The concept of "coolness" is incredibly subjective: one person's hip and enviable is another person's cheugy. But it's still interesting to check out a new study purporting to reveal the UK's "trendiest" place to live.
The list was compiled by Ocean Finance by ranking the UK's 50 biggest towns and cities using five signifiers of "coolness" – namely, the number of yoga centres, independent coffee shops, farmers' markets, breweries and independent cinemas per square mile.
Each of these things is fun to have on your doorstep, so the list is definitely worth paying some attention to.
The town of Birkenhead – right across the River Mersey from Liverpool – is named the trendiest place to live using these five criteria. Birkenhead, which has a population of around 90,000, has more indie coffee shops and cinemas per square mile than anywhere else in the country.
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It also comes in second for yoga centres and third for farmers’ markets, and benefits from a relatively low cost of living; £1,062 per month.
By contrast, the cost of living in the second trendiest city, Cambridge, is a far less affordable £1,981 a month.
Edinburgh, which is named the third trendiest place to live, also has a high cost of living: £1,927 a month. Home to the world’s largest arts festival – the Edinburgh Fringe, which began on Friday – Scotland's capital has the second most indie cinemas per square mile.
Check out the ten trendiest places to live – plus their cost of living – in the infographic below.
Surprisingly, London is named the seventh least trendy place to live. This reflects the fact that the city's yoga centres, indie coffee shops, farmers' markets, breweries and indie cinemas are pretty spread out, meaning it has fewer square mile.
For similar reasons, the large cities of Leeds, Sheffield and Aberdeen all appear towards the bottom of the list, too.