Moving to Bristol

[Iloverobinhood]

I have just found out that my partner has a job Bristol. It's a great job so it looks like we will be relocating from London with our 2 small children (3and 8 months) I know Bristol a little bit and have family in bath but am at a loss where to start so wondered if any if you kind locals had any recommendations. In London we live in a multi cultural area, not posh or shiny with lots going on. I guess we are looking for somewhere similar, an area with good community, shops, bars, parks to walk to and of course a good school (not obsessive about this, doesn't have to be the best ever). Any of your thoughts experiences would be greatly revived. Job is on white ladies road I think. I think we will be moving in the next few months so well need to get our skates on.

Thank you x

Thanks MrsW. We are looking at some houses tomorrow to rent. There doesn't seem to be much about but hopefully we will find something. Book group sounds great. When/ where?

School situation is AWFUL. My daughter bagged last year 1 place in local school when we arrived in Southville, other children after her were being busses miles out. I think there are about 3,000 extra places needed for primary school places in Bristol.

I am now governor of my school and we are going to two form entry and building extra classrooms, but work can't even start until after Sep 2013. I don't see how southville primary can ever expand as it's site is so small, Ashton Gate primary were looking to buy land but I think that fell through.

So I got a horrible shock when I moved from London.

My school is not considered 'naice' by middle class locals but my daughter very happy there.

Check the thread in local under 'Book Group...?'

I'm not looking forward to my DD starting primary next year. Apart from that Bristol's fab!

Bumping as I too am thinking about relocating to Bristol.

Hello ILoveRobinhood, did you find a nice property? I just read this thread with great interest as we are moving to Bristol v soon. Lots of helpful advice about schools on this thread! Tor

Hi, we did find a nice house - in fact we are moving at the end of the week so why I am on mumsnet rather than packing who knows ? This message thread was extremely helpful and we deliberated between windmill hill/ totterdown/ southville and St Andrews/ Bishopston. It was all down to fate in the end though as we really struggled with rental properties to find. We were having to visit from London and there just did not seem to be much available and houses seemed to be being taken as soon as they were put on the market. We had a small window to find somewhere and in the end were lucky enough to find a small place in St Andrews. We're very excited about it but would have been equally happy in the South where we already have some friends and family.

There seemed to be a bit more property for rent in the south (we were looking for 3/4 beds) and slightly cheaper but in the end circumstances prevailed. If you are thinking of renting, it may be worth trying to stay with someone for a bit as we struggled a bit not being able to jump and visit a place the minute it was placed on the market. When we were visiting we were also looking around with lots of other people. Hopefully things will be easier after christmas but thought I better warn you. They also wouldn't let my mum go and look and sign up on our behalf which was a bit annoying as I would have trusted her .

My sense is that there is more property to buy but I may be wrong.

Anyway thankyou all again for your help and I hope to meet some of you when we've got through the angst of moving.