Moving to Bath or Clifton from London

[Snellinda]

Currently live in Central London. We both have high pressured long hour jobs, but fortunately one can work from home all the time, and I can get away with two days in the office.

We want more space but do not want to move out to suburbia. We are happy to rent or to buy (we rent in London as it's cheaper than buying in Zone 1).

We are thinking about a move to Bath, or maybe to Clifton. We love love love Georgian architecture and are very familiar with both places. They have the added benefit of being a lot closer to elderly family in Devon & Herefordshire.

Has anyone successfully made the move?

Do you have children? If so schools will be a factor. Many parents in Clifton send their children to private schools for secondary because they are out of the catchment area for the best state schools.

Even for 2 days in the office, if these are '10 hours in the city' type of days, you'll need realistically stay overnight though, it'll be at least a 5 hour door to door round trip and trains often get delayed/cancelled. But commuting plus hotels/crash pad is expensive. Dh probably now pays over 600pounds/week for taxi, trainticket and 2 nights near office.

No children to think about at the moment.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/132994091#/?channel=RES_LET

Even considering spending £1000+ a month on commuting, renting somewhere like this is still far cheaper than something comparably nice in London. Plus, the move is more about a lifestyle change. We did living in Central London in our 20s, and now want to be somewhere greener

Point taken about commuting costs. I had factored in the need for one night in a hotel. And I'm sure there will be weeks when I'll need to stay more. Fortunately some of these costs can be passed on to clients..

Definitely move to Bath if you enjoy queueing in traffic to get into or out of the city, and if you have more than 0 motor vehicles that you like struggling to find a parking space for near your home.

I love Bath, but not sure I'd choose to live there again because of these problems.

Are you definitely looking for a city, or would somewhere like Marlborough or Frome suit?

Clifton is good for primary though. I am surprised to hear that the secondary option is lacking. It is a very expensive area but lovely. If you live there you can walk to nice cafes, bars, little shops etc and near to the suspension bridge. I would recommend if you can afford to get something nice. I think it's better than Bath because you r specified an area in Bristol, whereas Bath is a whole city. Perhaps better for getting out into the countryside though.

@uhOhOP we live in Bath but have lived in both. Bath is nowhere near as bad getting in or out as Bristol and we have a drive. It also has better cared for housing stock in my opinion and is easier to get to the station. That house is very near where we used to live. It's advantage is it's 7 minutes walk into town and on the flat and my doctors is round the corner and it has a corner shop a minutes walk away plus a very nice pub. Personally if you are planning on having a car I would be looking at somewhere with a drive ideally - it's not cheap to commute OP but very doable at 1hr 20 . Much prefer living here -

This is a fantastic and huge maisonette- you have your own lift!! We looked at it before but didn't go for it as it didn't time quite right with when we could move - a real wow factor! In very nice area

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/133525487#/?channel=RES_LET

I think when I wrote that post I was just suddenly feeling all the annoyances I felt when I lived in Bath!

Lived in both love Bath hate Bristol but it’s very subjective! Bath is just beautiful ignore the naysayers. It’s so much smaller than Bristol so from most places in the city you can access lovely countryside on foot from your front door.

@uhOhOP Yep I do know how you feel- we had a right old time of it when we lived in Henleaze , a rented house that was dropping to bits before our eyes (nice on surface) and a right 40 minute fag on bus sometimes getting into town - hence I've had a bit of a downer on Bristol ever since!!

@TheaBrandt I'm in claverton Down so that literally is the case!! Plus the Uni bus on doorstep every few minutes, ideal!!

If you love Georgian architecture and have a comfortable monthly rental budget why don't you look at West Greenwich in London? The housing stock is beautiful and not significantly more to rent than the house you linked to above.

If you are able to pass on some of the commuting costs (that's what dh is luckily able to, otherwise we couldn't afford it. When we moved, hotels in London were cheap, not leadt due to Covid, he could get large chain ones for 100pounds. It's now shot up to 300 pounds most mid week days, and train tickets went up massively, too) then moving out is great! Both Bath and Clifton are lovely. I love the architecture and personally prefer Clifton for a bit more lively vibe. But make sure you have a designated car park. Doesn't need to be an own drive, just a car park that's just for you, or sign up to a car share club/use taxis. The parking permit zones in Clifton are vast, I think there is pretty much only 1 zone for all of Clifton (CV), and all the hotels/bbs give out resident permits to guests, too, plus trades have trades permits, so once you are lucky to have found a spot, it can literally be a good mile from your flat.

If you own cars investigate how Residents Parking Zones and Clean Air Zones will affect you. Both cities have them. They also have dreadful one way systems/bus only systems.

Both cities are university cities with 2 universities each, so have massive student populations.

I'm slap bang in the middle of Bristol and Bath in a town called Keynsham, which although doesn't have the regency grandeur of them is quite convenient for commuting. It takes about 10 minutes by train to either and about an hour and a half to Paddington. Buses take about 20 minutes to the relevant bus station.

Hello, I've just come across your post which I appreciate is a while ago but really intrigued to hear where you ended up? Thanks