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.

Sheffield is more than the city centre which, I'll grant you, has a large student population. Look at the surrounding satellites, too. It's very easy to travel around.

Is Ilkley left leaning? I drove through there today and it did look lovely but not very lefty! Bettys Tea room and large, expensive cars!

Yes! He’ll love it xx

'The Northern Clemency' really captures the feel of Broomhill/Fulwood/Ranmoor/Crosspool/Sandygate. The school it features is Tapton, I believe. It's a shame that Philip Hensher is rumoured to despise Sheffield after his brief time living there.

Correction

It’s Broomhill not Ranmoor. I’ve just checked. Although Broomhill does run into Ranmoor. I also thought it was about Broomhall. The bits around Colleigate. Even Al says it’s Broomhill.

Fulwood and Ranmoor are delightful, but most of Sheffield is okay. Close enough to the city, but not on top of it. Which is the reason they are the most expensive postcodes. With the best schools. I loved Sheffield in 1985, my sister was married there, and while it has been in the doldrums for 20 years, my friend's hipster daughter who is a lecturer in art and textiles is in the process of moving there. Kelham Island is already unaffordable, because it's too trendy. Sheffield is in the frame. I'd be surprised if it's not the Sunday Times Best City in 2026 or 2027.

We didn’t look at Fulwood but Ranmoor felt very suburban to me. It felt like the kind of place you’d end up using your car a lot and we specially wanted to avoid that so ended up just off collegiate crescent in broomhall, although I appreciate it’s not for everyone.

It’s beautiful round there. Very collegiate! The Botanical Gardwns and Endcliffe Park💕

Yeah, feels like such a find… so leafy and yet so central. we waited 18 months to find something because there are so few houses that we were interested in.

My parents are moving to Selby, meant to be nice

Have you taken your dc to Forge Dam yet? And Wiremill?

@schoolfriend , it was a 30 second walk to the bus stop so getting the car out rarely happened.

I grew up in Sheffield and would move back in a heartbeat if my husband would agree!

Beautiful place to live and agree with previous posters that it is left leaning. I grew up in Lodge Moor / Fulwood, which are very close to the Peak District and easy to get into the centre.

So many nice residential areas in S10 and S11 and great schools too.

If you are planning a visit to scout it out, would recommend a trip down Sharrowvale Road and then a walk around the botanical gardens.

We are in SE London and have looked at each of these cities for a potential move and Sheffield won out. We stayed in Leeds for a weeks to check it out and it didn't really gel; Sheffield we got on well with - particularly the proximity to the peak district and some of the lovely parks. The vibe is far more akin to the more hipster and diverse areas of London. That said, we haven't moved yet..

Re flags in York, yes there were loads, but mainly driven by a tiny minority, and a particularly active local twat wanting to make a name for himself. Not representative of the city, IMHO. And the crowd at the outlet are of a particular sort!

Having said that, I’ve found it quite hard to make friends as there isn’t that ‘melting pot’ feel you get in London. People have their friends and family and aren’t all that interested in anyone new. The ‘friendly northerner’ stereotype doesn’t really hold true.

I was wrong and amended my post so it says Broomhill. Sorry fir being a pain in the ar*e 🙃 Maybe my wires are crossed as Ranmoor is still nagging at me - Pevesnercznd St John's Ranmoor possibly.

Sheffield is considered to be the greenest city in the UK. Even outside the most affluent areas the parks are great, with lots of ‘friends of’ volunteer groups.

I said that on my first reply - Ilkley ticks all boxes except left leaning.
It’s a bit mixed politically. The constituency flips flops Labour/Conservative and local council often has a decent Green (traditional Green focused on environmental issues!) showing.
But I think the OP is after multi-cultural coming from East London rather than labour voting which Ilkley certainly isn’t. On the edge of Bradford though. And I suspect still worth a look.

I'm from York, have lived in Leeds over 30 years and have lots of relatives in Sheffield. I've also lived in Singapore so used to big city living.

Leeds is a decent sized city so it makes sense that you get a mix of opinions. The city center is pretty commercial. It's one of the largest legal and financial centers outside of London. It's also got loads of civil servants (Department for Health and NHS England (the ICT part). As a consequence there's a reasonable amount of money around and those people are well served by the city center shops.

But that's just the center. As you go out of town each area has a slightly different vibe. Generally the 'nicer' areas are in the North, so Horsforth, Chapel Allerton, (far) Headingley, Alwoodley etc. Being a city it's a good mix though. It has areas that you just don't find in the same way as in York or Sheffield. For example Chapeltown holds the longest running West Indian carnival after London. There are loads of fantastic small restaurants in nearby Harehills serving food from all over the world (Persian, Ethiopian, Polish, Korean etc etc). There's just less choice in Sheffield and much less in York.

I like the mix of areas and people in Leeds plus the fact that it's close to beautiful countryside.

York is a bit too flat and Sheffield is a bit too hilly.

What are your priorities for the move?

I've lived in lots of places and York is my favourite. It's really vibrant and friendly. Lots of left leaning attitude and everything is walkable. Ignore the too many tourists/ stag do comments because York residents know how to avoid those areas very quickly.

Leeds and Sheffield are also great. Big city feel - both good and bad

I'd avoid Harrogate and Ilkley. Both are quite dull and very small town in feel and attitude. Not much diversity of shops, bars, restaurants and attitude.

Couldn’t disagree with you more.

The tourists and race goers are ,of course, not an all day every day problem but they DO impact on local life. You have to give consideration to how busy the city is at the peak times such as now.

I live in Harrogate. It’s not dull at all and I really cant see how you can gauge an entire towns “attitude”.

This might help. Mostly seen these in the flesh in York
My favourite is Whitby.

Rubbish Seaside Archives - Loudribs.com

(PS: lighthearted...lighthearted...)

Thanks for this. In terms of priorities:

1. Being closer to family - all of the above places tick this box

2. Schooling - state but could do private at a stretch (and it would be a big one!)

3. More space - we live in a small terrace and have outgrown it

4. Green space

5. Community - we will be starting from scratch and would like to be somewhere where people are open to making new friendships

Nice restaurants and shops a bonus, but not a deal breaker.

We live in Rawdon (NW Leeds). Absolutely love where I live but if budget wasn’t an issue we’d move to Horsforth, which is only a short drive from us. 10 mins to the airport, great secondary school, tonnes of amazing restaurants and community events. Rawdon has all of that, but Horsforth has more and is that 10 mins closer to town. Horsforth train station also has the London train go through. I wouldn’t say NW Leeds is teaming with diversity, but you go into Leeds for the day and you know you’re in a proper city. Love Roundhay too, but that feels more like a city suburb, whereas our neck has more community village feel.

I used to live near you. Is the Emmott Arms still there?