To ask is there a better version of Brighton

[Wondergirl100]

Sorry a bit cheeky to put on AIBU - but - it's an important question!!

Brighton - great vibes, creativity, open mindedness good schools - but overpriced and the countryside isn't amazing and there are no gardens.

So what is the alternative! Where else is open minded and fun and has sea air and countryside but is not ruined by hen dos and property prices. And needs to have good schools.

Sadly, I have to write off the whole of Kent as I don't approve of grammar system. Unless there is somewhere in Kent with good secondary moderns.

@Pinksmyfavoritecolour

Rye? Along a bit from Hastings, it’s on train line, seaside at camber, country park at fairlight, nice shops and cafes.

Rye has changed a lot over the last few years. There are loads of 2nd homers (down from that there London, probably ), most of the quirky shops have gone, the pubs have mostly been done up in identikit plaid upholstery and F&B type colours (and none of them allow dogs in any more!) and it seems to have lost its quirkiness imo.

It's more yummy mummy territory these days, all Joules and Boden.

Not Bristol, overpriced houses here now, you don't get much for the money and so many from London have moved here and pushed the house prices right up in the nicer areas. Maybe Devon or even Weymouth/Poole or Dorset around that area if you want to be near the sea.

Totness is lovely, but I would consider West Country, Bristol, Bath area down to Somerset, some lovely little diverse towns, gorgeous countryside, and no too far from beautiful beaches, or Dorset, again some lovely little towns and closer to the beach.

Probably somewhere like Glasgow. I was born in Brighton, and live nearby at the bottom of the South Downs. Brighton is so overrated. Apart from
the Duke of York cinema and the lovely Korean restaurant by the station I have no desire to visit anymore. Shame as it has potential to be a great town but ruined by a combination of things, including rife drugs trade and crime.

Bristol is by the sea OP

Tunbridge Wells is in Kent and you've already expressed a preference of avoiding the grammar school system! Would also suggest that it's not a terribly creative or open minded town personally - probably the reverse if anything - think more Chelsea tractor, ultra competitive, ladies that lunch.

Hold on a minute and stop right there !
“All the SE Kent seaside towns are frankly a bit shit, Margate, Ramsgate etc supposed to be going through gentrification but really just a bit grim.” Not true !! I live in Broadstairs and it isnit abit shit Thankyou ! And Margate and Ramsgate have a great buzz
All seaside towns have pros and cons and Broadstairs is beautiful
Lots of schools - fast train to London- and the sea and Sandy beaches and amicroclimate! And affordable ! ( tunbridge wells is boring -my family live there ) hove was our first choice but it’s expensive and yet how can you say that he countryside is no good ! The South Downs !!!

Hebden Bridge is pretty crap really.

Hastings is on the up and up

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

Surprise that someone selling a London house or flat can’t afford Brighton.

They mean Croydon

^^
Croydon is a. London (put beyond doubt by COVID restrictions applying equally even when Croydon rates were very low) and b. Croydon is at least as pricey as Brighton.

Not all of Croydon!

The value of the house I sold in 1993 is now £346k-£425k according to Zoopla.

The house in Sussex that I bought for the same price as the one I sold is now worth £475k, and it's a good 10% cheaper here than in Brighton.

When I bought this house, I thought I wouldn't be able to afford to buy here, and might have to buy in Brighton. Now, I wouldn't be able to afford to buy like for like in Brighton.

We live 10 miles from Brighton. Have a mass of countryside (South Downs) between us and Bton, we have (slightly more) sensibly priced houses with decent garden sizes, good schools and within decent distance from London and other counties (as well as Worthing Beach which I rate far higher than Bton..)
Depends if you want that city lifestyle I guess?

@MamaSharkDooDooDooDooDooDooo where do you live?

Leigh on sea?

Hove?

I live in Portslade, within the City of Brighton & Hove, in a lovely Victorian Terrace with a 60 foot garden. I am about ten/fifteen minutes walk from the sea and the same distance from access to the rolling hills of the South Downs (via a little known local footpath)

I was born in Brighton and my childhood was spent on the beach as we were a four minute walk away. My own adult children are always telling me how grateful they are that they were raised here. I would never live anywhere else.

Hastings has allegedly been "on the up" for about thirty years - never gonna happen!!

@Vivianebrookskoviak

Not Bristol, overpriced houses here now, you don't get much for the money and so many from London have moved here and pushed the house prices right up in the nicer areas. Maybe Devon or even Weymouth/Poole or Dorset around that area if you want to be near the sea.

I could imagine Weymouth being an up-and-coming place. It has a similar mix of architecture as Brighton and a nice beach.

I haven't been there for about 25 years though, and when I was last there it seemed really rather run down.

Brighton is on the sea and has fairly good links to london, anywhere else south on the sea doesnt really have great links, apart from perhaps more east, kent for example.

people who live in hastings extol its virtues

When I lived in lovely Deal I always called it ‘Little Brighton’ because it had art, music, seaside, eclectic, activities, cycling, running events by the sea, sailing, sea cadets, fun pubs, good restaurants, pop ups, nice cafes, some cute shops, gayness, holiday events, it was really great. The grammar system worked for us and other families were happy with some of the other schools as well. I was able to go mortgage free with more space! Running by the sea was idyllic. (Following on another person’s suggestion of Tunbridge Wells, it is lovely but snooty-ish and pricey.)

Edinburgh 😊

I wish people who hated Grammar schools knew anything about them. They were the one chance that clever working class children could get the best education without being seen as odd. I am 86 and sat the scholarship exam and entered Liverpool School For Girls in the first intake of Scholarship girls in 1945. Many years later I gained an MSc at LSE. I am proud of my grammar school education and some of those politicians who criticised them managed to achieve a good education purely by going to one themselves! Roy Hattersley for one.

Maybe the OP should be more open minded as she seems rather poor at geography. I knew that Tunbridge Wells is in Kent. But she didn’t!
Maybe her children could benefit from grammar school education!

Devon or Cornwall

@jpm129

God listen to yourself. Just cut all the blurb and ask.. 'Hey guys, where is the best town for smug metropolitan types to push up housing prices?'

🤣😂😆

I lived in Brighton a long time ago, I was brought up there.

Everyone I know is moving away as it’s not what it once was. The city has been overtaken my students and greedy landlords.

Crime is going up and up, the schools are doing badly and the ones mentioned aren’t even doing well in the school tables.

House prices are ridiculous, small and loud. Council tax is also expensive.

Travel is astronomical as is parking.

Homelessness is an acknowledged problem.

The council have made the city look a mess - they only recently ‘by accident’ tore away plants that were planted by the victorians along the drive to make way for a ‘possible’ cycle lane.

The shops are all closing and the independent shops which made brighton brighton are being priced out.

The city is only as liberal as where I am now in London, not more so.

The universities are forever growing, meaning less room for family accommodation. I believe the council waiting list is around ten years and they will no longer accept anyone unless urgent.

It’s just not how it used to be - family centric, moderately priced, well ran and down to Earth.

If I could move anywhere right now with my family it would be Ireland for sure, somewhere on the coast.

Surely Brighton has always had a scuzzy underbelly- it’s nothing new.
@LakieLady I’ve noticed that about rye too lately, it’s a shame. Several “ real” shops like the grocer on the high street replaced by “ souvenir” shops. Still, I love going there and I promise I’m not looking to buy a second home ( could never afford to).