Artsy liberal places to live in the U.K.? (But still beautiful)

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We live in London but our work is going wfh pretty much completely. We both wfh part time, but now it looks like it’ll be permanently that way, with maybe one meeting a week in London.

DH and I like living in London, but open to moving and our young DS does not like living in london. Whenever we go to the countryside for the day he says “can we move here?!”. So now we’re thinking maybe we’ll try out living somewhere else.

We are from London so actually don’t know much of the UK!

Can anyone suggest a liberal, artsy place to live that is beautiful and has a great community? The thing I like best about london is how easy it is to find a very friendly community.

No idea where to start!!!

Our family is London or SE, friends London or SE / SW so somewhere easy to get back to for that.

Any suggestions welcome! And we will start taking day trips!

Bristol, Bristol outskirts, Stroud, hay on Wye

@SueEllenMishke my Aunt and Uncle owned and ran a beautiful art gallery in the area for many years. A stunning part of the world.

I live in Frome and it's generally lovely. I could be persuaded that Bruton is slightly nicer though.

I would second Edinburgh - but also places like Cheltenham, Oxford and Hay-On-Wye because they have lots of festivals and artsy things going on etc.

are you thinking of moving on the say-so of your child - yes and no. Wouldn’t even contemplate it if we were totally happy with London life. We’ve always lived here, so it’s what we know - but I don’t think it’s the right place for us anymore. I might be wrong, I have nothing to base it on. But DS isn’t totally thriving and I’m sick of the druggies outside my front door! During lockdown all the good things about London vanished and I realised all I missed was the community - which maybe I can get somewhere else - and I craved green space like crazy. Didn’t miss the food scene that I’m usually really into, or the museums and galleries etc.

Maybe re-reading Cold Comfort Farm during lockdown has made me romanticise non-London life just a tad

I’m compiling a nice, long list of day-trip places! Have also been indulging in a little Rightmove-fantasising, too

BRIGHTON! You dont get much more artsy, liberal and beautiful.

Can’t believe Hastings is mentioned loads. It’s a dive.

Hebden Bridge is nice but has become a bit of a parody of itself. Also gets a lot of rain and consequently has serious flooding issues.

I would say if diversity and politics matter to you (ie a smooth transition from London) along with countryside then the best Arty & Liberal choices for Londoners in the southern region of the country would be Brighton and Bristol.

Came on to check how quickly Hebden Bridge would be mentioned. Second post. Yeah.

Cannot believe some one has mentioned Saddleworth 😰

Hebden Bridge ?

1. Half the town is in permanent shadow (deep valley).
2. Not on a main line to London - you'd have to change at M/c or Leeds.
3. London annual rainfall 621mm, HB ....998.

I was going to suggest Lancaster - but its even wetter 1049mm

Another vote for Stroud. Love living here!

Bruton in Somerset!

York is full of pissed up Geordies, Brighton is full of wankers and v dirty, Stroud is full of people wearing I Shot JR t shirts, Hebden Bridge is full of muesli and Edinburgh is full of English people. Stay in London OP.

We love Folkestone. So much going for it...v v artsy (we have the triennial and an art trail featuring works by Tracy Emin, Anthony Gormley and loads of others) beautiful architecture (a fraction of what you would pay in the city), gorgeous hills and valleys of North Downs, amazing beaches and a fab town full of wonderful independent shops and restaurants , loads to do for children (mostly massive subsidised by Creative Folkestone) and Channel Tunnel 10 mins always for short hops to Europe. Oh and HS1 so we can be back in London for a city fix in less than an hour (which we almost never do now as there is always something going on here). We moved a couple of years ago and I was v sceptical about leaving London. I am (as you can possibly tell) a massive convert now. Best thing we ever did!

Whatever you do rent before you buy in case you're making a mistake. Vehemently disagree with the Leigh on Sea / Chalkwell suggestion unless by artsy you mean nail bars and liberal means Daily Mail central.

Totnes is beautiful, its where I would live if I didn't have to be in the SE.

Oh and huge DFL (Down from London) community who have fallen in love with everything the town has going for it and made the move - so much so that the local brewery has even named a beer after us all!

Norwich. Laid back boho vibe. Really vibrant. Lovely countryside and coast nearby.

OP im feeling exactly the same way - like all benefits of London living have disappeared overnight. I live central so for me plus points are the proximity to work and the arts and culture. With that all shit and fact I'm working from home, what's the point of being here? It's made me crave a garden.

I've lived out of London before - pretty far too. Hereford. On the surface it's pretty standard for rural England: very white, voted to leave, Tory MP. But the fact it's somewhat off the beaten track and lacking in tourists has attracted quite a few hippy types and you can def find a liberal and artsy crowd. I wonder if that's true in other places too. But I'm mainly here to get ideas as though I like Hereford if I'm gonna move out of London again I'd like to consider other options.

Interesting to see Hastings mentioned. I've suggested it to DH before and he thinks it's a minging dive. My MIL lives nearby. I think it's quite nice but DH knows it better than me.

One thing I will mention is though I'm in central London our area has a lovely community vibe mainly bc around my kids school, which is an outstanding primary school and my kids live it there. I've been mainly looking around Hereford on right move recently and notably the schools are at best 'good'

Yes, re Leigh on Sea, without being rude - because Essex has a lot going for it including some wonderful countryside, coastline and dryish weather - I wouldn’t move there for arty liberalism.

In the South West: yes to the Stroud Valley - beautiful! Check out Nailsworth. Totnes - hippyville but lovely with it and a great community spirit. In’t north: Hebden Bridge has got a bit overdone, yes, try Todmorden or Mytholmroyd.

@mencken Clearly you've never been to York in the summer when the temperature can reach the low to mid 30s and stay there for days. It's in a cauldron of a valley so gets absolutely stifling in the heat, with barely any wind, and high pressure systems just sort of get stuck there. It also doesn't rain to any excessive degree. Fog can be an issue in the autumn and winter, and obviously there's the flooding problem but that's not caused by rain IN York, it's caused by rivers running down into the city from higher ground. This notion that so many people in the south seem to have, that the weather in the north of England or in Scotland is always terrible, is wide of the mark and a bit insulting tbh.

I couldn't say whether there's still a problem with racism in Brighton, but these days it's possibly the biggest centre for the LGBTQ community outside of London, so one would hope not.

OP if you are looking for arty places within easy reach of London, Margate has been the go-to place for hipster types over the last decade and has experienced considerable regeneration as a result of this and the Turner art gallery now being there. The wider area of Thanet still has some issues with deprivation and Brexit (it's Farage's home turf and of course just because of proximity to Dover) but has a lot of charm, and there's lots to recommend the neighbouring seaside towns of Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Deal, if that's your thing. Happy searching!

Lewes - on the South Downs, arty, good community spirit, bohemian and liberal. Lots of great pubs in the town and surrounding villages. Good schools (no Grammars). 7 miles from Brighton if you want city life. Deal , Canterbury, Whitstable and Folkestone are also worth exploring too although some of the Kent coast is Brexit heartland territory.

If you want to get away from druggies then I'm surprised people have mentioned Bristol and Brighton which both have big drugs/homeless issues.