Nice places to live in Bristol

[Bumpologist]

Hi there. We're thinking of leaving London and relocating to Bristol in order to be closer to the countryside and parents, but we don't really know where to start looking. We currently live in Herne Hill, in-between posh Dulwich and edgy Brixton, and would like to find somewhere similar with good local (not private) schools, a slightly bohemian feel, green spaces where the kids could play when older, and friendly liberal people to make friends with. Any suggestions? We currently have a 2yr old and a baby. What are the nursery waiting lists like around there? And how tough is the competition for primary school places?
Thanks!

Thank you Heels99, all very good advice, I will.

Would you recommend also looking in Bishopston? Priorities are chance of good local primary, secondary options, and ease of getting to Parkway station. Thank you! x

Your best bet is to call school admissions and ask about the likelihood of a place in either of those schools for in ?ear transfer and what schools actually do have places and what waiting lists are like. Consider private school in meantime.

Sorry if I'm hijacking this discussion a little, but I'm a writer and I came across this discussion when I was Googling to find a suitably upmarket area to locate a fictitious private small club/casino in the Bristol Area - with very upmarket but slightly questionable clientèle - in a novel I'm writing. (Don't panic - I've no intention of really opening such an establishment).

I know it sounds daft, but I like my details to be correct and I have a character taking a cab from a (fictitious) village set between Bath and Bristol, to pick up a colleague in Keynsham then onto the (fictitious) casino, so I want to know where she'll have booked the cab to go to.... For the purposes of the plot, the cab can't be turning back. So Keynsham needs to be between the village and the club.
Does that make sense? I only need an area, for the driver to have been booked for, not a street name, as the subsequent scene takes place inside the club itself.

Any suggestions?.... I don't really want to use Clifton, as I'm already using that as another location in the story, so can anyone who perhaps knows the 'upmarket' areas of the City and its environs better than I do recommend a location that might have such a club hidden away somewhere?

Cheers..... and as I said earlier... Sorry for hijacking the discussion, but you lot seemed to know Bristol better than me.
It would be no good if I located my fictional casino in an area that turned out to be purely residential and full of young families, no matter how well off they are, with nowhere where such a club might be located.

Thanks for 'listening', and I hope someone can assist. (This posting's probably longer than the scene in the book will end up, but that's the way of things, eh?).

I don't understand your question re keynsham, cabs etc, can you repeat the question? If it's fictitious csnt you make up a name?

Sorry, Heels, my character is getting into a cab at her home. The driver has been booked but cab drivers always like to confirm that you're going to where his controller has told him that you want to go - especially if he's got another pick up booked near the destination. It would do him no favours if you wanted to go the other way - he'd have to notify his control, and lose the second pick up to someone else.
So he will say something like (this is the actual text, though place names can be changed):

Lena Fox closed the door of her cottage behind her, and went through the gate to the waiting taxi. The driver was standing beside the car, lounging against it smoking a cigarette. He pinched out the glowing end, and put the remaining half back into the pack,
“Taxi for Redland, love?” Lena nodded,
“Yeah… via Keynsham, OK?” She opened the car door, “We've got to pick up someone else too”. He nodded, as she got into the back,
“No probs love… You're the boss… On the agency's account, is it?” He walked round to the driver's door to get in.....

Using a real place name keeps it real (you can get away with fictitious rural village names much easier, though I haven't bothered to give the village a name, simply referring to her home as 'the cottage')
The trouble is that some smartarse reader will soon comment that such and such an area is all new estates, or is all factories, so a private gambling den in a big, posh, old house would be unlikely.... you get the point?

Your description reminds me of the Red Light Bar
www.bristol-culture.com/2013/10/14/red-light-cocktail-bar-bristol/

I'm no expert but "upmarket" but not Clifton just leaves suburbanish areas.

Cheers for that, Pinkfluffypompomhat (I'm guessing that's not your real name...right?).
That place sounds like fun.... apart from the prices of drinks. But then, I'm not a cocktail drinker. I love that 'classic sleaze' kind of vibe, and the forties and fifties style pin ups... very mid period 'Alberto Vargas'.

The setting for my 'club' or casino is in a large old house, so semi surburban, but not modern (or even post war) architecture might be OK. Like a big rambling Victorian or Edwardian place in a leafy suburb, that sort of thing (I can't locate it too specifically or I might upset the real residents by lowering property values).
I've used Google streetview and found squares and streets around Redland and Cotham area that look like the sort of thing I have in mind. They also have enough space for vehicle drop offs - we're talking chauffeurs here, y'know. The two girls in the taxi are 'hostesses'... and we all know what that can mean... don't we?

Thanks for responding.

You need to be close to the city centre for this to sound realistic: Kingsdown or Montpelier perhaps.
It's the going via Keynsham that sounds unrealistic to me though! There are loads of small villages round the Longwell Green/Hanham/Bitton area but very few between Keynsham and Bath.

Yeah, cheers for that, Crazymum. . . I realised that after I posted.
I've got 'Longwell Green' in there at present, with Redland as the location of the 'secret gambling den' (for want of a better term). It doesn't want to be to close to the centre as it's 'under the radar' and very 'members only' (nearly all of them using very dodgy money). As I've said, it's supposed to be in a big old house and is very discreet.
Montpelier isn't quite right, but Kingsdown's getting closer - especially to the North towards Redland.
From using Google streetview, there seem to be loads of the right kind of big houses around Cotham /Redland area, so it'll probably suit. (I'll check out the area for real before my final edit anyway... and certainly before my publisher gets his grubby mitts on it. . . That's why any foreign locations in my stuff are only places that I know pretty well... or that someone I know does. It saves on the travelling).

Thanks a lot for your input.

Hi Wahey79, A year and half ago we moved from London to Bristol with our 3 children. I needed in year application for year 1 and year 3. Initially we rented a place very close to Westbury Park school and although my Y3 child got a place at both Westbury Pk and Henleaze Junior, my Y1 child didn't get a place. He got a place in a school in Southmead. We decided to send my Y3 child to Henleaze and we sent my Y1 child to a small private school called Torwood House. Before the boys started school we bought a house very close to Henleaze school so my Y1 child jumped on top of the waiting list for distance and sibling. A year later, he got a place to start Y2 in Henleaze. Conclusion: It is very difficult to get a place for Y1 unless you have a sibling already there. Even if you live very close to the school, you child may be number 7-10 on the waiting list but you could have the hope that he will get a place once he starts Y3 as Henleaze accepts more children in the Juniors or some children move to private school. Hope it helps.

I know this thread hasn't been active for a while but for the life of me I can't find any suitable advice online that wasn't posted over 5 years ago!

My fiancé and I are moving from London to Bristol in November for the same reason most of the people above are, however we do not have any children at the moment.

All I want to know is which areas you would recommend that are nice, affordable and close to the centre and which areas are best avoided.

Thanks

HI moms, Please i need info regarding finding a spot for my kids one in year 5 and the other in year 3.
what areas are family friendly and more multiculturally diverse with good schools in the neighborhood, not forgetting less crime or no crime areas.

rippledGrace Fri 07-Dec-18 04:37:21
HI moms, Please i need info regarding finding a spot for my kids one in year 5 and the other in year 3.
what areas are family friendly and more multiculturally diverse with good schools in the neighborhood, not forgetting less crime or no crime areas.