Thinking of moving to Durham? Whether you’re starting a family, planning an investment or beginning higher education, here is what Durham has to offer.
House Prices 🏠
- Most expensive property £3.12 million
- Average house price in city: £174,963
- Cheapest property: £29,950
Property Investment 🏠 🏠
Durham is an historic city. It has a Norman cathedral and an 11th century castle which is the home of the city’s famous university (the country’s third oldest, after only Oxford and Cambridge):
- The large student population lives mainly within the central areas of the city, largely in shared housing
- Local authority assessments attribute population growth within the city largely to the expansion of the university – the most recent census showed that 17% of the city’s population is aged 20-24
- Nevertheless, the overall size of the population remains relatively stable and diverse.
Economy ££
- Amongst the economically inactive are counted students as 28% of the working population and 2.7% retired
- Censuses have shown that the working population within the city itself numbers more than 29,000 individuals, 46.7% of whom are employees and 4.4% self-employed
- Very nearly 50% of the jobs within the city centre are classified as professional (21.4%) or managerial and senior staff (12.8%) or administrative and secretarial (13.3%).
Location and Transport 🚌
- The city of Durham is the county town of the County of Durham in the northeast of England – it straddles the River Wear, lies to the south of Newcastle upon Tyne, to the north of Darlington and to the west of Sunderland
- It served by Newcastle Airport, which is just 24 minutes away on a direct service metro
- By rail, the city is connected to both London in the south and Edinburgh in the north by the East Coast Main Line, with local services to Liverpool, Manchester and Doncaster
- By road, the city is served by the north-south A1(M) motorway, and from the west by the A68 and A69.
Education 🎓
- The principal college of further education is New College Durham, with campuses at Neville's Cross and Framwellgate Moor, with full-time student numbers totalling around 3,500
- In the tertiary sector, Durham University dominates – with a current enrolment of some 17,500 students and more than 3,000 staff members
- The city has five state secondary schools and three independent schools.
Environment 🌷
- The city of Durham is something of the quintessential English city – one that the adopted American Englishman, Bill Bryson, has called “a perfect little city”
- Crook Hall and its adjacent gardens, for example, offer a step back to Jacobean times with its medieval hall and walled gardens
- The Botanic Gardens of Durham University also offer a year-round escape into natural beauties within a city centre.
Trivia 🎬
Finally, did you know that ….
- The name itself has withstood the test of time – “dun” means hill in old English and “holme” is an old Norse word for island
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The “Henley of the North” takes place in a Durham Regatta that has been held since 1834 on the River Wear
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Famous sons of the city include Sir Bobby Robson, Bryan Robson, Rowan Atkinson, and Tony Blair.
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