THE leafy Birmingham suburb that was a childhood haunt of JRR Tolkien has been named the best place to live in Britain’s cities.
Moseley, which still attracts literary fans who want to see the landscape that inspired the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was described by Tolkien as a “lost paradise”.
With its combination of a vibrant cultural scene, lively bars and restaurants and good-value housing, it has now come top of the urban list in The Sunday Times Best Places to Live in Britain guide for 2015.
The south Birmingham suburb is also the birthplace of Nick Rhodes, a member of the pop group Duran Duran. It developed around the Victorian shopping area of Moseley Village and still offers retail therapy from a range of independent shops.
An acclaimed farmers’ market is held once a month and a cosmopolitan mix of residents live in the red-brick Victorian terraces and arts and crafts homes.
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The average property price is about £240,000 with detached houses selling for around £450,000. According to the property website Zoopla, prices have risen by almost 6% in the past year.
Tim Campbell-Gunn, 34, who moved to Moseley from Birmingham city centre seven years ago and works at the Village cafe and restaurant, said: “I wanted to be able to see trees again and Moseley has everything in one place: good bars and pubs and food and flea markets.
“It’s a little oasis with a great sense of community, but isn’t exclusionist — it’s not as if everyone is a middle-class Land Rover driver.”
As well as Cannon Hill Park, a 215-acre expanse that includes lakes and formal gardens, Moseley has good state primary and secondary schools.
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Tolkien, born in 1892, lived in the area as a boy and later used local landmarks to inform his work. The former hamlet of Sarehole was the model for the Shire, the home of Bilbo Baggins, and the hobbits were partly modelled on the people he knew there.
“It was a kind of lost paradise,” Tolkien said in one newspaper interview. “There was an old mill that really did grind corn with two millers, a great big pond with swans on it, a sandpit, a wonderful dell with flowers, a few old-fashioned village houses and, further away, a stream with another mill.”
Meanwhile, Salford Quays in Greater Manchester emerged as the best urban place to live for fans of culture. It boasts the Lowry theatres and gallery and the Imperial War Museum North as well as an array of shops and restaurants.
Other northwest England cities including Chester, Liverpool and Leeds also feature in the top 50 list.
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The best place for the retired is Bath in Somerset, and Edinburgh is named the top location for families. The Marylebone district of central London, where average house prices are more than £1.2m, is the best urban environment for high-flyers.
The month-long series, which saw Chagford in Devon crowned best rural place to live last week, continues next weekend with The Sunday Times’s pick of the overall best place to live in Britain.