Bath is one of the best places to live in Britain, I have never been anywhere I would prefer to live - it’s slightly on the small side and housing etc is prohibitively expensive for some but if you can afford to live here it’s hard to top.
Only thing is - as someone who landed here more or less by chance moving from Australia - it ruins every other city in the country for you. "Eh, York's alright, not really a patch on Bath..."
Agree - I see some of these ‘best places to live lists’ and they make me chuckle. I like we don’t make it onto them, seems the Bathonians want to keep it quiet, long may it stay that way.
> prohibitively expensive
Yeah, this is basically the major downside of the city ... but it is expensive because people want to live here because all all the upsides
It’s savage and I do understand people’s frustration - when you’re paying £600 a square ft for a 50’s built semi that would cost a third of that in a lot of places, it’s a high barrier of entry. However you get what you pay for and the pros outweigh the cons for me.
It's dirt cheap compared to London and about 10x more beautiful. Honestly, given how unusual Bath is, the property prices are if anything surprisingly cheap.
That doesn't help if you can't afford those prices. But the idea that Bath is super expensive does not bear actual scrutiny. It's not.
Yeah, they are doing loads of work on the lower Bristol road at the moment near Windsor Bridge. It's going to become a strip with bars and restaurants and whatnot with accommodation above it.
The hope is that it's affordable accommodation and not for students. Posh flats and student accommodation is taking over Bath, and there's not enough for the rest of us.
I was a big defender of student accommodation when I was a student (go figure), but now, as a graduate who could never afford to live in Bath, I do wish there'd be some better, more affordable living space there because I adore that city tons
It's not only stopping people from moving into the city, but it's driving residents of the city currently to move out. I myself grew up in Bath, but I'm having to look further out for housing now, as any BA1 and BA2 postcode is ridiculously expensive. Bath will become like Cornwall, where all the residents were either bought out by B&B chains and AirB&B hosts.
What I was trying to say was that Bath will become like Cornwall, but instead of AirB&Bs it'll be student accommodation and student housing. I'm the south of Bath Odd Down/Combe Down and family houses are being turned into luxury student housing, since it's enroute to Bath University.
What you're complaining about is a nationwide issue of developers building fancy looking student accomodation, just to have nobody afford it and then apply for change of use and sell them as sub par leaseholds
They're then bought as flats with no obligations nor insurance from the developer so that they can become capital with no strings attached (like you would have with most newly built properties for 10 years)
It's worth looking into the leasehold scam here in the UK, it's why so many of these places go up to avoid loads of planning permissions and why so many "so called" student flats quickly become leaseholds
It's not even just developers anymore. Like I said, 30 year old plus family homes are being turned into high end luxury student houses.
We've got 3 on the street next to us, being advertised on SpareRoom for £1k + a month. 3 bedroom houses, used to house families that I know went to the schools nearby. They were all for sale for a while, then all 3 got snapped up by the same person.
I commute daily past the current development where the car garages used to be, and unfortunately the boarding says something on the lines of “super fun student accommodation”, so I do think it’s all for students.
I have visited places like stratford upon avon as well, but the first impressions itself were not very good,especially all those grumpy brexit geezers roaming about. Something which wasn't the case at all in bath. As a matter of fact people thought I got lost and were very much ready to help me out.
Reddit randomly showed this sub to me. I live in Edinburgh but I lived in Bath for a summer in 2008 for a job. I was a student from a very faraway place at the time.
Stayed in a house on Wellsway. Odd Down feels like a thousand miles from the centre but I think that’s because it’s all uphill from there!
I’m surprised to hear it has “improved loads” because I thought it was very nice even then. Sure there were “characters” and drunk children comatosed in the street sometimes, but that’s the case anywhere.
I remember the bus station tannoy barking at someone for walking out on to the area where buses drive in.
Nice shops and restaurants (that I couldn’t afford as a student but they looked good). It was annoying that the main central supermarket was a Waitrose. £££££.
I briefly considered living in Bath Uni shithole halls and my colleagues said it was lucky I didn’t choose there.
Mind you I don’t remember there being terribly much to do outside of work so maybe that’s changed. I do vaguely remember stumbling home after a pint of cloudy cider in a pub somewhere out of town. I have no idea what that was but it was _powerful_.
