Where to live in Leicestershire?

[Forfamily]

Hi Everyone!

Sorry for the long post 🙈

We are currently looking into moving out of Beckenham/ Bromley area and possibly to Leicestershire (Sept 2019 for the start of next academic year).

We are a family of 4, we have two DD 3 and 5.5 years.

We are looking for a change in lifestyle but also don't want to be out in the "sticks" as one of my fears are moving out of London not knowing anyone and becoming very lonely and sad. I am a very social person and have a great friendship grp here as well as my girls.

We are looking for a cosmopolitan area with good transport links (DH will need to travel to London for work), good schools, good sense of community/friendly, things for us to do as family on the weekends, good parks and not too far from shops/supermarkets.

We have so far looked into:
Kirby muxloe
Oadby- (Brocks Hill school seems great!?)
Stoneygate
Clarendon Park
South Knighton
Loughborough
Wigston
Market Harbour

DH is visiting soon and it'll be great to get any help, advice and/or suggestions.

Also school catchment areas seem to be hard to obtain/ get my head around without an address, can anyone help with that? I'm thinking to have a chat with the council tomorrow.

Much appreciated in advance!

Small town- Market Harborough or village Kibworth Beauchamp, both good for schools, shops Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, lots of independent shops and family activities. Fast train to London.
Clarendon Park is very crowded and full of students as it has the University campus. Ok for primary schools, but not secondary unless your going private. South Knighton and Stoneygate are leafy and popular with Academics, Doctors etc, but the same school issues as all three areas run into each other. IMO they are the best city areas to live in, but schools let them down.
Loughborough is a bit far out and again very studenty. The big university is right near the centre, which is a bit run down.
Wigston, I’d give a swerve, I taught there for years.
Oadby good for schools- The Beauchamp College is v good. Primaries also have good reputation. Small useful shopping area, M&S food, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and some independents.
I don’t know much about Kirby Muxloe.
Have a good time when you visit.

Re schools. The good ones are very popular because they are good in a sea of weaker schools. As you can imagine families buy houses in areas where the schools are good.( unless they are going private) The good schools are heavily oversubscribed, so you really have to have a catchment address first. Do your research as our local school has recently restricted its catchment area.

Market Harborough is lovely. I grew up there and have a lot of family still there so I visit regularly.
My ds has brought her dc up there.
It has big supermarkets but also lots of lovely little independent shops, lots of good cafe bars, Welland Park is a lovely big park with an excellent play area.
There are lots of nice walks, the schools are all pretty good.
I would highly recommend it.

Beebumble2 thank you so much!
The info has been so useful in guiding us on areas to look at.

DH is up there now and says Leicester city centre looks a bit run down. As it could be the place were we head to for family dinners, shopping etc we just wondered how safe it is or do those not living in the surrounding towns head elsewhere?

aleC4 Thanks a lot! Market Harborough seems like a strong contender.

The centre of Leicester is perfectly safe, but suffers from some lack of investment. However, Highcross shopping Mall right in the centre has John Lewis, a huge Zara, L’Occitan, an Apple store, Hotel Chocolat and all the other shops you might want, also a Cinema Lux.In the outside pedestrian area are the usual chains of restaurants, Carluccios, Wagamama etc.
There is also a relatively new theatre, Curve. Again in the city centre and the area around are more individual restaurants.
For Asian restaurants the London Road, from the station to Victoria Park is jammed packed with good restaurants.
There are also some very good restaurants and more gastro pubs in the villages, Kibworth has 3 excellent restaurants where booking is a must, but all reasonably priced.
Market Harborough is also a good place for eating, little coffee shops, Italian deli and several good restaurants.
Please PM me if you want to know anything specific.

Nobody has mentioned Quorn yet- very family friendly but 'nice' and a surprising amount of really good places to eat in the village and the surrounding area. Close to Loughborough for mundane shopping but also to Leicester for a more substantial outing.
Leicester itself isn't the snazziest looking of cities but I would move back in a heartbeat if you told me I had to live in a city again. Safe, cosmopolitan, good mix of chain and independent shops, always something interesting going on in terms of faith and cultural festivals that are generally welcoming to all. Big enough to be a proper city but small enough to get to know well.

Market Harborough is also a good shout and much easier to get back to London if you're likely to want to do that regularly.

If you live in Market Harborough or one of the nearby villages (Great Bowden, the Langtons, Kibworth if you want to be somewhere a bit bigger) it's unlikely you'd need to visit Leicester much if at all. Very convenient for your husband working in London too.

