Should we move to Swindon?

[swindonmove]

Hi, we currently live in London but are thinking of moving to Swindon, as it is cheaper. We have two DC, both 7 years old. Is it a nice place, I don't really know much about it.
Thank you

Agree with all of this except Frome, I have no idea why people like Frome.

Do people really have to call places where other people live shit holes?

Old town is alright, but overall it’s a soulless place - very little cultural life, a dying town centre and miles of rabbit hutch houses to the west with no amenities or paths. The schools are poor.

You’d be better in Reading or Slough and neither of those are all that. Or go up to Birmingham, or further West to Bristol or Cardiff.

Wiltshire is lovely mind you, but look at Salisbury - or at Devizes or Marlborough if you want market town life (I’d rent for a year to see if you really do, mind you.)

Well the OP is asking if she should move to Swindon, so they aren’t saying it unprompted.

Swindon has been spectacularly badly planned and run for years. The council is a disgrace.

Let's be honest Swindon itself is crap but it has a fantastic rail connection to London with a train every 15 / 20 minutes in peak time, great motorway connections some good shopping retail centres plus McArthur Glen and most importantly some really nice places to live nearby.

The quote I heard on Swindon is "Swindon is great as you can get to some really nice places in under half an hour "

It’s way worse than the 80s and 90s now

It wasn’t great then, but it had a buoyant economy, and the town centre, while never lovely, was busy.

It’s not a poor town like say Bradford, but lots of big employers left / call centres moved abroad / admin jobs automated / the town centre died.

You are right about the council so no argument there from me! I just don't like comments that call places dumps, shit holes and 'you couldn't pay me to live there'.

I have no issues with comments that mention specifics. I have to agree that the town centre isn't great and we are losing shops there regularly however that is the case with many other town centres. We have several out of town places that are perfectly serviceable and the Outlet Village is pretty nice.

There are not stabbings everyday. The crime rate is lower than many other places. I also don't find anywhere intimidating and most people are friendly. Same as most places really. As for the comment about the magic roundabout - it's a genius roundabout if you know how to use it. The traffic flows freely there and there have been very few incidents of major accidents there.

Hope this all makes sense. I did go to school in Swindon so I'm not very well educated.

Swindon has miles and miles of footpaths and cycle tracks! You can get from one side of town to the other barely having to use roadside pavements. I'm a runner, I love that I can run for miles on paths and I generally feel safe.

Wider Wiltshire is lovely but getting there takes ages. Devizes, Marlborough etc are very nice market towns but if you want the train or the M4 you need to get to Swindon.

Also, this is 15 minutes away from North Swindon lake32.co.uk/ and it's so peaceful. Swindon has so much that is easily accessible, you can laugh at that if you want but for me it adds to the convenience of the town.

We have friends who live in Old Town and it's nice round there.

They used to live at the other end and that was grim.

So in conclusion it has it's good and bad points , some places good , some not so bad.

Town centre needs lots of money spent on it to encourage decent shops to return.
Lots of our of town retail parks , which are good and have large shops like Next , M & S , all the food shopping you need . Fab designer outlet.

Lots of surrounding countryside , small villages , Cotswolds nearby . Fairly close to Bath , Bristol , Cardiff , Reading .
Decent rail service into London . Some people say high crime rate , others say low.

So really op if your still about , not the best place to live , but not the worse .
Which if we are all being honest is exactly the same as living in any place , any where in the UK.

It's rotting from the core.

I really wouldn't.

@StJulian2023 It has I guess a liberal artsy feel which many do like- same as Stroud I guess. The arts centre is also terrific and an M&S food hall. Housing is also reasonably well priced . I wouldn't personally pick it over say Bradford on Avon- but many do like the fact they can get a modern 4 bedder for around £450k - and it is on the train

@StJulian2023 personally on a Swindon budget I would go to salisbury- which I think is hugely underrated.it does have its rough bits yes but compared to many places has lots going for it- we pop from Bath there quite often , great market, extremely good retail and pubs and cafes etc and easy to get to the coast too

I live in Swindon. There are nice bits and not nice bits (and very not nice bits!).
Someone said recently that Swindon is “average”. Nothing great about it, nothing really bad about it. I think it is quite a fair comment.

Good links to Bristol, London, South Wales by road or rail.

Swindon isn’t the best place, but it is far from the worst.

It also depends on your work. If you/DP WFH a lot then great, if you need to be in the office a lot (depending where it is) costs will build up with parking/rail fare.

Someone once told me that Swindon was supposed to be ideally balanced in terms of demographics and was representative of the average town in the UK.

This is why a lot of crazy stuff was trialed there, like the magic roundabout and mondex - because they were trials in a representative town.

Whether or not Swindon still fits that representative town and whether this is true I have no clue.

That sounds quite likely!

DP has wondered if some people in the town are the product of an odd experiment……

Yes that's true. They also say that whoever gets the majority of votes in Swindon will end up running the country. So they always do broadcasts during the elections from Swindon

There are some lovely villages surrounding Swindon too that you should look at

There is a reason it is cheap. There are lots of places you can live in the Home Counties that are lovely and cheaper than London. I live in Wokingham Borough, it’s lovely! 3 bed semi you’d be looking at 450-550k, outstanding schools, lots of things for kids and great employment opportunities.

I went for a run this morning and this footpath is in one of the North Swindon housing estates

I lived there for 17 years. I thought it was a shithole when I moved there and expected to be there less than 3 years.

It's a hard place to leave because everything is so convenient and it has everything. It's very cheap compared to the rest of the M4 corridor, plenty of money around, has theatre, multiple cinemas, plenty of out of town shopping, huge hospital, fairly easy to get around, amazing transport links to everywhere. North Swindon has lovely property. The people there are nice. Every type of supermarket, great restaurants.

As others have said it isn't pretty in the centre. Once you live there this doesn't matter.

You will get a 5 bed detached in a fantastic area with a garage and driveway for that in Swindon

Is there a reason you've plucked Swindon out as a potential place to live?

@Devon132 indeed but surely life's about more than 'look how big my house is' and knowing both Wokingham is way nicer - I would also look at Newbury OP in addition to the places I mentioned earlier- there are many places in the same ballpark financially you may prefer- but Chippenham, Swindon and Reading are the best connected (if that matters)