Where to live in Leeds, UK?

March 3, 2006 1:45 AM

Where to live in Leeds, UK? Calling all current or previous inhabitants! I'll shortly be starting a job in the city, and need some help determining the best place for a young family to live.

To give you a bit of background, my current job requires a 1.5 hour each way car commute. My son is now six months old, and I'm frankly sick of not seeing him at all during the week, as he's asleep when I leave in the morning, and in bed when I get home.

I need to find somewhere within a maximum 45 minute commute (method isn't important) of central Leeds, using the station as the central point, for a maximum rent of £800 a month. It needs to suit a young family, obviously.

I don't know anything about the city other than the central, beery bits - which isn't much use here.

Please! Help us find our new home!

posted by StuMiller to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

Can you be more specific about your other requirements? Most of Leeds is probably within a 45 minute commute of the centre (either walking or by bus), so this requirement doesn't narrow the field much.

I live in Little Woodhouse, which is about a fifteen minute walk west of the centre. My rent is £500 a month, so I'm sure it would be a viable area for you. It has quite a high immigrant population, which I think gives it a lovely family feel, very few students, seems quite safe, close to Hyde Park for entertainment.

If you give us your other requirements, I can give you more information about other areas.
posted by pollystark at 3:08 AM on March 3, 2006

Sure, and thanks for the reply.

Basically I'm looking for a 3-4 bedroom semi/detached house in a quiet family area, but still within walking distance of local amenities - shops, parkland, etc for my wife, who doesn't yet drive. A good local primary school is also a bonus, although not essential since we're only planning to rent for a year or so.

The new job is just on the south side of the river between Armley and Holbeck, so within 20 minutes walk of the station. Although there is car parking, previous experience of Leeds city centre suggests that commuter time through the city centre would see me sat in traffic for a long while - and I'm not willing to trade an hour and a half moving commute with a little less but mostly standstill one.
posted by StuMiller at 3:20 AM on March 3, 2006

Definitely check out Little Woodhouse, then. It's west of the centre so you wouldn't have to drive through town to get to work, and there are likely to be buses.

Also worth looking at Headingley. It's better for local shops than LW, is a very "nice" area, and seems to be a popular choice for people who want to move a bit out of the centre, but not to a village.

Hyde Park might be worth a look because it's one of the most fun areas in Leeds, but it's not really a family area as it's PACKED with students, which in turn brings petty crime.

I'm tempted to suggest Woodhouse (you can find all these areas quite easily on a map, but the way). I love it there, it's cheap, is one of the few remaining parts of Leeds that still feel like a Northern, non-commercialised, old school city, and is most definitely a family area. But it's probably too far East for you, and it has a bit of a reputation of being unsafe, though I've no idea no well founded that it.

Good luck. Ask more questions if you want to know more.
posted by pollystark at 5:33 AM on March 3, 2006

Headingley is good. Pretty much anywhere you go will fulfill the 45 minutes from the station rule if you're within the ring road so don't worry about that. I think if you've got a kid you're probably after somewhere a bit greener than woodhouse (sorry to disagree with you polly).

Headingley or Kirkstall would be my recommendations (you'd be able to cut across to armley easily). Headingley is student central so has shedloads of bars and restaurants and shops. Kirkstall has a multiplex and some great pubs (and an abbey in idyllic setting for those summer picnics) (and the sheesh mahal).

I know someone trying to let out a 2/3 bedroom cottage with off road parking in central headingley well within your budget. Email me on [e-mail] if you're interested. He'd probably be up for short term if you want a place to kip whilst you're looking, anyway.
posted by handee at 6:02 AM on March 3, 2006

My father worked in Armley and we lived first in Horsforth and then Menston. If you want to be out of Leeds but near enough to commute, out towards Otley or out towards Ilkley (which includes Horsforth, Burley and Menston) are fine. But nothing against Polly's Woodhouse.
posted by TheRaven at 6:04 AM on March 3, 2006

Ah yes Horsforth - forgot about that. It is quite nice and village-y, isn't it? It has a proper high street. And reasonably nice housing. Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston are actually outside of Leeds proper (in my mind, anyway) and are more like villages than parts of a city.
posted by handee at 6:08 AM on March 3, 2006

[moved title info to post so more people would know where you were referring to]
posted by jessamyn at 7:00 AM on March 3, 2006

Well, Horsforth looks to have what I'm looking for.

I don't have anything against students, but I've lived in a student area for the last three years and want to leave that behind nowadays - the bars suddenly become next to redundant once you've got a little'un, and the convenience of those swiftly gives way to the annoyance of the noise.

Thanks for the help, fellow northern Mefites!
posted by StuMiller at 7:01 AM on March 3, 2006

Horsforth, Rawdon or Calverley will probably be on the edge of the commute time. I lived in Calverley and cycle commuted along the canal to Leeds (45 minutes... 8 miles or so).

The benefit for me of Calverley was the closeness of the woods and a good bit of countryside. Apparently the schools are fairly good too so the houses tend towards the expensive.

My sister lived in Horsforth for a while and she really liked it.
posted by itsjustanalias at 9:37 AM on March 4, 2006