Manchester - diverse, safe areas

[Peanutbuttermouth]

I know Manchester has been done before on here but I'm looking for a diverse area to bring my kids up in. We live in a very homogeneous town at the moment and will be moving to Manchester in the next year. Can I please have opinions on the nicest, safest, most affordable areas? Need a 3 bed house on budget of 220k max.

Hulme is studenty

Hulme does have a population of students but it also has 3 primary schools which all are over subscribed. Therefore it has a huge amount of young families living there.

I really must defend Hulme @ShesGotBetteDavisEyes you clearly have never lived in Hulme, at least in the last 15yrs. It is not rough. I no longer live there as our kids are older and we wanted a bigger house, but we lived there for 15yr with no issues whatsoever. They are in year 5 and 6 at a Hulme primary school, they still to school in Hulme and have lovely friends who come from professional families. They used to play out all the time in the gated gardens at the back of the houses....it is a lovely community.
There is a library, community garden centre which does a huge amount of kids stuff, an arts centre which does kids activities, theatre, music etc (infact my kids are at a half term activity there everyday this week), leisure centre, quirky cafes, massive park, supermarket, etc etc etc.
You could do a whole lot worse than Hulme!

For an example. Crime stats of moss side and somewhere in south Manchester

Hulme is very diverse OP. Infact I read an article that said that there are more languages spoken in Hulme than in New York!

That's great to hear @datacolour and I have been recommended Hulme elsewhere too. I've heard loads about the community garden centre.

Ours was the only brown family in our suburb in a Cheshire location just west of Manchester. It was an idyllic place to live as a young family, TBH. Of course there was racism (very, very) occasionally - often the result of ignorance rather than prejudice - but its lack of diversity certainly didn’t translate into a lack of kindness or friendship.

Do take peer groups into account. You’ll probably have more in common with someone who shares your education, income level, hobbies etc than someone who just has the same skin colour.

More prosaically, Fallowfield is lovely you know. Period housing with gardens and great schools. University students pay too much in tuition fees to be rowdy drunks these days, and academic environments are usually synonymous with liberal values.

Agree with humsnet

@humsnet I appreciate what you are saying but we are very different to the people surrounding us at the moment. They are kind and we have friends but I think none of us have ever really felt that we fit in. One of my kids has verbalised this and I've felt it for a long time. I'm hoping to find the unicorn that is a diverse, multicultural, friendly, safe neighbourhood with affordable housing and half decent schools!!

It’s a complex one, Peanut, and I really can understand your concerns although I don’t have children and schools to consider. FWIW I went through something not dissimilar when I went to uni and found myself the only Northern girl in Halls . You don’t want to be ‘othered’ or excluded even if you appear to fit in superficially. There’s a lot to be said for being unremarkable.

Not sure if you’ve mentioned your ethnicity here but I would also be careful about assuming ‘your’ community will be welcoming. They’re often deeply insular through intermarriage or through religion, and your values may not sit well with yours. All of my school friendship group who have made lives elsewhere were different in some way and not assimilated.

Meant to say, “your values may not sit well with theirs”.

@humsnet we are a mix of 3 different cultures and 2 religions so not looking for a particular community, just families which are equally diverse!

Stretford is reasonably cheap, fairly diverse and has good transport links. It's a grammar area so secondary schools are a bit binary (either a grammar for mostly white MC tutored kids or the less good ones for kids that failed the grammar test).
Old Trafford and Gorse Hill are cheaper but whiter.

Sedgley park, Crumpton and Blackley might be worth a look.
Close to Prestwich/Heaton park but not as homogeneously white as Prestwich.
They are all fairly affordable with some pretty big houses and relatively close to town.

Sedgley park is very jewish and you see kids playing out and walking around by themselves all the time. Crumpton/Blackley have larger Asian populations - I cant talk from experience about wether kids play out around there or not.

Collyhurst is currently quite down-at-heel but is getting regenerated next year, so you might bag a bargain there.
Burnage is diverse, safe and still fairly cheap, and you can get the bus or train into town.

