best market towns with good cultural life in UK?

[milliefiori]

Where should we move to?
DTeens are nearly grown and we no longer need to live in commuting distance of London, so we want to free up some cash and move sometime in the next couple of years.

We want a market town that has a lively cultural life - independent cinemas, theatres, jazz/folk/indie music venues, bookshops, restaurants. A great sports centre with swimming pool and a library would be brilliant too. We both love walking, so good places to hike nearby would be great.

It needs to be much cheaper than London, so places like Oxford, Cambridge or anywhere close to London (Sevenoaks, Guildford etc) are not on the cards. About 2 hours away from London is ideal as we'd want to come back to see shows and exhibitions and meet up with friends.

I was wondering about Stratford-on-Avon but is it just TudorDisney?

We're happy to move anywhere that has its own lively buzz and isn't too Daily Mail.

Where should we look?

Bury St Edmunds, definitely. A wonderful place to live.

I hate these threads. It’s always someone from London wanting someone that’s already ready made wonderful.
The same places always mentioned so inevitably getting full of people who have no links to the area but feel joining the cycle group at weekends ( clogging up the roads for the rural community that have been there forever), turning up for all the fetes but too busy to help at them and starting an overpriced cooking business for the other ex Londoners makes them part of the community.

My “nice” town is ruined.Also please don’t move to Chichester. The housing/roads are already full.

Stroud.

Brighton

Stamford in Lincolnshire is fab. On direct train to birmingham and v.close to Peterborough for train to London.

Another vote here for Bury St Edmunds.
Beautiful market town, independent cinema, theatre. Lovely cobbled streets and shops.
Plenty of history and outdoor spaces. Easy to get to London, Cambridge and Norwich and 50 mins to the coast.

Harrogate

Sheffield is incredibly green, incredibly cheap and has really easy access to the M1.

The South East of Sheffield, would really meet your brief apart from being labelled a 'market town'.

Belper or Matlock in South Derbyshire. Slightly nearer to London than Buxton.

Salisbury??? It is a lovely place but lack of big employers means a lot of the young people move elsewhere for work. It can be a ghost town sometimes which effects trade. After the recent novichok events they are having a injection of cash their way. There are some lovely independent shops and restaurants. The cathedral close is beautiful and lovely walks close by. The playhouse and arts centre have a good cultural vibe but Southampton isnt far for Harbour lights art cinema. London is very commutable by train in 90 mins. Bournemouth is 45 mins away for the coast. If I was a little older I would love to live there just isn't as much going on for families with children that the slightly larger towns have to offer.

Leflic, you’ve heard of the saying ‘It’s a free country’ - who made you Queen Of the South?

New Forest, between Bournemouth and Southampton, coast and forest and 90 mins from London. Mix of market towns and small villages

Hecateh, surely you mean the South-west of Sheffield?

The South-east isn't quite so salubrious!

But yes, Sheffield's a great city, many of the places mentioned are cities though!

If you did want a city OP, I'd certainly recommend SW Sheffield, fantastic arts and music scence, very creative and lots independent shops and restaurants, easy links to London, great theatres and indie cinemas, very green (geographically and ecologically), much of the West is actually in the Peak District, extremely friendly, very easy to build a network there. It's a great place to live.

Salisbury - stunning city which a lovely vibe to it
Winchester - could be quite expensive?
Wimborne - market town, beautiful architecture, nice bars and restaurants

Lymington in the New Forest

Christchurch in Dorset

Cheltenham is lively, great restaurants, very cultural (loads of festivals) property in the nicest bits can be pricey but it's a fabulous town (biased!)

I live in a town mentioned upthread, and we have an independent cinema/theatre (but community run, so the selection can be interesting), library, swimming pool, nice restaurants, good walking, couple of bookshops, and house prices are good. But you'd need to drive to Malvern for proper theatre productions (or Stratford), to Evesham/Cheltenham/Birmingham for regular music (more folk available locally) and so on.

If you want a bustling cultural life, I'd say you want a city like Cardiff where there is a lot going on but is small enough to feel like its not a massive issue to go to places. Or you are looking to move to a market town and find somewhere that you love the feel of and accept (and embrace) that not everything is right there.

I don’t get your point Leflic. The OP isn’t asking for suggestions for a holiday home. She wants to move there permanently. Why wouldn’t she contribute to the fibre of the community? Or can only ‘locals’ do that. Of course she wants to move somewhere nice why would she want to move to a shit hole? Do Londoners have to stay in London permanently?

Oh and Norwich is great!

Another vote for Stamford. I am also very fond of Oakham.

@BigApple11 - Tudor Disney was just a silly way of saying caricatured Tudor everything everywhere for the tourists.

@Ilove that Buxton semi is lovely and has a good sized garden.

@onlyconnect thank you for the info about Stratford. I think you might be right.

Lewes definitely sounds good. So does Totnes.

Thank you all for such great suggestions. I'll go through them all tomorrow. There are so many more places that sound like possibilities than ';d realised. I'm feeling excited about this now. Brilliant MN!

@Leflic I sincerely promise not to open up an overpriced catering company for ex-Londoners! I'll carry on doing the work I've always done, as I work from home.

Shrewsbury or Ludlow but it’s not a pop to London for a show destination but both very lovely.

Marlborough, Cirencester, Devizes, Wootton Bassett, Cricklade are all nice

Frome and the surrounding villages would suit you. Possibly Bradford On Avon, or for a bit more money, Bath.