The UK’s Most Cultural Cities - A Citybase Apartments Study
The UK’s Most Cultural Cities - A Citybase Apartments Study
The UK's cities are some of the most culturally rich in the world, packed with top-drawer museums, theatres, galleries and more.
We recently took the time to conduct our own research to find out which UK city is the most cultural.
We used TripAdvisor data to find the number of museums, theatres, art galleries, historical sites and restaurants in each UK city and combined this with the population to give us the number per 1000 capita of each. We then assigned each city a point rating for the five types of cultural attraction, combining to give a total number of points.
With that in mind, here’s a look at how each UK city ranks and which the UK's most cultural cities are. We've also shared the individual rankings across each of the five cultural attraction types:
- Museums
- Theatres
- Art Galleries
- Historical Sites
- Restaurants
| City | Museums (#) | Theatres (#) | Art Galleries (#) | Historic Sites (#) | Total Attractions (#) | Total Per 1k People |
| 1. Winchester | 11 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 21 | 1.42 |
| 2. York | 23 | 3 | 9 | 29 | 64 | 1.28 |
| 3. Sheffield | 7 | 6 | 16 | 6 | 35 | 1.17 |
| 4. Cambridge | 16 | 3 | 0 | 34 | 53 | 0.69 |
| 5=. Worcester | 6 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 0.60 |
| 5=. Portsmouth | 19 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 33 | 0.60 |
| 7. Newcastle | 10 | 10 | 14 | 8 | 42 | 0.52 |
| 8. Leeds | 12 | 9 | 7 | 10 | 38 | 0.50 |
| 9. Swansea | 7 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 22 | 0.48 |
| 10. Liverpool | 15 | 13 | 9 | 23 | 60 | 0.46 |
| 11. Wakefield | 4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 0.44 |
| 12=. Preston | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.43 |
| 12=. Wolverhampton | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 0.43 |
| 14=. Stoke-on-Trent | 7 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 18 | 0.38 |
| 14=. Edinburgh | 43 | 9 | 48 | 31 | 131 | 0.38 |
| 16=. Manchester | 11 | 12 | 16 | 7 | 46 | 0.36 |
| 16=. Plymouth | 8 | 9 | 14 | 9 | 40 | 0.36 |
| 18. Glasgow | 22 | 15 | 28 | 18 | 83 | 0.32 |
| 19. St Albans | 4 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 0.31 |
| 20=. Truro | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0.28 |
| 20=. Southampton | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 28 | 0.28 |
| 22. Lincoln | 9 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 23 | 0.27 |
| 23=. Wells | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 0.26 |
| 23=. Brighton & Hove | 9 | 7 | 22 | 7 | 45 | 0.26 |
| 25=. Newport | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 0.24 |
| 25=. Peterborough | 5 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 0.24 |
| 27. Leicester | 12 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 28 | 0.23 |
| 28. Norwich | 14 | 7 | 13 | 19 | 53 | 0.21 |
| 29=. Birmingham | 17 | 15 | 11 | 13 | 56 | 0.20 |
| 29=. Salford | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 0.20 |
| 31. Sunderland | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0.19 |
| 32=. Oxford | 11 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 32 | 0.16 |
| 32=. Stirling | 3 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 14 | 0.16 |
| 34. Coventry | 9 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 0.14 |
| 35=. Derby | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 18 | 0.12 |
| 35=. Chelmsford | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 0.12 |
| 37=. Exeter | 4 | 5 | 2 | 15 | 26 | 0.11 |
| 37=. Perth | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 15 | 0.11 |
| 37=. Bristol | 19 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 56 | 0.11 |
| 40=. London | 313 | 342 | 128 | 101 | 884 | 0.10 |
| 40=. Belfast | 14 | 9 | 21 | 16 | 60 | 0.10 |
| 40=. Carlisle | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0.10 |
| 40=. Newry | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0.10 |
| 40=. Hull | 14 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 0.10 |
| 45=. Bath | 15 | 7 | 19 | 7 | 48 | 0.09 |
| 45=. Nottingham | 13 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 30 | 0.09 |
| 47=. Cardiff | 7 | 7 | 18 | 5 | 37 | 0.08 |
| 47=. Bradford | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 21 | 0.08 |
| 47=. Inverness | 6 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 16 | 0.08 |
| 47=. Lancaster | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 0.08 |
| 51=. Dundee | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 18 | 0.07 |
| 51=. Canterbury | 7 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 24 | 0.07 |
| 51=. Derry | 10 | 4 | 9 | 18 | 41 | 0.07 |
| 51=. Durham | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0.07 |
| 55=. Chester | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 15 | 0.06 |
| 55=. Salisbury | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 18 | 0.06 |
| 57=. Gloucester | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 0.04 |
| 57=. Chichester | 6 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 0.04 |
| 59=. Ripon | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 0.03 |
| 59=. Aberdeen | 16 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 34 | 0.03 |
| 59=. Hereford | 6 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 0.03 |
| 59=. Lichfield | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 0.03 |
| 63=. Armagh | 5 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 18 | 0.02 |
| 63=. Ely | 4 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 0.02 |
| 63=. Bangor | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0.02 |
| 63=. Lisburn | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.02 |
Surprisingly, London didn't come out top and we're happy to award the title of 'the UK's most cultural city' to Winchester, closely followed in second and third place by York and Sheffield.
It's safe to say that the UK is the perfect place for those who love culture-packed holidays, whether that means visiting from abroad or simply planning a staycation!
