What is birmingham like to live in?

Dr House

Dr House

Dr House

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My contract is up in a couple of months. I have a few job offers but the best one is in the EQ in birmingham for 3 years. The job is ideal, it's a big teaching hospital but I'm just worried birmingham is not such a nice place to live?

Is it all that bad?
 
I would imagine it is just like any other big city - Good parts and bad.

I've been a couple of times to the Academy for gigs and come out worrying for my life on the walk back to the car mind.
 
I work in the centre and have done for over 10 years. But live just on the outskirts.

It's fine, no different from any other UK city. Loads of homeless people on the streets recently though but i noticed the same when i am in London and Manchester. Also the women are not as good looking as the Europeans.
 
live in harborne or edgbaston if you're gonna work at the qe. bottom end of moseley isnt too bad too
other decent places would be in jewellery quarter, or farther afield like sutton coldfield or solihull
(or if you don't mind taking a train daily - bromsgrove - which has a direct train to university station
 
terley said:
You might want to learn Arabic
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Birmingham doesn't have many Arabs, there is a significant Asian population though, if that's what you are trying to get at? Wrong language if so.

Birmingham is okay, but it wouldn't be somewhere I'd want to live. Some of the surrounding areas like Edgbaston have their very nice parts, but overall the "feel" of the city doesn't do much for me.
 
I live outside Birmingham and it's pretty much like every other city for living, good and bad parts

Nice parts imo are Sutton Coldfield, Solihull, Edgbaston and Harborne.

I find the city centre a bit boring though compared to other cities, apart from the mailbox/brindley place I rarely go into Birmingham now
 
My parents lived there, but moved back to my village a few years ago. That was Kings Heath though which is very rough now! There 'is' a significant Asian population in some areas. Make of that what you will.
As said there's good bits and bad bits like any other city. Personally I would live somewhere like Solihull and commute in.
 
Dr House said:
My contract is up in a couple of months. I have a few job offers but the best one is in the EQ in birmingham for 3 years. The job is ideal, it's a big teaching hospital but I'm just worried birmingham is not such a nice place to live?

Is it all that bad?
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You don't need to live there, compared to say London it still feels pretty small - unlike the sprawl there with various central areas at least in Brum there is a city centre you can basically catch a train to then walk to wherever else you need to get to.

How enjoyably it is to live depends on your budget - I do know some people who lived in Selly Oak after finishing med school. Edgbaston is one of the nice-ish areas in central brum and perhaps worth a look. But tbh.. I'd be tempted to not live in Birmingham itself but look towards Solihull (and the surrounding villages) as mentioned above - probably some of the best quality of life in the country, decent houses, schools but no where near as expensive as the South East and you can commute into central Birmingham in circa 20 minutes.

just googling for something to support my case here re: Solihull and according to the Daily Fail it is the best place to live in the UK:

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2506917/Best-place-live-UK-Er-Solihull.html
 
Every other building is an old coach house converted into a Toby Cavery.

Before we drive through Birmingham we tend to put a sweepstake on how many we'll see.
 
I agree, Solihull is a good place to live but that was years ago. Now Touchwood is riddled but Chavs. Wasn't the case when I used to work up there back in the early 2000's.

Not that it matters here but Solihull also has a high number of child poverty, maybe the signs of things changing or the government is pushing all the shanks to the outer areas such as Solihull now :(

On a side note, in my crappy area of Smethwick they are in the process of building a mega hospital. So perhaps something you want to look out for in the future job wise.
 
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Like most UK cities, fast filling up with scumbags while the decent people move out of town. Though no where near as bad as London yet :/
 
malachi said:
Not that is matters here but Solihull also has a high number of child poverty, maybe the signs of things changing or the government is pushing all the shanks to the outer areas such as Solihull now :(
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Unlike London where there are small boroughs next to each other and each has a duty to deal with social housing for the people down on their luck and the outright wasters of society in Solihull there isn't as much of the intermingling of chavs and non-chavs... sure you might find some tracksuit wearing youth in the local shopping centre but you'll find the same down south - no area is really immune form that... however you don't need to share your neighbourhood with them - they're mostly concentrated in an area called Chelmsley wood - which was basically created to house a bunch of Brummies on Birmingham City council housing waiting list. It is technically part of the borough of Solihull and has been rebranded 'North Solihull' but this area affecting the borough's stats has little to do with the recommendation to move to Solihull itself - frankly the OP doesn't need to live anywhere near that part.
 
I drive all over Birmingham most days and my sat nav takes me on a scenic detour through all the streets now and again.

Bournville seems to be kept nice but Walsall is pretty bad, no, really bad.
 
NoobCannon said:
Used to go there regularly for collections, mostly solihul

Hole of a place, always hated going there
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Could you give an example of somewhere, in comparison, that you'd consider to be a nice area? In particular what makes that area so much better and what makes Solihull a 'hole of a place'?
 
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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