Salisbury has been named the best place to live in the UK, just one year after the city was struck by a novichok poisoning attack. The Wiltshire city was thrust into the spotlight when former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned by the nerve agent in March 2018, with another woman – Dawn Sturgess – later dying after coming into contact with a discarded perfume bottle thought to have been used in the attack.
While the cleanup operation continues in parts of the city, the Sunday Times said Salisbury’s "real collective spirit" helped to earn its top spot in its poll of the best places to live in the UK. Commenting on the results, Sunday Times home editor Helen Davies said: "It remains a divinely attractive and welcoming place. It’s handy for coast, countryside and London, and has some of the best schools in the southwest, a great market and it’s very strong culturally too."
Salisbury has been named the best place to live in the UK
As well as crowning the city the UK’s overall best place to live, the newspaper has given a regional breakdown of top locations, with Isle of Dogs taking the honour for London, praised for its reasonable living prices for its zone 2 location. Meanwhile, Dundee takes the crown for Scotland – with the city’s new V&A museum, officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, sealing its status as a cool and creative place to live. See the top places to live in the UK by region below – does your hometown make the cut?
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Dundee has been crowned Scotland's best place to live
The best places to live in the UK for 2019
- The East: Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk
- London: Isle of Dogs
- Midlands: Edale, Derbyshire
- North and Northeast: York, Yorkshire
- Northern Ireland: Holywood, Co Down
- Northwest: Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
- Scotland: Dundee
- Southeast: Petworth, West Sussex
- Southwest: Topsham, Devon
- Wales: Crickhowell, Powys
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