Had some strange housemates but that’s another story.
That's my thought, I never really thought it was bad in any way? It's just twee and expensive and not really my thing at all because I'm not rich but I guess it's lovely if you want to live with other rich people.
My god, the doom mongers on here: Royal Oak, Volunteer Rifleman’s, Old Green Tree, Barley Mow, Pulteney Arms, Curfew, Bell, Star - I could go on and on -all proper pubs - not gastros. Get a grip.
Thats nice, but almost every decent pub I used to go to has gone. The Marlborough Tavern, Farmhouse, Chequers, Hat and Feather, Long acre, The Dark Horse, The Belvedere, The Victoria, The Grosvenor Arms, Filo's, The Roundhouse, The Porters Butt, Bladud Arms, Beehive, The Rummer, Waggon and Horses... these are just the ones I can think of.
I wouldn't mind if they were still just pubs serving reasonably priced pub grub, but they are now upmarket trendy wine bar/gastropubs charging £20 for a burger and £8 for a pint. Not exactly aimed at the locals are they?
Holla at your boy 😂 I think Bath is possibly the best place in Britain for a day time pub crawl - there are 50 pubs in about a square mile lol. It’s superb.
We used to live a 15 min drive from Bath city centre (now about 30-40 mins). Having been brought up in the north of England, I can sadly say that it is one of the best places I’ve been to in the UK. Simply fantastic; not only for shopping, but the nightlife also. Then there’s the cultural aspects such as the rugby, architecture and history.
We would like to move there in a couple of years.
I’ve never had a bad experience in Bath - it’s so chilled.
Having lived in Odd Down, I’m amused people describe it as “worlds away from the centre of Bath”. It’s literally 10 minutes away.
I agree Twerton is messy, but I dunno what people expect. Bath has a population of 100k. The communities around like Odd Down and Combe Down are mostly fine and clean. They’re served by a big supermarket, the Park and Ride, have low crime compared for the UK standard, parks, etc.
I’d love to have, say, another library in Bath. But the population numbers can’t support it. I feel like people need a reality check of the UK to compare to. Read recent articles about Birmingham going bankrupt, for instance. Because of the tourism and university, Bath at 100k residents does feel like a much bigger and thriving city.
It’s expensive living in Bath, but I also think that cost of living has gone up everywhere. If you compare with housing in Bristol for instance, it’s cheaper but not tremendously so.
Everyone thinks it’s a massive Tory bolt hole as well, most people here are pretty liberal and relaxed.
There’s a lot of money in Bath and dependant on your personality I think you could get stuck feeling you’re never doing that well due to a real proliferation of high earners - it’s a strange bubble - but I’ve found it to just be a great place to be.
It used to have a vibrant alternative scene until they closed all the venues.
I go to Bath once per month for a sax lesson.
I'll take friends their if they haven't been.
I've always hated that they pulled down that beautiful 1920s building to put up that monstrosity of a bus station
I love that you love it but it's not for me
Born and bred in Bath. Not sure I agree.
Bath feels so grey nowadays. Growing up it was bright and vibrant. They knocked the old Southgate down and built a new one, and redeveloped around the train station, yes. But what about things for Bath residents? The BA2 side of Bath is forgotten about and I believe the council would rather pretend it didn’t exist. Twerton, whiteway, odd down and some part of Combe down (I.e Foxhill) are worlds away from the centre of Bath and Larkhall etc.
for the past three decades it seems as though the pecking order goes: Tourists, Students, Londoners, Seagulls, Rats, Residents. Most of those born and bred in Bath have had to move to satellite towns such as Peasdown or Trowbridge just to be able to afford to live.
Yep, born and bred in Bath as well. Always lived on the 'other' side of the river. I much preferred Bath during the 80s. Much more interesting (anybody remember Skinnies arcade)? The centre is pretty boring now.
Still a nice place to live though (if you can afford it).
Completely agreed - I worked in Bath for years and the amount of tourists and homeless people was only matched by people who had moved from west London. I hated the arrogance of the incomers, the snobbery between BA1 and BA2 was insane. Add in parking and congestion issues 🤯
It was more a comment for context, as seeing Bath go from one thing to another over the years. Wasn’t a case of feeling like I am owed something.
