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Original poster

moving to brighton/hove - which areas would you recommend?!

49 replies

rachelstephens · 03/08/2008 10:30

hi everyone

we are moving down to your stomping ground with our 17 month old in october. we are going to rent for at least a year until we find our feet, as we are moving from the midlands so it is a big change for us all.

i know the area a bit as i grew up in chichester but i'm not sure which areas we should concentrate on when looking for somewhere to rent.

i know that i definitely don't want to live in hanover or kemp town (no offence meant to anyone who lives there and loves it!) but apart from that i don't know where to look. we would rather stay south of the A23 if possible. we would like a nice family area where you can get a garden without having to sell your soul to finance it!

we had thought about moving to southwick but i now feel that might be too far away from everything going on and it will be important to throw ourselves into stuff when we move down so we can meet people and get into it all.

if anyone has any thoughts i would really appreciate it as we are pretty nervous about this! it would be great to try and meet up with people once we are down as well.

thanks so much everyone

rachelx

OP posts:
Aishy · 10/09/2008 21:31

ps am also from Leicestershire! barrow on soar originally. how about you?

mobo · 16/09/2008 12:33

Hope you don't mind me jumping on board your post!

We're also hoping to move to Brighton soon, from London. Although we've been to visit many times we don't know the residential areas at all so i don't know which areas are good and which are bad.

My DH and I will both be commuting to London at first so although we don't want to live in central Brighton we do need somewhere with easy links to the train station.

I've seen a couple of houses around Barrow hill near Hollingbury golf club that seem to offer value for money. Is this because it's not a nice area or far out?

sunnydelight · 17/09/2008 10:37

Both mobo.

thejessa · 17/09/2008 16:41

Hi Noddy, would love to

email me at jess.conway@ mac.com

and we can sort something out

Jess

iheartdusty · 17/09/2008 16:50

hi mobo

check the train times from Hove-London, they might even suit you better than Brighton. Both services have gaps but are pretty good.

preston park is another good commuter stop on the London line but not all trains stop there

mobo · 17/09/2008 22:44

Unfortunately, I don't think we can afford hove or preston park, or rather we could only afford a flat there. We don't mind living a bit further out if it means a decent sized house and garden, but obviously not somewhere dodgy.

It's a shame, cause I saw a few nice-looking houses in hollingbury/hollingdean. Is Bevendean just as bad? So which are the nicer outer suburbs?

2shoes · 17/09/2008 22:47

don't go to bevendean.
although it is cheaper, the schools are not good.

iheartdusty · 19/09/2008 15:54

what about the area in reach of Portslade station?

benfield valley
foredown
southern edge of hangleton

for example

this is a nice road near a good school

noddyholder · 19/09/2008 16:07

I have lived in hollingdean and hollingbury Some roads are lovely some not so nice but both areas have good schools

Helen1000 · 22/09/2008 21:21

I'm moving from London at the moment and have rented a 3 bed house in Preston Park (near Blakers park). It is a gorgeous terraced property but the gardens are small and very overlooked (1450 pcm). I found it on Rightmove - agency Choices. I have viewed several houses in the area and am finding very little garden space. There are great parks and it seems like a really nice area, but a garden is important to me. We're starting to consider Hove.

Original poster
rachelstephens · 14/10/2008 13:30

hi everyone

thanks so much for the feedback.

aishy - we are in market harborough, not from round here originally, ended up there kind of by accident.

helen1000 - did you rent that house overlooking blakers park? we tried to look at that back in august but it had gone straight away, think that was with choices

my husband has now got a job so we are finally ready to move. i was really excited but then i did a search on here for fiveways (where we decided to try and rent) and lots of people were saying how awful the schools are, but they are sending their kids to private school, and even the swimming pools around here are rubbish so you have to join something like David Lloyd. Then i looked on the fiveways community forum and it just seemed to be people moaning about parking and the travellers at the top of Ditchling Road! So now I am feeling a bit despondent and not sure what we have let ourselves in for.

