Misconceptions about where you live

I've lived in some great places and some not so great.

north anston (until I was 6), OMG it's horrid round there. one of my best friends still lives nr dinnington, it's proper rank - no shops, rough as anything, souless estates. ugh.

sheffield until I was 18 (the nice bit, if that's not a contradiction in terms ?) ecclesall/whirlow. it's ok, a bit up it's own arse, kids getting cars as soon as they turn 18, massive sense of entitlement etc etc. nice pubs/bars in some areas but the city centre and shopping is a bit crap imo. the people are also pretty insular in terms of the wider world, in my experience. or maybe that's just the ecclesall thing again.

liverpool for uni. ok as a student, cheap beer, fun people, good clubbing. wouldn't live there again though, far too rough and too many shootings. I find the accent rather, erm, grating ?.

machester, well altrincham actually. boring central. too much fake tan. wouldn't go back. ditto liverpool on accent front (sorry to all the people I am undoubtedly offending ?)

york. FAR too many tourists, not enough 'edge' for me. another boring central.

edinburgh. LOVED it, apart from the english girl in scotland problem which actually really ground me down, esp at work, I just couldn't hack any more and it's one of the major reasons we decided to leave. also the weather is terrible, SO much colder than darn sarf. we lived in new town, which I loved, just off broughton st, which I also loved. funky, edgy, not try hard like edinburgh (george st etc) can be.I don't think it's very friendly either - we didn't realise while we lived there, but on moving it was apparent how much MORE friendly and helpful people / neighbourhoods / communities can be.

now we live in Bristol and I LOVE it so much, I never ever ever want to leave. Glos Rd where we live is full of funky independent shops, organic health food / grocer type places, good atmosphere, lovely houses, park, good schools (primary at least). it's nice weather (generally ?, and in comparison the the 'boro). city centre has all the shops I need - harvey nicks, reiss etc. - which sheff/york/liverpool didn't. in the cuntree within minutes, sub two hours to muswell hill (PIL), great yoga/meditation/buddhist community. and the amazing etceteras, natch.

I live in a lovely little village outside of Stafford. Right in the middle of the countryside. I adore it here, my horses on my doorstep, we live just off the Shugborough estate and can walk/ride across to the miles and miles of Cannock Chase. With my running and riding and Mr woo's love of mountain biking it is perfect here.

The village is lovely. A real sense of community, practically nil crime, 2 great pubs (who both do fab food) a beauty therapist, small hairdressers, post office, 2 little village shops including a butcher, a farm shop that bakes its own organic bread and cakes. There are 2 primary schools both of which are small but perform well. It has great links to Birmingham, there is nothing I don't like about living here other than the nearest town is Stafford.

The only people who have misconceptions about Stafford are a huge core of the people that live there. There seems to be some sort of feeling amongst some people that they are in some way superior to the others in surrounding areas. I've worked in hospitals in Preston, Blackpool and Stoke-on-trent and I can honestly say some of the rudest most complaining tossers I have ever come across have been whilst I worked in Stafford. I don't know why that is?

Stafford itself is a boring identikit town with a soulless high street filled with Next, Marks and Spencers etc. in fact any independent shops have been forced to shut because of the ridiculously high rents the council have placed on them. And whilst I'm moaning about the council they seem to be determined to rip down any interesting architecture or churn up any spare patch of grass so that they can build row upon row of brick box new houses.

However on the plus it does seem to have fairly low crime figures and one nice restaurant. ?

Rache, that made me laugh. ? So true.

Also a neighbour-ish. I live in Tottenham. It has a terrible reputation, but I do think that's undeserved. Yes, there are some problem areas here, but no more than anywhere else. I have never lived anywhere that has such a strong and determined community spirit and so much local resident involvement with the local Council, London Assembly etc. I love the fact that it is officially the most multi-cultural place in Europe (over 400 languages spoken in 1 square mile). I don't need a car, as I can leave my house and within 5 minutes walk be at 2 tube stations, 1 mainline rail station, a bus terminal, an overground station, or in any one of 3 parks and the Lea Valley Country Park. I can be in central London within 15 minutes on the train or tube and if I am going further afield and hire a car the North Circular is a 5 minute drive away.

We have a wide array of different restaurants and food shops varying from Carribean, to Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, Indian, Italian, South American, Greek and so on.

