Harborne, Birmingham, England - a Guide to Relocating

Many people re-locating to Birmingham consider living in the suburb of Harborne. Whilst Harborne has been part of Birmingham for a little over a hundred years now, it's managed to retain a certain village identity in parts and contains many desirable areas in which to live. If you do decide to re-locate here, the Harborne Society play a very active role in preserving the traditional quality of what locals still call 'the village' and always welcome new members.

The High street is reasonably well provided for with a Waitrose supermarket and Sainsbury's Local for food. There are a variety of estate agents, banks, a good household provisions store and many restaurants and pubs. It's not ideal for clothes shopping, but Birmingham city centre is only a couple of miles away.

At night, there are several good restaurants catering for Thai and Italian cuisine, and of course the Michelin starred restaurant, Turners. Once you've satisfied your hunger there are around a dozen pubs within easy reach, with a variety of styles from small, traditional establishments to modern bars. If you would rather go to the cinema or spend the evening dancing, then Broad Street, part of Birmingham City Centre is accessible with several bus routes talking ten minutes or so for the journey. Should you prefer a quiet night in there is a video rental store along with Indian, Chinese and Fish & Chip take-aways.

Harborne's desirability compared to other parts of Birmingham is mainly due to some very pleasant, leafy and safe areas to live. Unfortunately this does make it one of the more expensive areas of the city to buy property. Around the high street are traditional Victorian terraces. To the North is the Moorpool estate, a planned village built just after the turn of the century which is a delightful place to wander around on a sunny afternoon. Another fine activity for a sunny day is watching the cricket at the Harborne Cricket Club, which is only a few minutes walk from the High Street. Slighty more affordable housing can be found to the south, near the Grove park area, which incidentally is a pleasant place to stretch your legs and feed the ducks.

For those with younger children, two particularly good schools are St Peters Chruch of England, and Harborne Primary School. For older children, Harborne Hill Senior School is located next door in Edgbaston, but you may like to conduct careful research before making a decision here.