What’s it like in Middlesbrough for southerners

[Leesark]

Hi everyone,

My partner and I are thinking of moving up North due to the incredibly good value property prices. I’ve worked for over 38 years on the railways and will be retiring. My partner who is from the Philippines may decide to work part time for the NHS if there are any hospital jobs available. Middlesbrough is on our shortlist but I’ve read that some people who are not from these areas up North can be made to feel unwelcome, and as my partner is Filippina I have concerns she may experience problems with racism etc. A nice house has become available in South Bank for an unbelievably low price. You wouldn’t get a broom cupboard in London for what the house is South Bank costs. We could do with relocating as to be honest we hate London now, it’s overcrowded, noisy, smelly and very expensive..... Any thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated.

@bubblebath62636

Hi op I live in Middlesbrough, Marton to be specific, it's lovely and quiet.

Yes South Bank is rough as is Winniebanks etc. There are other nice areas, the further away from the centre the nicer it is.

South bank is far from the centre as in grange town much further than Marton is, and they are probably. the worst places to live in the area

icelolly12 perhaps, I haven't been here long.

If I was relocating up North I wouldn’t pick Middlesbrough tbh. Try Tyneside or Northumberland,

Acklam and Stainton are nice too. Please please please avoid South Bank.

South bank is a shit hole. There are nice bits of Middlesbrough, Redcar is cheap and mostly ok. Marske is nice but a bit boring. Both very white. Eston is less bad than Southbank.

Also, don't live in Carling how.

With your Southern accent I hope you have a thick skin for 'banter". You will stick out like a sore thumb in places like Eston or South bank etc

If you don't have a budget of at least 150,000-200,000k then you're making the wrong decision as houses less than 100,000 are likely to be in highly undesirable areas even if the houses themselves are okay. If you're looking at the 30k -60k houses, know that they are this cheap for very good reason.

As with all areas there are good and bad parts. If the house prices seem too good to be true there's a reason why! My cousin lives in seatom carew, a nice part of hartlepool, but there are places in hartlepool I wouldn't want to live. If your interested in teesside do your homework before buying anything.

I live in Boro. There are nice parts but Southbank is not one of them. Stockton and Hartlepool also have some areas I would avoid. If you want to live in a nice area you need to spend a bit of money even up here.

Avoid its cheap for a reason. If your wanting to move to Teesside look at: Yarm, Sedgefield, Fairfield, Wolvistion, some areas of Billingham, Eaglescliffe, Marton, Nunthorpe, and Wynyard.

I’m from Middlesbrough originally. There are lots of lovely places, but South Bank isn’t one of them; there’s a reason housing is cheap there. Plenty of hospital jobs, James Cook is a regional trauma centre and also the regional centre for various specialisms, it’s huge. Large (for the north east!) non-white population, lots of refugees, I can’t tell you how you’ll be received from that point of view but in general people in Middlesbrough are as friendly as anywhere else in the NE. Middlesbrough gets bad press, and it is a very deprived area, but it has lots of plus points and I’d include the people as one of them.

@bubblebath62636

Forgot to ask op what's your budget?

Here's a house not far from us, great value for money imo.

Beautiful house but vastly overpriced considering those houses back on to a very busy duel carriageway. You can get much better value houses in nearby areas.

Thinking of moving to Middlesbrough from Bristol
A new build in TS3. Is this a nice area? I’m also mixed race and my husband is white. Is Middlesbrough racist? We are in our 50s our children are grown up so not relocating with us

I wouldn’t live in Middlesbrough. There are far nicer places in the NE.if I was moving there I would go to Newcastle and buy a house in the suburbs. Or on the coast.

That's right next to South Bank and North Ormesby (or maybe even north Ormesby). Look up deprivation statistics and neighborhoods.

I wouldn't move there.

It’s the Gleeson development college gardens TS3 if that helps

@Ourbabs I don't live far from there, it's not a bad area. Obviously it gets it's bits of trouble, but what area doesn't.

Of course it's also not the nicest area of Middlesbrough. TS3 is surrounded by good primary schools.

drove up from Bristol yesterday, development nice, a mixture of nice and not so nice houses in the area, people friendly, town centre is small, still deciding if Middlesbrough is for us, the sales person said they are knocking down the multi storey flats that we could see from the development, I definitely wouldn’t live there if they were keeping the flats. On our long journey home now, 243 miles to go!