How safe is Manchester?

Original post by Chike

I'm an intl student and I'm kind of paranoid about safety.

It's a big city, and so it has its risks like any other, and so you should take the simple precautions that you would in any other city. So, lock your front door, don't walk home alone at night when you're drunk, don't walk across parks at night, lock your bike using a D-Lock - that sort of thing. Enough other people don't do those really simple things that they don't need to bother with the extra effort of going for someone who has made their lives marginally harder.

You should also be aware that the vast majority of crime that is committed against students is property crime (theft, burglary, mugging etc.) and not violent crime (GBH, murder, rape etc.). It sucks if it happens, but ultimately unless you try and fight a mugger, you're going to walk away from the incident shaken but physically ok. Gun control in the UK means that very few people, including criminals, have guns, which does make things safer.

I'm in my third year at Manchester now, and I've never been the victim of crime, and the same goes for the vast majority of my friends. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one friend who has actually been a victim of crime - and they were rather the architect of their own downfall, because they decided to walk home alone whilst drunk, and flash their phone, because they didn't feel like catching a bus :rolleyes:

The tl;dr version is 'don't act like an idiot and you'll be absolutely fine - Manchester is no worse than any other major city, and better than most world cities'.

Reply 3

Blazinq

14

Original post by Kruz

It's like every major city in the UK, you have the good parts and the bad parts. But I'd advise you stay away from Moss Side.

Moss Side is no where near as notorious as it was back ages ago, place to watch out for which is pretty close to the city centre is Salford, I drunkly stumbled down to Salford from city centre drunk by accident, soon as I got into the main bit it was full of chavs and ****.

Manchester city centre is alright, much like any other city I guess

Reply 4

I'm an international student, too, and ever since I came to Manchester I've been constantly told that it's a 'safe' city. Well, not that there is a particular problem around here, but do be careful.

A few examples from last week: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/student-fights-knife-wielding-robber-cash-6771052

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/girl-gang-stalked-student-oxford-6786315

It could be argued that in the first case it is common sense not to withdraw money around mightnight if you're alone, and the second one could be atributted to an bizarre and isolated incident. Then, just be careful. If you live in Fallowfield I wouldn't be particularly concerned about robbery and violent crimes. Depending on which country you come from, you might find Manchester quite safe for a big city.

Reply 5

Original post by Heteronym

I'm an international student, too, and ever since I came to Manchester I've been constantly told that it's a 'safe' city. Well, not that there is a particular problem around here, but do be careful.

A few examples from last week: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/student-fights-knife-wielding-robber-cash-6771052

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/girl-gang-stalked-student-oxford-6786315

It could be argued that in the first case it is common sense not to withdraw money around mightnight if you're alone, and the second one could be atributted to an bizarre and isolated incident. Then, just be careful. If you live in Fallowfield I wouldn't be particularly concerned about robbery and violent crimes. Depending on which country you come from, you might find Manchester quite safe for a big city.

There has been a spate of such incidents lately, but tbh given that (a) you don't normally get this many reports of these things happening in a week, (b) there are almost 80,000 students here, between UoM and MMU so the statistical likelihood of anything happening to you personally is quite low, I'm really rather reluctant to call it a city that's unsafe for students

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Reply 6

Original post by Origami Bullets

There has been a spate of such incidents lately, but tbh given that (a) you don't normally get this many reports of these things happening in a week, (b) there are almost 80,000 students here, between UoM and MMU so the statistical likelihood of anything happening to you personally is quite low, I'm really rather reluctant to call it a city that's unsafe for students

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yes, I wouldn't call it an unsafe place for students, either. But, then, again, I would not deem it a particulary safe city, i.e one that gives you the 'luxury' of walking feeling relatively safe after 10pm and things like that. I personally coil in fear when I have to catch the late MagicBus at Piccadilly Gardens Station.

That would be the case for most, if not all, big cities, I'd wager. No particular problem, but also quite a few tasty areas. I lived in Moss Side for a brief while and though people say it's been heavigly regenerated, I still find it a ****hole.

