Thinking of moving to Bristol!

[glade]

Currently living in soulless housing estate in Swindon. Not worth the taxi fare into the centre, too far to walk to anything in the evenings.

Mrs is looking for a job in Bristol, and if she gets one I will follow suit; so we have started looking at places to live.

Emmerson green looked ok until we realised it was another soulless housing estate, and probably still too far from the centre with not much going on. Drove round Redland / Bishopston area and we would like to live there, perhaps somewhere near Gloucester road.

We would like to rent 2-3 bed place, and it would be nice to have a quick link to the M4 - because to start with I'll be commuting back to Swindon. We would like a garage if poss but realise this might be a sacrifice... need somewhere to keep a bike and any kit car plans would have to go on hold

What areas are best??

Cheers. Tim

Horfield cheaper than Redland / Bishopston, still some nice bits don't be put off by north end of Horfield (many Horfield residents would rather think they live in Bishopston )
St Andrews nice, Stapleton quite nice, Downend although a taxi ride in.
Redland nice but pricey, Cotham is studentland. Forget Clifton.
Henleaze & Westbury Park and Westbury on Trym nice, you might be lucy getting something there. Henleaze well worth considering.
Montpelier too trendy for its own good, some bother can be associated with being next to St Pauls (which isnt bad really).
Easton nice when deeper inside it near St Marks (think?) Rd, cheaper.
Kingswood might as well be another place altogether, too far out.

South of river Southville & Windmill Hill ok. Bedminster affordable.

If it comes up just post up where you are considering and people can comment, obviously all above is my opinion .

[gruntygiggles]

I hear what you're saying about souless housing estates and you just have to make of a place what you will. Stretchie and I moved away from Barrs Court, near Warmley and Kingswood to come to the rural Old Sodbury, but have a wonderful community here and wouldn't change it for the world.

To give my view, where you move to in Bristol totally depends on what you are looking for. if you podt a little info, I'll be happy to post suggestions. If you want to be close to the centre, you probably will have to sacrifice a garage and even parking some places, but you can get lucky with a decent budget.

I used to live on Hotwell Rd, coldharbour. This flat was pretty much on the river and just a walk to the centre, but was bad for parking, no garage and expensive.

I then moved to Kingswood to a new build block of flats @ Springley court. These were very nice flats at a decent price with underground parking spaces and reasonable rental/purchase prices.

After this, I moved to Warmley to a 15 year ols estate that I thought would be soulless, but I had fantastic neighbours, a car port, nice house and good garden for £595 a month. After that, Barrs Court just up the road with bowling, restaurants, cinema and shops on the doorstep, lovely two up, two down house for £625 and after a break in, moved a few streets down to a three bed bigger house with garden front and back, garage and lovely neighbours for £725 a month. Good bus links fro outside the front door into town and a cheapish taxi ride but a lovely place to live.

BTW....the break in was not a common occurance in the area...it was some freal who wanted to leave me a letter....nothing stolen, so don't take it as a bad reflection of the area.

There's plenty around and if you have a decent amount of time to look around, you'll be able to find something to suit you both in most areas of Bristol and the surrounding areas.

Stretchie never thought he'd like living anywhere as rural as we are now, but he's toally fallen in love with it.

[glade]

Thanks for the advice! We have plenty of time to look around.

Amy is a teacher, so we would be moving in the school hols if she gets a job in bristol. She's applying to a school in Redland Green. I'm an engineer based in Swindon, and will try and find a job in Bristol (kind of time for us both to move on career wise)... however finding a manufacturing based job at the moment might be tricky! Hence the commute back to Swindon for me initially.

We are only 3 years out of Uni but feel like we have a middle-aged lifestyle... the nearest pub is 2 miles away, and it's pretty bland. Swindon only has a few nice(r) bars, and the centre reminds me of something you see on "STREETCRIME-CAMERA-COPS-GONE-WILD-3"... £15+ in a taxi each way doesn't seem worth it somehow.

We like going to Bristol. We always end up at the waterfront, or wandering round looking for restaurants. Even going to the cinema is a nicer experience! We like the idea of just popping out to comedy club, and there being a diverse music scene on the doorstep where we could find some small bar nights like we used to at uni. Somewhere like Gloucester road would be great - we think it would be like Narborough road in Leicester where Amy used to live.

So a walk to a highstreet, short taxi ride to the centre, a garage, and quick access to the M32/M4 - Too much to ask!!???

Cheers - Tim & Amy!

What sort of budget are you looking at?

Most of Rich's advice above is good. For most of your 'lifestyle' reqs you'd be looking at bishopston, redland, cotham. Plus easier to get back to Swindon. But you'll really struggle for a garage at sensible prices in those places . Sneaking a bike round the bike of somewhere might be possible though, but you can't tell that from rightmove of course.

In Henleaze you might get a 2 bed flat with garage for £750 or so, but it won't be in a very charming location. Plus while Henleaze has a high street and shops, it doesn't really have the pubs / cafe society thing. Bit more blue rinse. Nice though ... I'm happy here
£900 should get you a 3 bed house, possibly with garage on the edge of henleaze / westbury-on-trym.

Basically, anywhere within a quick walk of trendy pubs / bars/ comedy clubs is very unlikely to have garage or even off street parking for any sort of sensible money. If you want that, you'll be looking at the slower pace of life in somewhere like Westbury. Still only 10 minutes in a taxi to town though.

[gruntygiggles]

Just a couple for you to look at. If they are out there now, I'm sure you'll find similar when you're ready to look. If this is higher than your budget, either consider asking the agent if they would find a sharer for you, or there are cheaper options as little as 10 mins out of town in filton, horfield, redland henleaze and all the places people have mentioned.

But, it sounds like you want the vibrant lifestyle, so maybe something like this, no garage, but secure parking would suit you??

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-23179475.html?locationIdentifier=OUTCODE^259&minBe drooms=1&maxBedrooms=3&minPrice=500&maxPrice=800&r adius=5.0&pageNumber=2&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-to-rent%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DOUTCODE%25 5E259%26minBedrooms%3D1%26maxBedrooms%3D3%26minPri ce%3D500%26maxPrice%3D800%26radius%3D5.0%26index%3 D10

or this with a garage in Clifton. Close to whiteladies road which is a great place to go out and only a 5 min walk to town!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-12128094.html?locationIdentifier=OUTCODE^259&minBe drooms=1&maxBedrooms=3&minPrice=500&maxPrice=800&r adius=5.0&pageNumber=7&backToListURL=%2Fproperty-to-rent%2Ffind.html%3FlocationIdentifier%3DOUTCODE%25 5E259%26minBedrooms%3D1%26maxBedrooms%3D3%26minPri ce%3D500%26maxPrice%3D800%26radius%3D5.0%26index%3 D60

[gruntygiggles]

Sorry, just posted one that was rent per week....lol

Originally Posted by glade

the nearest pub is 2 miles away

what !!! - i walk up the tawny most friday nights - takes about 15 mins - you can't be more than another 3-4 minutes on top of that. always seems shorter when staggering back though !

[glade]

Originally Posted by mike_avfc

what !!! - i walk up the tawny most friday nights - takes about 15 mins - you can't be more than another 3-4 minutes on top of that. always seems shorter when staggering back though !

I wondered if you'd see this!

[_Stretchie_]

You don't want to live in henleaze mate..

Full of Geordies!!