moving there end of the summer to start med school (based at city hospital) wheres good there or thereabouts to stay?
Belper !!
Great old market town on edge of Peaks - Great for cycling / running and up the road to one of the best pubs in the UK - The Holly Bush in Mackney - You could cycle to the City Hospital, easy !!
As far as Derby City is concerned, avoid Normanton, Pear Tree, Osmaston, Mackworth estate, most of Allenton, the rougher bits of Chaddesden. You'll know them when you see them!
The expensive bits are Littleover, Mickleover, Allestree, Darley and Chellaston. All of them are nice. Mickleover and Littleover would be handiest for the hospital though.
Depending on your age and budget, if I was a young 20 something, I'd be looking at some of the terraced streets between Ashbourne Road and Slack Lane (appears on the street maps as "California" and "New Zealand"). Some are a bit rough, but very student friendly - 20 mins walk to the city centre, 20 mins ride to the hospital). Not great for car parking though.
In terms of around Derby, pick a village with a good bus link, within 10 miles of the hospital to make cycle commuting at strange times practically doable. I would recommend the fantastic village of West Hallam, but I may be accused of bias 😉 but we have 3 pubs, a Tescos Express, Chinese, Indian, chippy, pizza place, The Bottle Kiln if you have a missis, good primary school if you have kids, 1/2 hourly buses to Derby, 1/2 hour ride in to the hospital, a network of bridleways all around us for riding off road, 1hr-ish by road bike to Matlock.
And the West Hallam Wobbly Wheelers Cycling Club. (Don't google the website, it may put you off!)
cheers guys, more opinions/flamings welcome.
bottle kiln sounds interesting, def something my better half would be interested in. i grew up in a tiny place (and admittedly hated it) but my gf has always lived in cities so i think we need to have look at what isnt going to be too much of a culture shock 😉
we wont have a car, at least not for 1st year or so and somewhere with good connections to nottingham would be a bonus so maybe in derby itself might be better.
even if do end up in derby itself, ill tag along with all sorts of strange folks on a pedal...
just looked on gumtree, 2 bed house in littleover for 550 a month!! ffs we pay 800 euros for 1 bed place :O
Long Eaton - Far enough away from Derby but still with good transport links into it if you really must go there (train station with regular service, buses and not too bad a commute on bicycle), but also very well connected for Nottingham.
Swadey's pretty much spot on with the Derby suburb descriptions 🙂
theres a barn conversion for 575!
ok i need a sitdown.
long eaton is one thats popped up a couple of times, only concern would be that we´d not really be suited to a proper village. who knows maybe we´ll love it. anyone witha place to rent from the end of august drop em an email btw
Long Eaton is hardly a village!
Two huge supermarkets (Tesco and Adsa) dominate the middle of the town and it has quite a large shopping area which is good for day-to-day stuff. It also has a large industrial side (mainly to the south and east of the town) that is predominately taken up by upholstery companies (a historical industry in the town).
ok ok its not a village!
but its not a city either, smallest town/village*/city gf has lived in is edinburgh. im excited though, they all look really nice, gardens and everyfink
*which long eaton certainly is not
long eaton is more of a suburb of nottingham really, it's kinda just been overtaken by the sprawl of notitngham.
bus or train into nottingham or derby is possible from LE. if you want the train, try the Fields Farm Estate (new housing estate) or Sawley as both are convenient for the train station (used to be called Sawley Junction).
You could also try Beeston, Wollaton or Sandiacre on the nottingham side. or Oakwood, Spondon, Chellaston, Stenson Fields, Littleover (closest), Mickleover, Allestree or Darley Abbey (expensive) on the Derby side. Villages in between like Breaston, Draycott, Borrowash, Ockbrook and Risley are all nice but villages so probably not on your radar.
HTH
If you look for a place on the Fields Farm Estate though don't choose somewhere too far to the eastern end as one of the buildings down there (a warehouse) is a 24hr operation.
Splitter 😥
get something with a spare room
Swadey knows what he is talking about. City centre, Ashbourne Road / Kedleston Road is fine and close to Hen Hosp. There is also Oakwood which is near countryside and downhill to the city....
Derby isn't exactly beutifull, in fact i'd say most of it is downright hideous. So dont expect a nice scenic commute by the river.............
Just be aware that if your likely to be working shifts the bus' genraly stop at arround 10/11/12 o'clock and dont start up again till 6.
And if you get a choice avoid any commute that coincides with a Rolls Royce shift change, the whole town grinds to a halt for 20minutes twice a day.
Long Eaton is the wrong side of Derby
Thanks for the compliments - I'm actually paid to know about renting in the different suburbs of Derby, I'm printing this thread off in preparation for my end of year review.......
Glossop !
fontmoss - Are you going to be at Derby for all of your course or just the first year? I know some med courses involve working out of QMC and whilst being 'the right side of Derby' might be good if you are staying at Derby Hospital the prospect of relying on the Red Arrow bus or the purple raunbow bus (Rainbow 7?) to get to the QMC wouldn't appeal too much to me, especially not after a late shift.
Swadey, if LE is the wrong side of Derby, then surely West Hallam will be too.
As for Villages on the right side of Derby go, Findern or Hilton or Tutbury or somewhere like that are 'the right side'. I used to commute from Bramcote to Sinfin, which would fall into the 'wrong side' category.
