Moving out of London

I'm moving back to Finland.

Shockingly I haven’t swam this summer (other than a bit of paddling), waiting for the water to warm up a bit first like a coward. Know what you mean about the drop, quite a few sections require some good reef shoes too.
Here’s a sunset from last year, most of my photos are of the sky in a blue gradient!

1 Attachment

Harrogate! live on Kings Road and have an office in town

Norwich

Not wanting to hate on an area...but...

If you've got an established family and friendship base then (like anywhere) it makes sense. But otherwise it's a pretty insular place and the transport connections, even by road, aren't great. If you want small town/village life then there are plenty of little towns/villages near enough that seem like nicer places to live, and are obvs cheaper than their equivalents in the SE.

Having relatively close access to the beach and seal watching in winter is nice. But on balance that part of the world always struck me as somewhere best visited. Basically other than family or work commitments I'm not sure why you'd live in Norwich.

somewhere best visited

There's a lot of this that only makes itself obvious in hindsight.

Just my 2p.

Other than what you get for your money vs London all of the pros I can see are outside Norwich in the surrounding area.

Happy to hear the case for it though.

I'd wax lyrical about the benefits of living in Norwich, but actually I don't want any of you fuckers moving here ;)

I think I could install 52/36 in Norwich.

I only moved here so I could fit 53/39

What alternatives would you suggest?

What we are looking for is a middle-ground between London and the village of <2k people we've moved to outside Cambridge. Just not feeling village life - especially this village - or Cambridge more generally, despite (or perhaps because of) having grown up nearby.

Both of us have ageing parents nearby so wouldn't want to move too far away. Being closer to the coast and in a university town with all that brings is attractive.

Glad you're enjoying Bath, i grew up on the London road but haven't lived there for over 15 years now. I visit family and friends there occasionally and my girlfriend likes it but i just can't see myself living there again. It's a shame as it has a lot to offer but i guess the feeling of going backwards doesn't sit right. Plus i'm banned from every nightclub/bar/kebab shop for fighting on Saturday nights...

Norwich is legitimately a very good city. Plenty of food and drink options, a busy market, excellent coffee, great pubs, art galleries and events everywhere, cheap cost of living, train into London isn't too arduous, good array of local businesses, etc etc. OTOH I've never really got on with Cambridge.

I'm probably not the right person to ask as I love London and moved just outside for a dull set of practical reasons. If I moved properly away from a big city it would be to <2k village / countryside.

What is the list of things you don't like about where you are at the moment?

Nice, I know that area well. Grew up in Bilton on the Knox Estate and then used to swim at Coppice Pool as these were the days before the Hydro was built. Not been back to Harrogate in years though, so I'm sure it's changed a fair bit.

Where do I start... Well, it's on the A10 - so horrendously busy. We knew this when we bought the house, but we had to move fast, were limited on choice and assumed we'd get used to the noise - no. It's a linear village with no natural centre. It does have a good kids' playground and community orchard off the main road, but it feels bleak and isolated; there's no cafe so people don't tend to congregate there. Two pubs and a third former pub-turned-Indian-restaurant have closed in the past three years. Despite being just a few miles from Cambridge, the bus service is piss-poor so everyone drives.

On the plus side, the school is great, there is a brewery which has some great tap nights, and we've met some lovely people - although no-one we've really clicked with. Cambridge is nice enough but it's a bit anodyne; it's certainly lost the 'alternative' edge it had pre-millennium.

Gah, fuck knows what the right thing to do is.

Wait until AstraZeneca and their 2000 staff move into the new global HQ down the road and get your house valued again! Also the new Papworth should be open March/April next year which can only help. I have a feeling the A10 south west of Cambridge is going to turn into a car park most days.

Quite. I'm not sure whether this will be a good or bad thing for the value. Excellent location, but stationary traffic just metres from the front door. Le sigh.

awwwww thanks 😁 nice to see i didn't have rose speks on when rembering the sunsets, Hastings has it's problems like anywhere but it can be a beautiful place. is that taken from near the old town / fishing huts ? thanks again.

Yeah roughly there, maybe a little bit further west towards the town (we were walking towards the pier). The sky is pretty special here whatever the weather!

1 Attachment

Really? how old are you? I grew up on old barber, i'm 36 but my folks still live there. small world!

Anyone live in Broadstairs and commute in to London all or part of the week?

You have PM.

Moved out of london about three weeks ago to just outside of aldershot and have a few observations about non-londoners that I'd forgotten:
so many men take off their tshirts when it's remotely sunny;
people talk on the trains and it makes commuting actually pleasant;
neighbors talk to you other than when they want you to receive a parcel for them;
Everyone has a mountain bike for getting about.

How are the squaddies these days? When I worked in a pub in Winchester we had to replace the glass mirrors in the bogs with polished stainless steel to stop some of the more dramatic injuries that had been happening like clockwork at around 12 O'clock.

In my local Morrisons there's a section called "pie accompaniments" with vinegar, peas etc.

Every day I thank myself for moving back up north.