Never say never. Except I just did, twice, but the point stands.

I've lived in many places in the UK and abroad.  Each has positives and negatives.

The longest I have ever lived in one place is my current home, Liverpool and I've been here nearly 20 years.  Like every city, it has good and less good places.  However, don't let the stereotypes cloud your judgement.  The city centre is great, loads of nightlife of every kind you would need.  You are only a few minutes drive from the seaside.  Great transport links in all directions.  You can be in Scotland in a couple of hours, Wales in half an hour.  Manchester airport is about 45 mins away (although if you can get a flight out of Liverpool airport then do that as its so quick and much easier).

Cost of living is pretty good for a city and you could find good housing at very reasonable prices in lovely areas.  The locals are a pretty friendly bunch and tend towards being more accepting of folk from elsewhere than many other places in the UK (Comes from being a port city for so long, everyone has got some family history from somewhere else).  The right wing nazi groups have tried to do marches in Liverpool, it did not end well for them.

Another place I'd recommend for your shortlist is Glasgow.  Similar vibe to Liverpool.

I’ve got to come out and defend the Midlands (whatever that means) or Birmingham here from both Monkey and Cupatay. Not that I’m trying to change JonB’s decision.

@cupatay I get you have an opinion but to call the whole region a shithole based on your own personal experience is a bit much. I’d also like to know what the criteria are for it.

As for the culture comment I think you need to elaborate on that a bit more. You say it’s a cultural black hole @monkey how are you measuring that?

I don't want to slag it off too much as I'm happy enough here. The area I live in, I really like. But it's cultural output has been and still is pretty poor, especially for it's size. Music, literature, film, TV, comedy, it doesn't really have any tradition in any of those. Not if you measure it against some other places, half it's size. It was embarrassing how mad people went for Peaky Blinders shite around here. The football teams have got no excuse for being as bad as they are.

The city centre is nice and big and got everything you want there. They're tearing down all the old Brutalist monster buildings and replacing them with weirdo space-age stuff I dislike and think will age just as badly. It's not really a nice place to walk around.

Apparently Digbeth is really good for live music now but I'm too old for that.

If your other half is Cypriot, and kids are half Cypriot, I would certainly consider somewhere within striking distance of north London like Green Lanes. Plenty of cheaper places in Edmonton, Barnet, or further out.

It's one thing to move to a foreign country, it's another to go without a certain type of bread, yoghurt, baklava, ktayef, etc.

There are other enclaves but that's the main one i know about.

You can find the good stuff in most big UK cities, but you really have to know where to look. Visitors haven’t got a chance. London, Brum and Manchester have more of it, more out in the open.

I meant more like an example, you can liver around it. Or potters bar, Hatfield, st Alban's, welwyn gdn

Onzo, you're wrong. In Glasgow, efnik = queer punk vegan pay what you can afford café.

IYK, YK.

SpaceGazelle wrote:

Just to make sure you'll look at Halifax properly I'll try and sell it some more. I don't live there but I will when the boy grows up. Great links to Leeds or Manchester. All the nice Yorkshire and Lancashire stuff isn't far away and a direct train to London if you need it. Cheap for a reasonable old stone house. Great views of the surrounding Calder Valley. Friendly and full of Northern charm. Village feel but great pubs and places to eat. Wonderful Victorian market bang in the middle - although not as good as Kirkgate in Leeds. The Peace Hall - google it.

An interesting shout. I live just down the road and worked in Halifax for a few years. It's a bit of a dump I think. The Piece Hall is a nice improvement to the town. Great gig venue in the right weather, but a tourist attraction by day pretty much. Plenty of really run down areas. The parts around the park are nice and the park itself is great. It's the kind of town that doesn't offer either the benefits of a big City or the benefits of a small town. I'd be looking at areas outside of Halifax in the Upper Calder Valley. Luddenden for example is just outside.

I like the fact it's not posh. My Mum lives in Elland but the trouble with the neighbouring places is thar they're a littel to far to walk back from The Victorian.

The Victorian as in the craft beer pub?

I do think West Yorkshire is underrated in parts. Possibly because of its more industrial past compared to the more upmarket towns in North Yorkshire. I love exploring the crumbling ruins of the industrial past in the Calder Valley. I also love the feeling of remoteness when out on a walk or bike ride. It's especially therapeutic in today's world. That's a very specific thing of course, but hard to know what exactly appeals to Jon without digging a bit deeper and I can't get a sense from the thread so far whether the preference is being in a city or a town. Personally, I know I couldn't live in a city in the UK again (spent 30 years in Liverpool and 7 in London).

Ultimately I think Jon willl have to visit a few places to get a feel.

I wish more cafes down here were pay what you can afford tbh.

Armitage_Shankburn wrote:

I meant more like an example, you can liver around it. Or potters bar, Hatfield, st Alban's, welwyn gdn

Used to police Hatfield and Welwyn garden city.
Would absolutely NOT recommend them either. But I get your point, somewhere outside of the M25 but with decent transport links.

g.man wrote:

SpaceGazelle wrote:

JonB wrote:

Cupatay wrote:

How about Norwich and round that way?

It's hard to take that seriously with your avatar. But yeah, we did consider it briefly. I'm sure Norwich itself is fine, but it just looks a bit remote from pretty much everything else.

Like Monkey says, it'll be in the sea soon.

Norwich is the most openly racist place I ever visited back when I was working down south, so no great loss there then.

Slightly biased as a Norwich City fan (Dad’s from there, I only lived there for three years whilst at University) but I think Norwich is genuinely one of the best small cities in the country and I’d happily live there even if I didn’t follow the club…would agree it’s not the most accessible, but it’s got pretty much everything you’d need in the city itself and there’s some of the best beaches in the country (almost) on the doorstep.

We looked at it and north Norfolk as an option for our house move, but couldn’t make the numbers work for train commuting into Westminster - ended up choosing a small seaside town in Thanet, established enough to have its own gentle feel (exactly what we were after) and close enough to the ‘up and coming’ areas without having to live through it.

The two hour twenty minute commute provides a chance to catch up on telly…

Aye Brizzle is canny

Cardiff’s nice. Just saying.