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Living in Nottingham

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 Juglan 25 May 2011
As part of my general exploration of other cities in the UK, does anyone live here and would like to offer the pros and cons? Another job has come up.

Thanks
 ebygomm 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

Pros: city centre with decent variety of shops, couple of theatres, quite a few live music venues.

Reasonable public transport, depending where in the city easy access to motorway network, fairly bike friendly, peak district close by.

Cons: mention Nottingham and people assume there's gangs running around with guns.
 toad 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna: Nice city, with all the usual shops and services. Odd in that the city area over runs into the adjacent districts, so notwithstanding that I'm walking distance from the city centre, I don't technically live in Nottingham. This makes any discussion of "Nottingham" confusing.

The climbing wall is good, but I haven't been since it relocated. It was very busy and had a lot of kids groups/parties. About 90 mins for me to Peak climbing areas (reduces to an hour if outside of working hours). The local countryside is green but dull. There's a big watersports centre if that floats your boat

Loads of students plus a Big drinking/ stag party venue, so expect rowdiness at night in the centre. It has a tabloid name for shootings but if you aren't part of the drugs/gang scene you should never see any of the gun crime that it's (in)famous for.

Avoid city centre living, unless you want an overpriced warehouse flat or a monstrously overpriced flat in the Park (very posh). Try Sherwood in the city proper, although many people live outside Nottingham (but still in the city!) in places like Beeston, West Bridgford, Arnold etc.
 Rob Exile Ward 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna: There's gangs running around with guns.

I used to work there a few years ago, about an hour or less to the Peak (I used to live in Derby and probably preferred that as it was closer and smaller.)
 ebygomm 25 May 2011
In reply to toad:

To me Nottinghamshire countryside is quite nice, but then I grew up in North Lincs
 toad 25 May 2011
In reply to ebygomm:
> (In reply to toad)
>
> To me Nottinghamshire countryside is quite nice, but then I grew up in North Lincs

I love it - worked in it for many years - fantastic shows of orchids within the city, all sorts of fantastic birdies at Attenborough and Sherwood is an NNR, but it isn't exactly dramatic if you're posting on a climbing forum.

PS I was climbing at Birchen last night and it was 90mins door to crag but only 50 mins coming home. Nottingham really struggles because the main roads out of town are notoriously busy and the river bottlenecks traffic
 Offwidth 25 May 2011
In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I lived for several years in The Meadows one of the most notorious gang areas and only had minor issues. I now live close to St Anns another notorious area. I'd say its a great city with the benefit of a very compact city centre. All big cities have gang problems. Driving to the Peak climbing varies from 40 minutes to 2 hours depending on location and traffic.

Its only real con is the historical distortion in the school system: Nottingham City for various reasons had the worst secondary schools outside London (slowly improving now) This led to lots of middle class families moving out to the satellite towns (especially West Bridgeford) where schools are good. Even this con has a silver lining: there is cheap housing to be had, currently the 4 bedroom modern town house needing renovation next door to me might go for £85k, nice cul-de-sac in a nice estate.
 Offwidth 25 May 2011
In reply to toad:

The new climbing centre is bigger has fewer problems with kids groups (seperate section for these and a party room not open to the wall area). It also has Trent Bridge and Nottigham Uni lake for well established free outdoor training venues.

It also has arguably moved from the worst beer city in the UK to the best with all the microbreweries that sprung up (Castle Rock, Nottingham, Mallard, Alkazar and many others like Springhead) after Shipstones and Home were closed.

 toad 25 May 2011
In reply to Offwidth:
> (In reply to toad)
>
> The new climbing centre is bigger has fewer problems with kids groups (seperate section for these and a party room not open to the wall area). It also has Trent Bridge and Nottigham Uni lake for well established free outdoor training venues.
>

I should give it another go, I think.


> It also has arguably moved from the worst beer city in the UK to the best...

