York, Leeds, Sheffield or somewhere else?

[Eastender123]

Hi, I’ve reached the point where I am no longer enjoying living in London and would like to move back north closer to family. My family live rurally - I don’t think I could manage that, but I would like to be in a smaller city or could do a village very close to a city. Ideally would like to be somewhere that is left leaning, has a good community vibe and has good secondaries (will be applying next year). We don’t know anyone in these cities - so openness is equally important. Feels a bit daunting to be starting over again in our early 40s. Thanks all.

Penistone to Sheffield is 45 minutes on the train, but it is a lovely market town with good schools.

I’ve also lived in Leeds and Sheffield and would pick Leeds at this point in time too, despite loving Sheffield.

Harrogate is nice town with good schools. Traffic is heavy in some areas.

Your budget would put you in a good position for any of those cities. Sheffield and York both have a left leaning side to them while as Leeds is more conventional I would say. All well placed for trains back to London, Leeds and Sheffield better connected to motorway network than York (although not bad) and Manchester airport an hour from Leeds and Sheffield, Leeds also has its own airport.

Leeds is a large, dispersed city, made up of lots of small towns with their own identities and the city centre is focussed on a shopping and commercial experience, while as York and Sheffield feel like they have developed cultural assets in their town centers. East and South Leeds have a more industrial heritage and are further to drive to access the Yorkshire Dales.

Schools are so varied you would need to narrow areas/city down a bit before people can advise, but with your housing budget you will have relative freedom to choose areas with good state schools.

Have you considered Harrogate? Small city, trains and beautiful countryside on your doorstep, more middle class and conservative than the other cities though.

I'd look around Newcastle too, you could get something really nice with that budget and probably have cash left over to send the kids to private school if required I think it's got better transport links than Sheffield, it's closer to the coast and drier too.

With that budget, you’d get a small mansion in Sheffield, even in the more expensive west side of the city. It has so many advantages over York. You have amazing countryside on your doorstep, it’s very friendly and Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and York are a short train ride away. London 2 to 2.5 hours which makes it doable in a day.

Just thought, there was this that I found of interest:
Inside the new £2,500,000,000 Leeds tram system with airport connection | News UK | Metro News

I am not sure how definite it is (aka I would be rather surprised if this actually happened), and if it did, longer-term it could have advantages for some areas surrounding Leeds - but my first reaction was that the pain of construction and effect on the traffic flow, which is already under huge strain, would be real for a long time before the benefits.

Harrogate is a town not a city. It does have good schools, trains to Leeds and London, and the bus service is good. Traffic can be a nightmare though. Again, you should get a nice place for your budget.

It is not left leaning though. Went from Tory to Lib Dem in the last election but it wouldn’t surprise me if Reform gets in next time.

Wonderful countryside nearby, with beautiful gardens in the town centre and at Harlow Carr.

Ive lived in Leeds, Harrogate and York. I wouldnt live in York again.

Chapel Allerton in Leeds. It’s a lefty leaning area with bars, restaurants, cafes, good schools etc etc etc. We love it anyway.

Chapel Allerton is lovely!!

York is beautiful. Historic. And yes, has lots of tourists. But there is a reason why. It is also 'north' and there is a thing about living within the walls or outside of the walls. In is considered proper York.
Leeds is also a large student city. But large. Not my favourite place at all.
Sheffield is smaller. Students tend to congregate to once end of the city. Plenty of suburbs. Shopping okay. Do learn to become a goat. Very hilly.
Sheffield say they are northerners but really are smack bang in the centre of the country so going anywhere from Sheffield is relatively easy.

Leeds is a hard place. Hard people, not particularly friendly or kind. The focus of the culture is very firmly money and commerce focused, not so much conservation (although due to little bombing in the war has some great buildings in the centre) . Sheffield is much warmer and if you want left wing they don’t call it the Peoples Republic of South Yorkshire for nothing! Both have access to great countryside.
York is much less diverse than either and if you have the budget you do you can live in a gorgeous middle class liberal enclave and your children will go to solidly high achieving schools.
It all depends what you like. If you are really crunchy you could consider the Calder Valley ( Hebden etc) but out of the 3 I would go with Sheffield south west.