Quorn is lovely - really pretty village and also really busy weekend nightlife - really well known as a big night out (bizarre for a fairly small village !)
Some Good Leicestershire/ Leicester secondaries by reputation are Rushey mead in Leicester, beauchamp in oadby, limehurst in Loughborough ...there are lots of average ones though and I would say it's a downside of leics- a lot of people go private
It's a really good place to live - lovely countryside, well connected to everywhere, the city centre is great for shopping, eating out, theatre etc

Leicester is not easy on the eye but it is the friendliest place I have ever lived.
The girls' school Sir Jonathan North which is catchment for Clarendon Park, Knighton and some Stoneygate is a well regarded state secondary. It's the former boys school- Lancaster Academy- which has just gone co-ed - which is not well regarded.
Stoneygate is a lovely area. Leafy, nice big Victorian/ Edwardian houses. Clarendon Park is the most fabulous community but parking is a daily nightmare due to proximity to the university. And it's mainly just small terraces with v small gardens. Oadby schools are good but I wouldn't live there. I think it's a bit soulless.
Harbs is fab. A family member commutes daily to London from there.

I vote Market Harborough. It’s lovely.

Market Harb is lovely and good fast train into London. Stay away from Leicester itself unless you want your soul to die! I spent two years there and it's not not only dull but not really a place for outsiders to move to.

Market Harborough is crime central at the minute lots of travellers there now as well it's gone very down hill. Wigston is chav central.

None of the areas you've mentioned are that great tbh! you are best in the sticks if you live in Leicester but you obviously don't want that so you're shitted.

Market Harborough crime central???

Wasn’t when I was there yesterday, or the week before, or before that.
I don’t think the newly opened shops like NK space, Mint Velvet and Fat Face would be in a down market area.

Market Harborough has got the best Mint Velvet stand-alone shop that I’ve been in. Where is the Italian Deli?

Is Leicester safe?? I’ve been a few times and had my heart in my mouth walking from the station to the town centre. My friend came with me and she said that Leicester makes Hull look good. I didn’t dare take her into Peterborough.

I live in Knighton which is suburban, full of families, mostly 1930's - 50's houses, bigger houses plenty of parking. Overdale is a good primary (was when my kids went). Clarendon Park is a bit more alternative, lots of rental houses as near the university and families who don't have cars out of choice, good vegan deli etc and independent restaurants/bars. Oadby is not in the city school system and has a good secondary as catchment - lots of newer houses, my dd volunteered at brocks hill primary as a sports coach, seemed very good.

Don't get hung up on secondary schools as much though, my DD's went to secondary in the county despite living in the city, many do because there's not enough youngsters to fill the places in oadby. Leicester Grammar is private but good and reasonable compared to London private schools.

It's a really safe friendly city btw, obviously anywhere can have issues but I have no issues with teenagers going out. Just be aware it's very ethnically diverse, we love this (especially the amazing food on belgrave road)

@Beebumble2 yes harborough is bad. I'm there all the time too without giving too much away I know for a fact how bad it's got.

Cafetiercoffee The Italian Deli, Just So Italian is in Adam and Eve Street. It’s a little cafe as well, very popular.
We lived in Stoneygate for 27 years, before moving up the road towards MH.
Night time Leicester is lively, but our DCs didn’t experience any trouble when they went on nights out. We go in for the theatre, meals out and always feel safe walking back to the car. But we were brought up and lived in London, so maybe our perception is different.

Leicester city centre is absolutely fine, I personally would avoid cutting through parks at night but you'd say that to anyone anywhere.

There are residential areas that aren't very pleasant for outsiders but none have been mentioned yet and even then when I did voluntary work at uni it often took me into places like St Matthews, Eyres Monsell and so on and it was always ok.
Good to read Jonnie North school is doing well, did some work there as well and it was a bit ropey back then, didn't realise the boys had gone coed as well.

Oh and while I'm at it stay away from kibworth too... they have to have police patrolling now it's so bad was a nice little village until they built a massive estate there now it's awful.

Market Harborough is definitely not crime central!
I think they have been very lucky and had a very low crime rate for a very long time.
Unfortunately it's a sign of the times that crime everywhere is on the up. In a nice little market town with previously not a lot of crime I can see how it may feel like it's increased a lot.
My ds said as much. But she had lived in many places and said MH had the least crime by a mile of anywhere she's lived.
It really is only really low level compared to the horrors we see on the news everyday!

I must live on a different planet!
Kibworth is a fantastic place to live. An outstanding primary school, good Secondary school, several pre schools, individual shops, three coffee shops, a really good Co Op, library, doctors, two excellent restaurants, antique centre and a gastro pub.
Lots of village life and societies to join in with. I often walk through the village late at night and see no one.
The new build housing is mostly £300,000 to £600,000. Not a massive estate, although the old conservation area is nicer, but that’s the same most places.

@Beebumble2 come on half of the houses are social housing which is when the trouble started, just check out the local Facebook pages to see how much trouble there is in kibworth, the school is also a joke.

They took the skatepark down as it was forever getting vandalised, the play park is covered in broken glass etc cos the kids get pissed on there every night. There is always trouble up there. 2 youth clubs has to close as they couldn't control the kids. And don't get me started on the drug problem! Same goes for fleckney.

I was in a residential area of the city recently and I thought it looked a shithole. Syston is nicer. If I had to, I’d go to Market Harborough.