Moving out of London

Lovely round there. My partner, she’ll be staying in our flat in London so I don’t want to be too far away by car/train otherwise would be looking at Herefordshire tbh.

Fingers crossed for you!

And for you. Doubtless there are some challenging moments ahead of us.

Shamless plug for a mates record shop in stroud. Stroud records. Has great selection they have battled through covid and hopefully getting back up to speed. They so have a cat that visits and sits on racks as you dig sometimes.

I'm seriously considering making a move and would really appreciate any advice or experience anyone can share!

I've looked at all the normal London commuter areas, and then looked at some smaller, more rural places around the south east. None of them really appealed, but it did lead me to writing a list of what I do want:

• Lower cost of living, so I can afford to rent a 2 bed place (giving me a real space to WFH)
  
• Somewhere I don't need a car
  
• Big enough so that there's enough going on (restaurants, events, opportunities to meet people etc) and you're not doing the same thing every weekend
  
• Easier access to the countryside/mountains/coast/green spaces (any of those really, I'm just fed up of having to cycle for a rubbish hour just to get out of London)
  
• Maximum 2 hours or so from London by train so that I can still come in when work dictates
  
  

My research so far has narrowed it down to Cardiff...and that's about it. Has anyone spent much time there? I've never been and only know one person there so I don't know if I've just built it up in my head into what I want. Or any other recommendations on places that might be appropriate? I had considered Hove, but I think given the WFH situation I feel like now is the right time to try something different.

My main concern is that I need to make a decision soon due to my flat tenancy. I either decide by 10th December or I'm stuck where I am until June, which doesn't sound appealing.

Manchester ticks all those boxes. Birmingham, Nottingham, maybe Sheffield? Bristol?

Preston.

Cardiff is an awesome city, bit of a battlefield when the rugby is a home game.

We moved out to Chester last month from the delights of SW9 and the only thing that's been odd is (1) how friendly people are compared to London and (2) how quiet it is in the evenings without the police helicopter and sirens going Brixton Road.

On the numbers we have a place 3 times the size we had at the same price as a 2 bed flat.

What about Oxford? Or Cheltenham? Oxford 1hr15 from
Marylebone or 1hr from Paddington, plus regular busses all year round (last train can be a bit early if you stay in town late). Countryside is nice, green and pleasant but no mountains. Cheltenham cycling is good, being at the edge of the Cotswolds. Walking is pretty good to, but town maybe a little quiet compared to oxford/London/Cardiff?

Went to uni in Cardiff and been back a few times for the rugby. Seems to have changed a lot, in the past 5 years especially! The area around the Bay is nice, Penarth, Llandaff also quite charming. Cycling is excellent, really enjoyed cycling round South Wales.

Cardiff is a great city, have friends there, would have considered moving there if it weren’t for the distance from my family. Easy access to the Brecon Beacons, not too far from Snowdonia, can easily get to the Gower peninsula or Pembrokeshire coast. Pretty easy to get back to London too if you need to.

Chester must be great, a friend of mine is a huge fan. Good move. I've been meaning to visit for some time.

Don’t know if you’ve moved yet but Corsham worth a look? Got a few decent restaurants/shops/cafes with a bit going on, easy access to motorway and train at Chippenham for further afield?

Have paused and looking to move after Christmas. Few relationship things to work through but don’t know corsham so will take a look thanks!

Cardiff is a lovely city.

If you’re going to go and have a look around, check out Canton. Really nice area, pubs restaurants and a wonderful cinema/arts centre. Close to the city centre and train station.

Having praised Cardiff...

Was up in Sheffield yesterday to look at / agree to taking a rental place. Don’t have enough time to buy a place there before the deadline for school applications and would rather rent for a bit and get the kid into a decent school near where we want to live than prioritise the house and then end up with her at some school of unknown quality or proximity.

Going to see out Christmas down in London and then we’ll be in Sheffield at the beginning of the new year. It’s exciting and daunting in equal measure.

I live there and like it. Here are some random pros and cons:

1. Decent parks right in the middle of the city
   
2. Good cycling a short distance away
   
3. Excellent cycling a medium distance away
   
4. Cheap compared with London and Bristol, although obviously not the cheapest part of the UK to live
   
5. Progressive council who are making lots of good noises about home building/metro/cycling projects
   
6. Less dog shit on the pavements than Bristol!
   
   

Cons:

1. Fairly old housing stock, great if you like Victorian terrace, but there's not much other choice
   
2. Some of the area seem quite cut off, or have some fairly bad social problems: see Butetown/Riverside*
   
3. Having lived in Bristol we don't get as many big gigs coming through, although that's not much of an option at the moment anyway. There's loads of places to eat and drink though, and some good independent cinemas, although we don't have a good local at the moment. Brains pubs dominate which are a bit...meh, but I think they're slowly selling some off.
   
4. It rains... a lot
   
   

*perhaps unfair as I don't live there.

