Terraced Victorian streets tumble down towards the harbour here, the kind of steep, narrow rows built for fishing families rather than car owners, and you'll still find a working harbour flavour rather than a polished one. It attracts an older crowd than most English towns — the typical resident is into their forties — alongside a steady trickle of people drawn by the coastline and the slower pace, not by career ambition. This isn't a commuter town dressed up as one; it's a place people choose because they've decided proximity to the sea matters more than proximity to a city. There's no rail station woven into daily life here, so getting around means the 79 local bus stops that stitch the town together, and full fibre broadband reaching about two-thirds of properties gives remote workers a reasonable, if not universal, chance of working from home. Schooling is a mixed picture: Ilfracombe Church of England Academy takes pupils through to sixteen with a Progress 8 score around the national average, but it currently carries a Requires Improvement rating, so families weighing secondary options will want to look at this closely rather than assume it. On the buying side, terraced houses dominate what's for sale, most of it freehold, and at a median price of around £222,500 that's roughly a fifth cheaper than the wider North Devon district — this is a town where a freehold terrace is a realistic first step onto the ladder, not an aspiration. Green space is genuinely generous relative to the population — 26 sites and getting on for fourteen hectares means gardens, coastal paths and open ground are woven through the town rather than confined to one park at the edge. The area's overall character, on the Check Local grading, reads strongly: nightlife, transport links and health provision all come out well above the national average, and safety and housing sit around it — respectable, unremarkable. The one grade that jars against that pattern is connectivity, marked down against the otherwise glowing picture, which tracks with that partial fibre coverage. Crime is dominated by violence and sexual offences and anti-social behaviour, together making up over half of recorded incidents, a pattern common to seaside towns with a nightlife economy rather than a sign of a town in decline. Income and deprivation figures put Ilfracombe in the more deprived third of the country nationally, which sits oddly against the strong quality-of-life grades — a reminder that lower wages and lower house prices can walk hand in hand with a genuinely pleasant place to live. This suits people who want space, sea air and a slower rhythm more than they want a fast commute or a top-tier secondary school on their doorstep; those priorities would mean looking elsewhere, or accepting the trade-off with open eyes.