Over the next week at countrylife.co.uk property writer Arabella Youens will be picking out five of her favourite small cities in the UK. Today, she's started with York – a city whose restaurant scene ensures that no metropolitan exile will miss the culinary delights of their former home.
Although the high streets in many of our smaller cities serve up the predictable chains, York enjoys a thriving independent restaurant scene, with particular favourites including The Star Inn the City and Skosh, near 12th-century Micklegate.
York was named the best place to live in the UK by The Times in 2018 for its combination of heritage and hi-tech (it’s the UK’s first ‘Gigabit City’ — and has ambitions to be one of the best-connected hubs in Europe). There’s also the racecourse, two universities, the Theatre Royal and last year’s launch of York Mediale — a biennale celebration of media arts — which mean there’s always plenty going on.
‘A great deal of the downsizers we see come from the surrounding countryside, as well as those returning to York from a career in London when they retire,’ explains Ben Pridden of Savills. It offers much better value than its southern cousins, with a four-bedroom house in the city starting from £500,000.
This gorgeous four-bedroom home in a row of Georgian townhouses located on a popular street is a great example, for sale via Savills at £720,000.
At £1.15 million, Carter Jonas have a very different home for sale: a five-bedroom home in a new development on the edge of the racecourse, utterly immaculate inside and out:
If that price is a little high Ashtons are selling a home just to the east of the centre for £325,000 which is a classic 1920s semi at a price which will make those relocating from down south rub their eyes in disbelief.
A walk in York: Roman walls, battlements, turrets and the most glorious cathedral façade in Britain
Fiona Reynolds swapped the countryside for the city as she walked York's magnificent city walls.
New York’s highest penthouse for sale at $40m, with views that are truly priceless
This $40 million apartment in one of New York's tallest skyscrapers is literally dizzying.
