does anyone live in Ipswich/Norwich area?

[developdomains]

thinking of moving up that way from this sh***y place called Reading.

My missus says her mates online think its good, good schools etc, but can anyone here enlighten me as well?

cheers

 

[retired_member2]

It's not a bad area prices are pretty steep depending upon where you go.

Personally I would prefer Norwich to Ipswhich.

The train services are pretty good there and your looking at about an hour and a bit commute to London on train.

I only went to Ipswich a couple of times but seemed an ok place, but Norwich is more classier.

I used to be based at RAF Wattisham which is about 6 miles from Stowmarket and thats a nice town a bit rough and sadly you have the army there now, so maybe that wont be your best option.

In places its very much like the West Country full of fields and tractors it is a better way of life if you can get the right area.

 

[developdomains]

thanks for the reply Mark, appreciated.

Anything is better than Reading believe me!

 

[retired_member2]

A lot of ipswhich is rough though and you do get a lot of prostitutes hanging about on the street corner and it has a reasonable drugs problem in some of the areas but usually most places are like that.

Almost went to see Rod Stewart once at Ipswich stadium, they couldnt sale the tickets so nicely of him they offered a lot of tickets to the forces and police and ambulance services.

Shame I never went now, might have been a nice night.

 

[rob]

thinking of moving up that way from this sh***y place called Reading.

My missus says her mates online think its good, good schools etc, but can anyone here enlighten me as well?

cheers

I have heard the pedestrianisation of the city center of norwich is quite decent.

 

[Edwin]

Norwich to London is closer to 2 hours (1 hour 50 minutes for the fastest train I believe). Ipswich is significantly closer to London, shaving the journey down to just over an hour. A monthly season ticket to London seems to be 541.50 pounds from Norwich vs 445.50 pounds from Ipswich, according to http://www.onerailway.com/templates/Generic.aspx?id=2016 (insane prices, btw, but I guess I've been insulated from UK trains for too long)

Can't comment on the other relative merits of living in the two areas, mind you...

 

[retired_member6]

Just going by football and days/nights out and weekends away, Norwich is far better than Ipswich. You get idiots that think they want a row but you get that everywhere when Millwall are in town, just got to ignore them.

Most here don't know what Millwall is but find the real football fans and they do, I was at the post office yesterday and the person was trying to figure out my tattoo, when he looked me in the eyes I could tell he figured it out haha so funny.

But as an outsider, Norwich over Ipswich purely for cosmetic reasons, there's some nice clubs and pubs, there's also what they call the old town (is that right?) something like that, it aint japanese though. it all depends what you need, if you work online, move to Kyakhta or Balvi.

Lee

Look up a town guide like upmystreet or similar, they give ratings on areas and what you can expect.

 

[retired_member25]

I live in Ipswich and have a house in Norwich so will be able to answer any questions you may have!

Generally, Norwich is the nicer more affluent city. It's got a decent University (which Ipswich doesn't have, quite yet) which adds to the culture to the place and has various decent employers bringing money into the city.

Ipswich is dominated by Insurance companies, so everyone will typically either work in Insurance or for BT! - or of course commute in London which is an easy 1 hour ten minute train journey into Liverpool street.

There does seem to be a bit of an attitude in Ipswich, there isn't any real decent clubs/bars and anything new/decent gets taken over by the pikey majority after a few months. You can have a decent night out in Ipswich, if you're prepared to share it with dimwits.

There are a couple of decent state schools, Northgate being the pick - in the top 200 state schools in the country I believe. So property prices in the catchment area are representative of this - the catchment also matches the nicest area to live in, unsuprisingly. You'll be unlikely to get a 3 bed house for less than £200,000 in the catchment.

Essentially, anywhere in North/North East Ipswich is a nice area to live - plus there are plenty of surrounding villages which you could find a bargain in.

Best thing about Ipswich is that you're only ever ten minutes away from lovely countryside and you always have fresh clean air!

 

[fresh]

Hi - are you still seeking views on Norwich & Ipswich?

I've lived in Norwich for 17 years and it is definitely the best. It's gone from strength to strength, whereas Ipswich seems to have hardly advanced. Also, I agree with a lot of the points JamesUK mentions, but also want to add that you can get to the Countryside in 10-15 mins from Norwich too (if you exclude peak traffic times!)

Norwich does have traffic issues, but so do all Cities and Towns.

South of Norwich is best place to be:- better road access and facilities, though this does make it more expensive.

Lots of new houses being built too. Here's a few examples.
http://www.roundhouseparksales.co.uk - this is in Cringleford, the most sought after village 3 miles South of Norwich/
http://www.matthew-homes.com/pages/develop_main.asp?content_area=3&develop_id=33

http://www.bloorhomes.com/developments/norfolk/wensum-vale/summary/105706.aspx

Hope this helps.

PM me if you want some estate agent names.

 

[retired_member16]

Norwich is shit.