Reply 7

katiiiiie

13

Depends where about you go I guess, I've lived there all my life and don't live in a particularly rough area, but we have been burgled several times :confused:

I'd advise you to stay away from areas with a bad reputation, for example Moss Side, but the city centre is pretty safe I'd imagine. South Manchester seems to be better than North Manchester but living in North Manchester I might just be biased :tongue:

Its like everywhere you go, there are good parts and bad parts.

Reply 8

Original post by Heteronym

Yes, I wouldn't call it an unsafe place for students, either. But, then, again, I would not deem it a particulary safe city, i.e one that gives you the 'luxury' of walking feeling relatively safe after 10pm and things like that. I personally coil in fear when I have to catch the late MagicBus at Piccadilly Gardens Station.

That would be the case for most, if not all, big cities, I'd wager. No particular problem, but also quite a few tasty areas. I lived in Moss Side for a brief while and though people say it's been heavigly regenerated, I still find it a ****hole.

I'm not trying to claim that Manchester is some kind of crime free utopia - it's not, of course. It's just that I don't think that it's any worse than any other UK city. Of course, the OP is an international student, and so their perception of crime is likely to be based on the differences they see. If they're coming from Johannesburg, they'll probably think it's rather utopian. If they're coming from a tiny French village, they'll probably think it's a hellhole.

There are areas that you should think twice about living in - Moss Side is one, and Longsight is another, though I know people living in both areas that have come out entirely unscathed. That said, much of the reputation that these areas have is a hangover from the 80s, and whilst far from perfect things have got a lot better. My mum hasn't lived in the north since the early 80s, and I remember her making me promise, before I started uni, that I would never go to Moss Side or Longsight! Of course, I have, and I've lived to tell the tale.

Personally I tend to feel safer at night in areas where there are people - such as Piccadilly Gardens or the Curry Mile - than walking through residential areas where no one is about. That said, I normally cycle and feel perfectly safe wherever I go on the principle that I'm going fast enough that I'm not an easy target for any potential assailant.

Original post by katiiiiie

Depends where about you go I guess, I've lived there all my life and don't live in a particularly rough area, but we have been burgled several times :confused:

I'd advise you to stay away from areas with a bad reputation, for example Moss Side, but the city centre is pretty safe I'd imagine. South Manchester seems to be better than North Manchester but living in North Manchester I might just be biased :tongue:

Its like everywhere you go, there are good parts and bad parts.

Of course - but then again, I grew up in some of the nicer areas of Bristol, including one semi-rural village. Whilst I was growing up, we were burgled / disturbed burglars five times and had a car stolen, amongst other things. Sometimes nicer areas have higher rates of crime, because stuff there is worth nicking - I believe that at one point (admittedly about 15 years ago, so before modern car security systems), Clifton in Bristol had the country's highest car crime rate because few houses have the luxury of a driveway, plus it's an affluent area so the cars were worth nicking. Similarly, Chorlton in Manchester (which is nice - all my lecturers seem to live there) has the highest rate of burglaries in the entire country.

Unlike 99% of students, I occasionally have reason to go to north Manchester. Let's just say that there are some places there that you couldn't pay me to walk through (Harpurhey and Miles Platting, for instance). Rochdale is singularly grim too - I had to walk through there once and was convinced that I was about to be mugged at any moment (though I wasn't!). I wouldn't claim to have a holistic knowledge of north Manchester though, and I believe that Prestwich is quite nice, for instance.

Reply 9

It's just that there seems to be quite a few dodgy neighbourhoods in Manchester that are actually quite close to the city centre and other nice areas. Granted that I don't know much about the city, but it's weird to list Moss Side, Hulme, Whalley Range, Longsight and others as bad areas and then realise that they pretty much engulf Oxford Road and other important locations. It begs the question of why and how could the police force let those places be so deprived and unsafe right at the heart of the city. And then you wander a bit and there is Salford and Trafford, hardly two good examples of safety.

But, anyway, I don't want to scare the OP. I myself have been loving Manchester since day one and would throughouly recommend it. Safety is certainly not something to put anyone off coming here. You'll most likely be living in student areas and can easily avoid tasty areas.

