Great Yarmouth

[BaldBrown]

Hello there

I hope I'm posting this in the correct forum; if not, I apologise.

My family and I currently live in London, well we've just sold our home and are now looking at moving to Great Yarmouth. The house prices are ideal for a large property but I wanted to ask of anyone new any reason why moving near to the center of town would be a bad idea.

Moving slightly further our would take us into a bracket we can't afford and elsewhere in the England seem just as bad.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Peterborough might be worth a look. Unfashionable but good value and well connected with quick rail to London, so that really is somewhere people move to from London.

For example (I've no idea what the exact area is like though!)

Thuro Grove, Orton Goldhay, Peterborough
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111363071

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/116991386#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

take it anywhere and although its only officially got 4 bedrooms, there are actually three more spare rooms on the first floor

well under budget

Gt Yarmouth is truly awful. I wouldn’t take a house for free there, there’s a reason property is dirt cheap and no one wants it. I couldn’t comment on not being white there but Norfolk is the opposite of diverse. Harwich might be better but I don’t know. Lowestoft isn’t great but not as vile as Yarmouth. I think I would look at Wales in your position as per pp.

It's cheap for a reason. I live about 25mins away.

Honestly I think your husband is being unrealistic in not wanting a mortgage when you’re after a house that size - it’s about your quality of life and also opportunities/possible aspirations for your kids which passively will be shaped by being in a really down area. If you up the budget a bit I’m sure you can find something without spanking huge amounts of extra money.

Just a hint…. Norfolk and Suffolk are full of bungalows, many of them have large open kitchen / diner spaces or the potential to extend. I would look at various bungalows in the 3/4 bedroom range and see if there’s any way they might somehow be adjusted to accommodate your needs.

Like this one - it has a sun lounge (potential living room) and a dining room- so you could use the dining room and living room as bedrooms -

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/75896025#/?channel=RES_BUY

The Kent Square House is one road from the beach and a brief walk from the town centre. So you are in the thick of it location wise. However, that means you will get noise in the summer from the seafront mile of amusements, and parking will be difficult. The traffic to get out and into yarmouth is horrendous in summer season.
The house looks nice and I can see why you are tempted. most of the neighbours won't be families so you won't get that sort of feel, but it depends what you want. You will get a decent sized house for a reasonable price and so there are trade offs.
There is deprivation etc in gt yarmouth as in many places. Lowestoft and most seaside towns are the same.
The talk about Londoners moving here is true to a certain extent, but they are not moving into gt yarmouth Town centre apart from the ones who are setting up b&bs. They are moving to the surrounding villages such as gorleston. You will get less property for your money there but a better quality of location. It really depends on what is most important to you.
There is also a large hospital in Gorleston which is a large diverse employer. You haven't mentioned needing to work. Is this something that needs to be taken into consideration as jobs in gt yarmouth itself are mainly seasonal, a cause of the deprivation of seaside resorts?

😱

I think your expectations of a six or seven bed property anywhere that is friendly, diverse and safe for 250k are pretty unrealistic.

Deprivation in London is a very different kind of deprivation to the depressed small town type - there will be immigrants in rough areas striving for a better life for their kids. There will be churn of population, always newcomers.

Small town deprivation, especially coastal deprivation, is very different. There can be a strong anti- education vibe, anti-aspiration vibe. Striving to do better and leave is a threat to them.

If you have six children, surely your husband needs to accept that housing will be expensive? Living mortgage free seems pretty unrealistic.
It's that or accept a much smaller house.

I grew up in yarmouth, moved to London when I was 20 but my family is still there. As a child it was a vibrant bustling seaside town, summer season lasted from April - Oct and whilst the work was seasonal it generally paid well enough to tide most over the off season (although there was very much a culture of blowing it all and going on the dole for the winter)

It's nothing like that now. There are attractions that haven't changed since I was a child because there's no money for it. The market that used to be a huge draw has been killed off by the council, the bigger shops have all left even the iconic ones like Palmers have shut down. As soon as there's a crash on the Acle straight the whole place grinds to a halt and slowly but surely everything nice is being turned into a car park.

I would also say there is a huge amount of casual and generational racism. Maybe not so much towards those who are perceived as being British but towards anyone who may be an "immigrant".

I wouldn't bring my kids up there now if you paid me tbh. Visiting family for the Easter fair in 2019 was the first time in many years I felt genuinely unsafe out at night. Large groups of teens roaming about causing senseless damage and fighting, largely I guess because they have nothing else to do and no real prospects

It’s a long way from GY but you would pick up a 5+ bedroomed house in Plymouth within budget, and it’s ethnically diverse as well as having a big student population. There’s good access to sea and moor.

I lived quite happily in GY before moving out a little way, and there are things I miss about it (e.g. station). There is work to improve it (new controversial market, third river crossing), but it also suffers as many towns have with the closure of so many shop chains. Lots of charity shops and short-lived businesses.
Kent Square house looks lovely (the town has some beautiful buildings/streets and a lot of history) but it's likely that the neighbouring houses would be flats/HMOs/guesthouses. Parking and gardens are hard to come by. The south part of town tends to be more deprived and has a lot of immigrant communities (which I mention because there is definitely ingrained racism/xenophobia in the town; many families have never moved from the area for generations and travelled little). It is also a pain to get further afield because you have to get in to the main town in order to get out. From there it's still a trek to another town.

Winter and summer are two very different animals; winter is quiet and bleak and summer very busy (personally I love a tacky seaside).

Gt Yarmouth a bit rough 🙈

Just bear in mind that Norfolk is known for being racist. My friend's kids have experienced quite a lot!

Oh my.... lots of people slating Yarmouth.

Kent Square is directly behind the amusements on the seafront and you will woken up in the morning in the summer by the tinkle of the machines and the tunes they play! I think there are b&bs that are emergency housing in the square also and hmos. It's also next to one of the local nightclubs Empire so I'd expect some fall out from that at throwing out time!

We have a large Portuguese and European community but yes it's not as diverse as it should be and some local people need dragging up to speed!

I would throughly recommend Gorleston rather than Yarmouth. Good schools in Gorleston/Bradwell and Gorleston has a excellent sixth form college! There are loads of worse places to be.

We visited and hated it I told DH it should be made to change its name there is nothing Great about it and I generally didn’t feel safe. Such a shame as all the other places we visited were fine and we were looking forward to going to the beach (boating holiday)

In our family we've renamed it 'Not-so-Great Yarmouth'

My daughter is moving in August in Great Yarmouth and I am interested in renting a flat for her somewhere near the Hospital where she will work. It has to be safe and nice. You mentioned Gorlestone. Is it a good area to stay?

This thread is quite old so you may have more replies starting a new one.

Do you mean the JP hospital? Gorleston is fine. To be honest I don’t think any areas of Norfolk are “unsafe” as such - but then I lived in South London for 26 years prior to moving here so it seems like paradise in comparison! I would just try and avoid any of the main seafront / touristy bits of Yarmouth but apart from that anywhere should be okay.

Avoid the Magdalene estate near the hospital

Hi there, I was adopted from Thailand by white parents and I've got no problems here at all

Very old thread. But I love Yarmouth, lots of investment, new marina centre, market, The Hippodrome Water Circus, model village, piers, miles of sandy beaches, great value, compared to some other seaside towns, yes, I am looking at you Brighton 😂 Yarmouth was packed last weekend, so I can’t be the only person that likes it.