Southport has today been named in the Sunday Times as one of the Best Places to Live in the UK 2020.
The newspaper praised our town for having “a splash of glamour and a whole lot of fun”, with “beach life back in this classy seaside town”.
The title highlights Lord Street for offering “pioneering proof that there’s more to a successful high street than shopping” and also recognised our resort’s “swaggering selection of fancy restaurants and bars”.
A number of local businesses are featured, including Peets Plaice, Wayfarers Arcade, Silcock’s Funland, Pizza Express, Bliss, Twelve and The Vincent, while schools name-checked include Greenbank High, St Patrick’s, Holy Family, Churchtown, Birkdale High, and Merchant Taylors.
The article says:
Justly proud of its glorious annual flower show, and birthplace of the chef Marcus Wareing, whose dad was a local potato merchant, Southport has always considered itself a cut-glass crystal vase above brash Blackpool, up the coast.
The Venetian Bridge on the front is reminiscent of past glamour; Southport was where 1930s northern holidaymakers fancied themselves as film stars, or retired to if they made a bit of brass. And now the glamour’s back, backed up by excellent secondary schools and a fresh focus on outdoor life and nature: the RSPB has a reserve at Marshside. The 22 miles of sands are magnificent and rarely troubled by high tide, so perfect for kite-flying and dog-walkers. (There are also pooch-free zones.)
True, the town has not quite shaken off its quixotic reputation as a day-trip destination for irrepressible Scousers — Liverpool is only 20 miles away — and as a genteel retirement spot. Arcades? What kind do you want: the hulking great shed of Silcock’s Funland, which dominates the seafront, or the intricate ironwork of Wayfarers Shopping Arcade, on Lord Street? Some say this main shopping “boulevard” has been ruined by charity shops, but perhaps they haven’t quite got over Jaeger closing down in 2018.
Lord Street in Southport.
Photo by Andrew Brown Media
Actually, Lord Street offers pioneering proof that there’s more to a successful high street than shopping. The Atkinson is a — deep breath — theatre, studio, cafe, shop, exhibition space, library and museum in a grand Victorian building bequeathed to the town by William Atkinson, a cotton manufacturer and philanthropist from Knaresborough.
Southport’s architectural inheritance is impressively eclectic — the neoclassical Old Bank is now a Pizza Express, and the 160-year-old pier is one of the oldest surviving iron examples in the UK — and it is benefiting from millions of pounds of investment by Sefton borough council. Fishmonger Kevin “Pete” Peet, 53, is pleased that the town is “still quite olde worlde, with little fishermen’s cottages, old-fashioned pavements, quirky streets, telephone boxes on the corner and coal fires”, but he can spot a trend when he sees one. He’s a club-night DJ at the Bliss Hotel, recently taken over by the company behind Everyman cinemas. He also supplies the hotel’s restaurant with Southport potted shrimp — local brown shrimps cooked in butter and spices — from Peets Plaice, his shop in Churchtown.
The Marine Lake in Southport, with the Marine Way Bridge, Southport Pier, Bliss Hotel and Kings Gardens.
Photo by Andrew Brown Media
Bliss is not the only trendy hangout in town; there’s a swaggering selection of fancy restaurants and bars. At one of the swishest, Twelve on Princess Street, the wagyu tenderloin costs an eye-watering £69.95; and the art deco Vincent boutique hotel serves sushi from £20 a platter. Kevin reckons Southport is set fair to become a full-blown seaside suburb for professionals and families escaping the northwest’s urban sprawl: “The schools are good, there’s so much to do, and it’s just quieter and, dare I say it, safer than living in a city.”
Why we love it
Plenty of fun-loving front, and fewer social problems than many northwest seaside towns.
Connections It’s 45min to Liverpool by car or on a Merseyrail train. Manchester is only 33 miles away, but it takes an hour and a quarter to get there by road or rail. The closest airports are Liverpool John Lennon and Manchester, and there are ferries to Belfast and Dublin from Liverpool.
Broadband
Superfast coverage runs to 99.5%, but ultrafast services are available in only half of properties. One in four homes have access to 500 Mbps cable broadband.
Education
St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School was rated outstanding by Ofsted at its last inspection in 2013, and the town has plenty of good primaries, including the popular Holy Family and Churchtown. There are two outstanding secondaries in Southport, Meols Cop High School (last inspected in 2012) and the girls-only Greenbank High School (2010), which is mentioned in The Sunday Times Parent Power guide. Boys-only Birkdale High School is good. The Merchant Taylors’ single-sex independents are in Crosby, half an hour away by car or train.
Air quality
All that bracing sea air — what do you expect? Pollution levels are low here.
Best address
Anywhere with access to golf and sand dunes commands a premium. In Birkdale, you’re looking at £2m for a mansion on Selworthy Road or Sandringham Road; in Ainsdale, mini mansions on Tudor Road and Dunes Close cost £700,000-£800,000. Churchtown village is quirkier; Henley Drive and Brocklebank Road are popular, with prices running from £300,000 to £400,000.
Caveat emptor
There are a lot of charity shops… but they are smart charity shops.
