Is Bristol a nicer place to live than Swindon?

[Posh Red]

The nightlife is crap

To be fair, that is one of the few things I wouldn't have levelled against it.

Even 10 years ago there were literally hundreds of Bars/Clubs within a few minutes walk of the City Centre.

The biggest problem was usually avoiding the gangs of nutters from all the local towns/villages converging on the City for a punch up on a Friday/Saturday night.

[chalkies_shorts]

I lived in or around Slave Trade Central for about 10 years. It was Ok but I couldn't wait to move back to Gods Own Town.

[leefer]

I lived in or around Slave Trade Central for about 10 years. It was Ok but I couldn't wait to move back to Gods Own Town.

You live in Jerusalem then Chalkies!

[pumbaa]

That said I now live in Peterborough, which is probably worse than both

Another place I know 'well'. I really wouldn't want to live there, although it does have the Oakham Ales Brew Pub. Oakham Citra.....oh yeah.....

[Costanza]

Having spent a lot of time living in towns like Westbury, Calne and Warminster, give me the city any day. Bristol is great and has everything I need, I don't see much of the 'rough' areas as I have no need to be there.

My place in Newcastle was in a quite rough area and North Road West in Plymouth was quite grotty. Never had any bother in either though.

[ronnie21]

I hate bristolians and their good awful accent. The nightlife is crap, but I do like cribbs and Cabot circus.

Worked in the city for about 5 years driving the whole area and didn't like it one bit. We had a van broken into on a school site once by one of the parents picking up their kids. Nice.

I was unfortunate enough to be taken out of my normal working area and sent to Oxford for a week, no big deal I thought.  First three days were spent at a school just off the main drag around Cowley, parked in the visitors car park and reported to the site manager.  First thing he said "Where you parked?"  I told him in the visitors, he immediately said go and fetch your van and put it in my secure compound - he said visitors cars and vans were being broken into at least once a week!!  I realised he wasn't joking when I noticed that there was a police office in the school!!  So it seems our neighbouring cities have a bigger problem than Swindon in that department!!

[cheltred69]

I don't know either massively well but would vote for Bristol without hesitation.
My daughter loves it and spends many a weekend visiting friends, there always seems to be something going on there.
Swindon, I worked in the centre for a couple of years and visit the CG of course but have not felt for a minute that its a place I'd like to live.  Maybe I've missed it's charms and attractions and I'm sure there are many worse places to be but I've never thought of it as being any more than functional.

[ron dodgers]

disease ridden shit hole

[Peter Gibbons]

I guess it's fair to say that the higher the population of an urban area, the more attractions and events it will have.

That being the case, I guess this is relevant:

Rank    Urban Area - Population
 1   Greater London Urban Area - 8,278,251
 2   West Midlands Urban Area - 2,284,093
 3   Greater Manchester Urban Area - 2,240,230
 4   West Yorkshire Urban Area - 1,499,465
 5   Greater Glasgow - 1,199,629
 6   Tyneside - 879,996
 7   Liverpool Urban Area - 816,216
 8   Nottingham Urban Area - 666,358
 9   Sheffield Urban Area - 640,720
10   Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area - 579,554[7]
11   Bristol Urban Area - 551,066
12   Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton - 461,181
13   Portsmouth Urban Area - 442,252
14   Leicester Urban Area - 441,213
15   Edinburgh - 420,893
16   Bournemouth Urban Area - 383,713
17   Reading/Wokingham Urban Area - 369,804
18   Teesside - 365,323
19   The Potteries Urban Area - 362,403
20   Coventry/Bedworth Urban Area - 336,452
21   Cardiff Urban Area - 327,706
22   Birkenhead Urban Area - 319,675
23   Southampton Urban Area - 304,400
24   Kingston upon Hull - 301,416
25   Swansea Urban Area - 270,506
26   Southend Urban Area - 269,415
27   Preston Urban Area - 264,601
28   Blackpool Urban Area - 261,088
29   Plymouth - 243,795
30   Aldershot Urban Area - 243,344
31   Derby Urban Area - 236,738
32   Luton/Dunstable Urban Area - 236,318
33   Medway Towns Urban Area - 231,659
34   Dearne Valley Urban Area - 207,726
35   Northampton Urban Area - 197,199
36   Norwich Urban Area - 194,839
37   Aberdeen - 193,379
38   Milton Keynes urban area - 184,506
39   Wearside (Sunderland Urban Area) - 182,974
40   Crawley Urban Area - 180,177
41   Wigan Urban Area - 166,840
42   Warrington Urban Area - 158,195
43   Mansfield Urban Area - 158,114
44   Dundee - 157,808
45   Swindon - 155,432
46   Burnley/Nelson - 149,796
47   Oxford - 143,016
48   Slough Urban Area - 141,848
49   Ipswich Urban Area - 141,658
50   Newport Urban Area - 139,298

...but there again, some of the nicest places to live are probably unspoilt villages on the Cornish coast or similar, so I'm not sure why I bothere copy/pasting that

[herthab]

I lived in fishponds for a while in a DHSS hostel. It was a scummy hole then,  but we're talking about the early 80's.
Rather live, as I do, in the country than any large town or city.

[Sippo]

I was unfortunate enough to be taken out of my normal working area and sent to Oxford for a week, no big deal I thought.  First three days were spent at a school just off the main drag around Cowley, parked in the visitors car park and reported to the site manager.  First thing he said "Where you parked?"  I told him in the visitors, he immediately said go and fetch your van and put it in my secure compound - he said visitors cars and vans were being broken into at least once a week!!  I realised he wasn't joking when I noticed that there was a police office in the school!!  So it seems our neighbouring cities have a bigger problem than Swindon in that department!!

My incident was at a primary school, but I know a lot of secondary schools in Bristol do have police officers on site or have to visit regularly. One incident that happened was a someone came into school and smashed a pupils head in with a brick for no apparent reason!

Don't get me wrong but this can happen anywhere. It's just my experience of Bristol isn't a good one or very nice at that.

[Shaw Rosso]

No

[Simon Pieman]

Rather live, as I do, in the country than any large town or city.

[Baggins]

Different strokes for different folks, innit.  Whoever said everywhere is a compromise is spot on.  For my own two penneth, I lived in Swindon for eighteen years.  I have lived in a number of other places since, some smaller, some larger.  Never lived in Bristol but half my family come from there I have spent a fair bit of time there.  I would pick Bristol over Swindon as a place to live, but there is no right or wrong answer. 

[Spud]

I'm quite lucky in the fact that the girlfriend's sister lives in Bristol, so we can always head down the M4 and find something to do over a weekend. Fuck all to do in Swindon!

Grillstock has been my highlight so far!