Help escaping London - but need to commute?

Mcodox

Hi - any help appreciated!...Been looking to move out of South West London for a year or 2 but having difficulty deciding where to go because of complex work logistics! I need to travel to Kings Cross by train for work, but my partner needs to go to Brentford by car!

As borders we have been considering everything in between the M40 round to the A3, but are not keen on long commutes as we have 2 children under 6, so less than 1 hr required, and ideally somewhere with fast trains to London (Waterloo/Pad/Euston).

We are hoping to swop a semi for a big family home with off-street parking and good garden in a nice area with good schools. So we need to move out a bit obviously. It wld be a bonus if the area had a good community rather than a large town scenario.

Any thoughts or experiences out there of doing this and places to consider please?!

Danni-R

Its not cheap cheap but Reading is about 35 mins from Paddington. Not sure on the drive to Brentford though.

bagpussbear

maybe Woking, Basingstoke or Andover? those lines go into Waterloo.

Jimbo1976

What's your budget? How many bedrooms do you want?

Panda78

Look at the Hertfordshire commuter line into Kings Cross; Stevenage, Potters Bar etc.

Thundercat_2

Hi there,

Budget would definitely help - unfortunately a lot of what you're asking for comes at a high premium when it also happens to be near a station with excellent links into London.

We live in Surrey with a commute that is approx 35 mins, but the sort of house you're talking about in our area would set you back at least £600 - £700k and that wouldn't be detached, it would be an older semi-detached or a town house.

The further out you go the more bang for your buck, but then the commute gets longer too.

With a commute of 1hour you could live as far away from London as Winchester (think it's about an hour on the fast trains) so you really could get right out of London and into a much more rural area.

Edited to add - Sorry! I've just realised that you don't mean a commute of 1 hour into London - apologies for my speed-reading and misunderstanding! Doh! You obviously wouldn't want to look at Winchester in that case!!

ukcarper

If you are talking about driving in less than an hour I worked in the Hounslow Isleworth area and commuted from the other side of Woking the m3/a316 gets very busy in rush hour but posible to get to Brentford in an hour on a good day. I think Woking Waterloo is about 35min

Mcodox

Thanks all. I wasn't clear enough on commute times - I would include time to get to and from station either end so probably wouldn't want train time to be any longer than 35-40 mins. Fast trains would be preferable as well rather than stopping everywhere and only 2 per hour etc. I think my partner would prefer as short a commute as poss whilst also managing to get to a more value for money area than south west London, so probably her preference is also 30 - 40 mins as well to allow for either end. Don't shoot me but we would have over £1m to spend.

Difficulty is deciding area that suits us both and has good schools, nice amenities/facilities, and makes it worth moving from a very nice area with a small house to get a better house in hopefully an equally good area but with a small trade off in commute. Thanks!

longtimelurkersam

with that budget you should move to Folkestone and buy most of the town.....only kidding, BUT you should think about going out that way as the HS1 into St Pancras is 45mins from Ashford and 55 from Folkestone West and Central.

longtimelurkersam

oops sorry didn't see the commute to Brentford by car bit....

ukcarper

I don’t think finding a house within your budget will be a problem, you can get nice houses in areas like Esher and Cobham for that. In the rush hour a half hour drive from Brentford doesn’t get you very far and there are not many stations with regular fast services to London in that area. In my opinion the area bordered by the M40, M3/A316 and M25 is not that great.

　

Surbiton Stn has a very good service to Waterloo and there are some nice places around that area but I think the drive to Brentford would not be that great.