To ask anyone from Manchester...

[totaketheplunge]

Hi all,

Please can I have some advice? If you were a solo, 26yo old woman wanting to move to Manchester. Where would you look at moving to? Some things to consider:

• I'm a teacher so needs to be decent schools around

• I don't necessarily need to be in the middle of Manchester

• I like somewhere with plenty going on but also not keen on mega busy roads with loads of traffic

• somewhere I will feel safe

Thanks so much!

it sounds like the only important thing to you is image

As I sit here reflecting on the always overflowing public bins I’ve just seen, and the shitty takeaways on my main road, I can assure you image isn’t my top priority in my bit of south Manchester.

I teach in Trafford and don’t recognise this at all.
Most parents are nothing but lovely. Yes there’s a few who are disappointed if they don’t pass the entrance exams.
My own DD got into a local GS by the skin of her teeth and thrived at her secondary school. So it’s just not true that pupils who only scrape a pass, struggle.
Children develop at different ages
Altrincham us lovely OP. Not sure I feel the same way about Chorlton. I

I don’t see how you are going to time it perfectly to be able to sell your home, buy a new one and get a new job in the school holidays sorry!

I do think it’s job first and you will probably have to rent (I appreciate that is becoming more difficult.)

I am a teacher and have lived and worked in three different cities. I trained in Manchester but it was a long time ago so can’t recommend places now although I did live in Fallowfield and Levenshulme when I was doing placements and had to get the bus across the city to different places which was a pain.

Just a thought, when I got a job in London, I had nowhere to stay and I met a person at interview and she invited me to stay with her for half a term. Then with a group of teachers who all started at the school together, we moved out into a shared house which worked out until everyone got settled and moved on. I’m thinking that there might be other young teachers in the same position as you. I agree that ideally you would not come off the property ladder but you might have to as I don’t see how the logistics would work otherwise when you are relocating.

Sounds a bit shit where you are - what makes you stay there?

Yeah, it ain’t Didsbury. But the nightlife is good, the travel links amazing, and the area not too pricey rent-wise.

Would you consider places like Saddleworth/Marple/Glossop? These areas are about 30 minutes on the train from the city centre, and seem to attract a lot of Southerners who want to live in the countryside but still have access to the city. As a result, houses in these areas are getting expensive, but still a bit cheaper than Didsbury/Chorlton/Trafford.

Ultimately, It’s hard for us to give advice if we don’t know your budget/interests etc.

Convinced of it.

I too live in Bury, I’m north of the town centre which is slightly nicer than the south. My sister lives in Whitefield and it’s lovely there too.
I grew up in Ancoats and Miles Platting and definitely prefer Bury.
The town centre is great for shopping and only 30 minutes by tram to the city Center, and you have the moors and countryside on the doorstep too.

North Manchester - Bury
South Manchester - Stockport

I guess it depends where your work will be. To preface I don't really know North Manchester that well & this is all south Manchester, so there may be areas there too if anyone else could advise.

In terms of niceness, safety and transport lines I would personally say Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Handforth, Wilmslow, Alderley Edge, Bramhall, Altrincham (nearly all of these are all technically Stockport or Cheshire but close enough). Naturally though they are all expensive :( .

Timperley, Sale, Northenden are also decent but not sure on their transport lines.

A small area of Didsbury is nice but extremely expensive and I don't rate the safety (theft/break ins) or surrounding areas. I don't rate Chorlton at all but I know people typically recommend it.

Just to add - there are nice areas for A LOT cheaper further out of Manchester if you're not actually too fussed about being in the mix of it all. There's not as much going on in these areas in comparison, but in terms of safety and price and transport links I would recommend: Macclesfield (20min train to MCR city centre), Congleton (40min train), Sandbach (40min train)

Worsley hates being a part of Salford and likes to pretend it's not! In that area Roe Green is also very pleasant but fairly pricey. I think most people when they think Salford are referring to the old central areas, rather than the areas forced into Salford by reorganisation many years ago!

You seem exactly what any good school is looking for...

I merely made the same point many others have made, mate - that it's usual to find the job FIRST and then find where you're going to live. Pointless buying a house in Sale and then only being offered a job in Bury.