The local area is run-down in places, but the government is throwing silly money at the area and it's definitely improving. The A10 gyratory will be no more within the next 3 years and that will make a massive difference.

I currently live in Falkirk. I think it's a Scottish thing ?.

As with anywhere, there are plusses and minuses. I'm here, mainly, because it's easy to travel to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

It's still a bit grim. Trying to find somewhere 'nice' to have a drink isn't easy. Mind you, with a young baby it doesn't really matter anymore!

If you want anything more in depth - good vs bad areas, where to eat, things to do etc, give me a shout.

Don't suppose you want a spacious 2-bed ex-council flat ? I'll do you a deal !

My grandaprents live outside Spalding - nearer Long Sutton...? I love it down there, I can actually ride a bike without getting puffed out!

I don't think it is grim - once the building work is acutally done it will be quite lovely.

I'm not ashamed of living in Bradford - in fact I'm quite proud of it

I live in Wakefield which I don't think many people have heard of to form misconceptions! It tends to get swallowed up be Leeds, despite it being a city in it's own right. It isn't the most glamourous of places, nor the most beautiful or the most culturally diverse and interesting. The city centre is grim, although they are currently doing a lot of regeneration work which promises much.

However, there is stunning countryside on all sides. I live just outside the city centre and I can walk 10 minutes and be out in the country. Transport links are great. I am 5 minutes drive to the M1 and 15 minutes to the M62. London takes 2 hours by train and we have 3 international airports within an hour's drive. There's the Yorkshire Sculpture Park which is simply gorgeous and also the National Mining Museum (not so gorgeous but very interesting). We have tons of pubs including the Kings Arms at Heath which is my favourite pub in the whole world. Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, York, Huddersfield, the Peak District, the Yorkshire Dales, the Pennines, the North York Moors and the coast are all within easy reach.

I realise that the main benefit of Wakefield seem to be it's proximity to other, nicer places but crime is fairly low, house prices are reasonably cheap (3 bed detached from under £150k) and people are friendly. It's not bad, just not particularly memorable!

I've lived in Dalston and Clapton and feel compelled to defend them both to a degree.....

I lived in Clapton for 6 months, actually on the so-called "Murder Mile", and although it's quite run-down I never had any problems or felt threatened. I even walked home (admittedly at great speed ?) on my own late at night on occasion. The main problem is that there's nothing to do - Stoke Newington is fairly close but was still a bit of a walk from us.

I LOVE Dalston and would live there again in a second if we could afford to buy something decent there. We've had to move further north, but still spend a lot of time there as a lot of our friends live there. I love the Jazz Bar, love the Rio cinema, love the Turkish restaurants love Ridley Road market, love the cheap nail bars, love London Fields, love that it's easy to get to lots of other places (Islington, Shoreditch, Stoke Newington etc). It's still quite edgy but I've never found it dangerous at all - even when I once had to stand on a street corner for half an hour wearing a cowgirl outfit after I locked myself out of my flat at 3am after a fancy dress party ?

I guess we're all products of our experiences - I wonder whether I'd have felt differently about Dalston had I lived there before we had kids. The two incidents that stick in my mind particularly were a teenager spitting at my year old baby when she was in her pushchair and being surrounded by a group of threatening hostile teenage boys, again while pushing my baby home from her childminder, who were pushing at me and calling me "whore" and "slag" for no apparent reason. But I guess those sorts of things really could happen anywhere, I was just a bit unlucky. I found Dalston had a nasty atmosphere with lots of shouting and aggression but then my friends just find it vibrant and interesting.

We very nearly bought a house in Clapton because there are some really pretty streets around there but were a bit put off by the murder mile and the fact it really seems out of the way. Not sure the murder mile is really all that bad - my H had one of his least proud moments there last year when he got out of a cab, very drunk (although not sure how he managed to end up in Clapton in the first place) and passed out in the street. Miraculously he made it home with his life, wallet, glasses and mobile phone all intact.

I live in Reading too and totally agree with you, we live in a lovely area near the hospital, I can work in London but afford a nicer house than if I loved there, I walk past the Forbury Gardens daily and think they are so pretty, I can walk half an hour and be along the tow path to Sonning away from it all, plus we can get everywhere really easily. We are slowly getting more independent shops and restaurants. I've never understood why it gets the reputation that it does. If you look up in the town centre the buildings are lovely. Been here 10 years now and still love it