Experience of Living in Rickmansworth or End of the Central Line?

theGrinch

Do you have experience of living in Rickmansworth, Theydon Bois, Loughton, Epping, Chigwell or surrounding areas?

We are looking to make the move from North London for more living space.

Need to be within half a mile of a tube station. No kids yet.

bowlhead99

I have good friends in Buckhurst Hill which is the stop before Loughton, a few mins drive from Chigwell ; though an extra zone out than Chigwell (5 instead of 4) despite being fewer stops to central London because of the shape of the Central line where it splits. Epping Forest council.

Anyway, they quite like it, assuming you have a car it's easy enough to get out to the motorways or down to the North Circular; schools and nurseries are fine if you are still there when you have kids. Not particularly cheap - the supermarket a few minutes walk from the station is a Waitrose rather than an Aldi. But 'the move from North London' covers a huge range of situations - Tottenham has a different vibe from Hackney and from Hampstead Heath for example...

Toucan_toucan

I know people who live in Hainault and Woodford, so not as far out, and one in Loughton. They seem to experience trouble on the Central Line rather often, and they don't rely on it to get to work every day - the people in Hainault and Woodford drive in or work from home. It's not terrible every day, but it does seem to be affected on a fairly regular basis so I'd just make sure you aren't completely reliant on it for getting to work.

AdrianC

Not Ricky itself, but we used to be elsewhere along that Amersham Met line.

The tube trains aren't fast, and when there's problems, there's MAJOR problems. I used to regularly have to collect herself from Croxley or Moor Park. Chiltern diesels are faster, but fewer.

In peak hours, they used to be solid - but this was the old A stock, rather than the current S stock (which have more standing space, fewer seats). The Chilts were even busier.

Cakeguts

Rickmansworth isn't compact. So unless you live in the middle you could be a long way from the station.

theGrinch

Ideally need to be within half a mile of the station, as no car at present.

Do you think £1million budget is enough for a 4/5 bed detached in any of those areas? Don't mind if we have to do work.

AdrianC

Never mind Ricky, you'll have a choice of really nice places in Chorleywood for that!

Little bit further to walk, but not that much:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62676745.html

Mutton_Geoff

I live in Chesham, at the end of the Metropolitan Line. Not a tube commuter but the area is nice and quite a bit cheaper than Chorleywood, Rickmansworth & Amersham. There are recently announced plans for the Chesham Masterplan which can only increase the values of properties there.

singhini

£1M is a lot IMHO.
I have friends who live in north-west London right near Dollis Hill tube stop (its at the end of their road and when I visit I think its ace that they are connected to Bond Street in 15 mins (Dollis Hill is on the Jubilee line, think the postcode is NW10 1EJ). Anyhow this is up for £920,000 http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51909933.html

bowlhead99

theGrinch wrote: »

Ideally need to be within half a mile of the station, as no car at present.

Do you think £1million budget is enough for a 4/5 bed detached in any of those areas? Don't mind if we have to do work.

5 bed detached a few minutes from Buckhurst Hill station.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50552961.html £1-1.1m guide (the top end of that seems pretty optimistic to me)

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62551315.html £960k with separate annexe, on with 3 agents which maybe means seller asking too much and being obstinate about it despite reducing a bit from original price (on busier road than the other).

But yes the budget is probably OK, a search within half mile of the station also shows another 4 bed detached a couple of roads back for £940k.

You mention no car at present. If the budget is £1m you could always change the budget to £995k and then during the couple of months it takes you to close the property transaction you could buy a car for £4k and if necessary take 40 hours of driving lessons for £1k (most people can pass in less)

theGrinch

singhini wrote: »

£1M is a lot IMHO.
I have friends who live in north-west London right near Dollis Hill tube stop (its at the end of their road and when I visit I think its ace that they are connected to Bond Street in 15 mins (Dollis Hill is on the Jubilee line, think the postcode is NW10 1EJ). Anyhow this is up for £920,000 http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-51909933.html

Thanks, little decent but we are looking to move a little further away from the big smoke having spent 40 years in the Tottenham, Wood Green and, Palmers Green areas.