Is Arbury a nice area to live?

[ChefWannabe]

Hi Everybody,

We are considering moving to Cambridge from London in the near future. We have two boys aged 8 and 6. We want to be somewhere in the city rather than in the villages nearby as we don't want to rely on car or public transport. And good schools are, of course, top on our criteria. From what I've been reading on MN, we should really be prioritizing secondary schools as primaries seem to be generally good. From what I can see, the catchment area for Chesterton Community School is around Arbury and Castle but I've read older threads where these areas were described as not so nice. Is that still the case? I doubt so but thought it was worth asking...

I am more familiar with the Southern part of the city, which seemed lovely, around Coleridge Road and Cherry Hinton Park. But I'm less familiar with secondary schools there.

We need state schools and, preferably, non-faith (though with in-year applications I know I can't be picky). Should we look more into Arbury/Castle? What are the pros and cons of Arbury/Castle vs Cherry Hinton/Coleridge?

Thanks for anyone reading all the way here. Any comments/suggestions more than appreciated.

Arbury is seen as the "rough" part of Cambridge but a lot of it is now becoming gentrified. Depending on your budget you could look at Chesterton itself, some of which is lovely.

Don't move to Arbury, it's the ghetto of Cambridge. It's really rough.

If there's a car race crash/stabbing/burglary/drug house raid in Cambridge it's usually in Arbury. That's why it's cheaper than other areas. It's a pretty good location in terms of being close to town, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Most of Arbury is absolutely fine - there's a small rough area but most of it is good with the reputation hanging on longer than the actual problems.

I live in one of the villages on the North side and very rarely use my car - it's quicker to get in to town on my bike than it is to drive. Girton, Histon, Milton are all in easy commute distance.

Thanks all.

Enb76, what would be the areas to avoid in Arbury?

I can see how the commute from Girton to the centre would work. What's the experience for kids riding their own bikes in the villages? Is there biking infra-structure generally? Do kids bike to school, for instance?

EmmaGrundyForPM, I liked Chesterton too but houses within our budget tend to be smaller or with small gardens. I like the location too so will keep that in mind.

Boggings, thanks for the honest feedback.

What's your view on the area between Cherry Hinton rd and Mill rd?

There’s a FB group called “Cambridge Parents (UK)” where this question came up last year. Most posters agreed it’s mainly down to snobbery, and there were several who said they’d moved here from London or elsewhere and simply couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. If you join the group and put “Arbury” in the search box it should come up.

I love it here. Lots of families, friendly neighbours, good schools. I’ve lived here for years and never felt unsafe. I don’t know the other side of town very well, but I have to admit Cherry Hinton Hall Park is very nice.

Cherry Hinton is much nicer than Arbury.
Trumpington seems nice too.
Maybe Fulbourn/Teversham if that’s not too far out.

And I’ll say it because no one else will and because I live near the area I know for fact, Chesterton has a travellers site on Fen Road and it is a significant problem and I wouldn’t touch the area with a barge pole.

The area between Mill Road and Cherry Hinton Road is lovely! Lots of families, nice 1930s semis with big gardens. 2 parks, good schools, close to Mill Rd which is great and Cherry Hinton Rd which is really not bad, close to the leisure park as well for cinema, live music venues plus kids stuff like clip n climb, and very walkable to town. Very much preferable to Arbury (which I actually think is fine) in my opinion.

I really like Arbury. Used to take the kids to activities there a lot. Never had any issues, nor did my friends who lived there.

Not much to add, but my first boyfriend was from Arbury, way back in the 90s and it was a really rough area back then.

I used to live fairly near the travellers site in Chesterton and we never had any trouble with them really, but I was renting no buying so didn't have onward sale to worry about. They used to do things like a bit of pony and trap racing round the roads but it wasn't super regular or intrusive.

I don't think most of arbury is that bad - is there anyway you could take bikes up and go and stay for a few days, or even some day trips with bikes. Then you can cycle round the area and get a feel for it?

There should also be a crime map of Cambridge/shire so you can look up where crimes have occured around where you're looking. I would have a Google for that to start with.

The one thing I found a shame on that side of town is access to nice independent places was pretty limited, but I think all the way out in Cherry Hinton that would be the case too.

Arbury is rough, and you probably would not want your kids growing up there. Try Cherry Hinton, Mill Road, Newnham, Trumpington, all much better places for raising a family.

Arbury is mostly fine, as is Castle (which is quite posh in parts). Also for same secondary catchments, look at West Chesterton.