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.

Worthing! Shoreham! Lancing! Worthing is def not just full of the older generation these days.

@BikeRunSki

If you can sacrifice sea, and be wary of flood zones, Hebden Bridge.

Or Todmorden (bit cheaper!) just down the road.

I’m sorry this is gonna be controversial but please don’t. We are overrun by Londoners buying up properties without even looking at them. My PILs are trying to move house but every time they put in an offer, it is exceeded by several thousands by someone who hasn’t even bothered to view the property. People who worked in London who are now WFH have clearly thought that they don’t want to live there anymore and are coming south but it’s making it very hard for locals to buy.

@Tam20779

I’m sorry this is gonna be controversial but please don’t. We are overrun by Londoners buying up properties without even looking at them. My PILs are trying to move house but every time they put in an offer, it is exceeded by several thousands by someone who hasn’t even bothered to view the property. People who worked in London who are now WFH have clearly thought that they don’t want to live there anymore and are coming south but it’s making it very hard for locals to buy.

Yes I heard this too. Friends have been trying to get a place with a garden for ages and every property is being snapped up by people from London. They don't even get a viewing.

I lived in East Brighton near the sea. I didn't realise how close the countryside is. You only have to go to East Brighton Park and it gradually joins the South Downs. On the west side, we have the wonderful Benfield Valley and Green Ridge which joins the South Downs. Brighton is a mixed bag, the suburbanite in me gets annoyed by the fact that the Brightonians don't complain much, and are very laid back, while the city me cannot believe how I have changed and now talk to everyone on the bus. Try Rottingdean, Saltdean, Woodingdean, Seaford to the east of Brighton and Portslade, Shoreham and Worthing to the west.

” I’m sorry this is gonna be controversial but please don’t. We are overrun by Londoners buying up properties without even looking at them. My PILs are trying to move house but every time they put in an offer, it is exceeded by several thousands by someone who hasn’t even bothered to view the property. People who worked in London who are now WFH have clearly thought that they don’t want to live there anymore and are coming south but it’s making it very hard for locals to buy. “

This may shock some of you, but the same thing is happening in shitty old Hastings. Prices aren’t quite at the dizzying heights of Brighton, but are still rising steadily enough to price out younger locals.

So do bear in mind how utterly shit it is here. It’s a miserable place.

@devastating. 'The rest I can’t comment on but the comments here about the drugs, crime, deprivation etc are putting me off.'

It would put anyone off! However, I live here and it's just not true. It's one of the safest places I've ever lived. I walk all over the city, in the dark, early morning, run at night and it's incredibly safe. People keep going on about 'drugs' but the reality is that drugs problems are confined to small areas and estates just as they are in most cities. So don't go up the big estate trying to score and you won't come in contact with drugs.

@HipsyOngeza

Edinburgh is pretty good.

New and old town. Folk scene in the pubs. Edinburgh Festival annually. Beach. Large rock (name escapes me) by the Parliament to hike up and down in an hour with views over the City. Some excellent walks out of town and access to Scotland. One hour to Glasgow.

Lovely to visit in the summer. Not sure what a winter would be like. I always go up Large Rock when I visit. The view is amazing, then you go down to the Scottish Parliament where they have foot baths just outside to wake your feet up.

Anyway, I'd say Hastings. I adore that long park that runs through the middle of the town. The vibe seems arty and relaxed. No Brighton though. Neither is Brighton. Brighton is about 5% how people imagine Brighton to be and the other 95% bog standard small city.

Having said that, house prices are being pushed up by Londoners trying to move out within commutable distance of the city. Bit annoying, but in their shoes I would do the same.

How about Suffolk? It's a bit further from London but has some stunning unspoilt coastline and lovely market towns like a Woodbridge and Framingham. The seaside towns like Aldeburgh and Southwold are super posh and expensive and full of second homers but also really lovely for days out and places to eat. Ipswich has amenities and some nice bits around the marina but it's generally a bit dull. It's an hour and tan from London Liverpool Street on the train though.

It's also reasonable price wise in many packed but it's definitely a slower pace of life

This is probably really wrong of me, but I miss the old ratty-arsed Brighton, before they put speed humps on Madeira Drive (boy racers would burn rubber down there at nights), and when there were fish and chip shops and places that closed over winter, instead of the non-stop razzmatazz cafe/bar culture that's taken over. The Victory Inn used to be a character pub, now it's just the same formula, aimed at the fashionable young crowd. I think I'm getting old.

@Tam20779

I’m sorry this is gonna be controversial but please don’t. We are overrun by Londoners buying up properties without even looking at them. My PILs are trying to move house but every time they put in an offer, it is exceeded by several thousands by someone who hasn’t even bothered to view the property. People who worked in London who are now WFH have clearly thought that they don’t want to live there anymore and are coming south but it’s making it very hard for locals to buy.

Yep, same here in Lewes. I know and speak to some of the DFL and I am told that they are quite busy convincing their friends to move here. Its not just the property prices, their influence and very loud voices are changing the character. We have Costa and a Nero now. This is for them. They move here because they like the quirky small independent shops but its going full circle. So, where once there were useful shops such as iron mongers we have little boutique shops selling yak hair brooms or socks knitted in a yurt by a goat herder, but we also have chains moving in. So, we are losing small useful independent businesses and shops to middle class hobby shops and chain coffee shops. So, ordinary local people on modest means can not afford housing and have nowhere useful to shop. There is not one shop that sells knickers!

I think its that once a substantial number of people from a specific sort of demographic (middle class, faux socialist, liberal, open minded, in name at least) develop their own community they become quite determined in pushing their values, thinking, culture, way of living and needs upon the existing community. This is not open mindedness this is a determination that their values and way of living is superior.

