Moving to Edinburgh

Going to Cali

Going to Cali

Going to Cali

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I've been offered a job in Edinburgh and should be moving around start of March. I got the chance to spend some time there before my interview (stayed close to Haymarket on Palmerston Place) but only saw Princes St, Castel, Royal Mile and around. I assume this is just the center / tourist spots. Can anyone recommend the "decent" parts of town are and the places I should be avoiding?
 
There are lots of flats around the Royal Mile area and Haymarket. Nicer parts of town include Morningside to the south west and the New Town, north of Princes St. Avoid Leith, Sighthill, places like that. A quick Google should give you an idea of whether somewhere should be avoided.

The Old Town tends to be where all the students live, especially Marchmont/Bruntsfield, but it's a fairly nice place to live.
 
Even though I'm not a fan of Leith generally I've got to say in fairness there are some nicer areas there now and it's one of those "up and coming" sort of places supposedly - I suspect that the closer you are to town e.g. top of Leith Walk the better but it's been a while since I've ventured far down that way. If you don't know where you want in that regard though it's probably safer just writing off Leith and along most of the coast including Portobello, Musselburgh and the like.

Do you have a particular budget in mind? Or indeed what do you want from where you stay? Both those questions will have quite a bearing on where you should go to as if you want cheap and quiet or more expensive but lively then the answers are different.
 
Avoid :

Broomhouse
Sighthill
Westerhails
Drylaw
Pilton
Craigmiller
Niddrie


And theres probably more i've forgotten.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Even though I'm not a fan of Leith generally I've got to say in fairness there are some nicer areas there now and it's one of those "up and coming" sort of places supposedly - I suspect that the closer you are to town e.g. top of Leith Walk the better but it's been a while since I've ventured far down that way. If you don't know where you want in that regard though it's probably safer just writing off Leith and along most of the coast including Portobello, Musselburgh and the like.
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Upper half of Leith is good but that's because I live in it. :p
 
Good questions, Semi pro.

Budget - I'm currently paying £600pcm for a one bed flat. I don't mind stretching to £750 if there's something really nice, but looking around the same budget if I can. In terms of what I want from a place, my current flat is an open plan box, 400sq foot which is a good size for me. I'm open to new build / period but I'm guessing Edinburgh's tend to be more period.

From the location, my current place is 10 minutes walk from the high st / train to london. Obviously I'm not going to be catching a train to london in 15 minutes but i'd like to be well connected (bus/trains) with good local bars, pubs, restaurants and shopping.
 
Drylaw isnt that bad, filled with old ppl, it is however next to some bomb sites - pilton and muirhouse.

Edit:

There are parts of Craigmillar that are alright too, for every nice bit there is a dive near by.


Davidson Mains, Silverknowles are nice too.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Even though I'm not a fan of Leith generally I've got to say in fairness there are some nicer areas there now and it's one of those "up and coming" sort of places supposedly - I suspect that the closer you are to town e.g. top of Leith Walk the better but it's been a while since I've ventured far down that way. If you don't know where you want in that regard though it's probably safer just writing off Leith and along most of the coast including Portobello, Musselburgh and the like.

Do you have a particular budget in mind? Or indeed what do you want from where you stay? Both those questions will have quite a bearing on where you should go to as if you want cheap and quiet or more expensive but lively then the answers are different.
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The top of Leith is the New Town, the very bottom of it is the shore casinos shopping centre and penthouses. The foot is still the same largely, but it isn't as polarised any longer. No where really is.

Depending where in portobello it is a fantastic place to stay - my bedroom window looked out from the promenade onto the beach. Even further afield its all leafy streets and retirement style bungalows. It's probably outside what he would like, but there are nice bits to Porty indeed.
 
Going to Cali said:
From the location, my current place is 10 minutes walk from the high st / train to london. Obviously I'm not going to be catching a train to london in 15 minutes but i'd like to be well connected (bus/trains) with good local bars, pubs, restaurants and shopping.
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If you take a look on S1 rentals (as an example) then Edinburgh South would give you places like Morningside and Bruntsfield which should both offer a number of properties in budget - essentially anywhere near the Meadows is probably a fairly decent option given what you want although there are still some areas where you'd want to have a careful look no doubt before choosing. In a city like Edinburgh you're quite lucky in that you can walk from somewhere in that sort of area to pretty much anywhere in the centre within a fairly easy half hour stroll. There's plenty of bars, pubs, restaurants and shopping within easy reach too - it depends what you like but a little bit of exploring should find you enough options to be going on with.

From there you'd be roughly equidistant from either Haymarket or Waverley so easy enough to reach for the trains if needed, there are plenty of buses in Edinburgh (LRT have even won best bus company in the UK a number of times - I don't know what that says about the competition though). There's lots of nice places in Edinburgh, those are just a couple of suggestions that appear to fit your criteria reasonably well.

Biohazard said:
Depending where in portobello it is a fantastic place to stay - my bedroom window looked out from the promenade onto the beach. Even further afield its all leafy streets and retirement style bungalows. It's probably outside what he would like, but there are nice bits to Porty indeed.
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That was sort of the point, unless you know which area of Portobello you want then it's probably best leaving it alone. Admittedly my views may have been coloured by doing my driving test round that neck of the woods which is never a good way to endear a place to you.
 
Whereabouts in the city will you be working? Might as well try and stay closeby or where theres a decent bus route there!

I live in Leith, its nice enough and I've been in Edinburgh 4 years now.
 
semi-pro waster said:
That was sort of the point, unless you know which area of Portobello you want then it's probably best leaving it alone. Admittedly my views may have been coloured by doing my driving test round that neck of the woods which is never a good way to endear a place to you.
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That's the Joppa end which has pretty nice parts too, I lived in a few of the streets around there and the houses and gardens are pretty sweet. There are parts to both Joppa and Porty that look a bit dated, but you aren't in that for £750 and I don't think either really suits him in any event. That's the bad place for your test though, my instructor went for sighthill.. a bit easier I think. ;)

[FnG]magnolia;20950676 said:
[posh accent]

I reside in Morningside.

[/posh accent]
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Stayed there for a while too, too many lunatics at the bus stop in the morning on the way to work. :o
 
Biohazard said:
A lot of it has been demolished now, same with Niddrie etc.

Keeping the sig as tribute yeah? ;)
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Good stuff, they will all just get moved somewhere else though and turn that area crap. Though Sighthill seems to have improved slightly since they

Haha, something like that. ;)
 
Begbie said:
Good stuff, they will all just get moved somewhere else though and turn that area crap. Though Sighthill seems to have improved slightly since they

Haha, something like that. ;)
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I think most places have quietened down. All of it was demolished practically, I think that nutter generation grew older.. there are still rough parts no doubt but I don't think it's anywhere as bad as it was in the late 90's. Property prices have an effect as well.
 
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