LET'S MOVE TO: SCARBOROUGH

Neighbourhood know-how, places and people

- Jeannie Swales

LOCATION, LOCATION

Geographically, Scarborough has it all. It sits just below the southernmost boundary of the wilds of the heather-rich North York Moors National Park; just above the rolling chalklands of the Yorkshire Wolds; and at the eastern end of the rural Vale of Pickering, so whatever your preferred landscape, you can be there in minutes. But Scarborough is, of course, most famous as the world’s first seaside resort. Visitors began flocking to the town’s South Bay in the 1600s for the reputedly medicinal properties of the Spa waters; in the 1700s, it was possibly the first place to have wheeled bathing machines; by the mid 1800s, the railway had made it a fashionable holiday destination.

BAG A PROPERTY

In 2019, the average price for a semi-detached in Scarborough was just over £168,000, while terraces and flats hovered around the £125,000 mark. There are some real hidden gems in the town – check out the Stepney area, sandwiched neatly between the A170 and the A171, for tidy little terraces on Stepney Avenue and on Stepney Drive, some corking detached properties, with an eclectic mix of styles ranging from Arts and Crafts to airy midcentury beauties, and including the town’s only thatched home. The elegant Crescent, just off the town’s main drag, is an early Victorian curved terrace overlooking pretty gardens, with flats going for less than £150,000.