Moving to south east!! London/crawley/surrey

neelxxshb

Hi there everyone,
I currently live in north london and planning on moving with my partner after 10 years living in this area.
my partner recently got a job at Gatwick airport and I currently work in central london. We both will be working shift work and that involves travelling into london or Gatwick in middle of the night.

we were considering moving to Purley (croydon borough) as didnt like the extreme buzz of east croydon area.
we both in our late 20s/early 30s ages but we are not interested in going out or the madness of an area. We would like a convenient but quite-ish and safe neighborhood from where we can commute to either london or Gatwick in the middle of the night if we have to.

can anyone please suggest any areas and how is Purley to live in?
A train service in the middle of the night is defi a must to london and gatwick

thanks a lot

Strapped

You'll get a lot more for your money if you look at areas around Three Bridges in Crawley (since you mention Crawley). I can't particularly recommend Crawley (town centre) but Three Bridges/Pound Hill/Maidenbower are safe areas. Depends where in London you need to get to though as well.

neelxxshb

thanks I did travel to three bridges yesterday as it was top of my list but then there was hardly anything around the station - it seems too quite. Not sure if we were missing something as we did walk about 10 mins either side of the station to get the feel of the place. Apart from couple of shops and couple of bars n take away there was nothing there.

about me getting into whereabouts in London is not a big issue as I work around embankment area so thats not a problem when there are night buses

how is Horley?

dominoman

Have a look at Carshalton Beeches. Nicer than Purley and similar time to central london. If you do look at Purley, the west side is nice, but east side less so.

Kenley or Sanderstead are good options too.

neelxxshb

Thanks for your reply
But my major issues is with trains in the middle of the night
at times we start work at 5 am .. so trains running all night is important
and night buses maybe to connect to the train station if the area is a bit distant is not a problem- but if there are any :P

donfanatico

neelxxshb wrote: »

Thanks for your reply
But my major issues is with trains in the middle of the night
at times we start work at 5 am .. so trains running all night is important
and night buses maybe to connect to the train station if the area is a bit distant is not a problem- but if there are any :P

anywhere outside London you wont find may trains running in the middle of the night anyway, or at least that I know of so you will need to drive.....is this an issue?

DiscoCat54

Haywards Heath is very popular due to it's links in to London and the Gatwick Express Trains.

neelxxshb

Thanks for you input everyone

okay I have narrowed down my search
its either
Purley or Three Bridges or Horley
Those stations have trains running all night into london and Gatwick.
I went yesterday to Purley and Three bridges to have a look around
and Purley seems alright and Three bridges very quite
does anyone have any more insight of those places or Horley

sorry its a stressful decision thats why I need a lot of help

abankerbutnotafatcat

What is your budget and what do you want for that? Horley is nice, not much there due to its proximity to Crawley but it has a Waitrose. The surrounding countryside is lovely. I live two stations away at Earlswood.

neelxxshb

our budget is about £700-800 for a one bedroom flat (2 bedrooms if we are lucky :P) without bill or even cheaper if I can find it or if bills are inclusive then push it to £1000.
I looked at earlswood - its a nice area but sadly difficult to commute to London or gatwick from there in middle of the night

JennGa

Three bridges station itself is a bit randomly placed. Are you sure trains run all night from there into London?
Also consider commuting costs of approx £350+ a month for train season ticket.