St Annes in Bristol. Anyone know it/anything about it?

[FrightfullyPoshFloss]

I might become a bit of a pest like this over the coming months.

We are hopefully moving to Bristol next year and are thinking of getting a mortgage, well its one possibility anyway. We may be able to consolidate all our debts into the mortgage and therefore be quite a lot better off.

So I've been looking and dreaming. We need to get this right if we loan money for more than the house is worth. We need to be sure that the house (and us!) are right. Knowle we have pretty much ruled out as the schools don't seem too good.

St Annes though seems to offer some affordable houses and quite good schools. So before I go off nosing around I'd appreciate it if anyone could tell me any reasons not to go there! Thanks!

Please don't mind the bump.

hmmm - kinda depends on your family likes and dislikes. Will suit many but a lot fo people could find it definitely not for them.
How much do you know about it? My ex lived here for years and worried about my car every time I stayed over - not exactly crime free IYKWIM.Certain roads/bits are worse than others and I guess it may have improved over the last 5 years.
I reckon that it is more affordable for very good reasons - can be difficult to park, the shops aren?t great/a little run down (lots of second hand car yards, cheap take outs and estate agents). Saying that, it does have some good points. It is cheaper, easy to get into the city centre (still by transport though as nowhere really decent to walk to). Some schools are meant to be ok.
If I had my choice I would have a smaller house elsewhere than a bigger house in ST Annes area but that is just me.
Are you city people? what sort of area do you enjoy. If you are frightfully posh or even slightly posh you might well find other parts of town much more up your street. I am not that posh but would not feel safe living there any more now I have children.
Sorry if I offend anyone living there, just my honest opinion. Now live outside Bristol in small rural area, much safer, less parking hassle, fewer burglaries and nicer accent

Floss

My SIL lived in the newer St Annes Park development which was a great starter home for her. I have a friend who lives in the old part of St Annes and she is very happy there (never had a problem with car crime). It does have good acess to the ring road, M32 and city centre which are a bonus.

Would I live there? The answer is, no, and the reason:

www.ofsted.gov.uk/reports/index.cfm?fuseaction=proxSearch&phase=secondary&postcode=BS4+4EJ+&radius=5&submit.x=14&submit.y=8

Bear in mind you would not be in the catchment for Hanham High/John Cabot. The Bristol Academy does not have an Ofsted as is a new 'college' but it was my local secondary school before I moved and the thought of sending my kids there turned my blood cold.

Do you think you will move again before secondary school?

HI, thanks both of you.

The reason we are looking for cheap is twofold really. One, we can't afford much. Two, we have large debts which could be consolidated into our mortgage.

The schools in Knowle are pretty appalling. I have only been looking at primary schools atm, because DS is not yet one , and although we need to be in the house a long time for our finances to sort themselves out (we'll be borrowing more than the house is worth), I think 10 years should be enough to do it. I know we might be unlucky. Anything could happen. But then, likewise with schools. Am I right in thinking that measures are being taken to improve Bristol schools?

For the same reason we need to get a three bedroom house, a two bed can be limited if we decided to have more children, wouldn't it?

But these are the reasons why we need a slightly larger house perhaps in not the best area. Although it's not the worst. Another place we could potentially afford by the looks of it is Broom Hill.

So both primary schools I looked at in St Annes were 'good schools'. I don't know St Annes at all though. One of the primary schools in Broom Hill didn't look too bad either, I know that area reasonably well as I used to live just round the corner on the Bath Road .

I know maybe we should wait to get a mortgage perhaps when we are a little better off, but I don't know if that day will ever come. Put it this way, to rent a modest place at about £500, our outgoings on rent and debt would be about 1100 a month . With this type of mortgage we would be able to get a house for about 115k and only pay 800pcm. Thats the difference between me working full time and part time.

Sorry, it's very complicated isn't it? Hope I haven't completely confused you!

I have no idea about St Annes but I have noticed it's cheap Floss. Have you looked on upmystret.com? Quite useful discussion boards there I think.

And I wouldn't worry about primary schools yet, a LOT can change in 3 or 4 years so what's a good school now could go downhill and the other way around.

