London and I loved it. It made the transition very easy for me. But it isn't diverse. For diversity, Bristol is a much better bet, but a longer commute.

As much as I love Bristol and I think it ticks many boxes for you, there are only a few places with good secondaries and house prices in these areas are similar to London prices. It's quite a divided city in many ways between ex-londoners / students / hippies / Bristolians. If you live in the posher areas, you need to be ok with living near or next to student houses. If you live in more hippy areas, you need to be ok with perhaps people living in camper vans on your street. Oh, and there is a big litter problem and for every 1 half decent mural, there is sooooo much crap graffiti to counter it.
I'm not saying it's not worth a look, but it isn't the liberal paradise people seem to expect it to be - just check where you would like to live carefully and the very small school catchment areas. Good luck.

This is a super interesting thread. We're a mixed race couple and have started house hunting. We're moving from central London and wanting more space, more green, a least a spot of diversity or in proximity to it. I love markets especially somewhere to buy fruit, veg and plantain! Ideally plantain mustn't be more than a 35mims drive! 😉😊😁
On a more serious note though, we've been looking in Buckinghamshire cos of the schools even though we have no kids yet. Beaconsfield is lovely. I also like Berkhampstead in Hertfordshire. We'll see a few in Maidenhead this Saturday.

@Delectable I made a similar joke about proximity to people who will sell me pepper soup spices and braid my hair. Someone needs to regularly threaten my fro into submission and it’s certainly not going to be me.

Will check out Berkhamsted and Beaconsfield, thank you. Maidenhead I know and don’t think is very nice. It’s near lots of REALLY nice places, though, so there’s that.

Birmingham immediately gets written off on MN but there are some good areas, Solihull is lovely.

Brighton has a bad drugs problem and the school system isn't that great, there is a limited choice of secondary school places and one of those schools is a Catholic school which is obviously not very useful for the many families in the area who do not have that faith.

In terms of diversity, there is a big Jewish population in Hove, I would say it's not particularly diverse in parts of Brighton, less so in Hove.

Ha, you are "more Bray than Slough"? You can't afford Bray, and I'm not sure we need any more snobby London types flooding in our direction. Bye bye, move along please.

Slough has fantastic schools and some really lovely homes, and a very diverse and constantly changing population and easy access to lots of cultural amenities and green space.

Go to Worthing, please. I don't want you to move anywhere near me!

My sister is in an interracial marriage. moved out 3 years ago now coming back as kids in particular (mixed race) felt very excluded

She totally underestimated this aspect of the move. Seems to be less tolerant after COVID19

Stick to a city or maybe a greener part of London?

OP, I think you are going to struggle to find somewhere outside London that ticks all your boxes. If at all possible, I would look at renting out your house in London to start with and trying out one of the options mentioned here that you think sounds most in line with your preferences. If it doesn't work out you've still got your house in London to fall back on or you can try somewhere else. I think the 2 options of Manchester and Bristol are the most in line with your spec but obviously they are in the opposite direction to what you want and would involve a tiring and expensive commute.