Liverpool - safety tips for young student.

[DeliaOwens]

Hello, I’m after some best friend/your favourite auntie type advice.
my DD has accepted an offer in Liverpool for her degree. So happy, first choice and great match for her.
So, here is my question. She is a very mature and relatively savvy young lady at 18 but has spent all her years so far in a relatively small town, near a small city. So, she has no real world experience of Big City living.
What are your top tips for safety when living and socialising in Liverpool.
She will have a car so what safety tips for retuning to her car if she is working in say a restaurant or late bar?

What tip/tips would you give your friend/niece/daughter as they begin student life?
Oh, she will be in halls in/close to city centre.

No white socks

She just needs to have her wits about her. Don't have headphones on so you can't hear your surroundings. My dd walked back to city centre halls after clubbing because she felt safe as lots of others were doing the same and there were bouncers on the door.

Which accom is she in?
don’t park in mount pleasant is my number one safety tip if she has a car!!

Have you checked about parking ?

A lot of Liverpool Accommodation is right in the City Centre. Very easy to walk. Difficult / incredibly expensive to park.

Easily the scariest car park on earth. I've never had any actual difficulty there but it exudes zombie apocalypse vibes.

Stay in well-lit areas, don't wear headphones and don't wave your phone around. Liverpool city centre is a busy area and I usually feel safe there. Mind you, I'm not wandering round when the pubs chuck out.

Does she have somewhere to park her car?

DD is a student in Liverpool and has now moved out of halls into a flat. Parking is limited and very expensive. When I moved her from halls into a flat I drove round the horrendous one way system 6 times to offload her stuff (I helped her friend move as well).

The roads in the Georgian and knowledge quarters are lovely and wide, but the middle of Liverpool is horrible to drive around.

In terms of safety, DD has never felt unsafe, but I have seen more homelsss people begging on the streets of Liverpool than in any other city. They all seem to be under the influence of something or other. DD says they sometimes follow her and she doesn't like it.

Liverpool is a fabulous city. DD and I fell in love with it when we visted for the open day.

Thank you CarpetKnees (great name).
Yes, we have secured her a parking spot, beside her halls, but will be paying a princely sum! She will be doing placements and may have to travel some distances, so car is a requirement.

Thank you!
yes, we have paid over the odds for parking adjacent to her accommodation. I’m not going to name it, just for security reasons, but is bordering Knowledge/Georgian quarter, so fairly central.
We really liked the feeling in Liverpool the half a dozen or so times we visited as part of the planning, applying and accepting the uni offer.

thanks so much for the advice as, visiting versus living somewhere can we poles apart!

Presumably she could work in one of the many restaurants or bars in the city centre, some of which might not have nearby parking. Could she travel to her placements using public transport - trains, buses - or taxis? Is a car absolutely necessary?

Thanks to everyone. i truly mean it.

As for Mount Pleasant car park, if that’s the one that looks (and feels) like something out of an Eastern Bloc country, pre-dissolution of USSR, then I know it and she is absolutely not parking there.

it gave me the hee-bee jee-bees!

Huh?

Ah okay I’ve got an idea where her accom is. Honestly if she’s working in town she’ll be better off just walking up, it’s not far enough to be worth driving. Even if she finishes late there will be loads of students migrating up the hill no matter the time, the latest bars shut at 6am

My daughter is just starting 5th year at Liverpool. She has a car for placements and has parked in Mount Pleasant car park several times. She has never felt unsafe there. As with any large city you just need to be vigilant.

How does everyone else manage placements in y1. The vast majority are not car owners surely? Or have parents rich enough to buy a car on top of the high price of hall? Are some courses and careers just not possible for some students? Eg vet med?

DD is currently doing clinical placements. A couple of her friends rented an airbnb for a month because it was cheaper than commuting each day. Two of DD's placements are within walking distance and one is an hour each way on the bus.

I agree that most students won't have a car.

@RampantIvy Was that in y1? That could be 3 years of placements and not using your accommodation that’s already very expensive! Only for the better off I think. I do wonder if nurses, for example, were any worse when they lived on a hospital site to train and did day release! Parents pay through the nose now!

When I was a student there, nobody I knew, walked alone through Sefton Park or Princes Park at night.

I lived in one of the roughest areas, when we moved out of hall. We always found the local people were nice to us, and we were nice to them. However, I didn’t have a southern accent then - imo, that didn’t go down as well.

I remember going to the Cabin club late one night with a friend. Before we got there, the police asked us where we were going. When we told them, they said

”First sign of trouble, get out of there!”

We all loved the city. It’s a cheap place to live, compared say to London!

@BlueandWhitePorcelain Most of the new student accommodation isn’t cheap though. Surprisingly expensive.

Agreed - the parking regs recently changed in city centre Liverpool so it’s not free to park after 6pm any more and most roads are on meters with four hour limits. As there are so many students in Liverpool, there’s a constant procession of them up and down the main roads to where the city halls are all night.

Also, the Mount Pleasant car park shuts at 7.30pm.

@RampantIvy Liverpool is my favourite city to drive round. I find it much easier than my own city!

Why not just take the car when placements are confirmed? It seems ott to have it all the time. Most students walk together or share Ubers for safety. Who wants to drive late at night?

See the cost of living in Liverpool versus London:

https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=cost%20of%20living%20liverpool%202025%20versus%20London&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5

We have worked and lived in London and its environs for 45 years. Whenever relatives and friends come to visit from the North West, they say

”The price of ….(you name it) is just over the top!”

DH’s family and my uni friends live around Liverpool and Manchester. We’ve visited them regularly over the years.

I park here and never use the stairwell. I walk down the ramps.
Feels safer. Though I’ve not seen any trouble nor had any.

usual city advise. Be aware of surroundings.
it’s a great city

Don’t know what the issue is with Mt Pleasant carpark fgs. It’s fine and reasonably priced. It also shuts at 7pm so no issue with overnight sleepers.
Just be streetwise as you would in any big city as a young woman. Don’t walk alone late at night, get taxis/ Ubers/walk with friends. Especially don’t walk through any of the parks late at night solo, that’s a particularly stupid thing to do. Otherwise, it’s fine. Working in a bar or restaurant, get an uber or the bus home depending on the time shift finishes. Don’t take the car into city centre at night around say Bold St or Liverpool One area- no need and can be a bit lonely walking back to your car in the dark around some of the backstreets by those bars and restaurants. Church St there are beggars etc but only the same as other big cities, nowhere near as bad as Manchester Piccadilly area. Liverpool One- no begging allowed and that’s where most of the shops are nowadays 🤷‍♀️

It’s 24 hours isn’t it now. I’ve parked there and worked till 9pm before