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!

This is in a stunning location for walks, good non grammar secondary school is the closest and all primaries close by are good. On the outskirts of a lovely market town with pool, gym, cafes etc. Great access to M5 for Bristol or Gloucester. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-94052312.html

I echo the suggestion to rent first, we made a move from the East of the country to the West, really didn't know the new area at all so we rented for about nine months and took the time to explore the area and decide where to live. It might be tricky depending on the age of your children, we just have one child so there weren't endless schools to negotiate with but it did mean he went to three different primary schools, fortunately he is very resilient and had great experiences at all three and easily made friends.

Hebden Bridge has already been mentioned many times, I hear the area around Macclesfield is quite young and liberal too. Also perhaps Halifax?

what do you mean when you say be wary of sen provision? My son is autistic so Im looking through this thread as in similar situation to the poster (:

I think generally cities are more artsy and liberal than towns and villages. So OP, do you have an idea of max + minimum size of your perfect settlement? You also mentioned access to countryside, which may mean compromising on access to the arts.

This thread also reminded me of a BBC podcast episode all about Totnes, as a UK centre of conspiracy theories and disinformation. Lots of interviews with locals. A lively listen, and eye opening! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mssl

This thread is four years old - interested to know if you made the move @Newspaper6 and if so, where you ended up?

Not for long...

Sam Collins will get get this on Thursday I reckon.

Anyway, I came here to suggest Hitchin - chilled, artsy town with really friendly people, lots of independent shops, great countryside and very good schools.

Sheffield and Norwich are fab if you want a more city feel. My brother in law lived in York and it was plagued with hens at the weekend.