Author Topic: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas  (Read 3391 times)

cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« on: 03 March, 2018, 08:59:36 pm »
So, can people familiar with Cambridge give me an idea if there are areas that are a good idea to avoid?

Bear in mind that I'm not 'posh' or fussy, just don't want to be living somewhere rowdy - so would prefer to avoid student party central, or areas where the locals hate any incomers.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #1 on: 05 March, 2018, 01:31:35 pm »
Avoid Mill Road and the streets off it.  Unless you want a ready supply of ganja.

Bear in mind that the necklace villages, particularly to the north, really aren't very far from the City.  Students aren't so willing to get on their bike from, say, Girton, so you get a lot more bang for your buck.  And a bit more peace.

Are you looking to be living on your own, or as a lodger, or getting into a rental with others?

If you have a car, your choice is going to be quite a lot more limited, obvs.

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #2 on: 05 March, 2018, 01:39:51 pm »
No car - can't afford a place by myself

Best place I've found so far is not far from Mill rd :|
Not interested in ganja - is Mill rd just rough or is it that they don't like newcomers?

Girton is probably a bit far out - I'm still trying to find out facilities where I work but suspect there aren't showers and probably no secure bike store. It is a temp office (for a year).  So trying to keep within 3-4miles. Girton might just be a tad far.

Oh and I'm going to be located next to the main rail station, so south of the city centre
<i>Marmite slave</i>

dim

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #3 on: 05 March, 2018, 07:59:38 pm »
not in the city centre, but Great Shelford or Trumpington are good areas.... there is a cyclepath and from Great Shelford to Cambridge station takes you approx 12-15 minutes by bike. There is also a train station in Great Shelford, and it's 5 minutes to Cambridge station (they also have an option where you buy a bus plus ticket .... gives you a single train ticket either from Cambride to Great Shelford (or vice versa), plus a dayrider plus ticket that allows to travel all day on busses within a radius (costs £6.30 the last time I used it)

Girton, Histon is also close. I'd avoid the vicinity of Mill road, as when the new mosque opens, it will be busy

Newnham is a nice area but expensive.

here are 3 good websites:

http://www.brettward.co.uk/canb/other.htm

https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/cambridge

https://www.roombuddies.co.uk/search/rooms/cambridgeshire/cambridge


“No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” - Aristotle

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #4 on: 05 March, 2018, 08:00:13 pm »
How about looking out along the rail lines? Likely to be cheaper than Cambridge. You could negotiate a 4 night a week deal with a b&b initially. Leave a folder at work Friday, pick up Monday, allow you to cycle from digs to local station?
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #5 on: 05 March, 2018, 08:27:57 pm »
Trumpington is on my lookout list, it is about 3.5miles from new work. I really really don't want to be taking a longer trip in than that, or even relying on buses. The economics don't add up. I'd be saving maybe 100on rent and spending more on travel. Plus I will have long train journeys every week to and from York.
I think a lot depends on the facilities at New workplace and I'm waiting to hear back on that. Once that is confirmed, I'll arrange viewings for places that meet requirements
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #6 on: 05 March, 2018, 08:34:34 pm »
I would prefer Mill road and surrounding to say Arbury. Mill road is the most cosmopolitan road in Cambridge. It is famous for its mix of shops/authentic restaurants/cafes and sense of community. Still has pubs in middle of terraces or on street corners. It is also hugely convenient for city centre access and bicycle access across the city. I am not a local but worked there for some years. The city is only five miles in diameter (atm) but has huge variation in wealth and income cheek by jowl. If you can access a caravan why not stay in the caravan park for a while until you get your compass sorted. They do have houseboats in the city but is a whole can of worms. The population of  Cambridge is set to grow enormously over the next few years so property will be ever increasingly at a premium and the demography will  change significantly and rapidly.

If residing in a terraced house DO NOT leave your bike outside.

Long term as advised above, you should be looking outside the city, there are many attractive villages with more sensible economic propositions out there and with commutability.
Get a bicycle. You will never regret it, if you live- Mark Twain

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #7 on: 05 March, 2018, 08:44:00 pm »
I used to live just off Mill Road (Cyprus Road) and it was fine. Nobody offered me any ganja anyway  :P
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #8 on: 07 March, 2018, 09:40:26 am »
Mill Road is brilliant, I've been living just off it for 3 years and I've never been offered any weed either :(  Am now on Sedgwick Street.

The road splits (for me) into 3 parts - the posher bit between the railway bridge and the fire station / swimming pool traffic lights, the fun bit between the railway bridge and coleridge road and the slightly studentier / rougher bit between coleridge road and the main road at the bottom. Same applies to both sides of Mill Road, it goes slightly downhill the further away you get.

The students really arent a problem, they're all working too hard now.  The pubs are noisier, quite a few have live music (brilliant, unless you live next door).  There are some brilliant independent shops as well as a great coop and pretty awful tesco & sainsbo metros.

Check the house you're going to be in either has a front garden for locking your bike in or a back passage you can nip down to hide the bike in the back garden. 

Any questions about Mill Road, ask away!!

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #9 on: 07 March, 2018, 09:48:29 am »
Fair enough, maybe it was just the place I visited in Catharine St with a view to renting which was being used partly for cannabis cultivation and partly as a Vietnamese brothel...  :thumbsup:  That was 15 years ago, mind.

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #10 on: 07 March, 2018, 10:00:40 am »
some folks want a decent bike ride as a commute just to get the miles in. If you fall into this category then this increases the choice of locations considerably.

