If You Could Live Anywhere in England, Where Would it Be?

[El Zen]

4 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

It's a place I'd love to visit. 

I’ll buy you the beer if you’re worried about the prices

[mjmooney]

2 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I say Cornwall. It's probably great in Summer (traffic and tourists aside) but probably not so great in the winter. 

Has the same problem as Wales, though - grumpy locals who resent the English. Also, the villages aren't as pretty as the Devon ones, as it tends to have that rather stark Celtic fringe style architecture. 

[maqroll]

13 minutes ago, El Zen said:

Oh, I enjoy every second I spend in Oslo, where I used to live. It’s really becoming a truly lovely city. 

I'm really just talking about Boston and Portland, Maine. Bored with them and I can't stand the traffic and constant road construction.

[mjmooney]

1 minute ago, El Zen said:

I’ll buy you the beer if you’re worried about the prices

Not really. Due to our family commitments, we rarely get more than than the odd week to go away, and we tend to do that with a group of old friends, in the UK. We do have a 'sabbatical' coming up next year though, due to one daughter being on a second maternity leave, one grandchild starting school, and one getting more nursery hours. However, my wife craves sunshine, so she's talking about southern Europe - she's not so keen on the idea of Scandinavia. 

[mjmooney]

Just now, maqroll said:

I'm really just talking about Boston and Portland, Maine. Bored with them and I can't stand the traffic and constant road construction.

You wouldn't like Birmingham (or Leeds) then. 

[maqroll]

Just now, mjmooney said:

You wouldn't like Birmingham (or Leeds) then. 

There's a YouTube channel where a guy rides bus lines in London. No narration and only a snippet of music at the start. Gives the viewer a tour of areas visitors would likely never see, and I really like it. The standard of public transport there compared to USA is embarrassing for us. 

I think I could be very happy in London if I had a lot of  

[mjmooney]

4 minutes ago, maqroll said:

There's a YouTube channel where a guy rides bus lines in London. No narration and only a snippet of music at the start. Gives the viewer a tour of areas visitors would likely never see, and I really like it. The standard of public transport there compared to USA is embarrassing for us. 

I think I could be very happy in London if I had a lot of  

There's a debate going on elsewhere on Off Topic about whether you can do without a car in London. It's certainly more feasible than than it is in our provincial towns and cities. I've heard the same case argued for New York. 

London's too big for me, though. I like to be able to get into the countryside more easily (which I can do where I am now). 

Edited November 26, 2022 by mjmooney

[sidcow]

21 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Has the same problem as Wales, though - grumpy locals who resent the English. Also, the villages aren't as pretty as the Devon ones, as it tends to have that rather stark Celtic fringe style architecture. 

Actually Devon might be a better option. 

Many of the advantages of Cornwall but much quicker to get back to Civilisation and Brum 

[mjmooney]

3 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Actually Devon might be a better option. 

Many of the advantages of Cornwall but much quicker to get back to Civilisation and Brum 

That would be my take. Plus, I have friends in Exmouth, and my wife's a Devonian anyway. 

[Rodders]

We went on our honeymoon to North Devon. God its a beautiful place and somewhere with clean ocean too. Would live there in England. However extending to UK more generally, up around the brecons or south Pembrokeshire too

[El Zen]

25 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Not really. Due to our family commitments, we rarely get more than than the odd week to go away, and we tend to do that with a group of old friends, in the UK. We do have a 'sabbatical' coming up next year though, due to one daughter being on a second maternity leave, one grandchild starting school, and one getting more nursery hours. However, my wife craves sunshine, so she's talking about southern Europe - she's not so keen on the idea of Scandinavia. 

Only joking, of course. Anyway, the offer of a beer is obviously a standing one, should you ever make the trip

[El Zen]

27 minutes ago, maqroll said:

I'm really just talking about Boston and Portland, Maine. Bored with them and I can't stand the traffic and constant road construction.

That’s exactly what Oslo is doing right at the moment. The Labour/Green Party city council are making the city greener, more open, more pedestrianised. It’s great.

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, Rodders said:

God its a beautiful place and somewhere with clean ocean too

Hate to break this to you but... that might not quite be true any more

[Rds1983]

Having grown up in North Devon it is a lovely and beautiful place (rapidly changing and modernising nowadays though). I'm down several times a year visiting family. 

