If you left London and you liked living somewhere arty…

[Longdrive89]

… Where did you go? I am starting to feel very restless and London is making me cynical!

We’re going to check out Stroud and surrounds this weekend hopefully.

Where else should we look?

We both have very in demand jobs (healthcare / education type things) and have that freedom. We’re also considering abroad because of this!

I was being somewhat tongue in cheek!

Frome
Brighton
liverpool
Edinburgh

I’ve lived in 3 out of 4 of these arty spots. Yes Margate, Hastings have some nice houses and allege to be up and coming but they are still not places I would live at all.

Just adding that Norwich is lovely and would have been on my list if I had known at the time I was moving. Not very diverse though.

glasgow also really nice and lots going on.

lots of of Londoners are moving to Hastings but I have no idea why. And I think they don’t either. But when I moved to brighton 20 years ago my london friends thought I was bonkers then so…

Hebden Bridge

DD is thoroughly enjoying being at art school in Cambridge (which has some great museums, architecture, and green spaces), but realises that she won't be able to afford living there afterwards!

Any thoughts on Buckinghamshire?
Great scenery and schools. Not sure about trains if commuting into London.

Totnes, Rye, Hebden Bridge.

Now that's a good call.. DS lives in Farsley. That's lovely to

Which did you prefer?

Where did you decide on this issue OP?
i’ve started having dreams about moving outside of London. The pollution, the filth on the streets, the fact that we can’t move house to anywhere bigger – it’s really getting to me. (We lost out on a couple of great houses in winter and cannot get back into anything affordable now which is just madness.) but I also worry about leaving a community of like-minded people. And I want DS to grow up somewhere where he never feels bored once he gets to his teens. I grew up in a bit of a boring tier 3 city/town and apart from the multiplex cinema, there was nothing to do. That is why I love London. You’ll always be able to just hop on a bus or a tube and be electrified with it all.

But then I also want DS to appreciate nature and be able to play on a street that isn’t the local dealer hotspot and Deliveroo rat run. And whenever we take a trip out of London, the better air quality it is so palpable.

When I read all these replies with interest, it doesn’t seem like there’s any good Goldilocks ‘just right’ solution in the UK. There are lots of commonalities but people have rightly interrogated these choices from different angles. Brighton is super left-wing and a bit crowded. Edinburgh is awesome on paper but too cold. Hebden Bridge is kooky, but actually very small and floods every two years. Lewes is pretty, but has too much of an ageing population to be a sustainable community. Chorlton sounds like it fits your bill but gosh, Manchester is always raining.

It’s hard to delineate between picture-postcard idealism, and the very real human need that you need people around you that have somewhat similar views, are at a similar life stage, and you can make friendships with. Hence why I personally always come back to “why don’t we just stay here in London” even though I definitely have a complex relationship with it.

would love to know how you got on!

@sellotape12

Your post really resonated. We have a four year old and another on the way live in a flat in a part of London we love but no way of affording a house where we are or anywhere as nice. I really crave cleaner air and cleaner streets plus schools is a big factor. Primaries are fine where we are but secondaries not so much. We have friends in Margate and Hastings and I do really like visiting them there but can't see us living there as a family.

Frome

I don’t see Frome and this part of Somerset as arty, more yuppy and wealthy. Like Bruton.

Brighton, without a doubt.

You sound so liberal and open minded

Folkestone is ok in the summer with plenty going on on the Harbour Arm and the beach but it is as dead as a dodo in the winter. Cold winds off the channel, very, very small town centre and Conservative politics. Fine if that is your thing, of course, but the art scene is very small.

I always wonder in these threads what sort of "arty" people mean.

Outside London and maybe Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow, "arty" places seem to be more boho/crafty.

Nothing wrong with that but it's not my taste.

Are there any smaller towns that have conceptual / digital art scenes?

We are exactly the same. London isn’t perfect but there’s so much I love about it & would miss if we moved. Have definitely considered moving out in the past but end up circling back to London again.

Just to address the anti-vax re comment re Stroud, this was on a Stroud Facebook post earlier this week

“A paper called "The Light" is distributed locally as well as nationally, and seems to appeals to some as it offers 'alternative' positions around legitimate areas of discussion with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic and responses to it. Personally, I feel the positions on the pandemic in the paper are often deliberately contrarian, conspiratorial, or misleading, but of more concern to me is the way the paper also regularly points to the far right. You can read more about this in an article from Community Solidarity Stroud District - see the post below and another link to the article in the comments. Let me know what you think! https://www.facebook.com/CommunitySolidarityStroudDistrict/posts/pfbid0wEYT4jVRqWSqFhqP1aqk7XxtxZhuCSscthpRs7ko6Puwpy3mjGFRQRHHLUqzNR86l”

I agree with much said about Margate but it has some brilliant restaurants @MetaDaughter @RosesAndHellebores including Bottega Caruso which is outstanding, & few others mentioned on this thread. It is definitely worth an overnight visit & a trip to The Turner. Tracey Emin has moved back there so more art to come. I absolutely would not live there though.

Whitstable was great 10 years ago but it's way, way over-touristy now. Can't move on the narrow streets for idiotic people gormlessly standing there/drunken groups shouting. High street decimated during Covid; now there's thousands of ice cream shops & places selling tourist tut. There's only two good restaurants and they're both tiny. Almost every house near to the beach or in the conservation area is a second home or holiday let which has completely destroyed the community, and house prices are stupid money. The art scene is shite apart from the brilliant PEG (Profanity Embroidery Group). I really would love to move to almost anywhere else mentioned in this thread.

@LittleBrownJug Tracey Emin does not enthral me in the slightest. I'll look up the restaurant and may take my mother next time I visit.

Personally haven’t read the light but have heard of it.
Terms like “anti-vaxxer” and “conspiracy theorist” are used too flippantly. Black and white, divisive terminology for anyone who may question the mainstream in any way. It’s unhelpful and shows lack of compassion or understanding.

Hebden Bridge has all you are seeking... Further north so depends how you feel about that, if Edinburgh feels like a stretch. But then you're also considering abroad so....

I thought Hebden Bridge too

havent been there for years, but it was a unique place.

I hope it hasn’t become like all the town centres where you could be anywhere.

i know it's been mentioned/plugged in the thread a fair bit but in my experience HB has for quite some time been so arty/alternative it's profoundly irritating/up itself. Last time I was there I fled quickly for Todmorden just up the road.
Now preferable in my opinion - you can always get the bus to Hebden if you feel like a quick crystal injection.
I think this is still running in Tod.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/09/incredible-edible-yorkshire-towns-food-growing-scheme-takes-root-worldwide
It also has a very decent spoons, handy for the station.