[Closed] Anyone live in Worcester?

Yep. I live by the hospital at the top on Newtown Road.

Worcester’s nice, train to Birmingham, right on M5, trains direct to London Paddington, town centre is doing ok (compared to many towns that are dying on their arse) and because of the uni there’s a lively feel to the place. I think the villages and towns around Worcester support the City Centre and there’ a huge amount of development going on on the eastern edge of the city.

Areas to avoid? Not many to be honest. Ronkswood and Warndon council estates have their share of ‘frequent flyers’ with the local constabulary but that’s not to say they’re bad areas.

I think most of the place you have visited are on the Warndon Villages estate, the worst I’ve heard of over there is gangs of teenagers hanging around, but I think that’s been sorted out now (certainly haven’t heard of anything for a long time).

Hope that helps 🙂

Yeah that all seems to be wharndon way, not bad but it is a bit suburbia and does have occasional trouble. Ronkswood yes to avoid.

do you need travel links? I’d like the center, enjoy the city. Nearly bought a flat at the riverside a few years ago.

We used to live there for 8years, moved away18months ago. We were in Blackpole, up by Sainsburys. Still have family in Warndon that we visit without being mugged!

Nice city, everything is walking/biking distance and not too expensive. no hordes of criminal gangs that we saw, although there were two speculative attempts to break into the shed (probably once the scrotes knew there were nice bikes in there). Crime wouldn't be a reason not to live there.

Traffic in town on the other hand......

I need to be as close to the M5 as possible for commuting...

I also live near the hospital (waves at Blob)

Traffic can be a nightmare in some areas of Woo, if you have to commute to work it’s worth checking what the road network is like at peak times.

There is also a huge push to build more housing, with a large new estate in development near Norton, St Peters which will impact that busy pinch point already. Woo is slowly becoming a commuter town to Brum, which means the M5 link also suffers too.

City Centre has changed no end over the last 10 years, lots of new coffee and eating thanks largely to the positive influx the Uni has brought to the city. On the whole the city center has a good mix of old and new.

None of the estates are that bad tbh, the only one I would think twice about would be Dines Green, even though that area has it good locations too.

Malvern is a short drive/ride away, not much riding in Worcester itself, but it has a reasonable cycle network to navigate if you want to get about on a bike.

I live in North Worcestershire,  the county capital is well posh in comparison. Folk there talk with a posh brummy accent. Don't live near the river it floods in winter and stinks in summer. City traffic is a nightmare.

There are plenty of quieter places near to much better trails all along the M5 in the area

M5 is about 20 mins form Malvern on a good run, from 8am onwards it can be really slow but the traffic does move.

There's lots of work going on on that side to improve the roads but it is taking some time, will be much better though.

Norton is nice but will be developed more in the near future, Kempsey has had lots of development too and isn't far from the M5. There's going to be a new railway station in Norton too which will link to the city centre and the main rail network.

Powick is a middle ground between Malvern & Worcester so easy access to both.

There's lots of small villages around the M5 so access shouldn't be too much of an issue. Droitwich junction is normally a bottleneck if you need to go north though.

I moved from Birmingham to Worcester a couple of years ago and love it here.

As said, you want to avoid St Johns as any flooding will leave you with a big detour.

The areas with quick access to junction 7 like St Peters for newer housing or Battenhall for older properties would still be walking distance into town/Diglis Basin too.

You also have the best Waitrose store known to man too!

Thanks for the replies so far guys. Seems you get quite a bit for your money in Worcester as well, most houses in my budget seem to be 4 bed detached with a built in garage.

I grew up in Worcester. As above for the Wardon Villages. It's a 1990s development, so all of the problems you get with that, small winding cul-de-sacs and crap parking.

Areas to avoid, Tolladine, Brickfields, and some parts of Dines Green.

Ruskwick, Powick, Kempsey are all just out of town on the southern or eastern side, but can be slow going to get to the M5 at rush hour. Claines, Northwick, Fernall Heath and Bevere on the northern side of the city are nice areas. Battenhall too, but that's not far from the centre.

I rarely go in to the city centre now, since my parents moved, and I was very pleasantly surprised at the good changes in the last 5 years or so.

Worcester is a pretty good town. Im the other side of Malvern but Worcester is our Big Smoke. I think the high street is holding up extremely well. good range of national and independent shops and shopping areas with different feels. Id not want to have to commute to Brum by car though.

+1 for the Birmingham commuter city, a lot of development along St Peters side and along the M5 between J6 and J7.

