I lived in one of UK’s 10 ‘worst’ cities — it beats all others for 1 thing | UK | Travel

It’s a city that’s featured on a list no city wants to be on for the last two years: the 10 “worst” British cities to live in. The list is compiled annually by heavyweight consultancy firm PWC and is based on several benchmarks including life expectancy, personal income, carbon emissions, work-life balance and the state of the high street. 

Among those at the bottom of this list was Swansea, the second largest city in Wales. So if you didn’t know any better, you’d assume Swansea was somewhere you absolutely did not want to live in. Fortunately, I do know better, having lived there and grown up nearby. I’m still a regular visitor.

Swansea does, like any city, have its problems. In addition to the benchmarks used by PWC to compile their list (you can see them in full below), Swansea has had a seriously high drug fatality rate for years, one of the highest in the UK.

But Swansea also has so much going for it that means that, far from being the worst city in the UK in which to live, it could just as easily make a strong case for being the best.

At the heart of that case would be the natural resources it has right on its doorstep. No other city in the UK has a beach like Swansea’s, stretching for an astonishing five miles from the city centre all the way to the gorgeous village of Mumbles at its western outskirts. All of it is easily accessible to the public at any point and it dwarfs Brighton, one of very few British cities that could claim to have a city beach that comes even close to Swansea’s.

The beach, which runs along almost the entirety of the city’s southern edge, has a footpath and cycle path running alongside for the entire five miles and you can spend hours here just strolling or cycling along, enjoying the views, popping down to the beach or stopping en route at places like Blackpill lido, where children can play in the splashpad or in the well-kept playground.

There’s also the LC, a new(ish) indoor leisure pool complete with slides, a wave machine, lazy river, soft play and climbing centre. It’s clean and well-kept and superb fun for kids (and big kids). 

And once a year you can plonk yourself on that beach, with thousands of other people, and watch the Red Arrows, typhoons and spitfires roar above you during the Wales Air Show, as you sit on the sand and children play in the sea. Where else do you get anything like that?

What’s more, thousands of the city’s residents live within a stone’s throw of the beach. Many of them can almost literally walk out of their front door and be stepping on to the beach’s golden sands within just a few steps.

When I lived in Swansea, I was one of them. I lived in a flat in Swansea’s peaceful marina, so close to the beach that sand would be blown into my apartment block’s doorway and lie in a fine layer across the car park.

In the mornings, I could head to the beach for a run. Just a few minutes in the opposite direction and I’d be in the city centre and on Swansea’s famous nightlife capital, Wind Street, where there are a handful of decent pubs alongside the usual chain bars.

In the evenings, I could stroll in minutes to one of the marina’s bars, or the excellent Italian restaurant, Gallini’s, listening to the boat masts gently clinking in the breeze as I did. What more could you want from a city than all that?

So close to the beach they are practically touching is Singleton Park, a large and peaceful green space that also doubles up as an outdoor music venue which has hosted Taylor Swift. If you’re lucky enough to live nearby, you could walk for miles through the park and on the beach and barely have to walk on a city road the entire time.

The people who live there call Mumbles “the Hamptons of Wales” and you can see why. Driving there from Swansea along the waterfront road, lined with large houses and palm trees, it’s hard to tell where Swansea ends and Mumbles begins — but once you’re there you get the sense of a self-contained community that knows it’s lucky to live there.

Mumbles used to be notorious for “The Mumbles Mile”, a challenge that descending stag and hen dos would take on in a bid to drink in all the village’s seafront pubs. That image has long gone, and it is now considered one of the finest places to live by the sea in the entire UK.

There’s a vibrant blend of pubs, restaurants and retailers, whether independent or mainstream, and a local produce market every month. In Verdi’s and Joe’s, it’s also home to two of Wales’ most famous ice cream makers.

Not only does Swansea have its own enormous beach, as well as a bordering village named among the best places to live in the UK, it has the entire Gower peninsula on its doorstep. It features several beaches, including Rhossili, which is often named as one of the best in Europe and the world, as well as several other stunning beauty spots like Three Cliffs Bay and surfing hotspot Llangennith.

The Gower’s beaches and rolling hills make it a designated area of outstanding natural beauty, where wildlife like sheep and horses can be seen roaming freely at the roadside and there are lots of quintessential country pubs to stop at.

And it’s amazing how close to the city all this is. Earlier this year, I wanted to cycle from Swansea to the beach at Rhossili. I parked my car in the city centre and, within minutes, I was out in the wide open countryside, with views for miles around. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was!

Swansea might not be the first place that springs to mind when you try to think of culinary destinations worth visiting — but there are loads of unique places to eat here, every one operating to a high level of quality. At the cafe end of the scale, Square Peg serves delicious brunches and lunches, with the masala beans on sourdough toast not only an absolute treat, but a steal at £8.50. There’s also more delicious informal dining at Gower Seafood Hut, where you can get fresh whitebait and shrimp to eat from the tray.

At the other end of the scale are top-class restaurants The Shed, where one reviewer said “every mouthful was a celebration”, and Beach House, which has a Michelin star. Most spectacular of all, perhaps, is Gigi Gao’s, a remarkable Chinese restaurant which could well be the most extravagantly-decorated restaurant in the entire country. It’s no gimmick, though, the food here is superb.

1. Walsall
2. Bradford
3. Birmingham
4. Middlesbrough and Stockton
5. Southend
6. Liverpool
7. Manchester
8. Sunderland
9. Newcastle
10. Swansea

Evaluations were made across benchmarks including:

1. Gross disposable household income
2. Safety, especially in relation to violent crimes, weapons and drug offences
3. Work-life balance
4. Unemployment rate
5. Life expectancy
6. House prices compared to earnings
7. Environment and carbon emissions
8. Travel time to work
9. Store openings and closures and new businesses
10. Skills and qualifications of the population