What is birmingham like to live in?

NoobCannon said:
Its like a huge version of west ham, at least the places i used to go mainly solihol iirc 5/6 years ago now last time i went.

Run down and dirty. Used to be a running joke to ask if you had brought your passport for the trip.

I live on the border of essex/hertfordshire for refrence.
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I think if you're using Essex as your baseline for comparison then perhaps your judgement may be a bit off :p
 
Are you going to buy or rent? How long could you stand getting to work and home each day?

Edgebaston, Harbourne, Kings Heath, Mosley, Hall Green, Shirley, Solihull have nice clean quiet streets with easy access to amenities, city centre transport is fine and getting to the QE won't be bad really. Getting a place on one of those streets is a different matter though.


City centre wise Brindley Place and Jewellery Quarter if you want a trendy warehouse converted flat or something like that.

Ive never really been into the wider Smethwick area so can't commen.


Avoid Qinton, Stirchley, Cotteridge, far south end of Kings Heath like Hollywood, Balsall Heath, Sparkhill, Sparkbrook, Bordsley Green, Marston Green area - basically around the airport. There are a lot of areas where you can basically see a boundary in terms of clenliness and house build quality and style.
 
Lived here all my life, not sure whether that validates my opinion or not but hey ho xD

Of all the major cities I've visited in the UK (and that's quite a few), Birmingham is certainly one of the least 'novel'. It has very little personality when compared to places like Manchester or Liverpool. Hell, London has more of a pulse these days and that's saying something.

To live in however, I quite like it. It's like everywhere in the UK, good areas and bad areas usually within 2 miles of each other. I'm proud of the fact we have such a diverse set of communities and the people, generally speaking are quite decent.
 
How close do you want to live to Birmingham would define answers...
I live near Warwick parkway train and that's circa 25 mins to the centre (Moor Street)
 
My boss used to run a motorcycle delivery service. After a short while certain diverse areas of Birmingham were no longer delivered to. Living in a dominantly white area and seeing just how outwardly racist Asians can be was a real eye opener!

Some of the places mentioned above look very nice and as mentioned its no different to any big city, you have the best and worst places to live.
 
Mind you there is lots of fun to be had watching the Islamic street preachers in the city centre :)
 
So you have been offered a job at the Queen Elizabeth hospital then. The local area to that hospital is reasonably up-market and decent area, however be very careful some of the surrounding areas are right dives.
 
Moses said:
Those kinds of 'best place to live' lists are stupid. They look at crime rates, house price stability, etc... but without actually finding out about what people think of the area. Years back the Telegraph said that PL12 was the most desirable postcode in the UK. It's rubbish. It's my home town. It is not even close to being the most desirable area of the UK.

Googled the article,

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...wall-is-Britains-most-desirable-postcode.html

El oh el... 'picturesque and vibrant' :D. The bridges are alright if you're into that kind of thing, but the town is ugly as sin and nothing happens there.
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difference is, this time the Daily Fail is actually right...
 
Just be careful round these guys, they can be a bit moody.

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Sounds like I'm going to be in the minority here, but I lived there for five years (first job after uni) and really liked it. There's a decent amount going on, good food, some decent bars, and the city centre is improving all the time. Now that they're getting rid of Paradise Forum it's actually reasonably good looking. It's small/cheap enough to live bang in the centre (or in the Jewellery Quarter, where I lived and there are some great flats/houses), and never take public transport. And now that I'm in London I realise how much I liked being able to get out to countryside within half an hour on a bike.

Sure, there were faults, but I've also lived in Leeds and now London, and wouldn't say that Brum was worse than either.
 
First of all congrats on job offer! May I ask if that was an offer for a core training post or non-training? I went to Birmingham Medical School and then did my foundation years in Walsall but lived in Birmingham, before moving away, total of 8 years. I personally think a lot will depend on the CT/ST posting and how well regarded that is compared to other offers you've received. If you're thinking of applying later down the line for speciality that is very competitive then a good post in the QE that hopefully will allow you to get involved with perhaps a research project / writing paper / national/intl audit will carry a lot more weight than just thinking solely about the area you'll be living in. Sure Birmingham has quite a few bad points and some good (I leave others to argue those out) but from a personal point of view as a temporary place to live during core training or even speciality training it was okay and great as a student! I've spent all of my training in the West Midlands Deanery so can not compare to others but as with most training schemes you need take into consideration long term prospects for example after training would you want to settle there which can be important for certain specialities like General Practice. For me one of the main downsides of the WMD was the distances involved between rotations. At that time you could be placed anywhere between Stafford and Hereford so trying find somewhere to live and having to change every four months was difficult but I think with some specialities, GP for example, they've now got much smaller foundation schools.
 
Been to Birmingham many a time and it's probably the least place I would visit again.

But like any City, you have good and bad parts.

Not a city lover, countryside for me :D
 
Harborne resident here commuting to Solihul, i think it has a lot to give, and surely there are a lot of less desirable areas nearby just like anywhere else, but who cares when you're just driving through.

Things which do it for me:

Outstanding schools in the area
Great parks around the immediate area
Clean quiet streets which are just nice in general to take a walk, can't say this about the majority of areas in brum, love the victorian architecture and the houses on some of the posher roads are genuinely stunning
Loads of food places in Harborne, there are some very good, and expensive restaurants (micheline starred and equivalents)
Great pubs with decent beer and ales, pricey but to be expected
The high street has everything you need (banks/po/supermarkets/barbers etc)
Quick bus ride if that's your thing into the city centre in 12-15 minutes
Walking distance to the QE if that's where you're working
15 minute drive and you are out of Birmingham into the Clent Hills and beyond

There's nowhere in the UK that would tick everyone's boxes so it's all personal opinion which from one person to another varies massively.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Sense of humour begs to differ. As said, you could have at least chosen an accurate example. Who lives in Birmingham? Asians, tons of them. It's wall to wall curry and Ganesh. Hilarious. Arabs? Not so much, no one who knows the first thing about immigration in this country would go for arabs first and foremost in Birmingham. Care to guess a region of the country where learning Arabic might have been remotely accurate and thus potentially amusing?
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Really, no one?
 
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