What’s going for it? One thousand feet up in the clouds (OK, drizzle), with barely a street not at a 45-degree angle, Buxton is a town built like a fitness class. Work that body. It’s been a spot encouraging the restitution of health for centuries. The Romans spotted the Jacuzzi-warm water bubbling out of the hills, awfully good for settling the tum; but it was the Georgians who turned Buxton into the Bath-of-the-north, with columns, crescents, domes and, if they’d been invented then, neoclassical hot tubs, too. After a few years in the doldrums, today’s hankering for wellbeing and hen-do spa parties has put a spring back in its step (no pun intended). It remains a place thoroughly good for mind, body and soul, with its elegant streetscape and refined arts scene. There are enough trees and countryside for a forest bath, and enough spas and sou’westerlies for a more watery soak. The result being that Buxtonians are as chilled and zen as a Buddhist monk, as trim and hench as Joe Wicks, with the lungs of a Nepalese Sherpa, the skin of a newborn babe and digestion as regular as a Swiss train. Right?
The case against Rainy. And when it’s not rainy, cloudy. And when it’s not cloudy, misty. And when it’s not misty... you get the picture.
Well connected? Trains: to Manchester Piccadilly (54-62 mins). Driving: just over an hour to central Manchester, just under to Sheffield, 45 mins to Manchester airport, the M6 and the M56.
Schools Primaries: Fairfield Infant, Fairfield CofE, Burbage, Manifold CofE, Buxton Junior and Harpur Hill are all “good”, Ofsted says, with Buxton Infant “outstanding”. Secondaries: Buxton Community and St Thomas More Catholic are both “good”.
Hang out at… It’s a pastry at the Pig & Pepper bakery for me – I need something to work off on those inclines. The Old Sun Inn and the Tap House serve a nice pint. Columbine seems to be the spot for dinner à deux.
Where to buy The odd stretch of Georgiana aside, it’s a mostly Victorian and Edwardian sort of place. The Park Road estate, laid out by Joseph Paxton and featuring some first-class villas, is top spot, but there are plenty of large, stone, high Victorian gothics, and Arts and Crafts family homes looking for owners on the streets around Pavilion Gardens, and Macclesfield Road down to Green Lane. There’s a nice area of less grand homes east of Ashwood Park. Large detacheds and townhouses, £450,000-£1m, occasionally higher. Detacheds and smaller townhouses, £250,000-£450,000. Semis, £150,000-£500,000. Terraces and cottages, £100,000-£350,000. Flats, £100,000-£375,000. Rentals: a one-bedroom flat, £400-£600pcm; a three-bedroom house, £700-£1,200pcm.
Bargain of the week A spacious six-bed Victorian townhouse, newly reduced, needs modernisation; £299,950, with buryandhilton.co.uk.
From the streets
Kate Beardon “53 Degrees North, stocked with gins. Buxton has a climate of its own; it’s the coldest place I have lived.”
David Anderson “We have lost M&S (there’s still a Waitrose) but who cares when there are so many family-run shops?”
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