What is birmingham like to live in?

Born and raised in Solihull before fleeing! Joking, Solihull centre is OK, more than a fair share of chavs though, however some of the surrounding villages - Knowle, Dorridge, Henley in Arden, Catherine De Barnes etc. offer some of the best living I have ever seen in this country.

I have a lot of friends/family in central Birmingham and it's not a bad place to live - lots to do as with most cities but a fair share of wrong-uns walking about. There are large Asian areas surrounding as well which to be honest you hear a lot of horror stories coming out of (Sparkhill, Nechells, etc.).
 
Participant said:
Hmmm yes I wonder why someone would possibly comment on Birmingham in this thread. Puzzling.

I think this sums up perfectly why you'll never win an argument again the loony lefties.
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The counter argument being that all cities have good bits and bad bits, so is Birmingham really any worse than anywhere else...
 
dowie said:
Because the thread is literally about Birmingham! Seriously????
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So you are admitting that your post was completely devoid of any useful information since it applies equally to other cities.

Why bother posting that at all and then continually try and deflect as if somehow Birmingham is completely unique and shares no commonality with any other city?
 
D.P. said:
So you are admitting that your post was completely devoid of any useful information since it applies equally to other cities.
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no my post related to Birmingham i.e. the topic of the thread - making some statement about some other cities is on the other hand rather irrelevant - your post about Glasgow, not the topic of the thread, was indeed devoid of useful information

Why bother posting that at all and then continually try and deflect as if somehow Birmingham is completely unique and shares no commonality with any other city?
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I've not stated it is unique (though it doesn't apply to *all* cities to the same extent)- why on earth are you bringing up other cities in a thread about Birmingham? Why bother posting about Glasgow?
 
I live in Aston Fields, Bromsgrove and work in Solihull now after 6 years at the QE. I would recommend Barnt Green; Alvechurch; Blackwell. These areas are basically £100K per bedroom!
 
Paras - I'm working in the QE currently and living in Harborne. I have my training rotation in the West Midlands. Hit me up with any questions that you have about the area, work or whatever.

Too many naysayers in this thread for my liking! Birmingham WAS a dump as recently as 10 years ago, hell, if you arrived 5 years ago by train you'd be greeted by the palisades shopping centre and probably would have got straight back on your train.

The city has seen enormous changes in the last 5 years. It's been really good fun living through it (I'm a southerner) as there are loads of new and exciting bars and restaurants opening the whole time. Birmingham has everything you could possibly want in a city and you can actually afford a very nice quality of live and live in a properly nice area within a short distance of the centre.

There are crummy areas, as there are in any city, but they are easily avoided and you wouldn't accidentally stray into them.

The people are friendly and helpful and will say hello.

I continue to be pleasantly surprised by Birmingham even after 5 years of living here.
 
malachi said:
Same in London
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London drivers are predictable though, it is survival of the fittest. You use brute contactless force to mark your territory. It's made so much easier with a bit of horsepower usage. In Birmingham it was a different game altogether just because people didn't seem to know how to drive. At least in London they can drive, just they don't care about the rules of the road in general :p

Asians are partly to blame for poor driving standards there.

Not a racist!
 
Having learned to drive in London and now drive in Birmingham, I can confirm that both cities have their fair share of terrible drivers. Slightly higher proportion of old Toyota Avensis with a single headlight in Birmingham though!
 
I live in Bromsgrove
pattojones said:
I live in Aston Fields, Bromsgrove and work in Solihull now after 6 years at the QE. I would recommend Barnt Green; Alvechurch; Blackwell. These areas are basically £100K per bedroom!
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You live 2 mins from me then. :)
Bromsgrove is a good place to live as the train goes to the QE
 
Had the best curry in my life in Bham.

I have friends who told me to always avoid the B17 postcode, think it was a gang thing but that was the ear;y 00's no idea about now.
 
I've lived in many of the "top cities to live in" and have also spent two years living in Brum. Great city great people.

As an aside, I ended up taking my car to a garage in one of those "no-go Asian areas" and to this day its the best service I have ever had.
 
JOSH said:
Had the best curry in my life in Bham.

I have friends who told me to always avoid the B17 postcode, think it was a gang thing but that was the ear;y 00's no idea about now.
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Definitely avoid B17 - the house prices are horrendous!

Asian cuisine in Birmingham is unbelievable. There's so much choice - the only issue is that as with all types of restaurant in Birmingham you really have to seek out the best. It's not straightforward to wander down the street and happen upon a good place.
 
I live in B17...

Probably the area least likely to have a gang in Bham - from my experience anyway. I think b17 to be the opposite actually- it's aspirational to live here insofar as access to schools and such.

I could be wrong- will keep an eye out tonight!
 
tom_nieto said:
Definitely avoid B17 - the house prices are horrendous!
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House prices are in no way 'horrendous' in Birmingham - even right in the city centre I could buy a modern apartment for less than the equity I have in my flat in zone 3 in London...

In the various villages around Solihull you can get a nice family home for 600k and have a fantastic quality of life, top schools, open countryside nearby - basically the sort of standard of living that people would praise places like Switzerland and Scandinavian countries for offering.

For the same price in plenty of areas of London I could get a small two bed flat! While there are of course things to criticise about Brum (and the surrounding areas) I really don't think house prices are one of them.
 
Been living here for 5 years after moving up from Bath for work.

Certainly wouldn't have been my first choice, and I guess I'm slightly spoiled compared to where I moved from...

However it's not as bad as where I grew up in Glasgow, and while I don't live in one of the better areas by any stretch of the imagination, I don't feel "unsafe" in the area (although a mile or so down the road would be a different story :p)

There are definitely some areas you'd want to avoid, but IMO they are immediately obvious when you find them. The city centre is OK, although to echo others, I much prefer Solihull.

Can also confirm that the standard of "driving" here is the worst I've ever seen. I'm not going to claim to be the best/perfect driver, but I at least know what traffic lights, lane discipline and a safe braking distance are, which appears to be more than 90% of people round here who probably don't even know what a driving licence looks like...
 
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