Living in Durham - 1

We moved from Rotterdam to the lovely little city of Durham, in the North East of England, between Christmas and New Year 2004.

Durham is up near Sunderland and Newcastle and, as we have discovered, is a long way from everywhere else! Even those archetypal Northern cities are way down south for us: Leeds and Bradford are 90 minutes away by train, Manchester is a near-epic 2.5 hours! London is 3 hours and a bit (or 'a lot', if GNER have anything to do with it).


As these selected pictures from splendid local photographer Graeme Peacock and others testify, much of the city centre of Durham is gorgeous, especially the mighty cathedral and Norman castle which sit atop a high promontory right in the middle of the city. Both were designated a World Heritage Site in 1986. The author Bill Bryson, now Chancellor of the University, once wrote famously in his book, 'Notes from a small island':
"If you have never been to Durham, go there at once. Take my car. It's wonderful."

Durham is all cobbled streets in the centre, and there is a lovely walk to be had along the tree-lined banks of the river Wear as it winds around the hill featuring the castle and cathedral. It all looks particularly fabulous in the snow. (We couldn't find any pictures on the Web to prove this, so we'll have to go out and take our own - won't have long to wait). Less so in the rain, but then even parts of Venice can look miserable when it's chucking it down...

Durham's 'posh' image is probably based on the generally well-off students who come to study at the University (this picture is taken from the grounds of Grey College, which we joined as it's nearest our house, and we were asked!), and the fact that the city itself is considerably more pitcturesque than its much bigger neighbouring cities Newcastle, Sunderland, and Middlesbrough. But this image belies the fact that Durham is surrounded by ex-mining villages, many of which now suffer from high unemployment, poor housing and the like. So it is a strange mix.

The city's regeneration is moving apace, and in the last year we have watched as Durham's very own string of built-to-order, top-whack riverside apartments for yuppies has risen up by the Framwellgate bridge. There is also a development going on for a major arts centre (we only have one not-very-adventurous cinema), and there are/were plans for a huge 'wok'-shaped sculpture to be set on one of the city's hills as a tourist attraction. (We're rather taken with the idea of a sculpture of a coal miner with a giant light beacon coming out of the statue's helmet...) Whether those surrounding villages will benefit from all this is open to question, but we may have arrived just before Durham 'arrives' again on the map...