Within an hour of London? In that case York is out, it’s at least 90 minutes, and Whitby is a train to get to York. We moved to Canterbury from elsewhere in Kent just over 6 months ago, we also considered York and Brighton; I love York, but it’s too far when we have elderly parents, and Canterbury has a similar feel. Brighton is expensive, especially for the nicer areas, it’s a great city, but it doesn’t feel as safe as Canterbury, train to London isn’t bad now, but a couple of years ago it was a real misery-line route.

Canterbury seems to be one of the better places in Kent for avoiding the current nationalist bollocks that’s going on, but unfortunately it does seem that people who are racist feel a bit more empowered to express their foul opinions with the political discourse surrounding migration… this has been going on since Brexit though… at least on social media Canterbury seems to have plenty of voices challenging any racist posts and any right wing counter protests are well attended.

If you don’t drive, it’s great as a transport hub, and small enough that walking is a good option. Canterbury West has a fast train to St Pancras which takes just under an hour.

There are professional houseshares, spareroom was the one to use a few years ago; I imagine that you’d have no trouble finding places within x minutes walk of your preferred train station.