And one of the best beer festivals up in the castle grounds (really atmospheric)
 winhill 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna: the only downside of nottingham is that it isn't on the main train services so inter city travel takes a bit longer.

but it is a city so if you don't like cities go somewhere else and travel in.

lots of students so quite a young feel, but stories about women outnumbering the men are not sadly true anymore, although the tradition of large gangs of women out on the town from wednesday night onwards endures.

on the whole the women are less easy than say newcastle and the north east but better looking than yorkshire.

if access to the peak is important, live further out and commute in.
 winhill 25 May 2011
In reply to Offwidth:
> (In reply to toad)
>
> The new climbing centre is bigger has fewer problems with kids

do you treat them as volumes?
 Offwidth 25 May 2011
In reply to winhill:

I wouldn't advise that .

The other thing about kids at NCC is the youth team ('team crush') has been rather sucessful.
 Offwidth 25 May 2011
In reply to winhill:

The London train times are about 1.45 to 2 hours, not bad really.

Moff and I thought about living further out that but we would rather face short work commutes and longer drives to climb (less driving and with more motivation). We managed to co-edit Froggatt OK from Nottingham.
 ebygomm 25 May 2011
In reply to toad:

We used to live in Carlton and could get to Hathersage in under an hour even during busy times because we could skirt round the north east side of Nottingham and not have to go through it. Bizarrely the places where you might think you'd be closer towards the west of the city can be longer journeys to busy places.

The peak is even closer now and countryside and we're still only a ten minute train trip from Nottingham.

Back to the op, be aware that bus routes are like spokes of a bike wheel, only going to the centre and nowhere else. So if you're not working in the centre that can be a consideration on where you live, workplace parking levy applies if you're in the city boundaries although whether this is passed on I don't know.
 Offwidth 25 May 2011
In reply to ebygomm:

I thought the Parking levy starts next April?
 ebygomm 25 May 2011
In reply to Offwidth:

You're correct, I thought it had started based on some comments I've heard about charges being passed on but it hasn't.
 seankenny 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

Personally I wasn't wild about living in Nottingham. It's pleasant enough during the day but I didn't like going out at night - it was a Hogarthian parade of drunken grimness when I lived there. I feel much safer on the streets of London. Also saw a lot of crime when I was there, car chases and the like, which I haven't seen in other cities in the UK.
 MG 25 May 2011
In reply to seankenny: That was my experience too. Pretty grim overall.
 ebygomm 25 May 2011
In reply to seankenny:

Whereabouts in Nottingham?

I can see that where you live would make a big difference to your experiences. It's a wonder the other half ever stayed given that he spend his first months in Nottingham living on Alfreton Road
 Ramblin dave 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:
Yeah, the town centre on a friday or saturday night can be a bit much if you're not into that sort of thing. I didn't think it was much worse than any other northern town, though. London is a bit of a special case because it's so big that the drunken fighting arseholes tend to be concentrated in a few areas and easy to avoid.

I think when I was there we mainly used to stick to our local pubs on weekend night.
 conorcussell 25 May 2011
In reply to toad: There are a reasonable amount of flats to rent in the park for meagre amounts of money if you look around (think 200-250 for a 4 bedroom terraced house) and it is a very nice place to live.
 toad 25 May 2011
In reply to conorcussell: An age thing - I was thinking in terms of buying, and in terms of overpriced-for-what-they-are, I live saarf of the River, so have no room to talk

PS did someone in the thread call Nottingham the North? It's the Midlands, and proud of it (apparently)

I used to live in Leicester (Highfields) and I do prefer Nottingham's location and the city has rather more going for it than its larger southern sister - there's much more in the way of gigs and theatre
 seankenny 25 May 2011
In reply to ebygomm:

I lived in Forest Fields and actually rather liked it there. It was the city centre that I hated! Seeing people unconscious in the street as I tried to get home from the cinema after a quiet night out... it was like the Apocalypse done by Club 18 - 30.

Okay, I exagerate, but very little.

 winhill 25 May 2011
In reply to seankenny:
> (In reply to ebygomm)
>
> Okay, I exagerate, but very little.

