looking for that 'forever' town/city!

[screamingtheplacedown]

A couple of years ago, we moved from central London to the suburbs for all the usual reasons (crime, schools, bigger house etc) and have realised that we may have made a mistake. The place we live in is pleasant, but it's still relatively pricey so we have a smallish house (now feeling crowded with two under 4), my commute is 1hr15mins each way, and it's pretty boring. Basically we were too chicken to leave London, friends etc so we massively compromised, but I think it's maybe time to bite the bullet and leave London environs for good, get jobs elsewhere (DH is teacher so quite flexible), settle down and stop faffing (I'd love to lose that wandering feeling...!). Our criteria are:

Good cultural life (for job reasons for me but also quality of life)
Mainline station to London within a couple of hours
Not too far from my family in Wiltshire (but not too close either!!)
Decent house 4 beds for c£450k
Want to be within walking distance of town/city centre as I am a rubbish driver
Not too Tory/shires-y

Does anyone know anywhere they would recommend? What are your priorities if you have older kids (it's easy-ish to see what would make a nice place for primary school age kids, but how does that change once you have teens?)

we were thinking of Leamington Spa/Warwick/Stratford or maybe Bristol?

Any hints or tips??

thank you

How about Bath?

Would be careful about Bristol, friends there have told me the school situation is pretty dire.

Brighton? Budget could be a bit tight though.

I know nothing about Bath apart from the actual roman baths but I always hear amazing things from people who live and love it there. My dream towns would be Bath or Brighton probably. Anyway look at this lovesome house though dunno the road or area etc

Leamington is a good choice. How about Market Harborough? Leicestershire is very under rated I think.

the thing about Bath though - it's very hilly, can be a bummer to walk to the centre, especially in bad weather or with kids.
I'd vote for Bristol, but very curious what else would people suggest, not far from Wilts! Cheltenham is nice with kids, but for me too small and dull even though nice-looking.
I'm also taking that plunge after 20yrs in london, precisely because I don't want to move to the suburbs and spend hour each way on the train/tube each day. And also not entirely sure whether I've considered all options. But Bath and Bristol are among them.

I always wondered, is Derby/-shire nice to live in? seems like people are nice over there.
neenewps, what's Leamingtom like?

Apart from the Wiltshire bit, I would have recommended Newcastle upon Tyne (it's surprisingly quick by train to London) but
Bristol and Bath both fit the bill but in both you need to be careful with relation to schools and areas (easy to get wrong) and public transport always used to be expensive and not particularly great (my DB tells me it still is although he lives in Bristol without a car)
Have lived in all 3, Newcastle (yeah i know unhelpful) by far my favourite but would favour Bristol over Bath.
Bath is better as a tourist.

Leicestershireis very under rated

Bristol fab, crap for schools, go to Bath op, lovely, posh and a bit of culture.

If you're from Wilts, then why not go back that way and look again?

We're a few miles east of Bath and love it.

London's easy enough to get to (from Chippenham - but dont move there, maybe), the people we're met - mainly through the nippers at school - are ace, the countryside's gently folding rather than dramatic, but lovely all the same, and the whole thing has worked out for us after a move out of the city (and ditto for loads of other people here).

Anywhere in the Home Counties is too conservative for me, and although there's a Tory MP here (don't get me started on him), the people we know are great (bit mellow, bit boho, bit poncey in a south-west kinda way)...I'm just hoping we don't turn into Mail-istas as we get older!

So, I'd check out Witshire again of I were you - much cheaper than Bath too, its £££ there for housing.

thank you everyone. We actually went on a recce to Leamington/Warwick today and were a bit underwhelmed tbh. Very pretty houses in both but Leamington was strangely quiet - maybe we picked the wrong day... (or maybe the loud whining from our 3.5yo was just clearing the streets...)

I grew up Bath so had been resisting it because it feels like backward step - but on the other hand it's definitely lovely (and has got a lot more interesting I think since 1990). Agnesbligg that is a lovely house - thankyou.

Bristol people, what areas would you recommend? I've not spent much time there but it feels like a big cosmopolitan place (which we like) but that can have downsides in terms of roughness of some areas I guess.

Will also check out Brighton.

How about Oxford? Fab place to live. Obviously some bits are very expensive but there are plenty of houses within your budget, depending on the sort of area you want.

Leamington is a good place to grow up. Shops are ok until you're big enough to get the train to brum or London;its quite studenty so the night life is ok. Lots of parks for kids. Probably a better bet than warwick which is a bit sleepy.

Oxford is rather fabulous. Also solihull might be worth a look?

Oxford would be great! Market Harborough - very sleepy. If heading over to Bristol Thornbury is lovely. Not big but close to big.

How about Winchester?

Another vote for Oxford here. We're looking at some lovely family homes for that budget. It's a great city with masses going on considering it's size.

Dead easy to get into London by train or the excellent, 24 hour, cheap bus service.

not so food for Wiltshire but have you consider Hertfordshire as a option East being good and the market town i ive in the schools both primary and senior rank very highly year after year

main ine station to London , good seection of shops both major chains and independent .

Good schools 450k should get you a good size 4 bed

If you like Bath but don't want to go back then how about York. It's similar in feel and size, is beautiful, great schools, lovely houses and is less than 2 hours to London on the train.

Bristol is a great place to live (biased obviously!)

I would look at areas such as westbury on trym, bishopston, henleaze, Redland.

Better schools (free) Redland green, st bede's, colstons girls, Bristol cathedral school.