As you can tell by my username I live in York (inside the walls). It’s a fab small city with some excellent secondary schools both state and private. Very very safe, easy to get around and you’ve got the North Yorkshire Moors, Yorkshire dales and some cracking places on the east coast within 30-70 mins drive. Brilliant train connection to London too, under 2 hours on generally reliable trains. The ring road isn’t great but it depends on where you work or need to get to every day of course! The city is well served with ultra fast fibre too.

sure, there are lots of tourists but it’s not unbearable and if you’re local you can enjoy the city all to yourself first thing in the morning even in the middle of summer. in the evening whilst there are bars and areas frequented by groups (stags and hens seem to have calmed down a bit in recent years) a good bit of the city around the Minster area remains civilised. Race weekends are busy but there’s a handful of those a year. There are 2 cinemas and 2 large theatres in town with a good variety of shows, plus some small theatre / performance venues, some incredible restaurants and plenty of pubs, independent shops, cafes and bakeries. You can live centrally and walk to all this if that’s something that appeals. There are supermarkets around the town or out at the retail parks which are within easy reach.

I’ve also lived in Sheffield, which I think is a tremendous city which has a very vibrant feel and which has done loads to regenerate.

We visit Leeds for more varied shopping and theatre sometimes and I’m not a fan, it’s badly laid out with an appallingly confusing road system. But I don’t know more about it as a place to live.

As with all such cities, there are opportunities to live in smaller and larger and nearer and more remote villages all around each - so it probably does need you to think about which city you prefer for yourself and take into account schools, commuting distances, and what else you want to be near when heading away from the city rather than decide on a random village somewhere and hope you like the nearest urban centre.

@ChevyCamaroim sorry but you’ve just written off a whole city saying we are not friendly. That really is quite deranged!

@ChevyCamaroI agree, Leeds is very money and shopping focussed. Sheffield is much friendlier and has a rich and unusual social history. York is awful, full of tourists and very hard to get around due to bad traffic.

I prefer Leeds to Sheffield

I also live in central York though not inside the walls but 15 min walk to town. Agree with everything that the previous poster said.
i love living here, yes there are tourists but that actually gives the town a nice buzz and means you have more nice restaurants/bars/theatres etc than usual for somewhere of the same size. Even on a race day you just avoid the very busy bars. I actually love going to the races, fab afternoon out that doesn’t have to involve getting slaughtered. We just go if we happen to be free and the weather is nice so v chilled.
there are some v good schools and also a good FE college for alternative sixth form options.
i moved here over 20 years ago and love it.
i defo wouldn’t want to live on the outskirts or a surrounding village, i love have everything walking/cycling distance.

I’ve been in South Yorkshire for a long time, and I’d definitely consider the South West of Sheffield. The Peak district is on the doorstep, great local shops, beautiful houses. The Hallam constituency, perhaps surprisingly, is one of the most affluent outside London.

Fulwood and Dore are old villages that have become part of Sheffield suburbs.

They are both on the edge of the country. Fulwood is 2 mins away( you can walk) and Dore is on edge of Peaks.

There were no Raise the flags flags in Fulwood. Apart from one. Virtually none in SW Sheffield. In fact it’s a place of massive houses with vote Labour signs outside ( or Green- they are really popular in Sheffield)

Traffic in most of Harrogate is a disaster...

I don’t understand what you mean about Leeds being money focussed?

@ChevyCamaroI moved to Leeds and the people I work with and live near couldn’t be friendlier!

I live in Penistone and have children attending the Grammar School.

I really love it here. I originally come from the South. Penistone is semi-rural but shops, doctors etc close to hand. Excellent walking, running, cycling round here. Grammar School is strict but good.

You would get a lot of house for that budget round here!

Harrogate traffic is very bad. There are 5 state secondaries including two faith schools. Catchment areas are complicated with town and rural catchments. House prices near the best ones are ££££.

There is also a lot of housing planned in west Harrogate with the services as yet and will impact on the traffic situation further.

The wharfedale line serves a number of large villages and there are a lot new houses going up in this area as well but good secondary options. Plenty of green space and access to the dales. Train is about 20 minutes to Leeds and much faster than driving!

I live in Leeds and it's a fantastic city. Comments about it being all about shopping and money don't reflect my experience at all, but then I don't go into the city centre much.

Your budget would get you a fabulous house in north Leeds in a leafy, buzzing, community focused, well connected suburb. It's an incredibly family friendly city with loads to do and on the doorstep of beautiful countryside. I would genuinely never want to live anywhere else ( and I have lived elsewhere including London).