Levenshulme is diverse, gentrifying rapidly though and consequently house prices and rents are rising ridiculously. Still, you should find a 3 bed for under £220k without too much trouble. No tram but there is a train station and a lot of buses. My dc safely play out and walk to school (there are always people on here who act as if Leve is a mega violent hellhole that you are lucky to survive even passing through, but that just isn't true).

Withington is also a nice place; house prices there are already high, but there are a few ex HA homes for sale on your budget.

This is just the info I need, thank you!

I lived in na affluent South Manchester suburb. It was not safe. A lot of car crime and burglary. A lot!!!!
Kids didn't play out either.
Levenshulme is a dump, but there is a good community with lots going on.
Avoid burnage, moss side, hulme. North Manchester may be better

I lived in an affluent South Manchester suburb. It was not safe. A lot of car crime and burglary. A lot!!!!
Kids didn't play out either.
Levenshulme is a dump, but there is a good community with lots going on.
Avoid burnage, moss side, hulme. North Manchester may be better

This place has potential. Never done a link before so apologies if it’s blank.

Arse it. Copy and paste please. I loathe the uPVC which my Northern brethren seem to worship, but it is late Victorian or Edwardian and could be lovely. Nice area around Platt Fields Park too.

Sorry to subvert your thread into yet another MN ethnographic rabbit hole, up above, Peanut.

East Manchester and beyond towards Glossop.

I think it depends on what your perception of rough is. Some people are scared of their own shadow. I live in one of the 'naice' areas but there is still plenty of crime and burglaries. You are going to get it everywhere and probably more likely in an area where people might have stuff worse stealing. I only really have a good idea of south Manchester. On your budget I would go for Levenshulme and the roads near Alexandra Park. If you put William Hulme School into a map, look at the roads around there. It's an area where Chorlton, Moss Side and Whalley Range meet up. I feel safe round there and it's very diverse. Also Firswood is a possibility. It might be doable on your budget. Most of the Trafford Borough is not diverse. I wouldn't class Sale or Urmston as diverse.

I think my tolerance for rough is high @quitegood. We live on an ex council estate in a rough arse end of Cheshire at the moment. I'd like to say that I think we'll be fine but obviously big city rough could be on a different scale to small town rough. I need to know what I'd be getting myself into so I can make an informed decision! Eg one of the things concerning me is the possibility of gangs in the Moss Side/Rusholme area. Is it a problem? Does it affect lots of kids or just a few families sort of thing?

Most of South Manchester is pretty diverse. Part of that diversity is provided by very transient populations, e.g. students, people who have just moved to Manchester and are likely to move on, overseas workers, etc. This is great and adds to the vibrancy of the area, but it can make longer term friendships more difficult.

There are also some large groups that tend to hang together - DD had lots of Muslim friends at primary school but has struggled to stay in contact as they are more restricted in what they are allowed to do and also much of their free time is very family / religion orientated. Friends that live in popular areas for Jewish families, e.g. Prestwich, have found the same - lovely families but tricky to be more than just pleasant neighbours.

I've just done a Rightmove search with your budget, these are good options in Withington for example:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88326275.html
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-88973045.html

The first property is near Old Moat and Cavendish primary schools - both good schools with diverse intake. Secondary options would be Parrs Wood / Chorlton High and possibly William Hulme. Both Parrs Wood and CHS are building schools nearby too.

Levenshulme has a lot of what you are looking for. I don't know much about the schools around there but some nice houses for your money:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-67922607.html

In terms of safety, kids play out around Withington and Burnage around the estates. Both Didsbury and Chorlton are in the top 10 postcodes for burglaries nationally though (covers Withington too). Like all cities, Manchester has muggings, burglaries and other crimes going on. The 'nice' areas have worse statistics as they are targeted for their likely assets and also are more likely to report crime. I've never felt unsafe around and about, but do have friends (all male I think) who have been mugged by groups of kids when out running / walking across a park. We do always keep all doors locked, make sure nothing is left out in the car but accept that there is a risk of crime.