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!

The fact that apart from York HB is the only place in the North ever mentioned says a lot. It's fast becoming a cliche.

Not sure cliche is the word, it's been an arty place since the 60's, perhaps well established would be more apt, and say the end of the day is the experience of living there 'arty' or not... The fact it gets suggested a lot to these types of questions doesn't really change that.

Two off hand - Forest Row (Sussex) and Totnes (Devon). Brighton is OK in places but full of stag/hen parties and outside of the tourist bits is quite run down.

Hebden Bridge, if you want the North.😉(I'm close, but not very close)

I like visiting HB for the restaurants and charity shops (always find great stuff) but it's a small place and would get bored quickly I think if I lived there.

What about moving to a suburb of London? @sellotape12 your post about always circling back to London resonated with me. I do think the air quality in London is going to.improve in the next few years due to electric vehicles so might just be a case of waiting it out. Or moving a bit further out but still within easy reach of London.

Ouseburn in Newcastle would suit you as would Tynemouth on the NE coast.
We used to have family in Hebden Bridge and I love it but haven't been for about 6 years so can't comment on what it's like now.