I have a car, but use it a couple of times a week at most, usually for food shopping or if I'm in too much of a hurry to drag the bike through the house. I try and go across to Cowbridge road by bike as it has the best butcher and green grocers and is a nice trip to do. You're better off not driving much because you have to go a long way north/south in order to get from one side of the city to the other because of the way the parks divide the city. There were lots of fuming motorists when they closed Castle Street recently as it's the way through south of the parks, I think they'll probably keep it closed to private vehicles.

Anyway, that's quite rambling, feel free to PM if you want to know anymore specifics.

that's exactly what we ended up doing but in manchester and with kid a bit younger. i think London is a great place to raise a kid and they'll have many more opportunities. but it's not until you leave that you realise it's not the centre of the universe and that house prices are a bizarre self-perpetuating fiction

house prices

This is the real issue. We live in a 1.5 bed house, with a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old. We can't afford a bigger house in the area we live in (Forest Gate) so we'd have to move further out and stretch ourselves financially to do so. At that point you start to question whether you're really living in London anymore and whether it's worth the financial strain to live in a suburb.

Thanks all for the replies, very useful (and positive) stuff! I think the main things which are causing me difficulties are the thought of starting again somewhere where I don't know the place or any people, and then finding that it doesn't have things that I've grown used to in London. Although maybe that's a pessimistic way of looking at it and instead I should focus on the positive differences.

@Silly_Savage much appreciated. The rain was genuinely one of the things that I noted down in a potential Cons list but that feels silly. How bad can it be? Please don't answer if it's bad and depressing. Anyway, I've got a few more things to look into today and will probably get in touch this evening if that's ok.

I've got a few days off next week, I've seen that hotels are open again in Wales now so I was planning on heading over for a night to get a feel for it. I know technically I shouldn't but given how tight my timeline is I'm struggling to find a better way of going about it.

The weather is something that should definitely be on the cons list.

I grew up in Kent and spent my 20s & 30s in London.

I moved to South Wales about 5 years ago and still feel like I’m getting short changed when I see a weather forecast.

However there’s plenty to make up for the weather not as great.
The Gower and Brecon Beacons being easily accessible, superb mountain biking and pints that are comfortably under £4.

Late to the party here but as a life time Londoner we left town in 2013 for my partners work. We thought we'd only be gone a couple of years until she had the experience to come back and get the job she was after... long story short we are still here and love it.
We live in the top of town in Stroud. We've both found jobs locally we really like, affordability is crazy - we own our own place now and the mortgage is 1/3 of what we ever paid in London renting. the countryside is lush, the riding is fantastic, I even joined a road club and the vibe is great and I've made some great friends. The local resources are fantastic. There's 2 markets on a Saturday, one for the tourists and another where you can do your weekly shop for less than a super market and buy local and organic if that's your thing.
In terms of getting back to London it's 1.5 hrs on the train, easy. It's a century so not even a days ride. It's so well connected. I used to go down and play polo in Bristol after work for a while and it was easy. Wales is a stones throw away too, holidays/touring/long day rides sorted. other cities are available. I was convinced I wanted to go super rural straight away but Alice told me to chill. I'm glad she did. Stroud has a real community, and an open minded community at that. If you are after more twee cotswold vibe then there are the outer villages near the commons with pretty stone buildings and churches. There is an inevitable lack of multiculturalism, but that is both a reflection of the english countryside and the towns industrial past. What makes Stroud stand out from the rest of the cotswolds to me though is that there is some diversity in it's residents; culturally, economically and politically, which does give it a sense of depth that you don't get when visiting some of the surrounding picture box villages and towns.
Both our work could take us more rural, and as we both work in conservation land management it sometimes feels inevitable, but the community we've found in the area is what has kept us from moving away.

Mate, you're on the other side of the bridge! Where abouts? With @dancing james in Newent we should do an OS forumers FOD ride or something in the spring.

In the salubrious city of Newport of course.

Was talking to a Cheese State New Yorker about riding with you when he next visits.
Doesn’t mean we couldn’t sooner though.

You summed up Stroud perfectly btw

Call it MOOLFGSS

Sssshhhh! Or you’ll attract more of metropolitan elite.

Our experience is so similar, moved here but thought we might return to London but now couldn’t imagine that. A sense of community, amazing outdoor activities, fresh local produce, mortgage greatly reduced compared to London.

Also a train ride can get us to London if needed. What’s not to like?

That ol' cheese muncher. I can't afford to go to NY just to get him to tattoo me anymore, he better come visit soon. Infact now he has a 9-5 we might even convince him. I think is Fran got an art show over here he'd come visit.

Lets do it. I had to have a hip replacement 3 weeks ago - the ongoing saga of my medical advancements but give it another 9 weeks and i'd be up for a ride for sure...

Also I kinda like Newport you know. The British Transplant Games were held there last year. I found a really good burger place after the race.