Two DFls have told me "its so pretty here" but then said "I hate bonfire, I'd like to see that stopped" They are busy pushing the district council to tarmac paths beside the river, they want cycle lanes everywhere, they want the whole of the town pedestrianised even if it prevents working class people from going about their jobs.......because the DFL works from home or commutes, at the weekend he cycles, and in the evenings he attends every talk, debate and council meeting to ensure he shapes the town and its culture to his own. The very thing he wanted in moving here is lost because they are essentially creating a little Dulwich by the Downs. The only motivation can be greed for larger properties, more for their money and perhaps schooling.

@Totalbeach if you lived in Hanover I can see why you'd feel this way about Brighton, as that is the most congested and dirty part, and it's also near quite a few estates that have considerable crime.

That's just one area though and most people wouldn't choose to live in the centre (Hanover was also built as Victorian temporary workers' housing so not made to last).

West of Norfolk Square, the Seven Dials area, Kemptown, Queen's Park, East of Preston Park - all lovely. Then you get the seriously expensive but beautiful suburbs off Dyke Road Avenue and New Church Road.

@Alcemeg exactly that! It used to be genuinely eccentric. Now there’s something faux “jazzy” about it.

@MiniTheMinx wow that's shocking. Being a long term Brightonian I really didn't think w**kers like that existed.

Are there really a lot of DFLs like that in Lewes??

I would be incensed by that comment about the bonfire. It's like they think they're moving into some village full of local simpletons that need bringing into the 21st century, when it's a hugely significant tradition that's been running for hundreds of years!!

Most of the people I know who have lived in Brighton have relocated to Worthing, Hastings and whitstable over the past few years.

Brighton makes me miserable. It has the bones of a beautiful place but needs a good clean and paint. It's so run down.

I'd love to live by the sea, but much of the south coast is so tired.

I love Brighton but I feel I’m a bit too old for it now.

Although nowhere near as big, I love the feel of Whitstable, Falmouth and Scarborough. I would ideally want to live in Hythe, which is a lot quieter.

HugeHoveFan absolutely. Apparently locals are not open minded enough!

Love Hove by the way.

Worthing is the arse end of the universe. Second only to Bognor.

The whole of the south coast is UKIP slash Brexit territory. With the exception of Brighton.

Has anyone mentioned Chichester? Pretty and watery. Gardens. Theatre.

Alecmeg I with you too, Brighton was always a bit seedy (sex shop by the station anyone?) with the obligatory bottle fight in Norfolk Square. My nan lived all her adult life in Brighton, (Upper Lewes Road/Lewes Road area) use to regularly go to the Races and wrestling at the Dome on an afternoon with handbag at the ready 😁 (Big Daddy/Giant Haystack era), she certainly wouldn’t fit in now. I only visit very occasionally now (having worked in Brighton and Hove in the past).

Now Shoreham is turning into what Brighton has become (was born there but move out in my 30’s as could find a suitable house in the right area (there were only a very few areas I would want to live in Shoreham)), moved to Worthing as DH’s business was there. Thought I’d miss Shoreham but, no, it’s not the old fishing town where I’d always bump into someone I knew, the old families have moved on to be replaced by people from Brighton and DFLs. I only go to the dentist in Shoreham now and that’s enough, even the dental nurse said she had moved out and doesn’t miss it.

For what it is worth, Worthing is a nice enough town, not pretending to be something it isn’t, has lots of good sized family homes, it has theatres, cinemas, museum, an emerging cafe culture and a High Street that is on its arse (like most unfortunately). I’m 200yds from the beach and a 10 min drive to the South Downs where my horse is. Even my 16yr DS stood in the horse’s field, looked at the view over the Downs and Sea and said how lucky we were to live there

@Tam20779

I’m sorry this is gonna be controversial but please don’t. We are overrun by Londoners buying up properties without even looking at them. My PILs are trying to move house but every time they put in an offer, it is exceeded by several thousands by someone who hasn’t even bothered to view the property. People who worked in London who are now WFH have clearly thought that they don’t want to live there anymore and are coming south but it’s making it very hard for locals to buy.

I never really understand the mentality of people think they can stop people moving to their area.

Brighton is the price it is because it's in the SE with a fast line to London. That's always been the case.

Basically your PILs are under offering on properties & that's why they keep missing out.

@RainingBatsAndFrogs

The Woman’s Place conference was besieged, intimidated and physically attacked in Brighton.

Yes, I heard this. Awful.

[quote thinkingaboutLangCleg]Yes, imagine wearing a "Woman is an adult human female" t-shirt there - you'd see how open minded they were.

Brighton used to be fun but is terrifying now if you don’t toe the trans line.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4060916-Brighton-TRAs-bullying-Happy-Maki-female-owned-business[/quote]
Agree. I would love to walk around in such a t-shirt. I remember that thread you quote. Unbelievable.

@MiniTheMinx, that all sounds infuriating. What are people’s objections to bonfire? I would have thought that would be a tradition that newcomers would embrace.

@countingto10, I think you live near me! I’m near the Sailing Club. Agree with much of what you say. Yes, the High St is depressing but that’s the same in a lot of towns. We have some great little bars and micro pubs though and some decent restaurants. I also think we are really lucky with the local schools (especially compared to Brighton). There aren’t really any secondaries that I’d have been worried about my DCs going to. As it turned out, they got their (and our) first choice. We’re all really happy in Worthing. Actually, when friends and family visit from elsewhere in the country, they always comment positively on the place and ask us if we feel like we’re on holiday all the time. (We do, most of the time).