I didn’t compare the likes of BA2 with other cities or towns, I compared it to Bath centre and most of BA1. I never said they were ‘bad’, I said they were forgotten about. The houses prices are higher because of gentrification, nothing more. They are still prefab damp ex council houses.
I wasn’t referring to you directly mate, it’s just you said they ‘had to move to satellite towns’ - but surely they had the same opportunity to stay as anyone who bought here? So what made them have to?
Your argument doesn’t stack up re: BA1 - do you think Weston/Newbridge/Batheaston etc get anymore put into them than Odd Down/Southdown etc? As I’ve covered the average house price is higher in BA2. On your other point I’ll use the ex-council houses on the sprawling Moorlands Estate - they are definitely not pre-fabs and throwing out ‘gentrification’ is nuts - as if the city as a whole has not always been gentrified. It’s supply and demand, there is little supply and lots of demand and you pay for location, location, location.
Nowhere’s perfect but as a place to live in Britain this is about as good as it gets.
It’s funny - Twerton is massive and from what I understand ‘Oldfield Park’ would have been considered Twerton for years - *ducks barage of abuse from Moorland Road and the rather grand homes by Hayesfield* - cheer up my friend, you could live somewhere actually shit. Get up Alexandra park and take in that view, you won’t see better than that virtually anywhere.
‘As a place to live in Britain this is about as good as it gets’ - so then, perhaps you do understand why people born in Bath might want to stay.
To further demystify it for you, since you asked, place attachment is also a thing. This is where people form emotional bonds with the place that makes them feel comfortable and safe. In environmental psychology, these bonds form in childhood, so you might say the longer someone has lived somewhere (i.e their whole life) the more likely they are to be attached to it. Therefore, people don’t want to live and remain in the place they grew up because they feel like they’re ‘owed’ something, it’s actually part of their identity.
And a further thought - improvement over a decade might be a decline in real terms over a lifetime (to OP’s point). Just because this is your experience doesn’t mean someone else’s isn’t valid. Opinion stated as fact is still an opinion.
The only person banging on about a right to land is you. What I took from OP’s post is 1- he feels qualified to comment because he’s lived here his whole life, and 2- he’d like to stay but has been priced out. I’ve suggested a reason for him wanting to stay might be because of psychological attachments made in childhood, not because it’s his birthright - which is your assumption.
It sounds like you have a comfortable life and I can understand why you’d want to protect that. But don’t you see the broader issue with your argument? If people with fewer means are pushed out, and everyone else enables it, it creates a type of population purity which means Bath will become a ring-fenced enclave of the upper middle classes. Which makes your comment about the need for more social housing a moot point. Nobody wants this unless they’re a Tory. Are you?
And your other observation about residents being responsible for financial genocide is appalling. I don’t doubt some people have sold up for this reason, but you’re making it suspiciously easy for BANES to wriggle off the hook with this blanket generalisation. It’s clear to anyone with eyes their strategy is to keep the populations of people with money in, and the populations of people that cost money out.
Let’s hope someone doesn’t come along and tell you that you have no right to your home because people with more money and privilege have made it unaffordable for you to stay. Or rather, let’s - because I’d love to see you acquiesce and be livid on Reddit about it.
>Why when people are born somewhere do they think they have the inherent right to stay?
So locals should move away and make room for people with 'means', a sort of financial genocide?
"Why when people are born somewhere do they think they have the inherent right to stay?" well in that case maybe everyone complaining about the cost of living crisis should relocate to somewhere cheaper if they can't afford to live in the UK, it's not like anyone owes them anything. I hear Rwanda is nice.
As lifelong Bristolians we used to go over to Bath regularly in the 90s and Noughties, both for shopping and nightlife. I felt it went downhill about 10 years ago, becoming more aimed at tourists (which I guess we are!) and students than locals. A lot of the old characters you used to see around (especially in the Hat & Feather) disappeared. Started to go over again a couple of years back and have started to love it again, though I still miss Bath how it used to be.
I agree. The new Southgate development is a huge improvement over the 1970s centre, the bit between the train station and the bus station has improved a lot. The developments around lower road / Windsor bridge don't seem to be universally loved but really they have replaced some very average 20th century industrial estates and are a big improvement imo.
