Moving to the country
Travel
The Notswolds: idyllic British places to live in that aren't the Cotswolds
If you're over the Cotswolds but want a rural idyll, Cathy Hawker highlights some of the best places to live in the UK
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Why moving back can be harder than moving away
Moving away takes courage but what about the challenges that come with returning to a place you used to know? Seven people share their own experience
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Ten of the best places to leave London for
The UK places that provide alluring alternatives to capital life
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Dear Fiona: I want to move to the country but how do I know it won't be a mistake?
Our resident agony aunt Fiona McKenzie Johnston advises a reader who is (reluctantly) on the verge of a countryside move
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I moved to a rural farmhouse in Spain and this is what happened
Having left the convenience of London behind for a slower pace of life in Andalusia, Micaela Sharp details why living an inconvenient life can come with a host of benefits
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What it's really like to live in a thatched cottage
There is something quintessentially charming about a thatched cottage. Just the thought of one brings up scenes of rural tranquility. We ask three owners of thatched cottages what it's really like to live in one…
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Five former Londoners on the regret of leaving the capital
People who move out of the capital often say they never looked back but that isn’t always the case. What if you realise you’ve made a mistake?
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A year ago we were ready to leave London, why are we still here?
A year on from her essay deliberating a quieter life in the country, our contributor explains why she still hasn’t left Zone 1.
Travel
Meet the creatives who left London for the verdant hills of Wales
Forget trendy Somerset; the Welsh landscapes are a source of inspiration and creative freedom for these interior designers, artists and makers
Travel
How do you know when it’s time to leave London?
The agony of deciding whether to leave London. Our contributor Eleanor Cording-Booth wasn't too sure, so she left her Barbican flat behind for a month in the country to help her decide…
Travel
From Peckham Rye to Rye Harbour: the highs and lows of escaping to the country
Rémy Mishon details the highs and lows of moving to the country in your early thirties
Travel
The most surprising things about moving to the countryside
Dream of ditching mean city streets for pastoral, dirt roads? Before you pick up sticks, learn from our favourite designers' and tastemakers' moves to the countryside
Houses
A 16th-century house in Devon filled with a lifetime of collected antiques
A chance viewing of a house on the last day of a Devon holiday led Ros Byam Shaw to up sticks and leave London for the countryside
Houses
The writer Olivia Laing on falling in love with a house
After decades trying fruitlessly to put down domestic roots in sub-lets and shorthold tenancies, Olivia Laing finally found the chance to create the home of her childhood dreams in a Georgian house in rural Suffolk
Country Cottages
The 17th-century Cotswold cottage of former Sotheby’s specialist James Mackie
Having found and bought this 17th-century Cotswold cottage in the space of a week, former Sotheby’s specialist James Mackie has created a charming art-filled home that reflects the interior-design skills he is now capitalising on
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Why one writer swapped London for the Irish countryside and hasn't looked back
It is exactly 369 days since journalist Niamh O’Donoghue decamped from London for a new life in the west coast of Ireland. Here, she chronicles navigating her new lifestyle and how its changed her for the better
Quiet Interiors
Design studio Feldspar's idyllic home and pottery in Devon
A move to Dartmoor was the impetus for Cath and Jeremy Brown to capitalise on their creative talents and start making pieces that developed into design studio Feldspar
Houses
Two designers’ perfectly imperfect cottage in the Dedham Vale
The designers Benedict Foley and Daniel Slowik have taken a delightful cottage on the border and Suffolk and Essex and created a charming interior based around their shared taste in collecting, their cheerful acceptance of the house’s imperfections, and an irrepressible sense of humour
House & Garden's Top 100 Interior Designers & Architects
Interior designer Flora Soames' restorative West Country cottage
Interior designer Flora Soames found solace – and the focus to design her first fabric collection – in decorating this former gamekeeper’s woodland cottage and filling it with her most treasured possessions
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The Run of the Downs: Jo Rodgers on Christmas in the country
In the midst of the pandemic the American-British writer Jo Rodgers and her family had to leave their London home, forcing a decision that many of us have been weighing up since Covid hit – stay in town, or start over in the country? In the eighth instalment of her monthly column Jo prepares for a second Christmas in the country