If you are to work near the station and want (say) a 15-20 minute (non sweaty-effort) bike ride then think of

Trumpington (via the guided busway cycle path or alongside Hobson's conduit if you don't mind a little mud)
Gt Shelford (ditto and/or via the genome way)
Cherry Hinton (e.g. via Radegund rd and the cycle bridge)
Almost anywhere in the city (avoiding some of the rougher areas of which there are only a few)
Newnham (via the fen cycle paths)
Granchester (a bit further out)
Hauxton (ditto)
Harston (ditto)
Fulbourn (ditto)
Stapleford(ditto)
Coton (ditto)
Milton (ditto)

If you don't mind a train ride or a longer bike ride every day then there are various other options for a short commute.

cheers

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #11 on: 07 March, 2018, 10:11:15 am »
Thanks, Brucey.

For the first 6 months I'll be looking to avoid sweaty bike rides. For one, I'm certain there are no shower facilities at (temp) offices. I suspect bike storage is just some hoops outside as well, in view of local scrotes (I asked if there was secure bike storage and received a cagey reply).
Longer term, MrsC is thinking of us both relocating to the area so that will be a different story.

Mill rd and Cherry Hinton are coming up as having reasonable (fsvo) accommodation and walkable/non-sweaty distance from work. I have a heavy, slow town bike that I might relocate to cambridge, it is the sort of thing that cars bounce off. Either that or buy a 2nd hand brompton (much better for noodling through traffic).
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Morrisette

  • Still Suffolkating
    • Now Suffolkating on the internet:
Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #12 on: 07 March, 2018, 03:34:46 pm »
Hello future Cambridge person!

Cherry Hinton is probably best value for money, especially if you are working at the train station - it's not far at all. It has one of the best bus services as well, although the buses are slowly getting worse throughout the area - I would not choose somewhere to live that is ONLY accessible by bus, especially a village. Some quite adjacent villages have no bus services at all (Harston, which is on your list, being one of them).

Chesterton is a nice bit of Cambridge which is not too studenty. When I lived there I paid 250 quid a month for a room in a house share which I guess will have gone up SOMEWHAT. Personally I would not mind living in some bits of Arbury/Kings Hedges, there is more space there, if you're in a house you'll probably get a garden, and it's only relatively dodgy, compared to the rest of Cambridge (Moss Side it ain't). Orchard Park is new build and quite poky little apartments but might be a bit cheaper. It would be fine if you were only there 4 nights a week. There are NO facilities up there though so if you want a shop or a local pub, look elsewhere.

I work in Histon, it's a half hour ride on a sit-up-and-beg style bike - I don't get sweaty (I do the reverse ride, from the station). There is also a bus which is frequent, but can be slow (it takes longer than cycling). Histon is a nice village, with a lot going on, but priced accordingly. Trumpington is probably also expensive, but now has an EXCELLENT cycle and bus track which is totally offroad and takes you right to the station. There is loads of new building going on up there which is aimed at the big new tech company employees, so a lot of people probably in the same boat as you will be living there.

Anywhere in Cambridge I would bring the bike indoors if at all possible. Rates of theft are HIGH, and the police don't want to know. There is the Cycle Point at the station for parking indoors - whether it is 'secure' or not depends on whether you think having CCTV that no one monitors is a good deterrent for crime, but it's better than parking outside in the rain. I park on the second floor based on my belief that scrotes are lazy and won't want to climb the stairs!
Not overly audacious
@suffolkncynical

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #13 on: 07 March, 2018, 03:47:58 pm »
Thank you Morrisette.

I think that folding bike indoors is best solution - might not be possible at work - but better at home at least.

Seems to be a lot in Orchard park, town houses with large number of bedrooms; the rooms aren't actually a terrible size compared to some places (truly, you can only just get a single bed in rooms that are going for £400pm in the city). Downside is sharing a house with 6-7people.
Just waiting on passing the vetting. I hope they don't find out about the bodies buried in the quicklime.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #14 on: 07 March, 2018, 04:11:18 pm »
Friendly bike-making people in Longstanton! </extent of knowledge>
Getting there...

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #15 on: 08 March, 2018, 12:03:31 pm »
Bit of a grumble here.

A number of places offer 'Mon - Fri' lets. Not at a huge discount over full-time lettings, maybe %20 discount at the most, rather than nearer %30 it should be.
I had assumed this meant that the landlord wanted the place to themselves over the weekend (which is reasonable in a way).

No, it seems for many places it means much of the time someone else would be using your room over the weekend. So your belongings either have to be taken away or "some clothes could be left in a wardrobe and some things put away in a drawer". This, on minimum 6month let.

erm, FO comes to mind. That's not a house share, that's more like a bloody b&b or hotel.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #16 on: 08 March, 2018, 02:46:33 pm »
re 'non-sweaty cycling'.  If you are prepared to walk for 15-20 minutes (i.e. about a mile) then the same level/time of (non-sweaty) effort on a bike will take you at 10-12mph, thus ~3-4 miles or so.

The main problem is that if you are used to more energetic cycling, the non-sweaty effort level is difficult to manage (whereas it seemingly comes naturally when walking). Another issue is that you might need to have (and use) much lower gears than normal, in order to allow for non-sweaty progress on hills and into headwinds.

cheers
 

Re: cambridge (city, not outlying villages) - good, bad areas
« Reply #17 on: 08 March, 2018, 08:59:04 pm »
Wot Brucey sez: it's what I'd call 'bimbling'.  Through the middle of Cambridge, you're kind of forced to bimble because of kamikaze pedestrians, inexperienced Arts students cycling like mobile chicanes, and errant motorists.  If you find yourself on a nice cyclepath - and there are some good ones criss-crossing town - you won't feel like a low-speed sitting duck on the road, either.