Sunderland

[Roxy69]

Hi, I am wanting to move north for a while and wondered if you have any thoughts on Hylton Castle or thereabouts. Is it good or bad? there are various comments online and I don't know whether to believe them or not. Is it friendly to southerners or not? l don't want to go where it might be a problem. Sunderland looks very interesting.

Hi, I spent a few years living and working in Sunderland and my husband is from that side of the river.

I can't comment on friendliness towards southerners, but I've always found people to be very friendly there. For context, I'm one of those 'bloody foreigners' and I was always made to feel welcome.

I'm not sure about that area, I know it has it's problems. If I was going to live in that general area, I'd look more towards Castletown or the Wear View estate is nice.

I'd move back and used to love being so close to the sea. Prices are higher next to the coast, but still so much cheaper than other parts of the country.

Let me know if I can help you out with anything else. Good luck!

Hi, thanks for your thoughts I'll have a look at the areas such suggest. It's such a help when you don't have a clue about the area.

I'm from Newcastle but lived in Sunderland for a few years and bloody loved it. It had a fab, really interesting night life, quite a few independent shops, nice places to eat, a ski slope which was quite exotic for the north east at the time! It's fairly cheap to buy there and there's lots of different styles of houses. My friend had a flat in a converted Georgian house and I totally loved it. It's still one of my favourite out of all my friends homes. You could easily live within walking distance of the city centre, or near the coast or near a harbour or fairly rurally and all of those places are about 20 mins away from each other. It has good transport links too and used to have a great music scene I don't know if it still does though because I'm old and the only music scene I know these days is the radio 2 playlist. Oh and Barnes park is lovely.

If I had enough money I'd buy a home in Whitburn. I got lost driving through it once trying to get to Souter lighthouse and was driving around rubber necking at all of the lovely houses.

One thing I will say is, as with anywhere, it's not without its problems. I always found the people there as friendly as anywhere else, but I have friends who are Asian who did experience racism and a Spanish friend who was mistaken for Asian and experienced racism. This was a long time ago, so I can't comment on what it's like now however.

Thank you so much, that's really interesting. It helps to put my mind to rest a bit as there are a lot of negative comments on one particular online site which although useful, are not balanced. I'm looking for a quiet life now. I think my guide must be the other houses in the street which look nice and I'm looking forward to a new area.

I moved about half an hour from there in the summer. Different town, but same thing. I found lots of negative things online about the town we picked. But it turns out the people moaning are just a loud minority. The place is lovely. There's a few issues, but they're not as bad as the issues our very expensive town down South had and tend to stay within certain social circles. But those living next door to people who are involved in it would have a very different experience from people just a road up, so the neighbours are something to think about. Same as anywhere really.

I have found there's almost a culture of well meaning moaning about the town, even though its actually lovely. It's like talking about the weather, just something you say, for something to say.

@Roxy69

Thank you so much, that's really interesting. It helps to put my mind to rest a bit as there are a lot of negative comments on one particular online site which although useful, are not balanced. I'm looking for a quiet life now. I think my guide must be the other houses in the street which look nice and I'm looking forward to a new area.

One thing I did find about Sunderland is culturally it is (was when I was there) really interesting but you really had to look for it. Lovely independent restaurants, quirky bars, gig nights, recording studios, museum events, music all dayers, vintage shops, niche club nights etc were all there. It just took a little while to find them. It's not the poverty riddled, culture free, football focused city that some people would have you believe.

Thanks, it was quite high on the list of good places to live and I want to go to somewhere different, it's exciting but it does need to be quite safe for me and the dog otherwise not a lot of point moving really. The house I like has been on the market for months which made me a bit nervous. My problem is that I overthink things.

I’m from Sunderland and my dad grew up in hylton. Hylton castle is essentially a big council estate where most people have bought under right to buy. I’d never move back as the weather is too cold. It’s never going to full of cafe culture but I do think the city is changing for the better (despite the council being inept). It’s no more or less dangerous than most places and I always find people will look out for you. It’s got a great music scene (once independent reopens) and some great restaurants run by the same people (hello!!). I think you could be very happy there. It’s also only one bus to the beach.

It is a hugely football focused city, though I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Very useful thanks. We had a police raid near here 2 weeks ago so don't think I'm being sniffy, just careful. The house looks as if it's on a nice, neatly kept road and close to the beach sounds great too.

Personally I would go further up the coast. I don’t know Sunderland just I have been up the coast near Holy Island and Berwick and it is lovely. Depends what area you work in.

I don't know Sunderland at all, but grew up just outsid

I don’t know it but work all around the UK and look forward to going to Sunderland, the times I’ve been the hotel staff, cafes, time I got lost all really friendly warm people’s and the Architecture is stunning in parts. Always been one of my favourite places to visit.

Sounds good to me. I am looking forward to coastal living and the historical side of things. I feel very cheered by these messages, thanks.

If you can afford it, then Roker, Seaburn, Fulwell and Whitburn areas by the sea are lovely!

If you're concerned about any particular street then the crime stats on the police website are always worth checking. Sites like up my street give you the general mix in a particular area.

For Sunderland Hylton Castle isn't that close to the beach. It is basically a huge council estate with quite a few of the houses now privately owned. Its fine but nothing to write home about. Depending on your funds I would try for Fulwell, Seaburn or even Whitburn but you have to have a fair chunk of money for Whitburn. We live in Roker which probably has similar house prices to Hylton Castle but is walkable distance to both the city centre and the beach.

Great, thanks for the ideas. Can't travel about yet so having some areas to look at first is great. I live on a council estate here and it's in 2 halves, one good one not so. Cant wait to be close to the sea.

Sunderland was a favourite haunt of L.S. Lowry. Discovering the town - as he said - 'by chance' in 1960, was the start of a long and close relationship with the town. He always stayed in room 104 of the Seaburn hotel (now The Marriot). The North Sea fascinated him, and he would spend hours walking along the seafront. Some of his paintings of Sunderland, and the seascapes he painted from his room at the Seaburn hotel, are on display at Sunderland Art Gallery.

Wow, I love Lowry and had forgotten. It would give me a great trail to follow and a good start to finding my way about