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The Joel on Software Discussion Group (CLOSED)

I might have a job in Cambridge, England, and I was wondering if it's a decent place to live in or not; in particular with regards to flats, shopping and nightlife.

Any JoS'ers out there who care to chime in? Suggestions welcome.

The job seems to be in the northern part of Cambridge, near the A14.

Thanks a lot.

Cambridge is, of course, a wonderful city.
England is full of attractions for all tastes.
The climate's nothing to write home about though

I don't live in Cambridge but have visited a few times. It's a beautiful city but it's probably expensive to live there.

"Northern part of the city near the A14", probably means the Science Park. Meh. Pleasant enough in a dull, bland, boring kind of way. The same sort of souless place you find all over the world.

Cambridge is very nice though. Lots of grassy places to lounge about on in the summer, lots of nice pubs.
You can cycle everywhere (forget driving around within Cambridge - it's just more hassle than it's worth).

Look out for roving gangs of marauding punt touts down near Bridge St (although I've seen them as far afield as Kings Cross). I'd recommend getting a teeshirt printed up: "I live here. I work here. No, I do _not_ want to go punting."

Stupidly expensive house prices.

All in all, it's certainly one of the nicer suburbs of London.

What's a "punt tout"???

Beautifull city, great bookshops, excellent beer, London is 1 hour by train BUT surrounding countryside is very flat and boring - nearest hills are 2 hours drive away.


Property prices in the city are almost London level ( 1 bed appt = $300K), but since you are working on the science park on the North of the city look at the villages north of town, my 2 bed cottage = $350K.
Avoid having to commute along the A14.

Punts are low flat boats on the river propelled by poles - think gondolas. They run tours along the river through the colleges all summer, there are lots of companies all working on commission so all summer you get approached 10 times asking if you want a tour, 20x if you look like an American or JApanese tourist.
I used to have a t-short saying "No I don't want a punt tour, Yes I live here, No I'm not a student"

Great information. Thanks a lot!

I'll keep the t-shirt thing in mind ;)

Having lived in Cambridge 10 of the past 11 years I quite like it.

As someone said near the A14 sounds like the Science Park or one of it's variants. Not the most attractive part of town but not too far from the centre.

Expect it isn't the cheapest place to live but I'm not sure that it's any worse than the commuter belt and certainly cheaper than London. We had a nice central 2 bed flat for about £800 a month until we bought 2 years ago, and could certainly found somewhere cheaper if we needed to. Buying in the centre of town is very expensive but there's plenty of alternatives (nearby villages, areas nearer the edge of town) that aren't too bad.

We live quite happily without running a car which keeps the cost of living down and it's a lot easier to get round town on a bike than a car.

Shopping's pretty good and London isn't that far away (less than an hour to King's Cross by train). There's a lot of good pubs and restaurants but if you want to go out clubbing regularly I think you'll struggle to find much.

We moved here last year -- actually it's quite nice apart from my periodic "where have all the hills gone???" panics. {It's flat.}

Property starts at the "You are JOKING!!" territory in the city centre and ramps down. Out at the edges it's pretty normal UK prices, although it's in stormingly short supply and sells really quickly. There are a number of neighbouring villages which are nice, and actually not that far out (if I had normally working joints I could cycle to work). There's a lot of people commute from the villages to the north and west to the science park in half an hour or so.

One of the reasons for us moving here was the conglomeration of tech companies -- a lot of people have managed to have entire IT careers without having to be more than cycling distance from where they live. When I mentioned about the pain recruiting is at the moment, $MANAGER replied that we do have the attraction of being walking distance from Milton Road and there are apparently a surprising number of engineers who considered that important...

The A14 is a stabbing pain in the neck. It's not that it's a bad road per se. It just seems to be populated with idiots. I've commuted up and down roads in the midlands with similar mixes of traffic and junctions and they don't come to a standing halt every  single day. They manage entire months where no trucks at all catch fire. The A14 seems to have a rather incendiary effect on vehicles of all kinds and attracts huge pile-ups. The ultimate irony is that they recently decided everyone's going too fast on it, and they erected speed cameras so you can't exceed seventy. That almost no-one can physically exceed 40 even on quiet days was utterly missed by the authorities, who presumably live in a different county.

The punt people are also a pain and are (allegedly) about to be served ASBOs for their aggressive behaviour. Ahahhaahahhaa.

The city centre is walkable-around and has usual stuff in it. Plus extra bookshops.

So I think I like it so far.

As others have pointed out, buying a house in Cambridge is stunningly expensive. On the plus side, renting is easy - always lots of rooms or flats to be had at a variety of prices. See http://www.brettward.co.uk/canb/ for the rentals list that everyone uses.

Practically everyone who isn't a student in Cambridge is a computer programmer, and even some of the students are computer programmers. The new computer science building is very nice and modern, and probably no one would notice if a few extra people turn up to lectures.

You'll find that any programming question you have can be answered by taking the 7:54am Kings Cross via Royston commuter train and, at an oppertune moment, ask "Hey, does any one know how to...".

Hi David & Katie,

Thanks a lot for your indepth answers - especially that rental list. That will come in handy!

I'm just going to take the plunge, then, and see how things pan out!