The best city to move to in the UK?

Domestika
New Member



Joined: 03 Apr 2008
Posts: 1
Location: Victoria, BC

Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:44 am

 

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My husband and I are planning a move to the England in the next 8 months or so. This June we are going on a 2 week "scouting" trip to check out a few places we may want to eventually move. Of course, it's hard to pick the right places well all you can do is research them online. I thought maybe some Canadians in the UK could help! Do you live in a city you love? Or a city that reminds you of home?

Our preferences are for:
-greenery! Parks, trees, even just grass. We don't want to live in the middle of the Dales or wherever, but we don't want to live in a purely concrete city either

-water! It would be really, really nice to live somewhere near the water. We're both very used to having the ocean nearby (me being from Vancouver Island and him from Iceland) so a short (1 hr or less) trip to the sea would be ideal

-semi-urban living! We live in Victoria at the moment so we're used to city-living, but don't like the crowded throng that is London. Somewhere on the smaller side (1-300,000 pop.?) would be super

We are for sure visiting Brighton this summer, as well as perhaps Devon or Bristol? And in the north we are checking out York for sure, and also perhaps Sheffeild or Newcastle.

Is there a gem somewhere we're missing? We're both mid-20s, looking to take further schooling in the UK, we like road trips, art galleries, nice restaurants, DOGS!, and nature in general. Any help you can offer would be GREAT! Thanks!

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Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 1354
Location: Calgary

Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:38 am

 

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Bangor, Northern Ireland. You can always go to Belfast if you need something from better shops.

Otherwise, maybe Plymouth. It's just the traffic keeps getting worse and worse around Plymouth, but then the same can be said for the rest of England, which is another reason to pick Northern Ireland.
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Steve.

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riverfox
Senior Member


Meow meow meow

Joined: 30 Dec 2007
Posts: 116
Location: Brighton

Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 2:27 pm

 

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If you hadn't already mentioned Brighton I was going to. I've just finished moving here from Victoria and really quite like it. To be fair there isn't a ton of greenspace once if you live in the city centre like we do but if you get a place out near preston park and are okay with taking a bus or driving to the main part of town it's quite nice.

I rather liked Bath it was quite pretty but the cost of living there is *cough* a bit much. If I hadn't wound up in brighton I would have probably moved to York Which I also loved. It's not near the sea but it's great. Definately worth a look anyways.

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acrossthewall
Junior Member



Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Posts: 19
Location: New York, USA

Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:32 am

 

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I'm originally from Vancouver Island as well, and I'm living in Edinburgh until this May. It's a lovely city: full of history, culture, and music (especially during the enormous International Festival in August), with stately apartment-buildings everywhere and with hardly any gritty-ish streets in sight. There's a fairly sizable amount of greenery here; the Princes Street Gardens, the Meadows, and Holyrood Park are all in or immediately adjacent to the city-centre, and there are woods and ponds on the outskirts. The population's approximately half a million, meaning that to a Victorian it feels about the same as home. It's largely a safe city, though there are lots of tourists and parking is supposedly a huge headache (I don't have a car, so I wouldn't know). And it's almost on the ocean; it lies only slightly inland from an inlet known as the Firth of Forth. The drive out to Portobello Beach probably takes 20-30 minutes from downtown, and the water is visible from all of the high-points scattered around the city.

Pretty much the only reason why I personally wouldn't consider living here (or in Newcastle or other places nearby) for the long-term is the lack of daylight in the winter. Edinburgh is located at 56º N (more than 800 km farther north than Victoria), meaning that in December and January the sun rises around 9 AM and sets before 4 PM. It's often overcast, too. The days do get longer quickly over the first few months of the year, but spring takes a long time to arrive; in January most days are 5º-ish and rainy, and in April most days (at least this year) have been 5º-ish and rainy. Of course, to those of us from the West Coast, prodigious amounts of rain are perfectly normal; however, the short days can really get to a person up here.

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Latarina
New Member



Joined: 14 Apr 2008
Posts: 1
Location: Vancouver!

Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:55 pm

 

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i'm glad to hear something about edinburgh - i may be moving there for a while next year (depending on the jobs, that is). the climate sounds very much like vancouver weather right now. just like home. haha.

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mari-mac
Senior Member



Joined: 01 Sep 2006
Posts: 94
Location: U.K.

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:58 am

 

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acrossthewall - I agree, the dark can be horrible over winter (and the rain can come from all directions at once!). The summer has incredibly long days (sun sets around 10 and rises again at 3 or 4.) but it never gets very warm (maybe 25, if your lucky). But the city is fantastic - easy to get around without a car, a nice size, art galleries, shopping, good bars and restaurants. You will also be fit if you walk everywhere, it is quite hilly! And very easy to take a bus or train out to the outlying areas for beautiful walking.

Other areas:
- Brighton
- Eastbourne and around
- Bristol
- Bath
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We've got rocks and trees, and trees and rocks, and rocks and trees and trees and rocks and.water!

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Steven
CanuckAbroad VIP



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 1354
Location: Calgary

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:48 am

 

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I actually find Jan-Mar to be better in Calgary than in the UK, it does get a lot colder but there's far more sun and I could even argue there is less snow if it's a bad winter in the UK. It's just that April and May suck quite badly in Calgary.

Having lived in the UK for many years, it's pretty unusual for anyone to move to Scotland, people generally only do it for the scenery unless there's a family reason. Scotland has a population drain with people moving south to get jobs. Some of the worst parts of the UK are around Glasgow and some of the medium-sized towns in Scotland where unemployment is endemic.

The south of England is where the economic activity is concentrated but it's just too crowded. The choice I was faced with was move south or emigrate, so I emigrated.

I always recommend Northern Ireland because there is a lot of investment going in at the moment, and it's far less crowded than the rest of the UK while still having decent shops and so on.

A lot of people worry about the IRA, but it's really only a problem in the crappy housing estates in Belfast. The conflict really ended back in the mid-1990s.

That is in fact the reason to move there, because the myth that you're going to get knee-capped by terrorists stops other people from moving there and crowding the place.

There is some amazing scenery with cheap property around it in Northern Ireland.

The only thing I would say is that because immigrants have traditionally avoided NI, people there can be more racist than usual.
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Steve.

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dhabs
New Member



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 2
Location: UK/Germany

Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2008 4:18 pm

 

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I'm from the Vancouver area too and when i first landed in the UK it was to East Anglia, Suffolk area to be more precise and that's a lovely area, close to the sea, the countryside and also a short train ride or car drive to London when you feel the need for city life, in fact we often took trips to the theater there and back for an evening. But be warned the North Sea is Dirty not the lovely clear water of the pacific!
I also lived in Plymouth which I loved, again the sea, good beaches down there, plenty of water activities and then there's the moors to wander with the dogs, which we love to do too. The people are very friendly there and Plymouth is a big shopping center too and there's plenty of small villages all around to live in and still be close by civilization. The only 'issue' is that it's a bit of a nightmare to get to as the highways stop at exeter and then you have the long road to Plymouth but it's a gem when you do get there and also Cornwall is just next door! And there's ferries over to France for long weekends!
I've also lived near Poole along the south coast but I hated it there and what's more it's very expensive to live in that area so you have to dig deep in your pockets all along that south coast, Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton.
I went to a school outside york and loved it there too but it's not as close as it looks to the sea, it's very historic and I loved rambling along the old streets and shops and the Yorkshire dales are great for walking and outdoor pursuits.
I worked in gates head and Newcastle and have a lot of connections up there as my husband is from up that area, but I don't really like it and haven't been back for 5 years now! It's very dreary, the weathers usually cold and miserable and the days are grey and I just think that area doesn't have very much appeal. Newcastle can be a very rough area to live, i did a stint in an A&E department there and left after a year as it was just so shocking some of the violence!
Cumbria is beautiful and somehow has nicer weather - yes it does rain alot but we're used to that in BC.
I've lived in various other places but that's specific to your question. If I was to go back to UK I'd probably go to Plymouth - sun, sea, friendly people, beautiful area!

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