Southampton!...?

I think we've settled on a place to seriously consider as our new home - Southampton. For a few reasons:

* We've been here, and thought it was awesome.
* Proximity to London - easy access for shopping or a weekend or exploring or a show or...
* Southeast location - better weather, as I understand it
* Cost of living seems reasonable?

Anyone have any thoughts? I'd love to hear an expert's opinion! I mean, I wouldn't know if that was like the Arkansas of the UK or something

Thanks!

Hi there

Southamptons nicer areas are of course .. nice! and I remember certainly a decade or so ago some of the people I know there would trumpet how it was voted one of the nicer cities in Europe... or something along those lines!

As it's a seaside town, on the south coast of the UK yes, it's a nice place! of course it has it's usual crap areas and the like!

I personally would'nt say it has 'good' proximity to London. The UK is used to much smaller distances and as such anything over 10 miles away is considered 'far' ! In real terms though, yes, getting to London if you need to is quite easy and relatively quick. Cost of living as per the UK as a whole is high, it's not perceivably any different from most other towns/cities it's size in the UK, most things cost pretty much the same as a town 200 miles away for instance. Certainly for housing/rentals etc it's not like its 'oh wow it's cheap' or anything. In the nicer areas, you'd certainly be paying a similarish amount to a place on the outskirts or just inside of London for instance.

You have a better 'chance' of better weather though!

Nightlife is quite good, um, theres plenty of err, hazy nights I remember when I used to visit friends who were studying there !

Do a little more research into the place but overall, thumbs up!

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks DtM! I was thinking proximity mainly in terms of other areas we'd thought of: York, because it seems to rank high on the Best Places to Live lists; Penzance, because that's where my ancestors are from, etc...

You're certainly right about cost of living. It was nice to see Southampton rent prices though, compared to some of the London areas (Hampstead, for one) and deeper into York.

It's all very overwhelming - but it's very nice to hear that Southampton isn't a ghetto or a dump or something

Penzance, because that's where my ancestors are from, etc...

Penzance is probably somewhere you'd be better off visiting than living as it's very small (only 21,000 people), pretty touristy (holiday destination in the summer) and really far away from just about everything ! The nearest city to Penzance is Plymouth (250,000 people), which is only 77 miles away but would take nearly 2 hours to get to due to small roads (1 or 2 lanes) and low speed limits (it'd be about 40 mph most of the way). London is about 5.5 hours by car, 5.5 hours by train and 9.5 hours by National Express bus.

Penzance is probably somewhere you'd be better off visiting than living as it's very small (only 21,000 people), pretty touristy (holiday destination in the summer) and really far away from just about everything !

But it'd surely be the best place to live or at least visit on International Talk Like A Pirate Day! 

Yeah, ksand, you can't get much further from everything! lol, MapleLeafGirl

Well, I looked over the Wikipedia article on Southampton - crime 3x the national average, issues with behavior in secondary schools... Sigh. I don't know what to think any more - feels like every time I start to picture myself somewhere, I have to re-think it!

Well, I looked over the Wikipedia article on Southampton - crime 3x the national average, issues with behavior in secondary schools... Sigh. I don't know what to think any more - feels like every time I start to picture myself somewhere, I have to re-think it!

What kinds of things are you looking for in terms of living in the UK: region wise, climate wise, size wise, education and crime wise and so on? Maybe if we start from your dealbreaking parameters, people can make suggestions?

Just a thought! 

The Office for National Statistics may help:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/index.html and also
http://www.upmystreet.com

RE: Southampton crime levels:
http://www.upmystreet.com/local/crime-in-southampton.html

HTH.

Ok, list of ideals - knowing full well that such a perfect place may well not exist:

• Sunny and warm weather as much as that is possible.
• Low to average crime rates.
• Parks for the kids (2 and 4) and dogs (65lb and 95lb).
• Good Primary schools for the kids (as that's one of our big reasons for leaving the U.S.). Good Secondary a plus, but we could move if we had to.
• Size doesn't matter (he he), but it would be nice to depend more on public transport than car
• It'd be great if this utopia were "close" (that's U.S.-close, as in 60 miles or less) to London for weekend exploring or shows or the like.

I'm in the tech industry, which is probably primary based in London, correct? Location doesn't really matter much, as I plan to contract with my U.S. firm that I'm currently employed with, and as a software developer I can work from anywhere (and frequently do).

So Southampton seemed to fit at least a few of those, and since we've been there before and thought it was really cute, that seemed like a fit. But we're certainly open to anywhere.

You might like Exeter and surrounding area.

Exeter and surrounding area is lovely. Though the city centre for shopping is a bit blah, IMO. Bournemouth could be an option. Epsom and Ewell in Surrey usually rank well for quality of life standards. Wokingham in Berkshire is also nice. The last two are definitely commutable to London, if needs be.

RE: your profession: Would you be looking for permanent or contact work?  

You may wish to look at the following links to get an idea of where may be good to live, job wise:

http://www.bcs.org/

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/information_technology.jsp

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/applications_developer_resources.jsp

HTH.

You might like Exeter and surrounding area.

Yes, Exeter is very nice and is a very safe city (compared to other cities in the UK). I lived there for 3 years as a student and I was supposed to be moving back there for a job (I would have started on Monday!), but it fell through a couple of months ago .

Winchester in Hampshire also ranks well for quality of life.

RE: your profession: Would you be looking for permanent or contact work? 

I qualify for Tier 1, so the ideal would be to get that Visa, and continue working for my current company here in the U.S. They're on board with converting me from full time to contract, so as long as the UK would be ok with that plan, that's at least what I'd do to start.

For 'green city' rankings, this may be of interest:
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/projects/sustainable-cities09

To search job availability in particular areas, this may be useful:
http://www.jobserve.com

What about Newcastle Upon Tyne? From what I've read, it has warmer-than-UK-average temps, is one of the drier spots, has average crime, decent enough schools, good public transport. Anyone had any experience, good or bad?