Looking to move to a town with a beautiful railway station

[kcsporthope]

Would prefer smaller towns, but looking at buying property in the uk (currently live in Canada) and eventually retire there. Would prefer to live in a town that has a railway station, and would also accept “most interesting station”

 

[The exile]

Wemyss Bay, Stirling, Great Malvern, Knaresborough for starters if “interesting” as well as “beautiful” refers to architecture. If interesting refers to railway operations, it’d be a very different set.

 

[Zomboid]

I suppose there's the usual olde worlde places, like Hebden Bridge and Leamington Spa as well.

I personally really like the architecture of the 60s modernisations at Coventry and Stafford (less so Wolverhampton for some reason). The modern style of Reading has a lot of merit IMO, and Bournemouth is a great place to wait for a train.

 

[AndrewE]

I suppose there's the usual olde worlde places, like Hebden Bridge and Leamington Spa as well.

I personally really like the architecture of the 60s modernisations at Coventry and Stafford (less so Wolverhampton for some reason). The modern style of Reading has a lot of merit IMO, and Bournemouth is a great place to wait for a train.

I was taking non-heritage to apply to the station rather than the railway, so Coventry sprang into my mind too. Given how little of my retirement life is spent at any station (apart from when actually waiting for a train) I would chose the place to live within easy reach of a station with a good range of services/routes and not worry too much about he architecture.

However Stafford does seem to attract a crowd of blokes who watch the trains, I don't think they are there for the architecture...

 

[kevconnor]

If by non-heritage you mean modern, possibly post-war, (as opposed to my initial reading as not on a heritage line) then architecturally my vote would be Manchester Oxford Rd.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Beverley, north of Hull. Nice town, nice station, good service for a place of its size.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Anyone for Grange-over-Sands, on the Furness line, between Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness? Nice station, scenic setting!

 

[ENC Rail]

Ribblehead!

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I was quite taken by Okehampton on my first visit there last autumn, though whether it's classed as non-heritage is debatable. Stamford station is lovely too, albeit with no facilities since the station bookshop moved out many years ago.

 

[gg1]

If we are taking non-heritage to mean vaguely modern, I've always been quite fond of the 1950s designed Banbury station.

 

[DarloRich]

you are just going to get a list of nice stations people like!

Frankly I would choose a nice area then worry about the station. That or stay in Canada because it looks a better prospect than this country at the present time!

That or move to York.

( I would say Darlington as that has a great station. Town is a bit on its uppers sadly)

 

[birchesgreen]

Great Malvern is one to consider. Nice station, nice area to live (as long as you don't mind hills) and a regular railway service to the country's two biggest cities.

 

[Sealink]

I love Kings Cross. The new section is suitably grand and in the traditional building in particular, I love (what I think is) the clever way the overhead lines are not really obvious when looking down the shed.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Jun 2025 ==

Anyone for Grange-over-Sands, on the Furness line, between Lancaster and Barrow-in-Furness? Nice station, scenic setting!

While checking that out I just saw the very quaint Kents Bank station, just one stop away!

 

[milooo]

Settle

 

[zwk500]

For a small town (but probably demanding eye-watering house prices), Lewes in Sussex has a very impressive and largely still original station. It's also got bits of interest with a couple of former platforms still visible, now infilled. I think the former signalbox also survives, although for how long I don't know.
Operationally wise it's slightly less interesting, although there is a freight flow from Newhaven that passes through.

 

[duffield]

Assuming by "non heritage railway station" you mean "not on a heritage railway" rather than "not a heritage station":

Nottingham station has a lot to recommend it as a smaller city example. Beautiful recently restored bridge level main building incorporating the now enclosed former porte cochère, ticket office and transfer bridge, high ceilings, many original decorative features, track level buildings mostly intact, in a mostly traffic free setting, listed of course.

 

[AndrewE]

For a small town (but probably demanding eye-watering house prices), Lewes in Sussex has a very impressive and largely still original station. It's also got bits of interest with a couple of former platforms still visible, now infilled. I think the former signalbox also survives, although for how long I don't know.
Operationally wise it's slightly less interesting, although there is a freight flow from Newhaven that passes through.

For an attractive station and a smallish town (or attractive satellites) what about Carlisle? Like Stafford it has several TOCs, probably more, and freight through the station too.
I do like living near a station with direct trains to lots of places worth going to...

 

[scotrail158713]

Has to be Wemyss Bay for me

 

[6Gman]

I suppose there's the usual olde worlde places, like Hebden Bridge and Leamington Spa as well.

I personally really like the architecture of the 60s modernisations at Coventry and Stafford (less so Wolverhampton for some reason). The modern style of Reading has a lot of merit IMO, and Bournemouth is a great place to wait for a train.

Coventry was stylish, Stafford a smaller version, Wolverhampton the same concept but squeezed awkwardly which resulted in a bit of a mess.

 

[NorthOxonian]

If you'd accept stations not on the national network (but extremely pretty and on a very frequent urban metro system) then I would suggest Whitley Bay or Tynemouth - both are also fantastic towns and while they're not cheap by regional standards, they'd still be cheaper than the national average. Both have small town feels despite coming under a "metropolitan" borough.

 

[Mat17]

I'll second Nottingham, it has a wonderful architecture, one could easily imagine a steam train pulling in. Nottingham itself though, I'm not keen on.

Lincoln station is quaint.

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Some very nice well-restored ex-GWR stations in the West Country. If you want a very nice place to live too, I recommend Bradford-on-Avon.

 

[andythebrave]

Ribblehead!

Agreed, but good luck finding a house for sale anywhere nearby.

 

[Zomboid]

Coventry was stylish, Stafford a smaller version, Wolverhampton the same concept but squeezed awkwardly which resulted in a bit of a mess.

The recent platform and bridge make Wolverhampton a bit of a mess, too.

Coventry's addition doesn't exactly improve the aesthetics, but it doesn't particularly detract either.

 

[Pete_uk]

Kemble is quite nice

 

[thejuggler]

As I assume whole UK is being considered this could end up being a very long list!

In my area agree with Knaresborough. Settle has been mentioned, for slightly more life back down the line to Skipton, or for an 'in between' a friend lives in Gargrave which is handy for Skipton. He travels a lot by rail so access to Leeds, but prefers rural living.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Pewsey is a delightful place. The station is a typical country station. There are plenty of stone and passenger trains passing through. There area itself is very nice with some excellent pubs. The Kennet & Avon canal is nearby to. I have friends who live there and its always a pleasure to visit.

Pewsey - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[4COR]

Another vote for Kings Cross, and the old trainshed at St Pancras (though Eurostar occupied).

Smaller, somewhere like Hever or Cowden are nice and quite typical in style of the stations built by the LBSCR in that part of the world.

 

[Russel]

Filey?

Small but interesting trainshed, hourly train service, lovely seaside town, very slow pace of life.

 

[AndrewE]

Another vote for Kings Cross, and the old trainshed at St Pancras (though Eurostar occupied).

Maybe, but would you want to live close by? Ditto Manchester Oxford Road...

Smaller, somewhere like Hever or Cowden are nice and quite typical in style of the stations built by the LBSCR in that part of the world.

My perspective is from a totally different part of the country. I fancy visiting the deep south again sometime soon as there are quite a few things I would like to do there, but do I like being within easy reach of places like Liverpool, Brum, the Lake District and the Pennines, even Manchester! Easy access via the WCML to Glasgow and Edinburgh is worth having too.

Maybe that provides a suggestion of somewhere within easy reach of Preston... (which also has freight through the station, multiple TOCs and nice/interesting cities easily accessible by direct trains.)