{"id":847802,"date":"2026-03-24T20:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/847802\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T20:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T20:11:17","slug":"just-2-hours-from-london-englands-oldest-borough-is-a-stunning-town-thats-been-named-among-the-best-places-to-live-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/847802\/","title":{"rendered":"Just 2 hours from London: England’s oldest borough is a stunning town that’s been named among the best places to live in the UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Piaffe Photography, Shutterstock\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\u00a0\u2013\u00a0
\n\t\t\t\tStaff Writer\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0
\n\t\t\t24 March, 2026<\/p>\n

The Times have just revealed a roll call of the most ravishing places to reside in the UK <\/strong>in the form of their annual (and highly anticipated) \u2018best places to live\u2019 guide. And whilst I obviously believe that London <\/strong>reigns supreme as the best of the bunch; a fair few other spots across the UK earnt themselves a comfy spot on the coveted list. One of which is a quaint, quiet, and ever-so quintessential market town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Malmesbury, Wiltshire<\/p>\n

Malmesbury is a gasp-inducingly gorgeous town with a rather fascinating backstory, and was named the best place to live in south-west England<\/strong> in The Times\u2019s recent report<\/a>. It boasts the title of the oldest borough in England, and its main character energy doesn\u2019t stop there. The small-but-mighty spot was hailed one of the first capitals of the UK <\/a>by King Athelstan (the very first King of England<\/strong>) who is, in fact, buried in the ancient town. Malmesbury became a key battle ground during the English Civil War (and still has some of the battle scars to show for it) but has well-and-truly survived to tell the tale. <\/p>\n

\"aCredit: Peter Titmuss, Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Nowadays, Malmesbury is a beautiful bustling town, filled to the brim with thriving local businesses, charming cobbled lanes, ancient buildings, and some pretty sensational views. Its magnificent Norman Abbey<\/strong> stands as the town\u2019s centrepiece (and the home to the tomb of King Athelstan<\/strong>), and there are also some wonderful walking routes nearby, too.<\/p>\n

Hailed \u2018a hub of innovation\u2019 by The Times; it\u2019s certainly not hard to see why Malmesbury was named one of the very best places to live<\/strong>. And the average house will only set you back \u00a3469,000<\/strong>; a relative bargain compared to Richmond<\/a> (the neighbourhood named the best in London), which boasts an average house price of a rather staggering \u00a3916,900<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Getting to Malmesbury from London<\/p>\n

Malmesbury is approximately a 2 hour drive from London<\/strong> and there is pay-and-display parking available once you get there. Malmesbury doesn\u2019t actually have a train station (I told you it was quaint and quiet), so the easiest way to get there on public transport is by hopping on a speedy service from London Paddington to Swindon <\/strong>and taking the number 99 bus from there or heading to Kemble <\/strong>and jumping in a taxi from there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Piaffe Photography, Shutterstock \u00a0\u2013\u00a0 Staff Writer \u00a0\u00b7\u00a0 24 March, 2026 The Times have just revealed a roll…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,17009,257,10763,16,15],"class_list":["post-847802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-local-trip","tag-london","tag-trip-travel","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116285976452367515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}