A seaside town in Sussex has been named as one of the Sunday Times’s best places to live.
St Leonards featured in the newspaper’s prestigious annual guide for 2026. The Sunday Times praised the town for its distinctive blend of character and style, describing it as “shabby enough to be jolly and chic enough to turn heads”.
The newspaper said St Leonards had “managed to up-and-come without losing its seaside soul”, crediting eye-catching architecture, fashionable wine bars, restaurants, boutiques and interior shops, and in particular the Kino-Teatr — described as a “super-cool cinema and gallery arts centre”.
The Sunday Times described St Leonards as shabby chic (Image: Wikimedia)
The Sunday Times traced the town’s origins to landowner James Burton and his architect son Decimus, who arrived in the early 19th century as among the first of many people to move down from London. The pair built grand Regency homes and created what the paper called “a resort fit for the gentry, a safe distance from the rambunctious smugglers and fisherfolk in next-door Hastings”.
The guide highlighted St Leonards’s lengthy pebble beach as the focal point of the town, noting that all year round residents can be found swimming, exploring rockpools and strolling along the promenade. Beachfront dining was also singled out, with the Goat Ledge café — where visitors can sip Sussex-brewed IPA and eat crispy plaice baps — and the Selkie Seafood Bar, serving freshly shucked oysters and fine wines, both receiving mentions.
Marine Court, a striking Art Deco 1930s apartment block modelled on the ocean liner Queen Mary, was highlighted as both a dramatic landmark and an entrepreneurial hub, with its ground-floor shopping parade home to a reformer Pilates studio, a cocktail bar and a burger restaurant.
The Sunday Times also praised the St Leonards beach (Image: Wikimedia)
The paper also praised the town’s antiques and interiors scene, its street food market, and a range of restaurants. On schools, the guide noted that the St Leonards Academy was rated inadequate by Ofsted in 2025 and was subsequently renamed Mulberry Academy in March 2026, while the nearby Ark Blacklands primary was rated outstanding.
St Leonards was one of three Sussex locations to make the 2026 list. Lindfield, a village in West Sussex, was named the best place to live in the entire South East of England. The Sunday Times highlighted its aspirational independent high street, community events calendar — which runs from a fancy dress beer race to a summer pizza gathering — and its large common.
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St Leonards was praised by The Sunday Times (Image: Wikimedia)
Petworth, another West Sussex entry, was praised by the Sunday Times as “the perfect place to unplug”, with the paper drawing attention to its cobbled lanes, wisteria-clad cottages and world-class art at Petworth House, which holds one of the largest collections of Turner paintings outside London.
The inclusion of three Sussex locations builds on the county’s recent strong showing in the guide.
East Sussex village Wadhurst — which was crowned the Sunday Times’s overall best place to live in the UK back in 2023 — again received a mention in 2026, with judges praising the town as “a hive of activity with a fantastic community spirit”.
Unlike 2025, Hove was not included on the list.