Living in Chichester: a Small City Guide for Home Swappers

Families in central Chichester are well served for schools. St Joseph's Infant School, St Joseph's CE Junior School, St Joseph CE Academy and St Richard's Catholic Primary School all sit within about a third of a mile, with Parklands Community Primary a little over half a mile away. Several of these are church schools, so check the admissions rules before you plan around them.

For secondary, Chichester High School is half a mile from the centre and Bishop Luffa CofE Teaching School is under a mile. Both are walkable from much of PO19, which saves on bus fares once children are older.

There are health services close at hand too, including the Mayfield Clinic and a foetal assessment unit within half a mile. For younger children, the Toy Library and New Park Community Centre are useful, free or low-cost places to fill a wet afternoon.

Chichester station is about a third of a mile from the centre, so you can walk to the train from most of PO19. Fishbourne station is a little over a mile and a half away if you end up on that side.

Chichester bus station sits just off the centre, and there are stops right by the Cathedral within a couple of minutes of the main shops. If you are swapping from somewhere with poor bus links, this will feel easy.

Most of all, this is a walking city. A lot of households here manage without a car simply because the schools, doctors, parks and supermarkets are all inside a mile. If you do drive, be prepared for city centre parking to be the usual headache.

Priory Park is only a couple of hundred metres from the centre, with the Rotary Centenary Garden inside it. Litten Gardens and Jubilee Gardens are a short walk away, and there is a small amphitheatre space off Velyn Avenue. For a city, green space is easy to reach without a car.

There are two cinemas: Cineworld at Chichester Gate and the independent Chichester Cinema at New Park. Jazz Club, Jungle Junction and Annex cover the evening scene, and pubs like The Hole in the Wall and Chichester City Club are in the centre.

Community life runs through places like New Park Community Centre, the Bassil Shippam Centre, the Newell Centre and Roundabout Youth. If you want to meet people quickly, that is where to start. Gyms are mostly small independents rather than big chains.

Across West Sussex, 57.8% of adults are in work, just above the England figure of 57.4%. Unemployment is 2.9%, lower than the 3.5% England average, and benefit claimants stood at 3.1% of working-age people in August 2026 against 4% nationally. In short, this is an area where work tends to be available.

In the city itself, the jobs you can see are largely retail, hospitality and health and care: the shopping centres, the pubs and restaurants, the clinics. There is an industrial estate about a mile out.

The train station makes commuting realistic if the right job is a few stops away. Wages in a tourist and service economy are not always high, though, so weigh that against South East living costs.

Chichester sits in West Sussex, where only 12.7% of homes are socially rented, well below the England figure of 17.1%. Council housing makes up just 4.5% and housing associations 8.2%. Owner occupation dominates at 68.5%. That means social tenancies here are scarce and hold on to, which is exactly why swapping is often the realistic route in.

The area also skews older. Across West Sussex, 22.8% of residents are 65 or over, against 18.4% in England, and there are slightly fewer children and young adults than the national average.

Expect a mix of older terraces, flats above and behind the main streets, and estates on the edge of the centre. Space is at a premium in a city this compact.