Bristol gets nod as best place to live in UK
Bristol has been judged the Sunday Times best place to live in the UK because of its “extraordinary culture, impressive schools, buzzing culinary scene, exciting redevelopment and community spirit.”
20 March 2017Bristol has been judged the best place to live in the UK in a new guide compiled by the Sunday Times.
Ms Davies added, “This is the fifth year we have compiled the list and this year’s is even bigger and better – the guide is more personal, more detailed and more comprehensive than ever before.“The list weighs up everything from considering the likely impact of the local plan, to whether the post office is still open, the range of housing, and the quality of the coffee.“Numbers on a spreadsheet can only tell us so much so we carefully balance statistics with our writers’ decades of knowledge and expertise to create the definitive list of the best places to live in the UK.”
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'A small city that feels like a big city'
Assessing a variety of areas across the country on the basis of such things as culture, property prices, crime rates and education, the West Country's largest urban area was described as “a small city that feels like a big city, handily placed for seaside and scenery, but hardly cut off from the rest of the country”.Bristol is “cool, classy and supremely creative”, said Helen Davies, Sunday Times home editor. She added, “The city is a worthy winner thanks to its ideal combination of extraordinary culture, impressive schools, buzzing culinary scene, exciting redevelopment and community spirit.”Stiff competition
The newspaper said Bristol had beaten off “stiff competition” from London and other major UK destinations, saying the city offered burgeoning job opportunities in “creative, hi-tech and professional” industries. It also found the average Bristol property cost just under £300,000 – about half the price of the London average – while 19 out of 20 of its secondary schools were rated good or better by Ofsted.Marvin Rees, Bristol's mayor said he was “chuffed” with the accolade, adding, “Pinpointing what makes Bristol special isn't easy. It's a combination of many things from the people to the place itself, but at the heart of it is our cultural diversity and independent spirit.”The Sunday Times rated Peckham as the best place to live in London, saying it had been transformed from “a no-go zone to a hipster haven”.Ms Davies added, “This is the fifth year we have compiled the list and this year’s is even bigger and better – the guide is more personal, more detailed and more comprehensive than ever before.“The list weighs up everything from considering the likely impact of the local plan, to whether the post office is still open, the range of housing, and the quality of the coffee.“Numbers on a spreadsheet can only tell us so much so we carefully balance statistics with our writers’ decades of knowledge and expertise to create the definitive list of the best places to live in the UK.”
Regional winners:
- East: Woodbridge in Suffolk
- London: Peckham
- Midlands: Shipston-on-Stour in Warwickshire
- North and North East: Newcastle Quayside in Tyne and Wear
- Northern Ireland: Ballycastle in County Antrim
- North West: Knutsford in Cheshire
- Scotland: North Berwick
- South East: Wadhurst in East Sussex
- South West: Frome in Somerset
- Wales: Cowbridge
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