Do you prefer Birmingham or Manchester

[Clarro]

DH and I are moving out of London.

We are considering both cities. Which city itself do you prefer?

DH and I are moving out of London.

We are considering both cities. Which city itself do you prefer?

We have decided we would live in Stratford/Warwick/Leamington Spa if we moved to Birmingham

And Knutsford, Altrincham, Wilmslow, Aderley Edge if we moved to Manchester

These replies sort of suggested you wanted to live in Birmingham or Manchester? (Despite your chosen towns not being in either of the cities)

Hence everyone replying about what it's like to live there.

It wasn't exactly clear that you only want to know what days out on either city are like.

Thanks for outline. Much appreciated.

Between new concerts (ds likes classical)/ plays, different talks/exhibitions I think ds and I could make do. Ds will happily go to a museum on me week and listen to a tour and then go back the following week and just draw his favourite things.

We spent time in a small US city and despite it being a bit dead we always found something interesting for ds to look forward to after a bit of digging.

Having lived and worked in both, I much prefer Manchester for shopping, eating out etc over Birmingham. However, neither will ever compare to what's available in London.
If staying in London is not an option, then out of the areas you have listed I would choose Warwick or Leamington Spa whereby you can be in London in an hour and 2Omins, Birmingham in 35 mins and Manchester in just over 2hours by direct train.
Leamington and Warwick are both gorgeous towns and I would move to either like a shot if our circumstances allowed.

With that budget I'd buy in Altrincham. You can travel by tram in MCR when you want something in the city but Alti is a nice bubble for town centre, shops, restaurants.

I'm from West Mids and it's grim. Soulless, Manchester has so much more about it and generally feels wealthier/more grads/professionals in the wider area.

I don’t get why people are saying I’m being such hard work.

I’m just asking which city posters prefer on the whole - I assume their reasons will be shared

Altrincham is in itself a lovely place with its own very vibrant food and entertainment scene. 20 minute tram to the City Centre for museums, culture (Home & The Factory), varied food offers in an ever expanding city sub-areas (Ancoats, NQ, King St, Spinningfields, Oxford Rd).

Birmingham has the fabulous Symphony Hall and associated venues for classical music, checkout their website.

How old is your DS?
Are you really planning your life around your child's current hobbies?

Symphony Hall would be the place for classical music in Birmingham. Its the home of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

By Brindley Place. Again, nice to visit and places to eat but not a place where you discover something different each time.

Ikon art gallery also there. Again small but does have changing exhibitions.

Central Library is a good visit and gives a good view across the city from the top floor

It sounds like I'm down on my city and I am because it used be constantly changing and evolving and multicultural and now the Council is bankrupt and it's just miserable!

NEC also has different exhibitions on.

You might feel the same way about central London but when we lived in Birmingham, we spent days on central London as there's always something new to do or explore

Probably the only way to find out would be to do a weekend visit to each city, while still living in London. Walk round, eat, make a list of ‘things to see now’ and ‘things to do next time’. Compare lists.

Both have good music venues - both house world class orchestras as well as having conservatoires. Both have museums. Neither are London, which have multiples of each of these.

On the other hand, the towns you are suggesting outside Birmingham have their own, often vibrant, cultural lives (don’t know so much about the Cheshire ones) so you might find yourself local x1; alternative local x1 or 2; city x1 over the course of a month rather than the suburban model of London where I can understand that you find yourself pulled into the centre.

Do you drive?

10

Not really. More the things we enjoy to do together as a family.

I lived in Birmingham for 6 years (quite a long time ago) , now Manchester is my nearest big city.

I'm not really a city type so if I had to live in one it'd be Manchester - Birmingham seemed a long way to get to good countryside and hills, Manchester is much better for that.

We go to the theatre a fair bit, it's pretty good for that IME, sometimes getting big productions before they go to London.

Birmingham used to work in Manchester it’s dull and grey.

Same is true for Manchester and every other city that isn’t London - and even in London you’d see everything you need to see in six months

If your DS likes museums, thr Manchester museum of science and industry is great. We took dd there countless times and kept finding more of it!

I prefer Manchester. It's a smaller city than Birmingham and seems more vibrant. Birmingham seems to have all the misery of London with few of the benefits.

When I go to Birmingham I get scared I'll be mugged

You still haven't explained the logic of why you are moving.

If you're thinking of not actually living in Birmingham, you can probably get to London by train in not much longer than it takes to get to Birmingham, along with places like Oxford depending on which train line you're on.

You would be best focussing on what is accessible from where you live rather than which the nearest big cities are. Both cities have very little compared to London but that's not so much the case if you consider where is accessible from there.

Also, what a 10 year old enjoys is likely to change pretty quickly once they start secondary school. While he likes visiting museums with his parents now, that might not be the case in 3 or 4 years

I recommend Manchester over Birmingham.

I live close to some of the areas in Cheshire you’ve mentioned and it’s just 20 minutes on a train for me.

I much prefer Manchester.

Although I live close to the areas you mention living in if you chose Bham and would live there rather than the suburbs of Manchester. I find getting the train into Bham a depressing experience tbh. I don't like it as a city.

Stratford/Leamington/Warwick are places in their own right, and feel quite different from each other and very different from central Bham. I'm not sure living here will give you the London lifestyle you seem to still want. Lot's of young families are here partly because they don't want that London lifestyle of schlepping into central London to do anything.

I also agree with pp that it's hard to offer useful suggestions if you aren't willing to explain why you want to move? You seem to want a London lifestyle outside of London, and I'm not sure that's easy to replicate

I was going to say Manchester until you said

And Knutsford, Altrincham, Wilmslow, Aderley Edge if we moved to Manchester.

Noooooo!!! Out of all the lovely places near Manchester, these are the absolute worst!

Between the places you have chosen for Manchester, vibe is quite different. Knutsford and Alderley Edge to me are very much Cheshire: lovely walks, not tons going on but a few decent cafes and restaurants. Wilmslow also has nice walks you can do without getting in the car, Altrincham less so. But these 2 are a bit bigger, they are small towns rather than villagey, with slightly (slightly!) more going on and a less claustrophobic and pretentious vibe IMO, and if you're really city people, I'd pick one of these 2. Put another way: no one in Knutsford or Alderley Edge considers themselves to live in Manchester. People from Altrincham and Wilmslow often do

Probably Manchester in that case. Those towns you have mentioned are all nice and you can alternate your weekend trips between Liverpool and Manchester and you have the Peak District nearby too if you want a change of scenery. Plus you have Leeds an hour away.

If you lived in Leamington Spa, for example, you'd still be able to go into London on the train for daytrips. You'd also have loads of other places nearby to explore. Find a place you like where London is easily accessible.