Leigh on Sea

sunshinetours

Hi
Also live near LOS and have done so for over 30 years
There is Leigh on Sea and Old Leigh and some (not the local posters) may be confusing the two. Cockles and such can be found a plenty in old Leigh along with the cobbled street and old pubs. Very busy in summer but a nice place to wander down the hill to. LOS station is also down that end

Leigh on Sea itself include the broadway which as others have said has lots of cafes and bars and boutique type shops. Busy area with a buzz and because of the parking issues and volume of people I personally wouldn't want to live there with a family. Especially as the snob attitude of Leigh-ites can be quite prevalent and well known locally!

The Marine estate is expensive but has some nice character houses but can be quite busy traffic wise as is a cut through for Southend bound traffic (I know I use it every day) so choose your road carefully.
Highlands further back inland just north of the A13 and again lots of nice tree lined roads and character houses, just watch for the roads that cut through for same reasons.
Areas around Belfairs can be lovely and have wooded back drops and again some very nice houses and slightly better prices can be found but you are that much further from the coast and train stations etc. if schools aren;t an issue then this can be a very nice place to live. If they are an issue then you would possibly be looking at Belfairs as a secondary school which I would consider carefully. This part of Essex has lots of very good schools (Rayleigh, benfleet, Hockley etc) so no need to live in an area with "average" schooling shall we say.

Thorpe Bay may be worth a look if you want some nice houses and very near coast but wrong side of Southend to get in and out of area and not a lot in Thorpe Bay itself.
Chalkwell very nice houses and it borders Leigh. Again prices can be quite expensive but as someone already said you are living near the sea and you are only 45 minutes or so from London

The area gets a very undeserved bad rep in my opinion - its a pretty good place to live if not a little busy

Prairie_Rose

Thanks for your replies, really helpful. I've looked at the various LoS websites, they are quite useful but as you say some of them haven't been updated in quite a while. I just wanted to hear views of people who have lived in LoS for a while as they will be able to report on things that you wouldn't necessary get from a website/Estate Agent etc. I appreciate what's been said about choosing a road carefully, we live on a very quiet road at the moment so would want to avoid one with a constant stream of passing traffic if possible.

We don't know Thorpe Bay at all and will take a look but have really set our hearts on LoS.

Sunshine Tours - which area were you refering to when you said this: "The area gets a very undeserved bad rep in my opinion - its a pretty good place to live if not a little busy", can you expand please?

John, good luck with your house sale, shame we aren't ready to move just yet!

Prairie Rose
x

sunshinetours

Prairie_Rose wrote: »

Thanks for your replies, really helpful. I've looked at the various LoS websites, they are quite useful but as you say some of them haven't been updated in quite a while. I just wanted to hear views of people who have lived in LoS for a while as they will be able to report on things that you wouldn't necessary get from a website/Estate Agent etc. I appreciate what's been said about choosing a road carefully, we live on a very quiet road at the moment so would want to avoid one with a constant stream of passing traffic if possible.

You may want to run any potential roads past some of the locals on here for an opinion then once you get to that stage. Many roads immediately surrounding Leigh are cut through roads from the A13 down towards the Ridgeway/Grand Parade area and much of the housing stock is quite high density in that area (although some very nice houses I would add) so lots of on street parking which can be an issue in busy periods

Prairie_Rose wrote: »

Sunshine Tours - which area were you refering to when you said this: "The area gets a very undeserved bad rep in my opinion - its a pretty good place to live if not a little busy", can you expand please?

No problem - I was basically referring to SE Essex in general which I guess is seen in a certain light by many who do not live there. Living near the sea (or Estuary in reality) is nice because you can visit both countryside and the sea. The Southend area is like many places in that it has its not so desireable areas but also plenty of very nice places to live aswell. The area in general is fairly affluent with I believe one the highest per capita average incomes in the country and I know Castle Point (Benfleet/Thundersley area) has the highest house ownership ratio in the country I believe
The biggest downsides can be the traffic as there are only two main routes in and out of the Southend Borough

Good luck with your decisions and ask away if can be of any further help