Ashford Kent

kramer89

Living in Ashford, Kent and commuting to St Pancras......... any experience? My wife, 3 year old daughter and I currently live in a ex council flat in SE London, have £220K to buy a 3 bed house and are looking towards Ashford, Kent. Does anyone know of the best area within a mile or so of the station to buy? Is Ashford town centre as dull as a few people have mentioned to me? Any help/advise much appreciated!

tim123456789

Best area that walkable to the station is (probably) Magazine Road/Quantock Drive area. Can't recommend that you consider anywhere else walkable from the station (except possibly the new Repton Park estate, but that's a bit marginal on distance and the town houses on Mill Court look rather nice)

Best area is probably Great Chart but then you are going to have to bus/drive to the station. And the proposed Chilmington Green estate may adversely affect it (or it may not) - though it will improve the bus service, but don't hold your breath waiting for it.

And yes the town centre is just dull.

Running_Horse

There are much nicer towns and villages close to railway stations in Kent where you will get value for money. I could type a list or you could just look on Rightmove.

Mr_Moo_2

Whilst most of SouthEastern Railway is not great, the HS service is, in contract, very good. Not cheap but reliable, bar the very occasional meltdown, usually at the Ashford end. Much nicer away from the town itself though - can you live bus/cycle distance to station?

kramer89

Many thanks for the advice, much appreciated. I currently cycle 5 miles to work from Deptford SE London to Waterloo so the same cycle to Ashford station wouldn't be a problem. The big draw of Ashford over other Kent towns with train stations is HS1 as the commute (train alone) would be 40mins as oppose to an hour or more from equally distanced stations. Unfortunately my budget is limited to 220K for a 3 bed house which severely restricts options. I plan to visit Ashford this weekend and get a feel for the town as a whole and best areas to buy so any more advice would be gratefully received.

TLP2012

There are other towns in Kent that are served by HS1. Rochester is around 40 mins out of St Pancras and would be cheaper travel wise.

jc808

Rochester isnt a true HS1 line - you get cheaper travel; costs if u take the commuter services (45 mins to LB)

Plus rochester/ chatham is a hole

outofmoney

I don't live in Ashford but have to go there often. I quite like the town. It has a good variety of shops. There is also a fair amount of shopping areas just outside the town.

Passing through the residential areas just outside they seem fine to me. But can be different at night so handy that you are going to be checking the place out for the weekend.

TLP2012

I said Rochester as an example but it benefits from the HS line for some of the journey and takes the same amount of travel time to St Pancras for less ££. I agree that it is cheaper to take the normal commuter route into London Bridge which is easy for Waterloo.

Chatham is a hole, but Rochester is definitely better. Haven't been to Ashford for a while but when I worked there 10 years ago it wasn't exactly fantastic.

TBH not sure I would want to rely on the HS as it is so expensive but there are other places closer to London that would be quicker and cheaper to travel.

kramer89

Basically the way i'm looking at it is I can afford a 3 bed semi detached house with garden in Ashford but the closer to London I get, the less I get. I know this is the oh so common conundrum but..... I've looked at Kennington and Kingsnorth on Rightmove which both look nice (if you like housing estates as oppose to period properties). Does anyone know if these areas have any corner shops, cafes or the like or are they purely housing estates with a Tesco Extra a car drive away?

tim123456789

There are local shops on Faversham Road at Church Road and Nettlefield