Whitefield has some really deprived areas and social housing.A lot of the privately owned housing stock is largely sold within the Jewish community and not advertised widely.

A quick search on Right Move shows plenty of houses for sale in Whitefield.

No it isn’t. Both myself and my DD live in Whitefield and bought our houses off sellers who were Jewish. One of the local 1970s housing estates next to me has many Jewish families, there’s a synagogue on the estate. Plenty of houses go up for sale there regularly.

Well when I replied OP didn't mention buying. Strangely rents in Greater Manchester (not city centre) seemed to be based on the size of house rather than the area. We moved from Altrincham to Hyde because we couldn't afford to buy there. But similar rents.
Hyde has a run-down high street full of boarded up shops, nail saloons and cheap takeaways.
But - BUT where we live has both bus + train to the city centre. Tram < 15 min drive away. And a short drive/train to beautiful places like Glossop and other parts of the Peak District.

We live in Godley, which is quieter and further away form Hyde Town Centre. Further still towards Glossop is Gee Cross Village and Werneth low all very nice countrysidey lots of big detached, old stone houses a bit like Glossop. I choose our area because of both bus and train as the latter are always on strike. The condition of the town centre doesn't really bother me as I'm always in Manchester anyway. 20 min train twice an hour which is more than I can say for Knutsford (which has shit public transport).

If you're moving from London and want a nice, buzzy high street, independent restaurants etc you'd be stupid to rent in Hyde instead of Altrincham. Not to mention the tram. The other option is Stockport. We wanted to buy in a nice suburb like Bramhall, the Heatons also too expensive.

Other areas of tameside closer to the city like Reddish (north and south are quite different!), Droylsden, worth a look.

I did consider Salford which definitely has a lot going on + tram. But the nice bits aren't near public transport. Worsely is a nice area I've visited, also Swinton but ultimately too far from South Manchester where I work.

FYI OP a direct train to London runs through Stockport which is important if you want to maintain close links to London. When I left I did envision having to return even if a couple of days a week, and chose to live nearby for that purpose.

😂 Don’t get me started on Albert’s Worsley! It’s in Swinton, own it!

I love how the Bridgewater set refuse to use ‘Salford’ in their address and insist on Worsley, Manchester…

Salford isn’t a word used in addresses. You’d say, for example “Eccles, Manchester” - Manchester referring to Greater Manchester.
What’s the Bridgewater set, btw? Do you mean the parents of the school? I wouldn’t class them as a “set”.

Of course you’d use Salford in an address - Manchester is a different city. You could drop Salford and use Greater Manchester instead I suppose, but you would never put just Manchester.

I used to live in Worsley and our postal address was Manchester M28. That's what it said on all the documentation when we bought the house and on every official communication including our council tax bill, polling cards and so on. I assume it was correct therefore. I wasn't trying to pretend I didn't live in Salford, just using the correct postal address.
Where we live now it's the opposite.We live in a naice rural village close to a very desirable small town but our postal address is of a bigger, rather run down place a bit further away. I don't miss out the slightly grotty town name when I give my address though, just use what the post office or whoever determines these things decided it should be.

M28 is Salford. Salford is a city in. Greater Manchester. Council tax in Worsley is paid to Salford City council 🙄

I’m in Stockport and the post office is adamant that our address is “Cheshire” despite the fact that the area ceased to be part of Cheshire in the 70s.
Some people are still adamant that we live in Cheshire though, as it sounds more “naice” than Stockport. I keep reminding them that we pay council tax to Stockport.

I grew up in Newton Heath and lived in Unsworth (near to Whitefield). Whitefield/Unsworth/Prestwich are all decent areas to live.

There are small pockets of estates that aren't great but on the whole, nice place to live. I would agree north of Bury is nice too; Greenmount/Tottington. I believe Dr Ranj now lives in Greenmount as does Gemma Atkinson and Gorka!

Schools around Bury are generally very good.

The tram takes you from Bury into Manchester very easily and quickly if you want decent shopping or a night out. The Trafford Centre is not far either.

Alternatively Urmston and Flixton in South Manchester are also nice areas to live.