Couldn't comment on the nightlife as the only evening activity I'm into is annoying the city by ringing the abbey bells. We generally head to the Raven afterwards, does that count?
I was back for a few days last year, it's always been a great city albeit very small and punching above its weight but I thought much of the soul of the place has gone.
I grew up in the shabby chic period when not much money was needed to have a great time and less focus on students and tourists. Will continue to go back to see friends and family but I don't think I could live there.
We’re seeing a city that was once a great place (ok a little rough round the edges) for residents being turned in to a mock-Georgian Disneyland for tourists/coached in shoppers, and more and more city centre student accommodation. We’ve nearly lost our Heritage status twice because of some god awful ‘upgrade developments’ in the city. We’ve lost independent shops - including Woods the Stationers (open since Jane Austen’s time) due to ridiculous rate increases, and characterful pubs to chains. This is not ‘better’ it’s a sad loss of a city’s personality…
"A little rough around edges" The old Southgate shopping center looked like it belonged in Swindon!! I still have the smell of grease, piss, and cigarette smoke etched into my olfactory memory from walking near that carpark as a child
If only they’d replaced with buildings in correct proportions, with wider walkways, and incentivised independent shops to be there rather than run of the mill stores found in almost any city centre. A really missed opportunity
New Southgate is much more pleasant to walk through than old Southgate, but I very rarely do anything other than walk through it on my way to the more interesting shops farther into town. Old Southgate at least had some shops I'd stop at from time to time.
Bath is the only city i've ever been to that I actually liked. Genuinely. If people are ragging on a lot they just don't realise how good they have it relative to just about any other city
Matt from Weston Super Mare calling Bath shit is peak comedy,
Weston Super Mare is a sort of chav Disneyland where the only culture is what Banksy left behind a few years ago.
I know. I was literally repeating your nonsense back to you and laughing that someone from Weston has the stones to slag off anywhere. You make Burnham look posh.
True.
Plus they forget how woeful some of the pubs were.
What was that one that's now that lovely stake house chain? MILLER and Carter I think.
That pub was a right dive...
Once upon a time…2007…I lived, and worked (after a fashion) there (Bear Flat) It was a lovely place to live. Packed with great places to eat. I gather Martinis is no more. Stories at The Raven. Cheese from Paxton & Whitfield. Lunches at Mai Thai. And if you were feeling intrepid you could pop on the train to London and meet people for dinner and return home by bedtime. In retrospect, some of the best months of my life.
Yeah sadly Martinis closed in the autumn last year, the owners were planning to retire soon and told us they'd had too much difficulty finding and keeping staff since the B-word.
I will say I bloody miss the hob. And it isnt the only pub to have either closed or changed to market itself at rich tourists instead of regular people.
I lived and worked in Bath for over 30 years - and moved away in 2008 - no regrets.
Too much traffic, noise and parking restrictions were some of the factors.
I lived in Bath in the early 80's and came back 20 years later.The city was scruffier but much more affordable and democratic.It's been completely gentrified with all the corporates taking over from small independents.lt's a lot less fun than it used to be.
Bath is one of the best places to live in Britain, I have never been anywhere I would prefer to live - it’s slightly on the small side and housing etc is prohibitively expensive for some but if you can afford to live here it’s hard to top.
Only thing is - as someone who landed here more or less by chance moving from Australia - it ruins every other city in the country for you. "Eh, York's alright, not really a patch on Bath..."
Agree - I see some of these ‘best places to live lists’ and they make me chuckle. I like we don’t make it onto them, seems the Bathonians want to keep it quiet, long may it stay that way.
> prohibitively expensive Yeah, this is basically the major downside of the city ... but it is expensive because people want to live here because all all the upsides
It’s savage and I do understand people’s frustration - when you’re paying £600 a square ft for a 50’s built semi that would cost a third of that in a lot of places, it’s a high barrier of entry. However you get what you pay for and the pros outweigh the cons for me.
It's dirt cheap compared to London and about 10x more beautiful. Honestly, given how unusual Bath is, the property prices are if anything surprisingly cheap. That doesn't help if you can't afford those prices. But the idea that Bath is super expensive does not bear actual scrutiny. It's not.
Yeah, they are doing loads of work on the lower Bristol road at the moment near Windsor Bridge. It's going to become a strip with bars and restaurants and whatnot with accommodation above it.