Reply 10

Reeeeyah

13

I was born in Manchester and lived in the Trafford area until I was 17, I now live in Leeds.

I know a few students who live in the Moss Side/Hulme area, I also have friends and relatives who live in these areas. These areas are not as bad as people make them out to be, like with any large city there will be crime. These areas particularly have been given a bad name due to what happened there in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's, they have changed though and they are not as bad as they were. I have no issues with going to these areas and I do not feel threatened or worry about my own safety when in these areas (maybe that's because I'm used to it).

I would agree with the other poster that most of the crime I have heard of that's directed towards students is theft.

If you look at any large city in the U.K they will all have the same things happening in them and people still live there, students still go there and live to tell the tale.

Manchester is an amazing city and you really shouldn't feel paranoid about your safety.

Where are you from OP if you don't mind me asking?

Reply 11

Oats

Good day sir/madam, the moderator did not take kindly to my post about Manchester, may I wish to rephrase my text accordingly:

It's fine OP, I've lived here most my life and it's no worse than anywhere else.

Occasional mugging/stabbing but that's normal for a city, as long as you stay wise and clear then my brethren will not apply our blades to ones juggular.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 12

Original post by Heteronym

It's just that there seems to be quite a few dodgy neighbourhoods in Manchester that are actually quite close to the city centre and other nice areas. Granted that I don't know much about the city, but it's weird to list Moss Side, Hulme, Whalley Range, Longsight and others as bad areas and then realise that they pretty much engulf Oxford Road and other important locations. It begs the question of why and how could the police force let those places be so deprived and unsafe right at the heart of the city. And then you wander a bit and there is Salford and Trafford, hardly two good examples of safety.

But, anyway, I don't want to scare the OP. I myself have been loving Manchester since day one and would throughouly recommend it. Safety is certainly not something to put anyone off coming here. You'll most likely be living in student areas and can easily avoid tasty areas.

What would you like the police to do? Banish anyone that they don't like the look of to Wythenshawe, and have a minimum income test for anyone living within 3 miles of a university? :erm:

You can and do find that within a few streets (or less) the character of a local area changes considerably - the 'wrong side of the tracks' as the Americans would say. I lived for a few years in an area of Bristol that was regarded as being safe, middle class and desirable, and which housed significant numbers of students. Walk five minutes down the road and you were in the middle of one of the most deprived areas of the city, which was the scene of race riots in the 1980s, and riots at Easter 2011 that were unconnected to the summer riots.

The police have actually done a lot of good work in the area over the last few years. For instance, the gang problem has all but disappeared. For someone coming from abroad, as the OP is, we should probably note at that this point that the police are large not corrupt (and on those rare occasions when they turn out to be, it's a cause for national media attention and scandal), and the police do not routinely carry guns.

It should also be noted that, on campus, we have a very efficient university security service (who occasionally resemble ninjas).

Original post by Oats

Get back to yer mandems OP - we gon' shank you den rob ya wallet

Reppin Moss Side n da Costa Del Salford yyyyeeh yyyyeh

That video is 7 years old and M16 is not an area that students have any reason to go to.

You also seem to be making the mistake of thinking that black + teenage + trackie bottoms = violent criminal. Not true.

Reply 13

Oats

Original post by Origami Bullets

That video is 7 years old and M16 is not an area that students have any reason to go to.

You also seem to be making the mistake of thinking that black + teenage + trackie bottoms = violent criminal. Not true.

Maybe not but having experience living in Manchester I can tell them about other parts surely?

Where was the need to bring their race into it? I have plenty more videos like that without black people in it, take a joke please.

Reply 14

Original post by Origami Bullets

What would you like the police to do? Banish anyone that they don't like the look of to Wythenshawe, and have a minimum income test for anyone living within 3 miles of a university? :erm:

You can and do find that within a few streets (or less) the character of a local area changes considerably - the 'wrong side of the tracks' as the Americans would say. I lived for a few years in an area of Bristol that was regarded as being safe, middle class and desirable, and which housed significant numbers of students. Walk five minutes down the road and you were in the middle of one of the most deprived areas of the city, which was the scene of race riots in the 1980s, and riots at Easter 2011 that were unconnected to the summer riots.

