Leaving London...but where?

hazyjo

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I was 27 when my son was born, Oh is a year younger than me.

Pretty much all the parents at our son's school (he's now 6) have at least a decade on us.

We had lunch with one couple and their twin sons, where the Dad left secondary school before OH and I were born!

Most of my friends are in their 40s, some with very young kids, some still thinking about more! The mum's age in London is much higher than in the rest of the country. Nowt wrong with kids at 40-odd! Pretty much the norm here! Hubby's 9 years older than me so he'd be positively ancient if we had sprogs We both look loads younger so doubt we'd be mistaken for their grandparents lol.

What about Suffolk too? We really like it out that way. Someone else would have to say what fitted your criteria though. There are some nice parts Same for Norfolk.

Jx

Callie22

I'm not far from Marlborough and it's a very lovely place, but it's a little isolated if you're going to London regularly. AFAIK, it doesn't have a train station, I would guess the nearest one is Swindon and it's horrifically expensive to get from Swindon to London regularly - going from Didcot is significantly cheaper. Personally I don't like the drive from Swindon to Marlborough and wouldn't want to do it every day. Also driving from Marlborough to London would probably take longer than 90 minutes - my OH commutes from Swindon to SW London regularly and it generally takes him longer than 90 mins, but it depends on the M4. I believe though that the schools are good, and obviously you've got a number of options for private education.

It's also quite a small place, so it depends what you're looking for in terms of a social life and entertainment - it has some bars and restaurants, but for anything bigger the nearest town is Swindon and that might not be quite what you're looking for, although £500k would buy you something very nice in one of the surrounding villages or up near Cirencester (which is very,very nice but is probably outside of your 90 minute commute)

laurentulse

:-) well done you!!!!

The_Blue_Hatter

Hitchin/Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Barton-le-Clay/Harlington/Ampthill Bedfordshire. All nice places with access to good schools and great traffic links to London. You can get this for your money-
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30622666.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33247088.html
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-26099626.html?premiumA=true
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30017791.html?premiumA=true
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-19216341.html

daisiegg

As others have said, Cambridge IS lovely - but we thought it was just too far from London. It's 50 minutes on the fast train to King's Cross, but remember that if you want to live somewhere nice, it's not going to be that close to the station, so you have to factor in time in the morning rush hour to get there. And then factor in getting to work from King's Cross, you're looking at a pretty long commute.

Schools are great in Cambridge but if you look way ahead, just bear in mind that in general, Cambridge schools don't have sixth forms. There is Hill's Road Sixth Form College, which is absolutely brilliant, but hard to get into - so if your child doesn't manage to get in there, they'll be a bit scuppered.

I'm biased towards Hertfordshire. We currently live in Bishops Stortford and are moving to Sawbridgeworth. Both lovely with fantastic state schools. 35/40 mins on the train to London Liverpool Street. There are also lots of really lovely villages around if you don't need to be that close to the train station. Although, downside is that you won't get a huge amount for your money and a quick look on Rightmove shows that at the moment there's virtually nothing for sale around the £500k point.

Epping is also very nice and it's on the Central Line.

And just to add - my partner is in his late thirties but will probably be at least 40 by the time we have our first child together. He works in London and lots of his workmates - men in their late thirties and early forties - are having their first children at the moment. It seems pretty normal these days.

Good luck!

rob_wiltshire

Callie22 wrote: »

I'm not far from Marlborough and it's a very lovely place, but it's a little isolated if you're going to London regularly. AFAIK, it doesn't have a train station, I would guess the nearest one is Swindon and it's horrifically expensive to get from Swindon to London regularly - going from Didcot is significantly cheaper.

Although Swindon is probably the nearest 'mainline' railway station there appear to also be stations at Pewsey, Great Bedwyn and Hungerford which are fairly close to Marlborough. I imagine there wouldn't be a particularly frequent service at these stations but it may be worth investigating this further?

hazyjo

Actually, another vote for Herts, but it just might be too near to London for what you're looking for. Very much commuter territory which I think puts a different vibe on the place. Got friends in Bishops Stortford too, also in Ware - and I nearly bought in Hertford once, and hubby and I seriously considered Stansted Mountfitchet. I'd prefer to live in the B.Stortford or S.Mountfitchet given the choice of all. Ware can be hit and miss, same as Hertford.

Epping's alright, had offers on a couple of houses there last year (OMG I feel like I've lived or tried to live all over the country lol), but they fell through. We ended up in Brentwood, which feels so much more away from London than Epping ever did. Several country parks on our doorstep, and it's just so damn quiet where we are!

Three days a week is actually quite a lot. If you're going further out, consider the fares as they'll be extortionate - they vary drastically so you can't guess that an hour's journey will be say £3k from every direction.

If it's cheaper to buy three dailies a week rather than a yearly ticket, that's not going to make commuting much fun. The queues can be horrendous each day for tickets. I pay £2300 a year for Brentwood (with via Shenfield option for fast trains) to Liv St. I'd begrudge paying for a yearly if it was cheaper to buy day returns, but I know I'd do it as the stress of buying daily tickets would do my head in!

Jx

abankerbutnotafatcat

jahudson72 wrote: »

I would avoid Surrey like the plague, but that's my personal preference. Full of City types and 4x4's. No soul. Crap state schools - so I hear.

This is a bit of a stereotype and as someone else has said many parts of Surrey are really nice.:) For some of us, and yes I do work in the City but i'm not sure if i'm a 'City type', Surrey is the part of the London commuter belt that is near to where we're from i.e. Sussex, Hampshire, Dorset so gives us easy access to both London for work and 'home' for friends and family.

I agree that Reigate and Dorking are both lovely. Perhaps Dorking is the nicer but Reigate has a much better train service particularly if you're on the Redhill side as Reigate is on a branch line and Redhill is on the mainline. Guildford is also extremely nice but perhaps a little too big for OP's requirements?

Kursy_Walut

I also wonder where he could go and live. It's good that you asked that question because I know something happy about it . I just wonder what about the exchange rates
I have $ 1000 as I was by the conversion to British pounds? I do not know whether I wystraczy and for how long? how do you think?

DizzyDasher

My Mum was 40 and my Dad was 30 when I was born (and my little sis still to arrive 4 years later!) All still healthy and happy nearly 40 years later. Let eyebrows do whatever they want!!

As for areas, two towns near where I grew up that I have always liked the look of:
- Tring (about 35 minutes to London Euston, and several trains start there so you can always get a seat). The only problem is the station is a bit out of town so you would have to drive. The town itself is very nice - near lots of nice countryside, fast road to London and to the North, lots of nice Edwardian/Victorian little streets, a few different independent shops and places to eat. The secondary school is supposed to be quite good (Comprehensive - but just outside Bucks and gets a lot of "conscientious objectors" from across the border!)
- Wendover - I know less well, but again has some nice independent shops, a few pubs/restaurants to eat out at, etc. The train line is probably less useful to most people (gets in to Marylebone) - but the station is right in town. You're in Buckinghamshire here, so you run the risk of Grammar/Secondary Modern.

Both are a short drive (c. 15 mins) to Aylesbury, which is not very lovely, but has improved over the last few years and has a reasonable selection of shops etc.