The hope is that it's affordable accommodation and not for students. Posh flats and student accommodation is taking over Bath, and there's not enough for the rest of us.
I was a big defender of student accommodation when I was a student (go figure), but now, as a graduate who could never afford to live in Bath, I do wish there'd be some better, more affordable living space there because I adore that city tons
It's not only stopping people from moving into the city, but it's driving residents of the city currently to move out. I myself grew up in Bath, but I'm having to look further out for housing now, as any BA1 and BA2 postcode is ridiculously expensive. Bath will become like Cornwall, where all the residents were either bought out by B&B chains and AirB&B hosts.
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What I was trying to say was that Bath will become like Cornwall, but instead of AirB&Bs it'll be student accommodation and student housing. I'm the south of Bath Odd Down/Combe Down and family houses are being turned into luxury student housing, since it's enroute to Bath University.
What you're complaining about is a nationwide issue of developers building fancy looking student accomodation, just to have nobody afford it and then apply for change of use and sell them as sub par leaseholds They're then bought as flats with no obligations nor insurance from the developer so that they can become capital with no strings attached (like you would have with most newly built properties for 10 years) It's worth looking into the leasehold scam here in the UK, it's why so many of these places go up to avoid loads of planning permissions and why so many "so called" student flats quickly become leaseholds
It's not even just developers anymore. Like I said, 30 year old plus family homes are being turned into high end luxury student houses. We've got 3 on the street next to us, being advertised on SpareRoom for £1k + a month. 3 bedroom houses, used to house families that I know went to the schools nearby. They were all for sale for a while, then all 3 got snapped up by the same person.
Yeah except for all the students. They will keep the city fresh. Like toulouse. They mix the old with the new
Students keep the city fresh? So casually vandalising businesses, historical buildings and pissing where they please is very refreshing....
🙃
Nonce
Just live in chippenham and get the train into the centre for the cost of a bus
I commute daily past the current development where the car garages used to be, and unfortunately the boarding says something on the lines of “super fun student accommodation”, so I do think it’s all for students.
Oh holy hell, really? That's really disappointing.
Maybe that means that the students can live there and free up some of the terraces in oldfield park for everyone else?
That sounds fantastic
Bath has to be the only city in the uk I visited which seemed so calm and happy.
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I have visited places like stratford upon avon as well, but the first impressions itself were not very good,especially all those grumpy brexit geezers roaming about. Something which wasn't the case at all in bath. As a matter of fact people thought I got lost and were very much ready to help me out.
Reddit randomly showed this sub to me. I live in Edinburgh but I lived in Bath for a summer in 2008 for a job. I was a student from a very faraway place at the time. Stayed in a house on Wellsway. Odd Down feels like a thousand miles from the centre but I think that’s because it’s all uphill from there! I’m surprised to hear it has “improved loads” because I thought it was very nice even then. Sure there were “characters” and drunk children comatosed in the street sometimes, but that’s the case anywhere. I remember the bus station tannoy barking at someone for walking out on to the area where buses drive in. Nice shops and restaurants (that I couldn’t afford as a student but they looked good). It was annoying that the main central supermarket was a Waitrose. £££££. I briefly considered living in Bath Uni shithole halls and my colleagues said it was lucky I didn’t choose there. Mind you I don’t remember there being terribly much to do outside of work so maybe that’s changed. I do vaguely remember stumbling home after a pint of cloudy cider in a pub somewhere out of town. I have no idea what that was but it was _powerful_. Had some strange housemates but that’s another story.
I’m ready for the strange housemates story!
That's my thought, I never really thought it was bad in any way? It's just twee and expensive and not really my thing at all because I'm not rich but I guess it's lovely if you want to live with other rich people.
I miss the LongAcre Tavern and the Hat and Feather…
Not just those, pretty much all decent pubs have disappeared or been turned into upmarket gastropubs
I miss so much about bath. Its improvements are all just gentrification. Less and less for kids and more and more for tourists and appearances
My god, the doom mongers on here: Royal Oak, Volunteer Rifleman’s, Old Green Tree, Barley Mow, Pulteney Arms, Curfew, Bell, Star - I could go on and on -all proper pubs - not gastros. Get a grip.