The reality isn't quite the dream though. The winters are awful. The summers are great, but then the tourists arrive and ruin everything. You need to be pretty well off as work is very limited and low paid  and houses are expensive. The infrastructure isn't great with roads and hospitals etc. 

I've seen many people move down from London, Birmingham, Manchester etc and then leave about 2 years later. 

Not trying to depress anyone and be negative, just want to paint a realistic picture in case anyone did look into moving there. 

[Rodders]

2 minutes ago, bickster said:

Hate to break this to you but... that might not quite be true any more

Well the particular bay or two near our hotel was fine this summer at least

obviously not a universal situation sadly. 

[maqroll]

3 minutes ago, El Zen said:

That’s exactly what Oslo is doing right at the moment. The Labour/Green Party city council are making the city greener, more open, more pedestrianised. It’s great.

Yeah, one thing I really don't like about where I am now is the total reliance on cars. I've driven much more in 8 years in Maine than the previous 20 in Boston.

[El Zen]

4 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Yeah, one thing I really don't like about where I am now is the total reliance on cars. I've driven much more in 8 years in Maine than the previous 20 in Boston.

Yeah, that’s certainly one thing I don’t like about where I live now. I’m not too far away from Oslo with a decent rail connection (I’m typing this from the train into town, as it happens) but day-to-day I rely too much on my car to get around. 

Edited November 26, 2022 by El Zen

[Chindie]

I don't think it's possible for me to answer this. I've not seen all of the country, but I've been to most corners of it.

A part of me loves mid Wales. I've spent a lot of time in Aberystwyth in my life. I have wonderful, and terrible, memories of the place and the surrounding areas. It's beautiful. There are images burned in my mind of the place - the town glowing golden in the late afternoon walking along the promenade with the Victorian town house frontages ethereal in the light of the sun setting over the sea; a raging storm turning the sky into an alien battle, the sea into a broiling cavalry charge, all the world an ominous stony grey, lighting hitting monuments on the coast and all around a cacophony of thunderous rain turning the streets to rivers and conquering the drains; endless rolling farmland without a human in sight cut up by road clinging to the edges of valleys with right blind corners. It's a part of the world with that curious feeling that the land isn't trying to kill you, but it's not going to be nice to you either, bits of ragged stone jutting out of random grass hillocks, rampant forest, weather that changes on a coin flip. And pubs. Pubs on pubs on pubs.

The other place I've spent a lot of time is Cornwall. Cornwall is wonderful, it has most of the things mid Wales has, but with the edges knocked off a bit, and with the distinct feeling there's a bit of money about. I have family down there and have been there in every season - I've seen blazing summers burn the farmland and winter strife drench a house at the centre of a usually quiet bay. My relatives had a house on the outskirts of a popular seaside town, and it was glorious. A Georgian house on a hill, their garden wall basically topping the cliffs, the garden itself quite big and isolated with a conservatory with apple trees. When I was kid if you said I could live anywhere, it would be that house. When I was a bit older another relative rebuilt a house that was away from the coast down there, in one of the scenic mazes of farmland. It was the kind of place you needed specific directions to find, it was down various lanes with high hedges and had a driveway you couldn't see the house from. But when you found it it was incredible. Didn't really have much land, it's garden was small for where it was, but the house was stunning. An old stone farm building that they had renovated themselves. It was gorgeous. If you were a true hermit you could die happy on that house. You were truly isolated. But that's also the problem with Cornwall. Infrastructure is grim, everything is an hour away from everything else even if it's looking like it's next door on the map, and you can be really alone. Famously when I was kid on holiday down there a woman was murdered out in one of the farmland lanes and they didn't have a single lead on it. It's the kind of thing that plays on your mind in those isolated narrow lanes. On the other hand I can remember being driven along those dark lanes at night and being able to see the stars and the sky in the way you'd never see around Birmingham. 

Tbc

[villa4europe]

Kidderminster

Not because its good or pretty or has anything to do, it doesn't... But the only reason I'd ever live in the UK would be friends, family and it being my roots

Wouldn't live anywhere else, might as well live abroad

[maqroll]

57 minutes ago, El Zen said:

Yeah, that’s certainly one thing I don’t like about where I live now. I’m not too far away from Oslo with a decent rail connection (I’m typing this from the train into town, as it happens) but day-to-day I rely too much on my car to get around. 

I actually live about 500 ft from a train depot. But the line is just for freight now. It was a passenger line decades ago. The station is now in ruins. The train doesn't even stop here.