Southampton - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

[navier_stokes]

Anyone live there and got any opinions of the place? Where are the best places to live within the centre(ish)? Cost of living etc etc?

[mouk786]

It has its good and bad like every other city

I live in Soton and work in Winchester (apparently a top place to live in the UK - maybe but its a bit crap comapred to Southampton apart from the fact it has ncier/quieter housing!)

Ocean Village is our trendy place but its wildly overpriced, right in the centre though.

[Aowhs102]

Went to uni there and have a house there that i rent to students, even if it is a bit too nice for them... I would suggest that in the center there are not really that many nice places unless you can find something near the marina. Personally I think that anywhere near the uni that is not student housing tends to be quite nice and safe. I would be looking at Highfield (between the two uni campuses)particularly within staggering distance of the Crown Pub, or somewhere in the "suburb" areas about a mile or two outside the town.

[Davi]

The city itself is a st hole that I'd rather avoid, but if you have to live here, then where you live depends on budget (well dur ). Chilworth is the "nicest" area, but don't expect any change from £1m. We're just down from there in Bassett - which is either side of the top of the avenue going into Southampton, 2 miles from the centre. We decided it was worth paying extra to get on the golf course side of the avenue as the other side is heavily student infested, but it's a large premium to do so (4 bed detached on student side £350k+, on golf course side £600k+)
The less salubrious area's are most of Shirley, Portswood, St Mary's, St Deny's, Lordshill and the Flowers estate.

Don't expect to ever get anywhere quickly, the council are slowly introducing any and every measure they can think of to create gridlock and bring the place to a grinding halt. Once Ikea has opened it's only going to get worse. Much worse. Night-life is OK, there are some very good bars in the London Road area, nightclubs are thin on the ground and mostly infested with students or chavs. Eating out there are some excellent restaurants on Oxford Street.

ETA - council tax is bad as well!

Edited by Davi on Tuesday 11th March 18:14

[Demure]

Why do you want to live in the center?

Chandlers Ford/Hiltingbury is about 5 miles away and a much nicer area IMO (although it's full of OAP's)

Southampton itself is OK, some parts best avoided though.

Edited by Demure on Tuesday 11th March 18:18

[mouk786]

Soton isn't THAT bad - it depends on what you are used to - I have pretty much deicded every inner city or largely busy area in the UK has its negatives down to a certain point - i very much doubt soton is amongst the worst.

[moosepig]

Sorry, Southampton is full.

Full of poles.

Upon the tops of which sit traffic lights. Hundreds and hundreds of the things.

Come to Southampton if you like traffic lights.

It's full of Poles too, but as they are harder working, politer and less trouble than a lot of the natives, I have no complaints about them at all.

[Davi]

moosepig said:

Sorry, Southampton is full.

Full of poles.

Upon the tops of which sit traffic lights. Hundreds and hundreds of the things.

Come to Southampton if you like traffic lights.

It's full of Poles too, but as they are harder working, politer and less trouble than a lot of the natives, I have no complaints about them at all.

and LOTS more to come according to someone I was speaking to the other day! quite where they are going to put them I really don't know - I think they are aiming for 1 traffic light per car user.

[Soton Pug]

Davi said:

moosepig said:

Sorry, Southampton is full.

Full of poles.

Upon the tops of which sit traffic lights. Hundreds and hundreds of the things.

Come to Southampton if you like traffic lights.

It's full of Poles too, but as they are harder working, politer and less trouble than a lot of the natives, I have no complaints about them at all.

and LOTS more to come according to someone I was speaking to the other day! quite where they are going to put them I really don't know - I think they are aiming for 1 traffic light per car user.

According to something i read in a local rag, Southampton had more traffic lights per sq mile then London and that was a while ago. This may have been an exageration but it would stand to reason. The reason London is so bad to drive in is because i don't think anyone actually passed their test, they failed and though sod it, i'll drive anyway. (slightly off topic sorry.)

[Bunglist]

Davi said:

The city itself is a st hole that I'd rather avoid, but if you have to live here, then where you live depends on budget (well dur ). Chilworth is the "nicest" area, but don't expect any change from £1m. We're just down from there in Bassett - which is either side of the top of the avenue going into Southampton, 2 miles from the centre. We decided it was worth paying extra to get on the golf course side of the avenue as the other side is heavily student infested, but it's a large premium to do so (4 bed detached on student side £350k+, on golf course side £600k+)
The less salubrious area's are most of Shirley, Portswood, St Mary's, St Deny's, Lordshill and the Flowers estate.

Don't expect to ever get anywhere quickly, the council are slowly introducing any and every measure they can think of to create gridlock and bring the place to a grinding halt. Once Ikea has opened it's only going to get worse. Much worse. Night-life is OK, there are some very good bars in the London Road area, nightclubs are thin on the ground and mostly infested with students or chavs. Eating out there are some excellent restaurants on Oxford Street.

ETA - council tax is bad as well!