St Johns side is nice but if you need to get to the motorway for commuting then its a pain in the bum, small bridge in town through the one way system or a small single carriageway bridge to the south. Holt Fleet bridge is okay at certain times but you end up heading towards Droitwich  to make the most of it.

I quite enjoyed the riding in town though, strangely. mix of canal towpath mile bashing then ducking out and around the bits of singletrack dotted around (down by the river is nice in the summer, underwater in the winter!), beer garden of the Anchor at Diglis for a refreshing beverage!

Would the commute really be that bad? I work just south of Solihull by J4 of the M42 and I work shifts so never would be commuting in the true commuter times.

I did a test drive today mid morning with no traffic and it was 35 mins from Norton to junction 4.

I know you said you work shifts but that commute out of Worcs to Solihull and back will be a real ball ache, in the last month the M42/M5 has seen utter chaos with accidents causing motorway closures. This is getting to be a regular occurance and I cross over M42 everyday just before J2 and its nearly always stationary at 7.30am.

I must admit I like Worcester a lot, it has bucked the trend somewhat and that is probably down to the Uni and the mass of house building going on as said by others above.

Whats wrong with Solihull? Or the villages off the M42 corridor like Alvechurch, Blackwell, Barnt Green, Ullenhall, Rowney Green all nice places to live close to motorway and still near Worcester?

Good luck with your decision and if you need any help my email is in profile.

# living the dream in Barnt Green. 😉

I like Solihull but 320 to 330K wont get me a detached house with a garage there whereas in Worcester you can get that from 280K upwards. Ditto for the others you mentioned.

I drink in the Barnt Green inn quite regularly, I also dream of living there, maybe when I win the lottery one day!

A colleague mentioned yesterday that there's some nice parts of Warwickshire to live, one area he mentioned that is having lots of new houses built is Bidford on Avon.

I'm going to take a look there the weekend.

I have a work colleague who lives in Bidford, rides on Breedon Hill a lot, loves the area, good call well worth a look.

ill keep my eyes open around here ( Barnt Green😉) although you can still find reasonable priced not a stones throw away, Marlbrook, Catshill, Lickey, Rednal or even Bromsgrove. If I see anything in our local paper I will email you.

Matt.

I'm near Bidford, been here a while now. Don't plan to leave!
What would you like to know?

Worcester, you say? Chesters, nom nom nom... 🙂

I live in Evesham and wouldn't fancy the commute to Solihell on a regular basis. I also ride on Bredon Hill, but I'd rather drive to the Forest of Dean or Cannock, it's certainly not a good enough reason to live here.

mtbmaff - Thank you that'd be great.

Pickers - Whats the traffic like getting in and out of Bidford., only seems to be 1 main road from J3 of the M42 which is where I'd be getting off at if I moved there.

Also is there much crime and are there many good pubs nearby?

Pies

Only just seen this thread, but just sent you a PM... if you’re still looking for somewhere to live in Worcester (or even just advice), GET IN TOUCH!!!

If you're commuting at odd times - not the usual drive times - it's actually not too bad. Look as well at going east a bit and onto the A3400 - hits the last M40 junction. There's always a choice.
Crime I believe is pretty low. Mrs P gets the local info via FB, nothing much crops up.
Quite a few decent pubs about, both for eats and just for a drink. All are pretty popular.
As someone said above, you wouldn't come here for the MTBing but there are a couple of spots that'll give you a fix for an hour or two. Road riding is brilliant though.

Another Worcester local checking in - currently live in a "village" on the Malvern side, but probably moving into the city soon. As already suggested, there isn't really anywhere you have to avoid - not in comparison with other cities (but then it's not your normal city). Downside is that given its size it doesn't have the range of culture you get in bigger places if you're into that.

[b]Pickers[/b] :

[size=12]As someone said above, you wouldn’t come here for the MTBing but there are a couple of spots that’ll give you a fix for an hour or two. Road riding is brilliant though.[/size]

His other option is Warwickshire! We at least have the Malverns on our doorstep here.

I work shifts too and commute from Worcester and from the M5 Junc 7 I can usually get to the M42 Junc in 25-30 mins. If there’s traffic then it’s about 45 mins but to be honest I find it more relaxing than the 20 min drive I used to have into Birmingham from the suburbs.

My view of the town centre is that there’s a surprising variety of decent independent pubs, restaurants and cafes rather than just the usual big chains.

*I meant to the M42 Junc 3