While looking around I found this rocket called 'Black Arrow' which was developed in the UK before shortly being cancelled.
So I decided to create my own.
Excuse me, I took off then bounced on the launchpad before going to space.
The engine on the bottom stage have eight, according to the wiki, which I used the vector engines. I lowered the thrust on them, disabled the inner engines and lowered the gimbal on the outer to keep the rocket stable.
The next stage had 2 engines, for which I used the Swivel to do this job. I didn't change anything though. Apart from that, any 2.5 meter payload can fit inside the fairings.
This was travelling over 300m/s and it survived with the engines being blown off. Also that stick on the top is to give the upper stage some room.
I found this to be a very efficient rocket, since in my test, the first stage went up to the top before shutting down.
If you want to try this here is the link: https://kerbalx.com/Scientia1423/Black-arrow
Anyways, enjoy.