The police have actually done a lot of good work in the area over the last few years. For instance, the gang problem has all but disappeared. For someone coming from abroad, as the OP is, we should probably note at that this point that the police are large not corrupt (and on those rare occasions when they turn out to be, it's a cause for national media attention and scandal), and the police do not routinely carry guns.

It should also be noted that, on campus, we have a very efficient university security service (who occasionally resemble ninjas).

That video is 7 years old and M16 is not an area that students have any reason to go to.

You also seem to be making the mistake of thinking that black + teenage + trackie bottoms = violent criminal. Not true.

I'd done some reading on the redevelopment of Moss Side and, yes, apparently the police did an efficient job in kicking the gangs out of the place. I obviously wasn't around in the 80s, but it is now certainly not as bad as it used be, nor as how it is made out to be. I myself found the place very gloomy and got chased after on my first day whilst walking on a main street literally 2 minutes from Oxford Road. A lot of worn out houses that have to be repaired or demolished.

Nevertheless, you have those areas next to the city centre (which in itself is not a place to be toying around at night, in spite of the improvements since the bombing), the dreaded North Manchester (that might be overrated, I don't know), and then Trafford and Salford. A LOT of wrong areas to be all close to a student's normal route. Sometimes it seems that you'd be hard-pressed to actually find nice areas of Manchester that are not many miles away from the centre. I do feel that if I stray from the Oxford corridor, Deansgate and Norther Quarter I would find trouble.

It might be common around here, I don't know. Where I come from, because the whole country is very classist, poor areas are usually more 'segregated'. This is a very cynical way to look at things anyway (just chucking poor people to the outskirts is hardly reasonable), so the situation here is just something I have to get used to.

Though it should be taken with a pinch of salt, this survey indicates that Manchester fares considerable worse than other similiar cities in the North (Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield): http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/preparing-to-go/staying-safe-and-secure/how-safe-is-your-city/

Again, to reassure the OP, I now live in Fallowfield and it seems perfectly safe. Very well-lit, lively, great bus links etc.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 15

Hiraeth

The only negative experience I have had in two years is being harassed by guys, often in broad daylight and usually in cars. I know this happens to other girls and we agree it's because people like that are lowlifes who get off on scaring girls. But this happens the world over and should not be seen as something Manchester is any better or worse than other cities for. Sometimes these people are aggressive, but the only time I was followed for a lengthy period of time I was able to find security and they drove me home without question. However, I have only lived in halls with decent security. I would not go to, say, Fallowfield, nor live there, but the only reason I ever have to go is for something weird like a dance class suddenly changing venue due to a mix-up. I'm sure there are people who go their entire degree without ever going to Fallowfield. Don't let tis weird idea that it is the ONLY student hub in Manchester get to you. I think Victoria Park is nicer, and you don't have to get a bus to uni.

Bottom line: consider halls for first year while you find your feet - private halls in particular have a lot of international students, so you may feel less alone. Manchester is safer than London, where I spend a lot of time (though never alone). Don't go looking for trouble and you probably won't find it. But if it finds you, that's not your fault.

Reply 16

Why, I think Fallowfield is a really nice area. Full of restaurants, pubs, supermarkets and, because of all the movement and lights, it's quite safe. Plus, you get to live in front of the beautiful Platt Fields park :biggrin:

Getting a bus to uni is really not a big deal, as I think I never spent more than five minutes waiting for one.

I myself think that area just before the Curry Mile, where part of Victoria Park is, is quite grim. That's subjective, though.

Reply 17

Chike

OP

8

Thanks for all the info. Didnt expect so many replies on my first post.

Reply 18

tsimitha

Hey guys... I'll be doing my postgrad at UoM this September. I'm considering Student Castle and Ropemaker Court. The latter is much cheaper... but I'm getting mixed review about the safety in that area. Which place is safer? The Student Castle area or Ropemaker Court area? I'll be walking alone unless I find someone in the same course from my hall.

Reply 19