Wow, you were quick! I've looked on it for the general info of whats about etc, but haven't seen the discussion bits yet. Will go along and nag them there then! Thanks WWW, I know you helped last time too when I thought we might be able to get back, hopefully more certain this time though!

just to add my bit, wouldn't touch knowle with a bargepole, and you have to think, if places are cheap theres normally a reason for it. Sorry to be gloomy, just my opinion. I wouldn't live in either personally in a million years.

We've ruled Knowle out now. Tried to be open minded but it just wasn't happening (although I did find the best 1930's house on right move, it had soo much character with slopey roof and all!).

I'll try and get down there next month to have a look at the places I'm thinking of. See how bad they are! As a nurse and a policeman, the only way we will ever afford anything half decent is if we get a key worker loan, which I also mean to apply for, but nice areas and nice houses can't be both done for us unfortunately.

Ok, now considering Stockwood, been told parts of this are good. Do I need to be shot?

My grandparents live in ST Annes and my mum grew up there. She went to the school in Broom Hill road and it was fine then, was a long time ago though. Brislington school is close and they are rebuilding it soon.

Oh, I used to live in Knowle, went to Victoria park school - it was lovely.

I suppose that depends on getting the right part of Knowle though, dosen't it? Oh, I don't know. No point getting stressed, yet, we don't have Dp's start date for his new job through yet. Thanks for your help Distel. Nice to know that they aren't totally awful!

Floss, in that case, I would consider St Annes. The primary schools in Bristol are good, it's the secondary schools that are a let down.

We moved in May, DS is 4 and we know we cannot move again unless we win the lottery, so we had to move somewhere with a half decent secondary school.

I wouldn't live in Stockwood mainly due to the location not being convenieint for DH and I but the thing with Bristol is there are nice parts to most areas so you can't write off postcodes on name alone.

If you don't mind me asking, how much are you looking to spend and where will your DH be based?

HI WWW, I don't mind at all! Basically our budget is between 113,000 to 120,000. DP's dad is high up in the force and thinks he may be able to influence where he will be posted, although we in no way know for sure. Basically his dad has asked us to make up our mind where we would like to live before he starts to narrow down areas. One area he's advising Dp to think of is Knowle West, actually, as its a 'busy' area . He'll be driving, we hope to get a car, so not too worried about where he goes as long as its not where we will be living, as that isn't sensible.

I'm hoping to work in the BRI, or, more to the point, in Stockwood especially, I won't be able to get to anywhere else on public transport so early in the morning!

The other thing being that as I mentioned earlier, we want 3 bedrooms as we need to be somewhere for the forseeable future. In Stockwood there were a couple of 4 bedroom places! Crime there seems very low from the Avon and Som website.

I was wondering about you last night, WWW, I never knew what happened about the job you were deliberating over. I hope you are happy with whatever you decided to do! Thanks for trying to help me out here .

Floss, Knowle West is dire. Knowle is nicer but more expensive. Ah, just realised you've decided not to go there. Knowle West would be busy if you were a policeman! Oh maybe it's not that bad but hmm. Have you thought about Brislington? I'm going to think about it and will post if I come up with anything useful.
I'm currently on contract in Milton Keynes and living in London in the week, not ideal. I think that's the job you were thinking of. but I have interviews in the West, so you never know!

What about Horfield?

3 beds in Horfield for £95k

Have seen horfield about too. But his parents are very anti that area. I'd quite like it. So I don't know about it really. I also said to DP how nice would it be to be just off the Gloucester road, and erm, he said not. He, rightly or wrongly, will want to be nearer his parents (they're between bath and Bristol, so not toooo close).

Sorry to both of you for muddling you. Good luck with your interviews. Whereabouts in London are you living during the week?

Oh I think Horfield is nice too Floss, much nicer than South Bristol imo. I'm in NW London during the week, nice and handy for the M1

Brislington is MUCH too close to your ILs by the sound of it!

this looks nice but no idea where Whitehall is

Ooh, what about Totterdown? Also a bit near the ILS but near enough and easy for Knowle/Knowle West if your dp's going to be based at that station.

Again, Dp not keen on Totterdown. I'll see if I can link to some of the ones we have seen. Whitehall is kind of between Fishponds and St Georges IIRC.

Hmm, Totterdown is ok, much nicer than Knowle West imo.