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Original poster

Moving to St Ives, Cornwall

42 replies

qwentin · 14/05/2023 17:26

DH and I are thinking of relocating to St Ives, in Cornwall. Currently we live in London and have fortunately made a lot of money on our current house. So we are thinking of selling up, and buying a 3-4 bedroom house with sea views.

What's it like to live there full time?

OP posts:
ConcernedCatmother · 14/05/2023 17:28

Sounds amazing, following 😁
however I fear a lack of community due to so many properties being made into Airbnb 🙃 hopefully I am wrong

sunshinesupermum · 14/05/2023 17:29

It will be heaving during the summer months. Living there fulltime will be very different to just going on holiday there yourselves. Not sure that people welcome Londoners buying property there so that they are out of reach of locals needing homes!

BakedBeeeen · 14/05/2023 17:31

I know a family that moved there from London. After about a year they moved back as they felt so isolated.

Original poster
qwentin · 14/05/2023 17:32

Definitely understand how busy the place gets in summer!

I don't think we'd really be taking a starter home out of a local family, as we're looking at a budget of about 1.5 mil. Plus, if we ended up buying a house that's currently used as a holiday-let, we'd be OK?

OP posts:
CornishTiger · 14/05/2023 17:34

What are you planning on doing for work? What do you expect to bring to the community? Are you ready for the slower pace of life, lack of availability of many things found in larger cities and urban areas?

Are you ready for a ghost town and long winter when all the tourists and second home owners disappear?

Original poster
qwentin · 14/05/2023 17:36

I'm retired, but dh is a maths teacher. He'd likely work for a few years then retire.

OP posts:
WhiskeyTime · 14/05/2023 17:42

NC for this as last time I talked about this I got stalked on the site. 😬

We have a holiday home near there and plan on living there full time in the next 5 years or so. We have friends there so it’s a bit different to your situation.

Have you spent much time there so far? It’s a big change from London.

Ccvyvyan · 14/05/2023 19:29

It’s not a ghost town in the winter anymore. It’s still busy. I visit every other weekend and live in cornwall if you have any questions op. I do feel the pain of the locals though and what a pp said. Local families can’t afford to live there.

tonyhawks23 · 14/05/2023 19:36

You should watch Simon reeves Cornwall programs.i can't tell if this is a real thread or not? 1.5 mil!

Ccvyvyan · 14/05/2023 20:43

Well maybe not. It’s pushed the started home prices up though hasn’t it. And the starter homes are all holiday really.

LizzieSiddal · 14/05/2023 20:52

It can be very cold, wet and miserable being by the sea in the depths of winter. I would advise going and staying there for two weeks in February before moving full time.

Original poster
qwentin · 14/05/2023 21:26

Even Hampstead can be miserable in winter…
We’ve been down at all times of the year. 😊

OP posts:
Senseofsomething · 14/05/2023 21:48

Well… I live in Cornwall and love it. I moved here years ago and it suits me. Took 2 years at least to feel like I have real friendships. There is loads going on in Cornwall and people don’t just socialise in the town they live in so you wouldn’t just bumble around a cold wet St Ives all winter alone.

However, I’m working age, young family, low income and live in social housing so I imagine your life in Cornwall would be totally different to mine.

Honestly, and it isn’t nice to say, you might find some people a bit put off being friends with the incomers who just bought they 1.5million house when they can’t afford to live or even find a place to rent. People I know here are mainly skint and getting by and definitely not wealthy. The expensive cars show up on the roads about now and do seem to mainly disappear come end of summer!

But… I probably don’t know any people you would get to know. You might find some great friends who are in a more similar life/financial situation to yours and hang around places I wouldn’t even think to go to and have a great time.

WallaceinAnderland · 14/05/2023 21:48

Nothing to do when it rains. Which it does. A lot. Teeming with tourists in school holidays, miles from everywhere else in the UK.

But beautiful beaches.

Theredjellybean · 14/05/2023 21:57

I live north of St Ives ...it's gorgeous and I love it...took a while in our small coastal village to find the people who live all year and where my ages/friendship prospects.
You need to get involved in community stuff.
However we have flat in London and my dp spends four days there...I spend less and less time in London.
Cornwall in winter is wonderful...storms, high seas, really I would not live anywhere else.
St Ives however is nightmare for driving parking and OMG the tourists...

