Which parts of Manchester are nice to live in?

Question

I need to move to Manchester for my job but I don't want to live in a dodgy part of the area. What towns/villages are nice around the city centre (say within a half hr's drive)???

Answer 1

Just to clarify- the places listed by other people: Wilmslow, Altrincham, Hale, Alderley, Hazel Grove, Poynton, Bramhall and Stockport are not actually in Manchester. They are in the county of Greater Manchester.

Personally, I would move to Didsbury, Withington or Chorlton. All in the south of Manchester. Didsbury and Withington are on the busiest bus route in Europe, and buses to the city centre are every few minutes (and go all the way through the night, but less frequently).

Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didsbury

Answer 2

Manchester is a grim decaying mill town, there are no nice parts in which to live!

Answer 3

South side is best. Altrincham, Alderley Edge, Hale, Hazel Grove, Bramhall, Poynton and Wilmslow are pretty good, but don't go too far (e.g. Macclesfield or Knutsford). It gets worse again.

Avoid any city centre suburbs and the west side (e.g. Salford and Eccles) is pretty grim. Avoid the north side unless you are willing to travel a bit further.

Some of the east side is quite cute, especially some of the smaller villages like Saddleworth or Tintwistle but the community is a bit parochial.

In general, I would suggest an area south of the city between Stockport (north edge) and Macclesfield (south edge) but excluding both of these places and Lymm in the west (avoiding Knutsford) and Hazel Grove in the east including both of these suburbs.

If you want the "k***s belt", look at villages in the north of Cheshire but again more driving involved.

I hope that helps.

Answer 4

Didsbury, Wilmslow, Chorlton (all south)

Stalybridge, Ashton, Glossop (although it’ll take you more than half an hour in heavy traffic and it’s a bottleneck in Glossop so the traffic is really bad), Millbrook, Audenshaw, Guide Bridge (where I live!) – all East