Cities to visit in England and Scotland for a potential move ?

18 comments

1. Unless you’re a UK or Irish citizen (or have a WHV) it would be down to where you got a job that sponsored you.

   If you are in one of those cases then it’d be better to explain what you want from somewhere to live.

2. Sheffield, Leeds and Newcastle as well probably. I think that’s more than enough to visit in one month.

3. Bristol is pretty diverse . Dunno bout the rest on your list

4. So I’d say there are a lot of factors that might have an impact on places people recommend. Do you have any additional info? What would you be looking for in terms of work, if at all? Can you work from home for your preferred role? Do you drive? Do you mind using public transport? Are you reliant on public transport? Do you want to be inland or near the sea? Etc etc.

   Obviously a lot of the cities here are great places to live for various reason’s but with that, generally, comes a much higher cost of living. There are some great places away from the big cities that have lots to offer but are still only an hour away by train.

5. Does it matter what colour your skin is?

6. Tbh, ALL those places are great in different ways.

   A lot of it is about lifestyle – do you want to be more urban or more rural, big city or smaller city, do you like to be near the sea/ near hills? Are you going to have a car?

   A lot of what makes these places different from one another (except that London is overwhelmingly bigger, ofc) is at a level of more detail, which would take a book length answer.

   If anyone said to me that I HAD to live in one of those in you list, they would all be OK for me.

   I’d say, just travel round and go with your impressions – there’s no bad answer in you list.

7. Where you live exactly will be dependent on what you are doing career wise. Where are the companies based that you can for and how much salary are you expecting to earn. Kingston and Richmond for example are a lot more expensive than parts of North England and Scotland.

8. I get a sense that OP may be American ? (Apologies if not…)

   Race isn’t really a “thing” here in the way it is in the US.

   Unless you’re going to live in a tiny hamlet in the countryside, or the worst kind of inner-city estate, your ethnicity is going to be 99.99% irrelevant to your daily life.

   Much more critical will be the area you live in, the work you do and your lifestyle. If you’ll have a decent salary and live in a nice area and go out to the pub, the cinema, to eat, for a walk in the park… you are going to have zero hassle.

   My partner of many years was mixed Somali heritage and I am pale and ginger (well, grey now !!) and I can only think of 2 occasions in all that time when her appearance was an issue, both involving drunken d***heads giving some verbals.

   But as others have said, don’t underestimate the difficulty of getting a visa if you come from somewhere that needs one !

9. Birmingham / West Midlands is very culturally diverse.
   There are loads of museums, galleries, theatres and concert venues.

   It’s also in the middle of the country with great transport links including an airport.

   On the downside it is Birmingham.

10. Very very loosely categorising those:

    London / Greater London: a global megacity with all the advantages/disadvantages of that. Youthful, exciting, diverse, loads of things to do. But busy, more polluted, more exepnsive living costs. Living further out can fix some of the things about pollution/busyness, but you lose some of the excitement and vibrancy

    Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire: London commuter territory, lots of prettyish if somewhat identikit small towns and a few uglier larger ones (Luton!). Pretty countryisde and well connected to rest of country. Good if you have family but want ready access to London, not as diverse as our cities.

    Manchester / Glasgow : large cities which both have strong local cultures, ready access to countryside, and are big enough to carry their own music/entertainment scenes. Diverse populations, these are ‘proper’ cities by any measure. Both are prone to lots of grey/drizzly weather and Manchester is becoming quite expensive. Good if you fancy big city life but slightly toned down from London

    Brighton / Bristol: youthful, trendy cities in the south of England both associated with counter-culture. Both have big Green/sustainability movements, both associated with LGBTQ rights and Bristol in particular with racially diverse communities. Brighton has the coast on one side and a national park on the other but isn’t the biggest, Bristol also has pretty good access to coast/countryside and is a touch bigger so has a better cultural scene

    York/Edinburgh: beautiful, stunning historic city centres with lots of attractions. Busy with tourists in the summer but plenty of times in the year where you have the city a bit more to yourself. Neither are huge but of the two Edinburgh is larger with a bit more life to it (+the Fringe (google it!) which is great if you love that sort of thing, not so much if you don’t) and with great access to coast/countryside, though York not badly connected to them either and not too far from bigger urban area around Leeds

    Liverpool: Mid-sized northern city with some poverty but some cool areas as well, cheaper to live in that its neighbour Manchester but still something of its own independent music scene. Very strong local identity tied to large Irish heritage and Black communities.

