moving out of london - new area options questions!

wallofbeans

I asked about the best and worst areas of oxford in another thread and got some realy helpul replies so thought i should do it for all the areas we are currently considering...

im off to a great start with Oxford but any more thoughts welcome!

Reading - ive heard caversham is the nice bit but should i get more specific than that or condsider any other areas?

St Albans

Winchester

Guildford

Weybridge

Surbiton (probably counts as London but still on the list and advice welcome)

Tunbridge Wells

Canterbury

Or any other areas nearish London that you think I might like!

Thanks all!

martindow

This is a very wide question! I can tell you a bit about Reading. Caversham is mostly nice with lots of large Edwardian houses but parts of it are very expensive and Lower Caversham around Amersham Road is rough. To get to the town or the station (will you be commuting to London?) can be difficult as there are only two bridges across the river which are often jammed with traffic. If your house is not too far from the river it is walkable. As for the rest of Reading most people would avoid Whitley and some parts around the Oxford Road in west Reading. Like anywhere else you need to make some visits and have a look around. You will keep yourself busy touring SE England by the look of it or spending your time on street view.

whitesatin

St Albans is lovely but very expensive and quite congested. You don't get much for your money there as it is well served by First Capital Connect train to St Pancras (well, when it is working well, LOL). Further out from there you have Harpenden which is even more expensive but buzzy.

We are currently looking at Berkhamsted (Herts) but you don't get much for your money there either. We are quite frustrated tbh, I wish you luck with your search.

anotherginger

amersham? end of the met line. reliable chiltern railways train service. expensive though!

jbsurrey

I live in Abinger Hammer - about nine miles from Guildford and go there fairly often.

Good links to London by rail, also A3 to London with access to M25 for Heathrow/Gatwick; also the M3... Now, do I like it? It's okay. The area seems to be up its own !!!! as the capital of Surrey. I'd recommend areas further out: Dorking, Shere, Gomshall, Peaslake...

Thanks,
Jason

Charliezoo

I lived in St Albans for most of my life and have to agree that it is a great place to live, I still miss it terribly. It is very expensive and you won't get much for your £, especially of you need to live close to the station. The train to Kings Cross is direct and if you get a fast one you'll be there in about 20 mins and it has a lovely park and lots of pubs and restaurants. Harpenden is lovely and also on the same train line if you can afford to live there. St Albans is supposed to be one of the best places in the UK to live and I must say I had a great upbringing there.

I live near Weybridge now which is overpriced and a bit snobby but is quite a nice little area close to the river. The only problem with Weybridge is there are a few rough areas nearby and not really much to do. I also don't think there's a direct train to London. There is a large traveller's site nearby which is worth remembering if you look anywhere in the Chertsey/Addlestone/Walton/Woking area. With St Albans there are surrounding towns like Watford, Hemel Hempstead, etc with cinemas and shopping facilities but the nearest decent cinema to Weybridge is probably Staines which I would avoid like the plague! I'm not far from Guildford which I personally find is a real pain to drive around and is congested. I won't go at the weekend as it seems to be the only decent place to go shopping in the area so parking is very difficult.

I'm looking to move back to Herts and considering Abbotts Langley which is still quite expensive but is close to J19 of the M25 and the M1 and seems like a nice area. Its also not far from Croxley Green which is on the Met Line.

My sister recently moved to Biggleswade where you can get lovely houses for a fraction of the price of St Albans and it has a good rail link to London and her husband being a policeman checked out the area and is satisfied that it is very safe and quiet. The only downside is that its about 25 mins down the A1 to get to the M25.

Running_Horse

Tunbridge Wells can be a bit stuck up and Canterbury is full of students.

Are you hoping to commute to London? Neither is ideal.

Running_Horse

Another duplicate post.

wallofbeans

martindow wrote: »

This is a very wide question!

I know - sorry! But i thought it better to put them all in one thread rather than lots of seperate ones... Thanks for advice so far, all very helpful.

I'll be commuting into London by train a couple of times a week at most. I work from home a great deal and if I do need to go into London it'll generally be after the rush hour, if i can help it!

Most of these places are quite expensive but only as expensive as where we are now in London so we're just swapping for somewhere a little bigger with a bit more green and nicer surroundings.. that's what we're hoping for anyway!

We're not quite ready to do full countryside yet so we wanted a nice town with a buzz about it and some stuff to do.. we're really trying to avoid any chav entanglements too!

Thanks again!

elfen

Canterbury - expensive.

tyllwyd

If you only go into London once or twice a week (and if it is the west side of London you are travelling to) you could look further along the M4 -lots of people commute from Bristol & Bath.