Folkestone, the best place to live in England*

Why buy a house in Folkestone. Living in the harbour means you are minutes away from:
Sunny Sands beach, town centre shops and supermarkets.

The biggest skate park in Europe, F51, the world’s only multistorey skatepark and climbing centre, with annual membership from just £12 for students at local schools.

The Creative Quarter.

Big screen events in the Harbour Arm Goods Yard.

Sports park at Three Hills.

The Old High Street, full of independent  colourful shops where you’ll find art, vintage wares, music, crafts and gifts.
Get your coffee fix at Steep Street, one of the most likeable cafés around. 

St Eanswythe’s Primary School, rated outstanding by Ofsted in 2015 and 2019; there are plenty of other primaries rated good.
The Folkestone School for Girls, listed in the Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2024, and The Harvey Grammar School. Both single-sex selectives are rated outstanding by Ofsted. (The

Harvey Grammar was inspected in 2022; the Folkestone School for Girls a decade earlier.)
Good facilities are at Folkestone Academy, an attractive, modern building with a newly opened “horticulture classroom”, rated good by Ofsted, as is Turner Free School, part of the same

academy chain and inspected in 2022.

Independent schools are a little further away. The non-selective

Dover College educates 3 to 18-year-olds (pre-prep fees from £10,314 a year; senior day pupils from £19,677). The The King’s School, Canterbury (age 3-18, day fees from £27,825 a year) is in

the top 100 independents in the country, according to the Sunday Times Parent Power Guide 2024.