Best areas for a couple to live in Cambridge

[justinbieber]

DH and I (no kids) are moving to Cambridge soon. I'll be working at Granta Park, which is south of the city near the Abingtons. DH will be working from home. I was thinking we would be best living in Cambridge for the first couple of years, while we settle in. What would be a good area to live in? We're looking to rent a 1-2 bedroom flat. I've heard that Chesterton is a bit dodgy, that the Mill Road area is bad for parking and that the traffic everywhere is awful, but aside from that, I've no idea...

Zumba would be fun. I have been thinking about joining the class at Kelsey Kerridge for a while...

DP commutes from Chesterton to Colchester about once a week and it takes him roughly an hour as long as he leaves just before 8am. If he leaves at five past 8 or later it can add about 20 minutes to the journey.

Ideally you should look at places off Hills Road and Long Road I guess. Have you thought about the Villages like Haslingfield, Harston etc? They will have atmospheres, pubs, classes etc. and it's still not far to get into town should you want to.

was about to suggest victoria/histon road area.
our good friends have just moved out to a village from there, they have had 15 years of the best social life, being able to walkcycle into the city for the day or evening.
Cycle to work near addenbrookes each day. Not sure where granta park is though? is that the one near babraham?

Granta Park is like Babraham only a couple of mile farther in that direction.

Wasn't too sure about the villages to be honest. I thought they might be a bit quiet and residential? Considering we don't know anyone in the area, I thought it would be best to live in town. I think when we buy somewhere though, we would almost certainly move out. I've got my eye on Saffron Walden.

No need to live in the villages - way too quiet. Area between Victoria and Histon Roads is fine, but not that different in price until you get out towards the more dodgy bits of town.

Hello Trills I am a cambridgeite

Saffron Walden is gorgeous. But expensive.

Nononono, you definitely want to be south of the river. When there's an accident on the A14 the whole of the north and city centre is affected for hours. Even when it rains traffic suddenly gets a whole lot worse in rush hour. You definitely have to go against the traffic, i.e. traveling out of cambridge in the morning and into cambridge in the evening and avoid the city centre at all if you can.

The Mill road area is nice, estate agents call it "Bohemian" to euphamise the rough edges. But the rough edges are okay, I've never felt unsafe.

Moving more out of the centre, along/off Cherry Hinton Road or perhaps in Cherry Hinton itself may be options for your budget. And as Overmydeadbody has said, everywhere in Cambridge is within cycle distance and most of it feels like living in a lively city. There are only a few sleepy suburban areas, really.

Goodluck with your house hunt!

The house opposite ours was let recently at, I think, around £900pcm. We're in Coleridge, between Mill Road and Cherry Hinton Road. So that's a whole house, it'll have two generous bedrooms or three small ones, probably a little (but not tiny) sitting room and dining room and kitchen, off-road parking and unrestricted on-road parking, decent back garden, less than twenty minutes' walk from the railway station, less than ten minutes from Mill Road, good for getting to places south either by car or public transport. This actually is one of the suburban-feeling bits of Cambridge. Just very close to the city-ish bits. It's great. I mean you don't actually want a whole house for £900pcm, you want a bit less space for a bit less money, but yeah, places exist.

I note that this is about the third time in as many days I've encouraged MNers to come and live round by us. I promise I'm not just trying to drive up house prices.

Furnished flat in this neck of the woods, £800pcm:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-32976310.html
Unfurnished one, bit further down Hills Road and probably a bit nicer, £850pcm:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-21505476.html
Both with allocated parking. Hills Road is quite busy, but broad with most properties set back a bit so the traffic isn't right under your nose.

£900 for a decent-sized house in Coleridge? Bargain.

I've lived in Chesterton, and in 3 places in Cherry Hinton over the years (all rented houses). Chesterton was the best for going out and about in town but CH was OK really, just a bit further to walk/cycle.

The main reason Chesterton was dodgy when we were there was because of the pikeys down Fen Road. As far as I know they're still there so perhaps it is still dodgy. The Green Dragon used to be a lovely pub (and my local) but with the closing of the Pike and Eel and the Yorkshire Grey, they've all moved down there and it's not as nice now.......or so I'm told.

Cherry Hinton is OK, a few pubs and shops, not too far from town - you can bus it into town if you don't want to cycle.

Mill Rd is OK but parking not so great. The roads off there are mixed housing - some semis, some terraced, lots of shared houses popular with students. There's also the Cherry Hinton Rd area - roads around there are OK for living in.

If it was me, I think I'd be looking at south of the city too - getting out of the city in the mornings is much easier than getting in. The less sitting in traffic you can do the better.

Definitely south city if you need to get out to Granta Park. If you're in a car you'll probably get held up round Addenbrooke's. A friend used to cycle to Granta Park from Mill Road area - if you like off-road cycling there's the Roman Road from the end of Wort's Causeway.

Otherwise, consider Sawston. Almost a small town rather than a village, with independent shops; all the basics and less expensive than Shelfords!