Home buying - London SW

Gowardo

Addiscombe does seem nice from maps, although it does take us to the other side of where we are looking, but that said thanks for the advice, we'll consider it!

totallybored

LondonDreamer wrote: »

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Croydon area trains are run by Southern Rail and only go to Victoria (so your wife would need to change at Clapham for Waterloo) or London Bridge. I was considering around the Purley, Coulsdon or Whyteleafe areas which should all be within budget. I'm not familiar with them as we decided to look elsewhere but I know the crime rate was quite low and trains were frequent. But again, you're looking more at 25-30 minutes into London Bridge (more if she changes for Waterloo) and not 20.
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First Capital Connect trains run from East Croydon to Blackfriars, City Thameslink (North exit is walkable to bits of Holborn), Farringdon and St Pancras. There are also fast trains from East Croydon to London Bridge that take 12 minutes.

LondonDreamer

totallybored wrote: »

First Capital Connect trains run from East Croydon to Blackfriars, City Thameslink (North exit is walkable to bits of Holborn), Farringdon and St Pancras. There are also fast trains from East Croydon to London Bridge that take 12 minutes.

I wouldn't recommend Croydon town itself, I was referring to the borough which isn't on FCC. I didn't go into too much detail about the other providers since the OP was more interested in connections to Waterloo which limits to lines run by SWT unless you're willing to change trains. But that is actually a service I get quite regularly to go from North London to the coast - brilliant for that.

As I said in a previous post, if his wife is willing to go into another terminal, a lot more options could be opened up such as FCC, C2C, etc. But then, I don't know where OP needs to commute to (assuming he also needs to commute) either.

Fraise

Gowardo wrote: »

Thanks again so far for all of the suggestions guys. Really, really helpful!

Worcester Park - Is it fairly quick and frequent into Waterloo at any time of the day? The issue with any line we go on is that my wife works in Holborn (Admittedly very close to Waterloo) so we need to make sure that the train journey isn't really ever more than 20 minutes and that it's fairly frequent in the evenings.

Croydon - Potential area to look at as well I suppose, although I don't want to open another huge can of worms and move further east - but in theory what areas would you guys look at that fit that criteria if you were looking in the Croydon?

Thanks thanks thanks!

West Croydon and Thornton Heath is not nice at all, but they are regenerating it and building a new shopping centre and apartment blocks, so it is 'up and coming' I suppose.

Further along is Purley which really is lovely. Very green and scenic with some gorgeous tree lined roads and very grand houses (sone fetching millions) but amazingly you can find the odd bargain. The beauty of Purley is that it's just 20 minutes by BR to Victoria or London Bridge on the direct fast train, so it's possible to get to work (door t door) in just 40 minutes, probably about the same time it takes someone living in Zone 2 to get to Central London door to door. There's also excellent bus services that go all the way to Central London, and you're close to the large shopping centre in Croydon itself. You're also close to Gatwick Airport (20 minutes by car), M25 (10 minutes away) Brighton (45 minutes by car) and there's lots of lovely country pubs in the surrounding greenbelt. Woldingham, which is round the corner to Purley has the most millionaires living there out of all the country, so you can imagine the type of shops/restaurants/pubs nearby....

Another nice aspect of Purley is that although you're within easy access of the greenbelt countryside, you're not far from Central London. You can actually see the Shard and Gherkin from some roads in Purley, and as the crow flies it's about 12 miles away.

The other areas that have been mentioned here, Wimbledon, Epsom, Putney, Kingston, Weybridge etc.....there's no way you would find a period house for £400k. Nor would you in Purley, most of which is posh and genteel, but if you're prepared to compromise and live in Purley Oaks it's cheaper there and you will get more for your money.

Gowardo

We're scheduling some viewings in Worcester Park - let's see... !

onlyroz

LondonDreamer wrote: »

I really wish I liked Woking more. As a commuter, it's a brilliant station.

I work in Woking and it has improved a lot in the last few years - with more and more money being spent on town-centre improvements. We're apparently going to get a covered market and a large M&S by the end of the year.

JimmyTheWig

My one memory of Woking is that the shops were empty.
Not that there weren't many shoppers. Not that the shelves were empty. Just that there was a lot of empty space. So in a clothes shop, for example, the rails would be a long way apart from each other.

burnoutbabe

A quick search on rightmove shows 5 2-3bed houses in Wimbledon - 10-15 min walk to the station (or near northern line tubes).

So i'd consider there as well. its not out of your price bracket.

onlyroz

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

My one memory of Woking is that the shops were empty.
Not that there weren't many shoppers. Not that the shelves were empty. Just that there was a lot of empty space. So in a clothes shop, for example, the rails would be a long way apart from each other.

That's to leave space for the average Wokingite to walk between them

Cornucopia

burnoutbabe wrote: »

A quick search on rightmove shows 5 2-3bed houses in Wimbledon - 10-15 min walk to the station (or near northern line tubes).

So i'd consider there as well. its not out of your price bracket.

Wimbledon has various bits - those towards the Northern Line stations are least "sought after" as the estate agents put it.