where i live now you can walk into town easily and go to the library, play groups and all that in 10 minutes from my house. will i be able to do that in fiveways or is there nothing going on?

i don't want to sound all negative and offend anyone but this is a massive upheaval for us and i am worried about things like the schools now after reading other threads on here

any thoughts? thanks, rachel

OP posts:
PestoFangsLookGoodOnMeMonster · 14/10/2008 13:49

Sorry, I don't know about Primary Schools in the Fiveways area, but the 2 Secondary Schools are fab. Also, they are extending one of them to accomodate extra pupils, so you would be really unlucky not to get into one or other of them if you lived in that area.

noddyholder · 14/10/2008 13:51

I live at fiveways the schools are great for all ages Nice place to live can't really fault it at all.

PestoFangsLookGoodOnMeMonster · 14/10/2008 13:53

Hi Noddy! How are yooooooooo?

furrycat · 14/10/2008 13:59

Rachel - I'm in Fiveways and we moved here because the primary school are supposed to be so good. (DS1 starts next year). Check out OFSTEDs for Balfour and Downs.

I love it round here - very friendly with loads of families. How old are your kids?

If you walk into town it will take you 30-40 minutes but the bus service is good during the day. It's about 10 mins on a bus (they are expensive though)

noddyholder · 14/10/2008 14:10

Hello pesto I'm really well How are you?Are you coming to the xmas thai meal?

PestoFangsLookGoodOnMeMonster · 14/10/2008 17:01

Hello! I'm good and I'm hoping to do the Christmas bash. Thai sounds a very good idea

Pollyanna · 14/10/2008 17:31

rachel you can do all of those things in Seven Dials!

(not sure about secondary schools here).

primary schools really good, we can walk to the sea, the shops, the library, the swimming pool, the station. Good parks too.

downside - it is quite expensive I think, but possibly cheaper than Preston Park.

Parking is probably a bit crap too.

Original poster
rachelstephens · 16/10/2008 21:12

thanks again everyone for your input.

i am coming down next week to take the plunge and rent somewhere, will be looking in hove AND seven dials AND fiveways so am going to have my work cut out!

after my wobble on monday i am really excited again about moving down and am looking forward to the challenge of getting out and about with my toddler and finding my way around. we are moving down in mid-november so i will hopefully meet some of you after that. cheers, rachelx

OP posts:
heathste · 07/06/2009 07:35

Hi all you lovely Brighton and Hove Mnetters.

Our flat sale is going through at the moment and we want to move to your fantastic city - but are getting incredibly confused about where!

Have been looking on property websites for months but whenever I see a nice house in our budget it's either in the catchment area for poorly performing schools or is too far away from a train station.

I'm quite nervous about bringing the family here as it was my idea to move to another town in East Sussex three years ago which hasn't worked out.

Would love to meet up with some of you guys to convince myself I'm doing the right thing
for the family and not just suiting myself!

Would anyone be free to meet up for a coffee on a Tuesday morning? I could get over for about 10.30 and will be wearing a pink carnation!

Original poster
rachelstephens · 07/06/2009 20:38

hi, i work on tuesdays so can't move but we finally moved down to brighton in december and are loving it. i am sure you and the family will enjoy living here, there is always lots going on and it has a generally very friendly feel about it.

we are renting in fiveways and we love the area but are not sure whether to stay around here as it is so expensive to buy for what you get. so we are also getting confused about where else to look and where to plump for. you could perhaps think about renting until you get a better idea about where to live permanently? good luck!

OP posts:
noddyholder · 07/06/2009 20:41

I live at 5ways and thoroughly reccomend it.great community feel brilliant schools parks pubs etc HTH

furrycat · 08/06/2009 10:45

Am in Fiveways too and love it.

Please feel free to CAT me if you want more info

saintmaybe · 08/06/2009 10:54

The surestart nursery in hollingdean is fantastic too

i miss brighton!

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