GabrielleLegs · 14/05/2023 22:14

Even Hampstead can be miserable in winter…
We’ve been down at all times of the year.

Visiting is a holiday though and for a limited amount of time. It's really impossible to know what it's like to live in a place under those circumstances. Imagine it's January and it will be bleak for at least three months.

In Hampstead you have the city, culture, theatres, shops and any amount of entertainment, infrastructure and transport links on your doorstep to sweeten the dark cold months.

Think of all the things you enjoy doing now. Can you do them in St Ives. Where are your friends? Will they want a 600 plus mile round trip to visit in February? How will you fill your days and how will you make new friends and find your tribe?

I've lived and worked in Falmouth and in winter it's isolated and bleak. All those second homes are closed up every street has windows that stay dark for months. In summer it's overrun with tourists. Buying a sandwich at lunchtime, travelling anywhere by car and getting a table in a restaurant is a nightmare.

Rent first and really try it.

clarysagelavender · 14/05/2023 22:28

I grew up 10 minutes from St Ives although haven't lived there for 20 years. I live in London now.

Don't feel a massive affinity to either location so maybe I'm not a good person to ask 😂

The climate is massively better in London, so so much rain, drizzle and grey in Cornwall. My Dad won't go anywhere near St Ives from Easter to October in the car as it's so chocka.

It's obviously an extremely beautiful place.

I dunno home is where the heart is so for me it would be how much you'd be leaving behind in terms of relationships. That's why I won't leave here now without good reason. Two friends have relocated in the past 7 years and it's not been easy to establish deep new friendships compared to those they've known for two decades in London.

I was born in Cornwall and would never be considered Cornish. I'd like to think you wouldn't get a frosty reception but couldn't guarantee it 😏

1dayatatime · 14/05/2023 23:55

St Ives is effectively a theme park as are many other places in Cornwall (Padstow, Port Issac etc). If you move to St Ives I fear you will find it too busy in summer and too quiet in winter.
Many of the the amenities that you take for granted in Hampstead are non existent or lacking in St Ives. Plus health care is not great with only one major hospital for the whole of Cornwall .

If you do choose to move to St Ives I genuinely hope it works out for you. But unfortunately I seen many examples of English retirees moving to Cornwall enjoying the summers and hating the winters or vice versa , missing the amenities and then eventually moving back to England.

BeeCucumber · 15/05/2023 00:33

I have family in St Ives and I wouldn’t live there if you paid me £1.5 million. Hideously busy in the summer. Grey and drizzly during the winter.

CheeseTouch · 15/05/2023 00:40

I wouldn’t live in St Ives. Far too busy in summer. Definitely rent first to check if you really like it.

GabrielleLegs · 15/05/2023 09:47

1dayatatime Do the Cornish not think of Cornwall as England?

WildFlowerBees · 15/05/2023 09:53

No I wouldn't live there, it used to be beautiful, not heaving and mainly local people lived there. Now the house prices have forced those local people to buy elsewhere. You may receive a frosty reception. Aside from that it's now just a seaside tourist place so busy in the summer. I avoid St Ives from April onwards.

There are some beautiful places in Cornwall have look elsewhere.

Handsnotwands · 15/05/2023 11:10

GabrielleLegs · 15/05/2023 09:47

1dayatatime Do the Cornish not think of Cornwall as England?

nope - Kernow innit

the "not taking a house off local FTB because i'm spending £1.5m" made even me wince and i don't generally toe the line which it comes to the Cornish attitude towards incomers

PinkFootstool · 15/05/2023 11:21

No @GabrielleLegs - the (weak) Cornish Independence movement is visibly increasing on social media by the week. Unfortunately it's forced to limp on by the same morons that also voted for Brexit despite the EU propping up the bloody county via grants, farming, subsidies etc. That said, Mebyon Kernow never do well at actual politics or elections!

I wouldn't go near St Ives with £1.5million to spend. It's a weird place, where even getting in and out of the town is a nightmare in December never mind high season. You'll hate being stuck in queues, unable to pop to Tesco etc.

Have a look at Penzance, Marazion and further along the north and south coasts. Intwrstingly there's nothing on the market for over £900k within 3 miles of St Ives anyway.

MrsSkylerWhite · 15/05/2023 11:23

Adore St. Ives as do my Cornish husband/children. Couldn’t live there, though. The year round crowds would drive me insane. I’d look at Zennor.