Living in Winchester: area guide to homes, schools and transport

Winchester's good schools, countryside villages and period houses attract lots of young families to this attractive Hampshire city
Winchester has a busy high street with many shops housed in fine historic buildings
Anthea Masey12 February 2016

Winchester is surrounded by hills so many of its best districts have homes with views over the city. Leafy St Cross to the south of the city centre is the premier neighbourhood. It has a mix of Regency, early and mid-Victorian houses which can sell for as much as £3 million.


A stiff walk up to the top of St Giles Hill to the east of the city centre is rewarded with the best view of the city's heart. The private estate is characterised by green verges and rows of severely pollarded trees; the large Victorian detached houses here sell for in excess of £1 million.

Winchester cathedral is a popular attraction in the city and is the final resting place of novelist Jane Austen

To the west of the city centre, Oram’s Arbour, the area around Clifton Road, has its fans. The feeling is more intimate here, with a mix of smaller and larger Georgian and early Victorian houses, villas and cottages. The best houses in Clifton Road — they rarely come onto the market, though — would sell for £1 million-plus. Hyde, to the north of the city centre, is the area where young families congregate. There are streets of well-maintained Victorian semi-detached houses and terraces in the streets close to Hyde Abbey Gardens and the leisure centre; where prices start at around £500,000.

Up and coming: Fulflood is east of the town centre close to Oram’s Arbour. The area has a mix of Victorian cottages and terraces and Twenties and Thirties houses. Close to the popular Westgate comprehensive school and the very sought-after Peter Symonds sixth form college, this area is still cheaper than Hyde, although according to Steven Moore, Fulflood it is catching up fast.

Council: Winchester city council (Conservative controlled); Band D council tax for the 2013/2014 year: £1,438.10.

Five-year property price trends: Winchester

© Value trends UK comparison: 2008-2013
 

Pictures by Graham Hussey

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants: Winchester has a busy high street with many shops housed in fine old buildings ranging from medieval to Georgian, Victorian and later. There are two department stores: Beales and Debenhams and mid-market chains such as Hobbs, Monsoon and Jigsaw.

Off the high street there are independent shops worth seeking out such as The Hambledon, which mixes up women’s and men’s fashion with homewares, books and stationery; and Cadogan, a women’s and men’s boutique, both in The Square. There is a large farmers’ market on the second and last Sunday of each month.

Many of the chain restaurants such as Ask and Zizzi are here. Union Jacks Jamie Oliver’s new chain has opened recently and Caracoli is a small chain of stand out coffee shops and grocers which also has branches in Alresford and Guildford. The best local restaurants are at the Hotel du Vin, the Chesil Rectory in one of Winchester’s oldest buildings, the Black Rat and the Wykeham Arms. The Plough at Sparsholt is a popular local gastro pub.

Open space: Winchester is surrounded by two of the most recently designated national parks: the New Forest and the South Downs. The River Itchen is one of Hampshire’s famous chalk streams, where clear water provides ideal breeding grounds for brown trout.

Leisure and the arts: Winchester loves to party with a succession of festivals during the summer months, including the Hat Fair in July, a festival of street art and performance. The Theatre Royal hosts drama, dance, comedy, music, children’s theatre and a Christmas pantomime.

The local cinema is owned by the growing Everyman chain, which started life in Hampstead, north London. The INTECH Science Centre has the UK’s largest planetarium. The City Museum charts the history of Winchester, while military history is traced in the five separate museums at Peninsula Barracks. The River Park leisure centre in Gordon Road in Hyde is the city’s public swimming pool.

Test your knowledge: three things to know about Winchester
Why is it Winchester’s fault that we have all come to dread 15 July?
St Swithun is the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. The bones of this ninth century bishop were moved on 15 July 971 - supposedly against his wishes - and a great storm broke out. To this day the superstition remains that rain on St Swithun’s day heralds 40 days of rain.

Where can you get a free cup of ale and a piece of bread?
The Hospital of St Cross and almshouses of Noble Poverty is a pleasant 20-minute walk from Winchester along the river Itchen. This is oldest charitable institution in the country and if you find it open you will be offered a small cup of ale and a piece of bread.

What links Hampstead and Winchester?
The Hampstead poet John Keats stayed in Winchester during the summer and autumn of 1819. Though suffering from ill health and longing for his bright star, Fanny Braune, he wrote some of his most famous poems here including his Ode To Autumn which includes the words “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” which people quote on the first appearance of autumn.

Schools

State primary

Winchester's excellent state schools are a huge attraction with almost all of the city's state primary schools rated “good” or better by the government education watchdog Ofsted.

Comprehensive

Two out of the three state comprehensive schools, Westgate in Cheriton Road and King’s School in Romsey Road, get well-above average results at GCSE, while the sixth form college Peter Symonds in Owens Road gets an “outstanding” Ofsted rating.

Private

There are also a range of excellent private schools in the area, including The Pilgrims’ School (boys ages four to 13). This private day and boarding school is also the choir school for Winchester Cathedral.

St Swithin’s (girls ages three to 18; boys ages three to seven) in Alresford Road is a private non-selective girls school. Prince’s Park (co-ed ages three to 11) in Worthy Park House and Twyford (co-ed ages three to 13) are two local prep schools, both housed in historic buildings.

Winchester College is an academic private boarding school for boys. The school has an ancient history and many of the properties in the surrounding warren of streets are owned by the college; some overseas parents buy second homes in Winchester while their children are at the school.

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