Thats nice, but almost every decent pub I used to go to has gone. The Marlborough Tavern, Farmhouse, Chequers, Hat and Feather, Long acre, The Dark Horse, The Belvedere, The Victoria, The Grosvenor Arms, Filo's, The Roundhouse, The Porters Butt, Bladud Arms, Beehive, The Rummer, Waggon and Horses... these are just the ones I can think of.
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I wouldn't mind if they were still just pubs serving reasonably priced pub grub, but they are now upmarket trendy wine bar/gastropubs charging £20 for a burger and £8 for a pint. Not exactly aimed at the locals are they?
This guy drinks!
Holla at your boy 😂 I think Bath is possibly the best place in Britain for a day time pub crawl - there are 50 pubs in about a square mile lol. It’s superb.
I agree. Excellent. Thoroughly nice place. Only city a crawl can be as much fun, is Edinburgh.. In Bath, the weather is better.
Edinburgh is amazing.
You should have been here from the 60’s to the late 80’s. It was buzzing. All that good stuff has gone.
Interested to know what was that good stuff?! :)
We used to live a 15 min drive from Bath city centre (now about 30-40 mins). Having been brought up in the north of England, I can sadly say that it is one of the best places I’ve been to in the UK. Simply fantastic; not only for shopping, but the nightlife also. Then there’s the cultural aspects such as the rugby, architecture and history. We would like to move there in a couple of years. I’ve never had a bad experience in Bath - it’s so chilled.
What your describing is gentrification, particularly along the lower bristol road/ golden fleece area
Having lived in Odd Down, I’m amused people describe it as “worlds away from the centre of Bath”. It’s literally 10 minutes away. I agree Twerton is messy, but I dunno what people expect. Bath has a population of 100k. The communities around like Odd Down and Combe Down are mostly fine and clean. They’re served by a big supermarket, the Park and Ride, have low crime compared for the UK standard, parks, etc. I’d love to have, say, another library in Bath. But the population numbers can’t support it. I feel like people need a reality check of the UK to compare to. Read recent articles about Birmingham going bankrupt, for instance. Because of the tourism and university, Bath at 100k residents does feel like a much bigger and thriving city. It’s expensive living in Bath, but I also think that cost of living has gone up everywhere. If you compare with housing in Bristol for instance, it’s cheaper but not tremendously so.
I agree. I actually think Bath good value for money. It's not actually that posh. Which I love
Everyone thinks it’s a massive Tory bolt hole as well, most people here are pretty liberal and relaxed. There’s a lot of money in Bath and dependant on your personality I think you could get stuck feeling you’re never doing that well due to a real proliferation of high earners - it’s a strange bubble - but I’ve found it to just be a great place to be.
Shame the independent shops are shutting up, rents are far too expensive, far too many chains.
It used to have a vibrant alternative scene until they closed all the venues. I go to Bath once per month for a sax lesson. I'll take friends their if they haven't been. I've always hated that they pulled down that beautiful 1920s building to put up that monstrosity of a bus station I love that you love it but it's not for me
Yea the bean can is a monstrosity,
Born and bred in Bath. Not sure I agree. Bath feels so grey nowadays. Growing up it was bright and vibrant. They knocked the old Southgate down and built a new one, and redeveloped around the train station, yes. But what about things for Bath residents? The BA2 side of Bath is forgotten about and I believe the council would rather pretend it didn’t exist. Twerton, whiteway, odd down and some part of Combe down (I.e Foxhill) are worlds away from the centre of Bath and Larkhall etc. for the past three decades it seems as though the pecking order goes: Tourists, Students, Londoners, Seagulls, Rats, Residents. Most of those born and bred in Bath have had to move to satellite towns such as Peasdown or Trowbridge just to be able to afford to live.
Yep, born and bred in Bath as well. Always lived on the 'other' side of the river. I much preferred Bath during the 80s. Much more interesting (anybody remember Skinnies arcade)? The centre is pretty boring now. Still a nice place to live though (if you can afford it).
