Britain's best preserved: Georgian postcodes

PE13: The Brinks, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire
The long and narrow parallel roads know as the Brinks became popular with wealthy landowners and merchants who built rows of elegant houses either side of the River Nene during the 18th century.

Now, North Brink and South Brink are amongst the finest Georgian Streets in Britain and have been used as a film set in several TV period dramas including David Copperfield.

Georgianproperty.com is selling a Grade II* listed house, built in 1723 and recently restored by the Cambridgeshire Historic Building Preservation Trust.

Sulehay House (left) has four bedrooms, front and rear gardens and superb original features including a staircase, panelling in several rooms and sash windows all for sale at £480,000.

E1: Spitalfields, London
Home to artists Gilbert & George, Tracey Emin and actress, Keira Knightley, the Fournier Street Conservation area is made up of Fournier Street, Princelet Street and Wilkes Street.

The houses mainly date from the 1720s and form one of the best preserved collection of early Georgian townhouses in Britain.

Hamptons was until recently selling a three/four bedroom house in Fournier Street with wooden floors, curved walls, wood paneling and original fireplaces with south facing patio garden and garage for £2.25 million.

And in Princelet Street, a restored three/four bedroom house with original features, courtyard garden and studio is for sale for £1.95m million.

N1: Canonbury Square, London
A beautifully preserved Georgian square in Islington, where George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh had homes as well as artist and designer Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, sister of Virginia Woolf.

The square (pictured, right) was built slowly between 1805 and 1820 with some rebuilding in the 1950s after bomb damage flattened part of the north eastern corner.

But these were rebuilt in keeping to retain the integrity of the square. Foxtons is selling a five storey, four bedroom house with original features, garden and large sash windows for £1.895 million.

YO24: The Mount, York
The city has many fine Georgian buildings, built at a time when York was the social centre of the North. The best preserved of these are in and around The Mount, where fashionable new townhouses were built in the 1800s for wealthy Northerners to have a home there for the social season.

Houses rarely come up for sale and when they do, sell like hot cakes for around £600,000 to £900,000. Right in the heart of York, in Precentor’s Court under the shadow of The Minster, Carter Jonas has just sold an excellent example of an early Georgian house. The Grade II* Fenton House has eight bedrooms and the original staircase is a notable feature. It was for sale at £725,000.

BS8: Clifton, Bristol
Clifton is deceptively modern with many of its seemingly older buildings actually built in the early 1900s.

However, there are still Georgian gems to be found, especially in West Mall (pictured, left) and Caledonia Place, which lie opposite each other in the heart of Clifton. The first third of both streets were built around 1788, the rest in 1843 to formalise the square.

Most of the five storey terraced houses are now divided into apartments, still with many original features and priced from £250,000 to £800,000.

Knight Frank is putting a house in West Mall on the market in early September. This has five bedrooms, triple garage, private garden and original features including working shutters and marble fireplaces. Price guide £1.5 million.