Edited by Davi on Tuesday 11th March 18:14

I have to agree with most of what you are saying apart from the restaurant bit, there is far better restaurants elseware, Oxford street seems to get a lot of press but they are all pretty average.

The only decent restaurant, that i have had a good meal in, in Oxford street is Pizza Express.

Dock o' the bay is good, so is the Wild Orchid, and the Boozy Rouge,

[Davi]

Bunglist said:

Davi said:

The city itself is a st hole that I'd rather avoid, but if you have to live here, then where you live depends on budget (well dur ). Chilworth is the "nicest" area, but don't expect any change from £1m. We're just down from there in Bassett - which is either side of the top of the avenue going into Southampton, 2 miles from the centre. We decided it was worth paying extra to get on the golf course side of the avenue as the other side is heavily student infested, but it's a large premium to do so (4 bed detached on student side £350k+, on golf course side £600k+)
The less salubrious area's are most of Shirley, Portswood, St Mary's, St Deny's, Lordshill and the Flowers estate.

Don't expect to ever get anywhere quickly, the council are slowly introducing any and every measure they can think of to create gridlock and bring the place to a grinding halt. Once Ikea has opened it's only going to get worse. Much worse. Night-life is OK, there are some very good bars in the London Road area, nightclubs are thin on the ground and mostly infested with students or chavs. Eating out there are some excellent restaurants on Oxford Street.

ETA - council tax is bad as well!

Edited by Davi on Tuesday 11th March 18:14

I have to agree with most of what you are saying apart from the restaurant bit, there is far better restaurants elseware, Oxford street seems to get a lot of press but they are all pretty average.

The only decent restaurant, that i have had a good meal in, in Oxford street is Pizza Express.

Dock o' the bay is good, so is the Wild Orchid, and the Boozy Rouge,

Oh Dock o' the bay is excellent - though they need to start doing doggy bags, last sunday roast I went in for I was still trying to gnaw through on Monday morning.

Not tried Boozy Rouge, will have to give it a go! Have had lovely meal in Oxfords, and the small amount we had in Langkawi opposite was good though very expensive. Have you tried the Zen bar? (can't remember the name of the road - right at the bottom of the high street heading out toward Oxford St.)

[xxplod]

You will not find a more useless leftie anti-car local authority than Soton City Council.

[Aowhs102]

mouk786 said:

Soton isn't THAT bad - it depends on what you are used to - I have pretty much deicded every inner city or largely busy area in the UK has its negatives down to a certain point - i very much doubt soton is amongst the worst.

yes it is...

also about the traffic lights, i seem to remember a story about some one on soton city council having a majority holding in a company that manufactured them... but then there was also a story about two cities being chosen for traffic tests in the 80's one used only traffic lights and the other only roundabouts. probably crap but you never know.

[steve.B]

The best thing about Southampton is its only a short drive to PORTSMOUTH

[Demure]

steve.B said:

The best thing about Southampton is its only a short drive to PORTSMOUTH

SCUM!!!

[Davi]

steve.B said:

The best thing about Southampton is its only a short drive to PORTSMOUTH

very handy if you want to adopt a cacker, or buy a 20 yr old 1ltr car (that's been ringed 3 times) with more Halfords accessories stuck to it than you'll see on Barryboys in a 12 month time frame.

[caiss4]

I lived (and passed my driving test) many years ago in Southampton. At the time they brought in this great new traffic management scheme on the road from Windhover through Bitterne to the city centre using....yes you guessed phased traffic lights. I think there were 27 sets of lights in around 3 miles of road.

They were set, in theory, such that if you travelled at the posted speed limit they should all turn green as you approached. Of course they rarely did so the objective was to work in multiples of the speed limit....clearly all before scameras!

Glad to see they're still in to traffic lights!

[pat_y]

Not a bad place to live in all honesty, avoid Millbrook/Lordshill/Weston/Thornhill/St Denys and the Bevois valley area.
Lots of students here, which makes for interesting viewing, as previous poster have mentioned, most Of Poland now live here, but you should see the Polish Birds, outstanding.
Nightlife is OK, few good restaurants, usual quota of Chav idiots but not overloaded with them (see advice on areas to avoid)
If you get out of the city towards new forest (avoid totton though) some nice areas out there, also Chandlers Ford/Botley are quite nice, Eastleigh is OK i suppose.
Traffic can be murderous on the M27 in the mornings, almost bearable though the city centre.
Saturdays the world goes shopping here though, very busy.
Try to avoid Portsmouth, the no-go areas are far to numerous to mention here.

[Davi]

pat_y said:

Try to avoid Portsmouth, the no-go areas are far to numerous to mention here.

I dunno, I think you summed it up quite nicely with "Portsmouth"

[pat_y]

Davi said:

pat_y said:

Try to avoid Portsmouth, the no-go areas are far to numerous to mention here.

I dunno, I think you summed it up quite nicely with "Portsmouth"

You do realise if they get that computer they pinched from Argos working and ask the city elder about the internet, in 5 years they might discover these comments....Then we're going to be in trouble.