
Shaking things up for 2024, The Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide has revealed that one Greater Manchester town is a cut above the rest in the North West… and it’s not Altrincham. Move over, Ancoats (which was the ‘best place to live in Manchester’ last year), for it is the town of Stockport that has officially been named the ‘best place to live in the North West’.
Named one of the best up and coming areas by the newspaper back in 2022, Stockport has gone from strength to strength due to the development work being carried out and its community spirit. With a new interchange featuring a rooftop park, neighbourhoods Stockport 8 and Weir Mill located by the historical and iconic viaduct coming soon, as well as being home to an array of independents and brimming events calendar including Foodie Friday, the south Manchester town seems like the place to be.
“The town in Greater Manchester is in the throes of a mighty metamorphosis that’s turning it into one of the most exciting towns around. The conversion of the vast Weir Mill into a new neighbourhood is well underway,” The Times analysis of the area begins. “The new Interchange project will link buses and trains around a new park while the historic streets around the Market Hall and the Underbanks are filling up with a joyous collection of funky independent businesses. It’s functional and family-friendly, too, with unbeatable rail connections, parks, sports clubs and good-value houses up and down the property ladder.”
The chosen locations in The Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide come in all shapes and sizes, from the tiny Scottish island of Kerrera and the remote Welsh village of Presteigne to big, lively cities such as Belfast and Leeds. Six other locations in the North West also featured in the comprehensive guide alongside Stockport such as the Cheshire village of Christleton, Kendal in Cumbria, Lancashire’s Ribble Valley, Sefton Park in Liverpool and Knutsford in Cheshire.
However, one other Greater Manchester town featured in this year’s guide and has put a spotlight on the north of Manchester. Prestwich, which is set to undergo regeneration plans where the Longfield Centre is situated, is according to The Sunday Times “where you come if you want to enjoy Manchester’s buzz and have an affordable redbrick house with a garden”. The newspaper highlighted Prestwich’s “lively restaurant scene” which features independents like Dokes Pizzeria, The Pearl and OSMA, as well as recognising the area’s choice of parks, events and tram links to the city centre.
Previous winners of the Best Places to Live in Britain title are: Stamford, Lincolnshire (2013); Skipton, North Yorkshire (2014); Newnham, Cambridge (2015); Winchester, Hampshire (2016); Bristol (2017), York (2018), Salisbury, Wiltshire (2019), Altrincham, Cheshire (2020) Stroud, Gloucestershire (2021), Ilkley, West Yorkshire (2022) and Wadhurst, East Sussex (2023).