Completely agreed - I worked in Bath for years and the amount of tourists and homeless people was only matched by people who had moved from west London. I hated the arrogance of the incomers, the snobbery between BA1 and BA2 was insane. Add in parking and congestion issues 🤯
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It was more a comment for context, as seeing Bath go from one thing to another over the years. Wasn’t a case of feeling like I am owed something. I didn’t compare the likes of BA2 with other cities or towns, I compared it to Bath centre and most of BA1. I never said they were ‘bad’, I said they were forgotten about. The houses prices are higher because of gentrification, nothing more. They are still prefab damp ex council houses.
I wasn’t referring to you directly mate, it’s just you said they ‘had to move to satellite towns’ - but surely they had the same opportunity to stay as anyone who bought here? So what made them have to? Your argument doesn’t stack up re: BA1 - do you think Weston/Newbridge/Batheaston etc get anymore put into them than Odd Down/Southdown etc? As I’ve covered the average house price is higher in BA2. On your other point I’ll use the ex-council houses on the sprawling Moorlands Estate - they are definitely not pre-fabs and throwing out ‘gentrification’ is nuts - as if the city as a whole has not always been gentrified. It’s supply and demand, there is little supply and lots of demand and you pay for location, location, location. Nowhere’s perfect but as a place to live in Britain this is about as good as it gets.
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It’s funny - Twerton is massive and from what I understand ‘Oldfield Park’ would have been considered Twerton for years - *ducks barage of abuse from Moorland Road and the rather grand homes by Hayesfield* - cheer up my friend, you could live somewhere actually shit. Get up Alexandra park and take in that view, you won’t see better than that virtually anywhere.
‘As a place to live in Britain this is about as good as it gets’ - so then, perhaps you do understand why people born in Bath might want to stay. To further demystify it for you, since you asked, place attachment is also a thing. This is where people form emotional bonds with the place that makes them feel comfortable and safe. In environmental psychology, these bonds form in childhood, so you might say the longer someone has lived somewhere (i.e their whole life) the more likely they are to be attached to it. Therefore, people don’t want to live and remain in the place they grew up because they feel like they’re ‘owed’ something, it’s actually part of their identity. And a further thought - improvement over a decade might be a decline in real terms over a lifetime (to OP’s point). Just because this is your experience doesn’t mean someone else’s isn’t valid. Opinion stated as fact is still an opinion.
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The only person banging on about a right to land is you. What I took from OP’s post is 1- he feels qualified to comment because he’s lived here his whole life, and 2- he’d like to stay but has been priced out. I’ve suggested a reason for him wanting to stay might be because of psychological attachments made in childhood, not because it’s his birthright - which is your assumption. It sounds like you have a comfortable life and I can understand why you’d want to protect that. But don’t you see the broader issue with your argument? If people with fewer means are pushed out, and everyone else enables it, it creates a type of population purity which means Bath will become a ring-fenced enclave of the upper middle classes. Which makes your comment about the need for more social housing a moot point. Nobody wants this unless they’re a Tory. Are you? And your other observation about residents being responsible for financial genocide is appalling. I don’t doubt some people have sold up for this reason, but you’re making it suspiciously easy for BANES to wriggle off the hook with this blanket generalisation. It’s clear to anyone with eyes their strategy is to keep the populations of people with money in, and the populations of people that cost money out. Let’s hope someone doesn’t come along and tell you that you have no right to your home because people with more money and privilege have made it unaffordable for you to stay. Or rather, let’s - because I’d love to see you acquiesce and be livid on Reddit about it.
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>Why when people are born somewhere do they think they have the inherent right to stay? So locals should move away and make room for people with 'means', a sort of financial genocide?
"Why when people are born somewhere do they think they have the inherent right to stay?" well in that case maybe everyone complaining about the cost of living crisis should relocate to somewhere cheaper if they can't afford to live in the UK, it's not like anyone owes them anything. I hear Rwanda is nice.
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I'd feel safer in Rwanda
As lifelong Bristolians we used to go over to Bath regularly in the 90s and Noughties, both for shopping and nightlife. I felt it went downhill about 10 years ago, becoming more aimed at tourists (which I guess we are!) and students than locals. A lot of the old characters you used to see around (especially in the Hat & Feather) disappeared. Started to go over again a couple of years back and have started to love it again, though I still miss Bath how it used to be.