11. Surely it’s going to depend on the job?

12. It really depends what you want. York is a wonderful city to walk around. Edinburgh is walkable too if you don’t mind hills. Glasgow is great for the people but you might want to watch Still Game before, so you get an idea of the accent/slang. Bristol and Liverpool are both great cities. Nice people, nice centres. Manchester is tricky to assess because it’s my home city. It’s fairly central to the UK, though, and a major transport hub.

    As with everywhere, the bigger the city, the greater the variety of jobs. You shouldn’t struggle for work in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol or Liverpool.

    I’d add Lincoln to your list. It regularly tops the list of cheapest place to live with a decent living standard. Nice city, too.

    A lot of this will depend on what you want from a city (work, night life, architecture, culture, sport, travel) and also whether you want to be close to the countryside. I’ve been to every mainland city, so could probably make a recommendation if you had specific requirements.

    When you visit, I would travel around the city by public transport, and also visit the suburbs, plus walk around the city centre.

13. I can happily recommend Lincoln https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln,_England

14. Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire? Wtf is there apart from other boring posh people? Why would anyone choose to live there, unless it’s to feel safe away from poor people and minorities?

    Richmond is basically for multi millionaires only

    Brighton is basically about weed and alternative lifestyles but is being ruined by posh twats from London moving here and trying to turn it into Wimbledon-on-sea so all the decent people that make it cool are fucking off to the surrounding areas.

    Liverpool is a shithole

    Manchester is alright

    Bristol is basically brighton with more rain

    York has some nice medieval bits but the people are a bit funny

    Dunno about the rest, never been

15. Unless you get a remote job where it doesn’t matter where you live, surely the job you get will dictate where you live? Do you automatically have the right to live and work here or do you need a sponsored visa or to get a job on the skilled worker shortage list?

    I mean I’d love to live in Cornwall but it’s not really an option as my partner and I would need to both find jobs there.

16. Do you qualify for a Skilled Worker Visa?

17. I would consider Twickenham as an alternative to Richmond unless you are very wealthy. Twickers is just down the river from Richmond but doesn’t have a tube station or bridge across the Thames so it’s much more peaceful. Transport links to London are still pretty good and it’s a lovely town. It’s posh, but Nowhere near as expensive and snooty as Richmond.

18. Thank you to everyone who has commented so far. It’s really helpful. To answer a few questions :

    * As this is just an exploratory trip, I don’t qualify for a work visa. I haven’t looked for a job or anything yet and it feels more organic to me to have in mind a place/area to live in before applying for jobs. That may be the wrong approach as I’ve never worked abroad apart from interships. I don’t know. Worst case scenario, I can’t find a job to sponsor me but it would still be a nice trip to discover some English and Scottish cities.
    * I mentioned my skin colour because that is sadly a concern. Glad to know that it doesn’t seem to be a real issue in the UK. (I’m not American but happy to see my use of the language can pass as native 🙂 I’m French and it still is something I look up before moving to a city in France. That’s why I mentionned it.)
    * I don’t mind smaller cities or towns. I have a driving licence and I’m more than comfortable taking the train or any other public transporation so if you have in mind other towns / small cities that could be nice to live in, go right ahead. You can mention as many as you want without taking into account my time limit. I will organise myself and create my own little tour and for the cities/town I won’t be able to fit into this trip, I’ll see if I can plan another one.
    * In terms of the environment, I don’t necessarily want to be *in* a big city but if I could be close to one it be nice. Not a necessity but a nice to have.
    * I don’t have a budget in mind but from what I gathered from the comments Richmond and Kingston are probably too expensive for me. I think Twickenham might be more realistic for me if that can help.

    I hope I answered every question. Feel free to ask more or tell me if I missed anything.

    Thanks again for all your comments. They are giving me a lot of very nice options.