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

[Newspaper6]

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!

Agree that Hastings is rough and I wouldnt go to Worthing either- its where people go to retire so nothing wrong with it, but its hardly vibrant or bohemian.
If you want artsy, vibrant, dynamic and bohemian you'd be far better off in Brighton

I thought Hebdon Bridge too. Look out Mark Steel comes to town on HB on bbc sounds!

@Glendora interested to know more about your thought process to move for second time. We've done the same. Moved out and not found the right place but now we have analysis paralysis and also a fear of getting it wrong again (also a tiny bit of nowhere will be quite like london though I don't think london is right for us sadly anymore which doesn't help nailing down what we want!) but yeh essentially how did you find the right place for you? We're now looking further afield too given the wfh change and Cambridge, Bath, Hove and Lewes all under consideration as is Somerset - though don't know it at all!

Oxford, Stroud, Bruton, Bristol, Seaford, Worthing?

All my Arty friends live in Worthing. I now live in Bath. We have a Lib Dem MP but it’s all very middle class.

Norwich is definitely worth investigating. It’s really beautiful, full of artists, has the Sainsbury arts Centre and just to stress it, it’s really beautiful

Stroud always comes up on these threads, it's a nice place for a day visit but not for me - a lot of people like it though. It would be a good idea to visit and see what you think, there is a market on Saturday morning (tends to pack up by mid-afternoon) so you could come and have a look then. Has some quite steep hills as well. Have fun OP, it will be nice to look around all the places mentioned. Painswick (near Stroud) seems to have a nice community and I see Nailsworth has also been mentioned already.

Painswick is lovely!

Interesting comments about likeminded people. Years ago I moved to a lovely market town with a university and didn't find my people in five years, and it made me quite unhappy. Moved to the nearest (not even that great) city and instantly did. I feel most at home going back to where I am from to be honest.

The thing is with living near Stroud, the community feels bigger than just the town. The whole Stroud 5 valleys is the community. The geography is incredibly diverse, from the river severn and wetlands and canals to common land with views to the FOD. Woodlands galore, the buebells and the wild garlic, the picture perfect villages, the arty towns, Woodchester mansion and Minchinhmpton Winstones ice cream. So if you're visiting Stroud for a day, I can see why you may be underwhelmed (unless you had lunch at Woodruffs!)

I'd agree that the real beauty is the 5 Valleys around Stroud.

Why on Earth are folk mentioning MPs? I have never chosen where I live based on the MP.

Put that's exactly where we have lunch .

I agree about MPs but I do check out of interest whether a place voted leave or remain.

@DesdemonaDryEyes

Why on Earth are folk mentioning MPs? I have never chosen where I live based on the MP.

Because Stroud has a v left wing reputation and has historically been a little Labour stronghold in the blue sea of the South West. Last time it swung Conservative, indicating a change in the mindset of the constituency. Whether that's because of the number of people moving in, or other factors, it's relevant if you specifically want a left wing area.

When we considered places to live we looked at one place with a very well known conservative MP who was (IMHO) in large part responsible for screwing over poor and disabled people.. The fact that a significant proportion of our prospective neighbours must have voted for him definitely out us off.

(I can totally understand that many people wouldn't look at the local mp at all, just saying that we did, and I'm sure we're not the only ones)

@Newuser123123

Brighton, Lewes, Stratford on Avon, Leamington spa, York, Oxford, Bristol

I grew up in Stratford on Avon; I still have family living there - it is most definitely not artsy and liberal.

But constituencies are made up of many different parts. My MP is labour but the area I live would be conservative if it made up a greater proportion of the vote.

Had nobody mentioned Hove? Agree Norwich, Cambridge, Manchester suburbs, Exeter, Edinburgh for further afield.

Lots of these places are also grammar school areas which may be a shock compared to a London state comprehensive system with the best results in the country and no 11+ exam to worry about

www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/choosing-a-school/grammar-schools/local-authorities

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34538222
Wales and Scotland doesn’t have the 11+ at all

Norwich - compared to a lot of the places mentioned it’s very cheap too! About half Cambridge prices! Slightly longer to London (1hr 20 instead of 50mins) on the train.

I mean... www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-93949199.html

Frome is great, there are some parts of Bath (Larkhall) that are still liberal and arty but being Bath they are more expensive.

If you still need to commute to London regularly (albeit not daily) then I think some of the suggestions would be a) v expensive to commute and or b) a massively long journey.

South Manchester? Not beautiful in an of itself but easy access to some lovely country side

University towns and cities tend to be a good starting point. Just thinking of ones that I know well in very easy reach of London:

Oxford
Cambridge
Warwick
Reading (some may snigger at this but it has a pretty lively arts scene)

Totnes is a very nice place but it is home to a lot of people with very alternative views. It is the antivaxx capital of the UK, for a start.

Lots of these places are screamingly white though and make my teeth itch as they don't have any proper bloody shops.

It's very easy to forget if you live in a major city, especially London, that most of the UK is 'screamingly white'. Diverse communities are heavily concentrated in urban areas. 87% of the country was white in the 2011 census - I expect that number to have change in next year's census but all those people have to live somewhere!

Why on Earth are folk mentioning MPs? I have never chosen where I live based on the MP.
It is something that I will consider next time I move. It won't be top of the list but it will be there.
I currently live in a very safe seat, the sort where a donkey would get voted in as long as it was wearing the correct colour rosette. Our last few candidates have been from Head Office's list of Stars of the Future. They are parachuted in, get elected (natch) and then go back to London to start work on their career of climbing the greasy pole. They do nothing for the constituency because they don't need to.
Next time, I want an MP who is scared of losing their job thinks more about the voters and what will make their area a better place to live.