Please tell me I won't regret moving to Winchester!

[appleapplepearpear]

DH and I are fairly sure we are going to a move to Winchester with our young baby. We are coming from a vibrant, diverse city. We live pretty centrally in a buzzy, multicultural area that we love. We make the most of city life and have made a lot of friends since having our baby. Really the only reason we are moving is to be close to family (my parents are brilliant and will be very involved) but Winchester probably isn't somewhere we'd have chosen otherwise. SW London would have been more ideal but really not within our budget. We did look at Southampton and Portsmouth but weren't too fond of either. We think Winchester is beautiful and we love the history but we know it is quite small, not very (at all?) diverse and definitely not buzzy. Will we regret moving there? Will we find it cliquey and hard to fit in? Please tell me wonderful things about Winchester as I really do want to love it ...

Non white people have money too and also aspire to pleasant areas. Even vote Conservstive so I’ve heard!

I'm curious if you made your move to Winchester @appleapplepearpear ? Did you find a property in Fulflood? If so, how are you finding it - is it living up to expectations and advice received? We recently moved our family into Fulflood and are loving it.

@appleapplepearpear I had to move for work, and we looked at Winchester. Not sure what it was, but it never really resonated with us. We ended up in Petersfield. Still good links to London and south coast, plenty of restaurants (admittedly mostly average ones), but a really good community feel. The residents of our road, and the wider town are friendly, and there are regular events in the town square if that's your bag.

I came from a London borough, so I do miss the public transport that was prevalent there, but the train and proximity to A3 etc is fine.

Also, can walk along the South Downs from front door.

I have a friend who moved there after the pandemic, and she enjoyed it while she was off work with very young children. She made lots of friends with other mums who had moved there at the same stage of life. They are moving back to East London because her husband's commute was more than they bargained for, and now she is going back to work and WFH is being reduced, her opportunities are better in London. Their budget is similar to yours, but it depends what you want for your money - they can tolerate a terraced house.

They wouldn't have moved back for the greater vibrancy of London alone, but at the same time I get the feeling they did find Winchester a bit flat after a while.

Oops - zombie thread!