The UK is filled with thousands of towns, villages, and cities, each with its own unique features and histories.
Some places are known for the famous people who lived there or for famous events that occurred nearby. Meanwhile, some areas are well-known because of how people see them or how it has been viewed historically.
St Albans, Hertfordshire, is a beautiful city known for being one of the poshest places to live in the UK. The Herts Adviser described the city as “reassuringly posh” in 2021 and the Mail described it was one of the poshest places in 2013.
Express spoke to Marta, 25, about what it’s like to live in one of Britain’s poshest cities.
Marta said St Albans “feels incredibly safe any time of the day or night” and that the schools “are fantastic” alongside an “excellent cultural agenda”.
Marta highlighted the Catholic schools, the open-air theatre, the Saturday market and the connections to London as other highlights.
On the other hand, she said rent prices were a problem and noted that the town centre “can get really crowded on certain dates, traffic can be really bad”. On top of this, parking is allegedly “scarce around town”.
On why people should move to St Albans Marta said: “People should move here if they want somewhere close enough to London to travel in whenever they feel, but far enough to be surrounded by nature and cleaner air! They stay because it feels safe and there’s a great social and cultural atmosphere.”
Taking its name from Saint Alban, the town was originally a settlement belonging to a Celtic tribe known as the Catuvellauni.
Like many towns founded in this period, St Albans was able to survive the ravages of events that were to shape Britain.
In the 1500s, the Abbey was sold to the town and became their local parish church. Soon after it became a borough with a mayor.
During the tumultuous English Civil War, the town escaped the bloodshed but sided with Parliament. Fast forward to the 19th century and it was granted city status by Queen Victoria and the Abbey became a Cathedral.
Where St Alban’s flourishes among cities in the UK is just how many famous people have lived or come from the town.
Arsenal’s Gilberto Silva, John Sessions, George Gilbert Scott, Stephen Hawking, Francis Bacon, Bruce Forsyth, and Stanley Kubrick are among the fountain of well-known names to have lived in the town.
Today, the city is one of the poshest places to live in the country with its rolling green landscapes and large houses.
Some reviewers have said it is the perfect place to be if someone wants to get out of London, but still live in a city.
According to Muddy Stilettos, the average property fetches an eye-watering £651,233. What’s more, said the city had been named as the third most expensive place to buy a new home in the UK.
St Albans sat behind London and Hove with the average price of a new home setting back buyers an average of £258,000 per bedroom.
The St Albans & Harpenden Review reported that the survey, conducted by Household Quotes, found the average UK house price had risen by £26,000.
They said this was a figure driven “largely to supply and demand patterns as the country emerged from lockdown”.
