r/Fife • u/No_King7170 • 5d ago
Moving
What's Leven like to live in? Relocating for work and housing seems very...cheap. is there a reason why?
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u/Serenity----- 5d ago
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation is a useful resource for a broad overview of an area. Link here: https://simd.scot/#/simd2020/BTTTFTT/10.332233483741682/-3.0507/56.2236/
Basically, any place that is red or orange you should avoid, yellow is average, blue is good, and anything with no colour has so few people that it is very safe but likely in the middle of nowhere. The Leven area is basically a big red bullseye, which helps explain the low cost of housing. I would recommend Dunfermline or Cupar as alternatives.
Best of luck with wherever you choose.
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u/Odd_Gap_9491 5d ago
Dunfermline is a long way from Leven lol
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u/SqueezerOfFarts 5d ago
Which is good.
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u/Odd_Gap_9491 5d ago
Not if they're planning to be in Leven for work....
Dunfermline is nothing but a suburb of Edinburgh these days with Stabbyview a relic of it's near past
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u/SqueezerOfFarts 5d ago
Wave of gentrification is upon us. Embrace the flood.
(I might be a bit tipsy, I'm sorry.)
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u/Odd_Gap_9491 5d ago
I'm from the area and lived in Leven itself for 4 years now. I quite like it. I work from home so I'm often around the town at lunch or sitting by the beach munching. We're lucky enough that we're down at it. There's nothing wrong with Leven itself. It's a small town and centre of the wider levenmouth area so draws in people from around it. To it's west are the old mining areas of Methil and Buckhaven and to its East is the East Neuk. You can literally see the change if you walk West to East along the shoreline. By the time you're at the golf course end on the shore the houses get pretty big.
You can go further along the coast a bit and you'll pay more and not be as close to the town and train and shops etc. it depends entirely what you need to do and where you need to get to work and what your budget is and how many bedrooms you need etc.
The East Neuk is great if you're not needing to commute anywhere regularly.
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u/No_King7170 5d ago
I'll be honest I don't know the area well so we took a drive over and headed around the town centre area and it was pretty dire but aware that might have not been the best first impression to go by. Will definitely look a bit further out, it's more a base for my work though so don't need anything bigger
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u/Odd_Gap_9491 5d ago
Yeah the high street is knackered but all high streets are knackered. There's some nice places to eat though. Spanish tapas bar is good, Italian pizza place in the back street, Green King pub at the Caley, there's an Italian deli and coffee place on the shorehead and Mavi's steak house. There's a sit in Chinese restaurant opening soon as well at the shorehead. People travel for Imries chippy.
You'll have more interest maybe heading along the beach or going to Silverburn or Letham Glen parks. Entirely depends what you are looking for. If you say things you like we can maybe point you in the right direction.
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u/CoffeeTableReads 5d ago
To be fair you'd be hard pressed to find a nice looking town centre / high street nowadays. All fairly rundown but at least Leven still has a solid choice of shops and decent selection of restaurants and cafes. Plus more out in Largo. There's a new tapas place now on the High Street which is great.
The train into Edinburgh has been huge boost for town. Last train from Edinburgh is 11pm. Not mega late but at least you can have a decent evening out in the city.
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u/Jealous-Vermicelli79 5d ago
Leven itself isn't too bad but it's right next to Methil and Buckhaven (very deprived) and they tried to rebrand the three into "Levenmouth".
To make matters worse, the areas around it are much more affluent meaning it feels a lot worse than it is.
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u/CourtOfGrumpyOwls 5d ago
It is a bit isolated, but if you're looking for more of a village life vibe, try lower largo, upper largo or further along the east neuk coast. If you're looking for something a bit bigger try Glenrothes or Kirkaldy, its about a 20 minute drive provided you dont go via Standing Stane
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u/keeahwastaken 5d ago
I grew up there. It was always looked down upon from the East Neuk and Kirkcaldy but it’s actually fine. I visit every now and again and while the High Street is dead it does have some things going for it - the beach is right there and the train station will do lots for the area. Also has some nice places like the Letham Glen and Silverburn. I would stick to areas like Scoonie, East Links and Coldstream, maybe parts of Wagon Road.
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u/Lost-Telephone9426 4d ago
Leven makes methil look like glenrothes
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u/No_King7170 4d ago
I don't know the area at all so I've no idea of that's a good thing? 😂 going by most of the comments I'm best avoiding Leven? Was mostly the cheap housing that was an appeal as it'll just be a base during the week for work then home on weekends
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u/dxg999 5d ago
It's Leven.
Try Lower Largo if you have to be roughly there.