I've known people who hated the city centre at night but my teenager has been going out in town for years, as have all of her friends, from a parent's point of view I don't see it as a particular danger.

Forest fields has changed quite a bit, might depend when you were there, when the flats were up in hyson green it could be a bit intimidating but they got knocked down years ago and most of the criminality associated with it moved on.
 J0 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

I spend a fair bit of time in Beeston and its lovely!
 gethin_allen 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:
I think all you really need to know is that it's nowhere near as good as Sheffield.
 Brass Nipples 25 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

Not far from Sherwood Forest if you like mtn biking.
 winhill 25 May 2011
In reply to gethin_allen:
> (In reply to Lupine Lacuna)
> I think all you really need to know is that it's nowhere near as good as Sheffield.

Football.

mind you, you can get henderson's in sheffield but not nottingham.
 seankenny 25 May 2011
In reply to winhill:
> (In reply to seankenny)
> > Forest fields has changed quite a bit, might depend when you were there, when the flats were up in hyson green it could be a bit intimidating but they got knocked down years ago and most of the criminality associated with it moved on.

The flats were there and it was a bit dodgy, but not that bad. It was the large council estates I found worse. I used to have to visit them for work fairly frequently and always found them dispiriting places. I know every large city has them, but in Nottingham the bad estates seemed to overshadow the whole city.

On the other hand the Broadway is a lovely cinema.
OP Juglan 26 May 2011
We wouldn't live in the centre, where in the country can you commute in from easily?
 ebygomm 26 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna: commute how? Bike, bus, train, car? Where would you be working?
 toad 26 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna: Rule of thumb: north and west closer to peak and parts north, but you're in mining communities - some parts lovely, some parts really run down. South and east more rural (=rolling arable fields)but more expensive. Because Nottm is such a mare to get across in day time, live the same side as you work. I live in west bridgford mostly because my mrs gets the train and the station is 10 minutes away
 ebygomm 26 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna: if I was working city centre I'd live where I do now, biking distance into town but option of a ten minute train too (train also takes bikes), countryside on the doorstep, easy access to the m1

If I was a bit richer I'd live in Linby or Papplewick
 wildchild 26 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

We've been up here for the last six years, spent a year living in Kegworth (out to the south, near EMA), then two and a half years in Bramcote (western suburbs of Nottingham) and now live on the southern edge of Derby. I work near the main university campus and my wife works the other side of Derby.

I like Nottingham. I've never had any real cause to spend time in some of the less pleasant parts, but the city centre's fine. Bramcote is nice and quiet, but pretty expensive if you were buying a place. You also end up getting in the car to do any shopping, which is a pain after a while. We thought quite seriously about buying in Beeston, which has a proper high street and cheaper houses - feels more like a large village than a city suburb.

In the end we bought in Derby because it was a bit better value, and it gives my wife a shorter commute at the expense of mine getting a bit longer. Commuting between the two is easy enough - I use a motorbike, cars are a bit more susceptible to traffic obviously. The near edges of both are close enough to make a sensible cycle, but the centres are 15 miles apart so crossing one or both cities is for the keen

I think Nottingham has got the edge in terms of 'stuff to do', but like I say, they're not that far apart.
 RockSteady 26 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

I was a student in Nottingham and lived in Beeston and Lenton. The latter is very 'student' - I wouldn't want to live there as a working person, though it was great at the time.

In Lenton pretty much everyone I knew had something nicked or their house burgled at least once, but the gun/knife crime that everyone goes on about I didn't see at all.

The town centre has loads of good drinking establishments, and wasn't any rougher than where I grew up in Reading.

I loved it when I lived there, but students do get a different view of things.

