大咖福利影院

cathyV wrote:

Hi, I am new to forum.聽 We will be moving to Edinburgh in Nov.聽 My husband will be working at the University.聽 We will be staying for 1 to 2 years.聽 We are looking for places to live.聽 What areas have good local/state schools.聽 I have a five year old son.聽 Something with easy bus access, we won't have a car.聽 Are there bike paths within the city?聽 How easy is it to get around?

cathyV wrote:

We are in Beijing now.  Before that we lived in Denmark.  Originally from the US.  We are looking for something on the outskirts of the city, closer to Edinburgh University, if possible?  I will look at your suggestions.
Thanks,
Cathy

The outskirts? There are universities on the outskirts, but Edinburgh University isn't one of them. it's slap bang in the middle of the old city, so inner city on the south side.

Marchmont is close to the uni - on the other side of the Meadows, a massive park. It has a superb children's playground on the south east corner of the park - I think another poster also mentioned this. However, the housing in this area is pretty much all flats in old tenements. They have private gardens at the back which you usually need a key to enter. Just south of marchmont is an area called the Grange. Very expensive but they do have houses, as in large detached houses, 拢2000 a month or thereabouts price wise to rent. Two bedroom flats, fully renovated and possibly furnished, in Marchmont go for upwards of 拢1000 a month. Beware of HMOs though - flats rented to students on a per room basis, so tend to be rowdy, noisy and not always safe. Good schools in Marchmont (I would recommend James Gillespies rather than Sciennes. Sciennes is a good primary school but massive, as in getting on for 700 students.)

Plenty of bike tracks in and around Edinburgh, but they don't tend to be in that area, except coming from the town through the Meadows (the afore mentioned park just to the north of Marchmont).

With primary schools we are talking about huge variations in quality, and I do mean huge. Avoid Preston (near the Commonwealth swimming pool) and the one on the Canongate (Royal Primary), as in don't live in the part of the city which is the catchment area for these schools.Catchment area maps can be obtained via email form Edinburgh City Council.

The suburbs around the A702 are nice (not Tollcross, but from then on. So Bruntsfield, and Morningside. All around Colinton Road. And they have very good transport links, unlike, inexplicably Marchmont and the Grange. Closer to the city on that road, the east side is better than the west side.