Where to live?

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Hi we're moving to Bristol with our 18 month old and need to decide where to live! We have a budget of max £525k and want a 4 bed house near a good/outstanding state primary school with an easy commute to temple meads (I know we don't ask a lot!). House prices seem to be ridiculous so any tips on good places from those in the know? Thank you!

Totterdown? not sure about schools though.

Or southville

I would say Totterdown, Victoria Park or Windmill Hill are the best bet for affordability and being in walking distance of Temple Meads. The only difficulty is that most houses in this area are 3 beds and 4 is quite rare. What lots of families are doing is buying 3 bed houses and doing loft conversions.
Also worth considering is Upper Knowle (Victorian style houses) and the West Town Lane part of Brislington (bus route to Temple Meads).
Schools can change but West Town Lane academy, Knowle Park primary and Victoria Park primary would fit your criteria. Hillcrest primary also worth considering but very small catchment. Marksbury Road academy is too new to have an OFSTED rating yet!

Do take secondary schools into account even though it may seem a long way off. Whilst southville, totterdown etc are great areas that tick all your boxes, secondaries are an issue. You can disregard if you are going private. People will say it will improve, but I've lived in Bristol 25 years and secondsrybprovision in south Bristol is yet to improve unfortunately

Hillcrest is excellent with a pretty small catchment but the secondary options are not great. If you can consider independent then obviously that's no something you need to worry about. There are definitely whole streets in totterdown and knowledge that are in a total secondary school black hole.

Sorry silly auto correct *knowle .

Bishopston/Gloucester Road maybe?

Agree southville/totterdown/upper knowle are lovely. Several 'good' primary schools which I've heard only good things about.
givemeaclue there has definitely been improvement in some south Bristol secondaries, although would agree not all, and not actually sure now which are in catchment for totterdown/southville!

Parts of lower Totterdown is in catchment for Ashton park (although this changes yearly), some in Totterdown and knowle go to st Katherine's in Pill (there is a school bus). Lots end up with Brislington Oasis, regardless whether or not selected (whilst still graded as needing improvement I believe this School to be on the up and have heard positive things about some aspects) Broadland in Keynsham is another option and of course the hit and hope lottery schools, plus St Mary Redcliffe if you go to church (one of the best comps in Bristol). Basically there is no one, no brainer School this side of town that's amazing and you are garanteed to get into. All of the above have some issues IMO, the lottery schools (Colstons and BCS) excepted although the lottery allocation is an issue in it's self

Montpelier maybe. Hang on I love Rightmove let me have a look for you. When you said easy commute to temple meads what do you mean? Less than 30mins walk or less than that?

General rule of thumb is north west of centre (Clifton) is best area; north of temple meads (Montpelier) and south west (Southville) are good; south of temple meads (windmill hill, Victoria park) are ok; the further south (knowle) and east (st Paul's) you go the worse the areas get.

I realise this isn't always true and people will say oh I love my area etc but the house prices reflect this general attitude / prejudice.

Langton Park in Southville is a nice road Langton Park, Southville, Bristol, BS3
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-65746676.html

Could split bedroom 2 into two kids rooms (2.2x3m) St Lukes Crescent, Totterdown, BRISTOL, BS3
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47898264.html

Is the 4th bedroom for visitors? If so you could make the 'studio' a self contained bed/ensuite?
Beauley Road, Southville, Bristol, BS3
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47857389.html

Don't mistake 'knowle' for knowle west. Knowle is lovely, leafy large Victorian houses with big gardens, IMO nicer than Totterdown, plus lots of it still Hillcrest catchment, lots of parks and less than 30 mins walk to TM

You don't need to be in walking distance of Temple Meads - you need to be in walking distance of one of the stations on the Severn Beach railway line, which will take you to TM and back.

We moved from a small terraced house in Bedminster in south Bristol 14 years ago when our sons were 7 and 3 and in need of extra bedrooms, a garden, lots of parks and green space & good schools(primary and then Backwell secondary-Ofsted outstanding) all of which we found in Yatton. The relatively lower house prices meant that we could afford a house our friends couldn't believe was really in our price range. Yatton has a pretty Victorian station with regular services to Temple Meads in 15 mins.We've both used the train to commute to Bristol and the children have also made great use of it. The Strawberry line cycle track (sustrans route 26) runs from Yatton. It's been a great place to bring up children.

I would look at BS9 schools (particularly Henleaze, Elmlea). Depends how easy a commute you want to Temple Meads though - it would be a bus or drive rather than a walk.