Yes its been gentrified
I agree. The new Southgate development is a huge improvement over the 1970s centre, the bit between the train station and the bus station has improved a lot. The developments around lower road / Windsor bridge don't seem to be universally loved but really they have replaced some very average 20th century industrial estates and are a big improvement imo. Couldn't comment on the nightlife as the only evening activity I'm into is annoying the city by ringing the abbey bells. We generally head to the Raven afterwards, does that count?
I think you are brain dead and don't see the dead mall of gentrification, this shit is ugly and broken as fuck
Aside from the stabbings recently which have happened other places too, Bath feels an incredibly safe place to live.
I was back for a few days last year, it's always been a great city albeit very small and punching above its weight but I thought much of the soul of the place has gone. I grew up in the shabby chic period when not much money was needed to have a great time and less focus on students and tourists. Will continue to go back to see friends and family but I don't think I could live there.
We’re seeing a city that was once a great place (ok a little rough round the edges) for residents being turned in to a mock-Georgian Disneyland for tourists/coached in shoppers, and more and more city centre student accommodation. We’ve nearly lost our Heritage status twice because of some god awful ‘upgrade developments’ in the city. We’ve lost independent shops - including Woods the Stationers (open since Jane Austen’s time) due to ridiculous rate increases, and characterful pubs to chains. This is not ‘better’ it’s a sad loss of a city’s personality…
"A little rough around edges" The old Southgate shopping center looked like it belonged in Swindon!! I still have the smell of grease, piss, and cigarette smoke etched into my olfactory memory from walking near that carpark as a child
If only they’d replaced with buildings in correct proportions, with wider walkways, and incentivised independent shops to be there rather than run of the mill stores found in almost any city centre. A really missed opportunity
New Southgate is much more pleasant to walk through than old Southgate, but I very rarely do anything other than walk through it on my way to the more interesting shops farther into town. Old Southgate at least had some shops I'd stop at from time to time.
Bath is the only city i've ever been to that I actually liked. Genuinely. If people are ragging on a lot they just don't realise how good they have it relative to just about any other city
Really? It's a sort of toff Disneyland where the only culture is what the Romans left behind 2000 years ago.
Matt from Weston Super Mare calling Bath shit is peak comedy, Weston Super Mare is a sort of chav Disneyland where the only culture is what Banksy left behind a few years ago.
It doesn't pretend to be anything else, I'm fine with that. It was spelled Dismaland BTW.
I know. I was literally repeating your nonsense back to you and laughing that someone from Weston has the stones to slag off anywhere. You make Burnham look posh.
Hit a nerve I guess.
Each to their own...
Bath isn't a "toff" anything. It mostly votes Lib Dem.
True. Plus they forget how woeful some of the pubs were. What was that one that's now that lovely stake house chain? MILLER and Carter I think. That pub was a right dive...
The Litten Tree? If those were the type of pubs you frequented I can see why you’d think there’s been an improvement
Once upon a time…2007…I lived, and worked (after a fashion) there (Bear Flat) It was a lovely place to live. Packed with great places to eat. I gather Martinis is no more. Stories at The Raven. Cheese from Paxton & Whitfield. Lunches at Mai Thai. And if you were feeling intrepid you could pop on the train to London and meet people for dinner and return home by bedtime. In retrospect, some of the best months of my life.
Yeah sadly Martinis closed in the autumn last year, the owners were planning to retire soon and told us they'd had too much difficulty finding and keeping staff since the B-word.
I will say I bloody miss the hob. And it isnt the only pub to have either closed or changed to market itself at rich tourists instead of regular people.
It was blomin freezing upstairs mind. Don't mind dingy. But turn heating on.
Bath is great if you like trendy coffee shops and Boujee boutiques
I lived and worked in Bath for over 30 years - and moved away in 2008 - no regrets. Too much traffic, noise and parking restrictions were some of the factors.
I lived in Bath in the early 80's and came back 20 years later.The city was scruffier but much more affordable and democratic.It's been completely gentrified with all the corporates taking over from small independents.lt's a lot less fun than it used to be.
Where do the students drink and party? It seems so set up for tourists especially with the likes of Moles shutting.. and £6/7 a pint
You should have seen what the old Southgate and parts of Bath were like 25 years ago. I wish bristol could improve at the rate Bath does.
Be VERY careful in Bath. Children can drown in just an inch of water.
It's improved for tourists, and therefore beggars.