Some very nice locations around Woollaton Park.
 Blizzard 26 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:

Lived there for over a year once. Found it to be a horrible aggressive city, its people in the main are awful. Its only plus being its size equating to lots of pubs and things to do e.g. Wollaton Hall, Newstead Abbey. It does have a semi decent climbing wall and is close to the Peak district but beware the M1 junctions around Notts are always a nightmare! The shopping centres are decrepit. I wouldnt recommend it as a place to live, wasn't friendly enough for my liking
 Ramblin dave 26 May 2011
In reply to Lupine Lacuna:
Beeston is very nice, assuming the giant Tesco hasn't assimilated the whole place yet. It's not spectacular to look at but it feels very villagey and friendly, and it's reasonably easy to get out to the river and the nature reserve and similar stuff.

And oops, yes, I meant that it's no worse than an average northern town, not that it's a northern town itself...
 toad 26 May 2011
In reply to Blizzard: odd isn't it? different perceptions - I've always found it quite friendly, although places like Southwell can be a little up its arse.
 Blizzard 26 May 2011
In reply to toad:

Yes it is odd, everyone has different experiences, I had a lot of bad ones, but all the best ones were in pubs( not really a basis from which to make a judgement from. The City centre is rough, not a place to visit on an evening, and I was living in Sneinton, rough, and my neighbours and the people on the street were generally scum. However, I think the UK has generally gone downhill, no matter where you live these days . Great shame. So much for the Big Society, as if....
 ebygomm 26 May 2011
In reply to Blizzard:

You lived in Sneinton, enough said
 Blizzard 26 May 2011
In reply to ebygomm:

It's still in Nottingham. It don't matter where I have lived, I always come across unsavoury people. The UK is full of them, havnt you noticed?
In reply to Lupine Lacuna: I've lived here for about a year and still like it! I live in Watnall and work in the city centre - I can leave work at 1700 and be at Black Rocks before 1800, Curbar for 1820. =o)
 winhill 26 May 2011
In reply to Blizzard:
> (In reply to toad)
>
> The City centre is rough, not a place to visit on an evening, and I was living in Sneinton, rough, and my neighbours and the people on the street were generally scum.

As I said further up, all the kids I know go to town for a drink in the evening, it's not a problem.

I lived in Sneinton for a couple of years, quite enjoyed it, just round the corner from the Lord Nelson.
 Blizzard 26 May 2011
In reply to winhill:

I don't know what you look like, but I'm sure I never met you. I remember that pub being anti social at times, very clicky. The two best pubs were the Vat and Fiddle and the Stratford Haven. No where else was comparable.
 winhill 26 May 2011
In reply to Blizzard:
> (In reply to winhill)
>
> I don't know what you look like, but I'm sure I never met you. I remember that pub being anti social at times, very clicky.

The Lord Nelson? It was a gay pub when I was living near it, I'm sure about cliquey but they did rip the piss out of people sometimes.
 toad 26 May 2011
In reply to winhill:
> (In reply to Blizzard)
> [...]
>
> The Lord Nelson? It was a gay pub when I was living near it, I'm sure about cliquey but they did rip the piss out of people sometimes.

It had a gay landlord, for sure, but it was more of a low key pub with a decent garden. Used to do a fantastic beef cob. We used to use it a lot from work as it was the nearest safe/sensible pub when I was based in Sneinton.
 toad 26 May 2011
In reply to Blizzard: Strat's my local. But I've lived there long enough to have bought dog food from it when it was a pet shop! Can't miss me if you're there- I'm the guy with the labrador *



* Stratford Haven usually has about 6 labradors in it at any given time!
 Ramblin dave 26 May 2011
In reply to Blizzard:
> (In reply to winhill)
>
> The two best pubs were the Vat and Fiddle and the Stratford Haven. No where else was comparable.

And the Lincolnshire Poacher and the Sir John Borlaise Warren and the Keen's Head. Although most of the really good pubs were a bit more suburban...
 hazeysunshine 26 May 2011
In reply to winhill:
As a Sneinton resident of 8 years I'm sticking up for it too, but I do live in posh bit (we take our bins in). I have lovely neighbours, I'm 10 mins bus ride/15 mins bike ride into town, 1 min walk to Colwick Woods, 10 mins run to Colwick park.... what's not to like?

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