Red Arrow or Indigo (used to be Rainbow 5 then just 5 but now its called Indigo and has leather seats and everything!) are good buses but like sooty, i wouldnt want to rely on one when i've just finished an 18hr shift.
That will be the bias I was talking about then!
An ever-so-slight bias, hardly recognised it. 😉
nope, didn't even notice it. must try harder next time.
first 18 months are in Derby then Nottingham but tbh i could be anywhere* as ill be into clinical stuff by then. if place we're in isn't great etc then we'll shift after 18 months but ideally we'd find somewhere we can sit tight for 4 years
*within reason
When you say anywhere within reason could that include up and down the M1 corridor? If so then thats another tick in the box for Long Eaton, being as its right next to a junction.
Chamartin, quick taxi to the airport in time for the morning flight.
Splitter 😡
I'm in the process of putting a new kitchen into a 3 bedroom semi (2 double and one box/study in Wollaton, Nottingham) before it goes back on the rental market. If you're interested drop me a line: leon dot gustard at gmail dot com
Used to stay in Chester Green when lived in Derby. If you can find a place there, it's far and away the best location in the city. Green, leafy, quiet, short walk to the city centre. Decent riding on your doorstep too.
Chester Green is nice - can get pricey for the nice older houses, there's a bit of housing association 1970s boxes mixed in, and a couple of more recent flat complexes - easy walk into the city, as suggested
well gf is going to learn to drive and poss buy a car at some stage but prob not for a while, until then there needs to be good public transport links.
I am a splitter (if you mean what i think you mean) chaps but fear not, give it a decade and ill be back 😉
I still say Belper !!
I'm sure you could rent a cosy cottage for around £400'ish
1 bed cottages in Belper for £400-450 pcm - make sure you are above the Derwent flood line though! Varying condition and quality.
I like Belper, but no use to you when you transfer to Nottingham. If you want to be able to get to both cities without moving when you make the switch, you maybe want to look at the places half way in between, Ilkeston, Sandiacre, Borrowash, Draycott, Breaston (which has a Leisure Lakes branch!)
Breaston! Come on, admit you were wrong and Long Eaton isn't such a bad idea. 😉
Long Eaton is a sh*t hole with no character and no good riding nearby. Whatever you do, don't get dragged in to living there. It's just a commuter suburb of Nottingham, with nothing to recommend it other than you get a slightly bigger house, and you are jolly near to a 24 hour ASDA. It's a horrible Barrat homes non-place (except for the dodgy council estate), and the countryside directly around it is boring and muddy all winter (oh and flat too). The only thing to recommend it is that you pay slightly less for your beer before you have the fight on a saturday night, and if you drive it is very convenient for the M1 for getting yourself anywhere other than Long Eaton.
If you were to live that far out of Derby, you might as well rent somewhere nice that is a proper town like Belper, with good riding pretty much from the door, and still good public transport, than a pointless grey suburb where you have to take trains or ride 10 miles to get to any good off road. Although Belper is not so well suited for Nottingham (it has direct trains, but not late at night).
To be honest though if I was a proper lazy student, I'd be looking at close in to Derby, for easy getting home after late night drinking, and generally being good for socialising with other people on the course. If you don't sign a new lease at the end of the first year, and go onto a rolling contract, you can always move pretty easily if you need to.
Joe
tell us what you really think Joe 😉
i think once we have a look round we'll have a much better idea of what we want. character would prob win out with us over amenities but ill let you all know where we end up
I think joemarshall has summed up why I didn't go along with Long Eaton quite nicely.
And he's seen the flaw in the Belper argument.
I tell you, West Hallam is where it's at!
If you're going to be at the City Hospital (ie bottom end of Mickleover) and want to live in a country village with good road/cycle commute/decent bus links, fontmoss, i give you Kirk Langley (although I don't remember if it has a shop). Otherwise Allestree/New Zealand/Chester Green are your best bets, as has already been said before.
I think students have big enough debts without renting in Kirk Langley! (Though it's very nice away from the A52 itself)
Joe - Just Your comments on LE could equally apply to most of the areas nearer Derby that Swadley has recommended! Personally I wouldn't live in LE, but considering the criteria 'fontmoss' has laiddown (easy access to both Nottingham and Derby being the main ones) its a far better choice than some if the options. Oh and this oft repeated "riding on the doorstep is crap could also be applied to many of the areas closer to Derby, including West Hallam, unless you like draggy tyre rides on flat trails and tarmac then Belper is the only one reasonably close to proper hills, although even these aren't that great. I was closer to better hills when I lived in Surrey!
Joe - Your comments on LE could equally apply to most of the areas nearer Derby that Swadley has recommended! Personally I wouldn't live in LE, but considering the criteria 'fontmoss' has laiddown (easy access to both Nottingham and Derby being the main ones) its a far better choice than some of the options. Oh and this oft repeated "riding on the doorstep is crap could also be applied to many of the areas closer to Derby, including West Hallam, unless you like draggy tyre rides on flat trails and tarmac then Belper is the only one reasonably close to proper hills, although even these aren't that great. I was closer to better hills when I lived in Surrey! Its the East Midlands, Derby isn't Buxton and most of the really local for either Nottingham or Derby is pretty bland.
so good it should be posted twice 😉
yeah i think at this point we have to have a look at stuff sadly we won't be able to do that until June
thread revival! thoughts on mickleover? place near the golf course going, (hospital side)
anyone 🙁