Nice parts of Kent?

Gordon_Hose

I live in Teynham, between Faversham and Sittingbourne. I lived in Faversham for 5 years and would recommend it. It has good rail links with London being an hour and 15 mins away, and very slightly quicker via the High Speed service.

Faversham itself is nice. It has it's questionable areas, but then where doesn't nowadays.

Rochester is nice and even quicker to London, it's also having a brand new train station built.

St. Mary;s Island is nice from what I've seen, bit far for the train station though. Dockside is close, which means shopping and restaurants close by. The Ship and Trades pub is excellent as well!

roobee13

Hi OP,

OH is a Medway boy and won't even let me set foot in Strood when we visit his Dad! From what I'm told / have seen a little of, Rochester is deffo the nicest of the Medway towns. Its plus point is the high speed and easy distance to London I guess.

Hope you find something that suits!

115K

So basically Tunbridge Well's, Faversham, Yalding, Sevenoaks and St Mary's Island all seem to get good reviews.

Gravesend seems very reasonable in price, that isn't that far from Bromley if I remember rightly. It would be easy to get into London from there.

Bantex_2

115K wrote: »

So basically Tunbridge Well's, Faversham, Yalding, Sevenoaks and St Mary's Island all seem to get good reviews.

Gravesend seems very reasonable in price, that isn't that far from Bromley if I remember rightly. It would be easy to get into London from there.

Bits of Gravesend are quite nice, most is a bit shabby.

Running_Horse

Yalding is a nice village but prone to flooding and the railway is on a sleepy branch line (change at Paddock Wood for London). East Farleigh might be nice if Yalding was a contender. From everything you have said Gravesend would not be a good fit (M&S are leaving). I would never live on St Mary's Island, being the sort of person who hates isolated toy town developments. Like you I need good transport links. Rochester is OK but still Medway.

115K

Running_Horse wrote: »

I would never live on St Mary's Island, being the sort of person who hates isolated toy town developments. Like you I need good transport links. Rochester is OK but still Medway.

Yes, that is what would put me off as I can't picture myself living there. Gravesend is out then too, I thought the prices seemed a bit cheap.

This flat looks really nice to me, it's actually bigger then the house we have now. I wonder what the service charge would be though.

2 bedroom apartment for sale in Montacute Gardens, Tunbridge Wells, TN4

Ebany

I grew up in Yalding, and my parents still live there, so I know it well.

Yalding may be rather small if you are used to London (its very definitely a village) but it is nice. They have regular farmers markets up the high street, and a christmas fair, among other community activities. Its great if you like long walks in the country.

Its about a 5 min drive to Paddock Wood for trains to London, which is probably faster than walking to the station 'in' Yalding itself as its quite a way. There is talk of building a new development on the former chemical works, but its getting considerable resistance (plus this talk has been going on for about 15 years now). Parts of it are indeed prone to flooding, but the village goes uphill from the river on one side and it's quite safe up there. Its not really too hard to work out from the lie of the land where is safe, and where isn't.

I know my mum likes Tunbridge Wells, Westerham is nice, Maidstone, last I knew, had horrible parking and traffic issues, but that was quite a while back.

benjus

How frequently do you need to get to central London? If it's very frequent you'll probably save a lot of money by being within the TfL Travelcard zones. If it's just occasional it won't matter so much.

115K

benjus wrote: »

How frequently do you need to get to central London? If it's very frequent you'll probably save a lot of money by being within the TfL Travelcard zones. If it's just occasional it won't matter so much.

Probably not often at all, only if we go to a concert at the O2 or something. Maybe once a month at the most.

Running_Horse

Parking in Maidstone is pretty good with Fremlin Walk, and at the weekend there are the KCC and station car parks. But all traffic comes through the centre and round two bridges, and it inevitably crawls at certain times and places.

Got to admit I have an irrational dislike of Tunbridge Wells, and I'm not keen on flats. Maybe it's the stereotype of 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' which had more than a ring of truth about it when I worked briefly in retail in the town. Maybe it's the sprawling town centre without a centre. In reality it's probably a great town with great shops and social life. Just something about the place. But keep it on your list.