Edinburgh and Bristol

[northernladuk]

Christ guys, take it easy. I'm just interested in how the cities compare.

Well the Sunday Times profiled Britain's cities as part of its Best Places to Live report and Bristol came top.

[rob s]

Lived in Edinburgh, loved it. Lived near Bristol, wouldn't go back for anything less than 2k a day with active encouragement of substitution and full time work from home. In which case, my home wouldn't be near bristol.

[LivingUpNorth]

Lived in Edinburgh, loved it. Lived near Bristol, wouldn't go back for anything less than 2k a day with active encouragement of substitution and full time work from home. In which case, my home wouldn't be near bristol.

Yeah, what didn't you like about Bristol?

Agreed. Edinburgh is a cracking place to live, can't fault it tbh.

How did they compare?

[LivingUpNorth]

Well the Sunday Times profiled Britain's cities as part of its Best Places to Live report and Bristol came top.

Yeah that's what got me interested. Edinburgh has won this award before so hoped they be similar types of places.

[rob s]

Yeah, what didn't you like about Bristol?

Agreed. Edinburgh is a cracking place to live, can't fault it tbh.

How did they compare?

Cramped, congested and full of the most arrogant people I've ever met. They exist everywhere of course, I just found the highest concentration in Bristol.

That last point may not be truly objective.

[Project Monkey]

Bristol is great! Best place to live in Bristol is Bath.

[LivingUpNorth]

Bristol is great! Best place to live in Bristol is Bath.

I read up on Bath and someone described it as a Georgian Theme Park lol

[stek]

Only been to Bristol twice, 4-0 defeat at Ashton Gate and a 2-2 draw at Eastville, both times in the 80's.

[Sparky1]

Hi,

I lived in Edinburgh for 8 years before moving to Bristol last summer. Main reason for moving was to find a decent place between both sets of parents as we had a baby shortly after moving down here and wanted to make it a bit easier to see family.

Bit of background, I'd worked in financial sector up in Edinburgh (no surprise there) as a web developer. There are some financials down here like lloyds but non tech depts. So unless you are willing to commute, you'll have to adapt and probably won't have access to the more attractive day rates of the financial sector. Nationwide HQ is in Swindon if happy to commute a bit. Hargreaves Lansdown is based in Bristol but they don't generally take on contractors.

One area that is booming in Bristol are the digital agencies, there are so many of them. I've done some work for a couple of them, downside is some contracts are generally quite short, e.g, 3 weeks, 5 weeks at a time, but plenty of repeat business - you end up being more freelance than a contractor if you go down the digital agency route.

Recommend you look at meetup.com and go to some tech meetups if you end up down here, so many on offer and good places to network.

There is an old school mailing list The Underscore Archives (click [Threads] ) which might be worth looking at. There is also a online freelance community called Bristol Media but I'd guess it's probably leaning a bit more creative than techy for your .net skills.

Bristol as a city....

It's a nice city, plenty to do, nice green places, good schools apparently (in some areas!) and think it has a similar 'vibe' to Edinburgh. Although Bath might be a more similar replacement to Edinburgh for a lot more factors (just smaller but you'd probably end up working in Bristol anyway).

Traffic is woeful, this is my issue with Bristol. I hope you like walking! Cycling is big here. The buses aren't great either but that's more because of the general traffic.

I'm not going to lie, I really miss Edinburgh, it's a cracking place and any city would struggle to match it but with more family responsibilities now, we did really have to move closer to family for that support network. Edinburgh was too far away.

Sorry, have gone on a bit, feel free to send me a message if you want any more info as it seems like we have similar history!

Cheers

S

[Hardgrafter]

I too have lived in both Edinburgh & Bristol & think both cities are great.

Bristol cons

• Bad traffic & poor public transport. Although the Severn beach rail line is great if you live near a station.
  
  Expensive property prices. But Edinburgh is hardly cheap.
  
  Still arguably a city of two half's. The wealthy in Clifton, Sneyd Park & Redland literally looking down on the poorer South & East Bristol.
  
  A fair trek to the sea, no beaches etc. Within a two hour drive.
  
  Doesn't have the capital city feel of Edinburgh. No national museum, stadium etc.

Bristol Pros

• Great diverse mix of culture, more interesting &varied music, arts scene etc. than Edinburgh bar the comedy & the fringe. Edinburgh does have more theatres, independent cinemas.
  
  90 mins from London on the train. Bath, Devon & Cornwall etc. all relatively close.
  
  Both cities have similar sized hassle free airports.
  
  Slightly warmer & lighter than Edinburgh in winter, probably just as windy.
  

Bristol is probably the best city to live in England if you can afford it and London is too hectic for you. I could easily live in both cities just happens that family etc. are down south. Bath is considerably smaller than both Bristol & Edinburgh. I find Bath a little too snobby. I expected Edinburgh to be like that but found the Scots to be more down to earth.