A POPULAR suburb has been named the best place to live in the Midlands in the annual Sunday Times Best Places to Live guide.

Stirchley in Birmingham was praised for having great bars, restaurants and cafes - Couch, Eat Vietnam and Caneat - as well as good schools and easy rail connections to the city centre, especially when the new Pineapple Road station opens later this year.

The Sunday Times judges said: “Community spirit is visible all over Stirchley, from free art clubs in the library to the events at Stirchley Baths, a community centre that hosts cinema nights and a community market.

"Loaf, the co-operative bakery and cookery school that was one of the first independents to put Stirchley on the map, does a £1 Stirchley loaf, alongside its famous sourdough, so that everyone can afford good local bread.”

Six other locations in the Midlands are featured in the guide which can be found here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/best-places-to-live    

Published by The Sunday Times, the guide includes 72 locations across the UK and was released online on Friday, March 15.

Six other locations in the Midlands are featured in the guide:

• Winner: Stirchley, Birmingham

• Buxton, Derbyshire

• Knowle and Dorridge, Solihull

• Market Harborough, Leicestershire

• Shropshire Hills

• Stamford, Lincolnshire

• Sutton on Sea, Lincolnshire

Helen Davies, Best Places to Live editor, says: “These are all places where you can feel grounded as well as upwardly mobile: they have a mature sense of community, lively, supportive high streets and an eye to the future, whether that is eco-friendly measures, transport and regeneration, or imaginative inclusion of new housing.”

The Sunday Times’s expert judges have visited all the locations and assessed factors from schools to transport, broadband speeds to culture, as well as access to green spaces and the health of the high street.