Thoughts on Norfolk

lozenlady

I grew up in West Norfolk / kings lynn, direct train to Kings Cross in 2 hrs, although often subject to rail replacements, but if its only once or twice a month I'm sure you could plan around them. There are some lovely villages around Lynn many of which I would recommend if you are interested, but as lovely as it is I wouldn't recommend without a car as public transport can be several limited. Think 1 bus per hr till maybe 8pm.

MysteryMe

I lived in Norwich for about 10 years, I think if I was looking to live near a train station then Norwich is a much better bet than Great Yarmouth TBH. There are some nice parts of Yarmouth but they are not around the station.  People were commuting every day from Norwich so travelling once or twice a month would be a doddle, don't forget the inter city trains have tables / fold down tables so it could be feasible that could get your laptop out and work on the journey. Without knowing your budget, Diss is a decent shout or maybe somewhere like Woodbridge in Suffolk, which is a nice small town.  It's on a branch line so not as quick as direct but then Ipswich on the main line is much nearer London than Norwich.

FreeBear

Both Lowestoft and Gt Yarmouth have problems with drugs & high unemployment - When councils need to house their homeless, Yarmouth is where the bulk of them get dumped. If you wanted somewhere with good rail connections, Diss is as good a place as any to start looking, but.... Avoid anything on the Victoria Rd, Park Rd, and Stanley Rd. That is the main road through and gets clogged with traffic. A new housing estate is being thrown up on Frenze Hall which is right next to the main railway line - Loads of noise from freight rumbling through at night, and the high speed passenger trains during the day.

A few other places worth considering lie along the Bittern Line (the Norwich<->Sheringham railway). Wroxham has the advantage that it has a pretty good bus service throughout the day to/from Norwich if the trains are not running.

Stowmarket, whilst not Norfolk, benefits from being a main stop on the Norwich<->London line. A much better option than Yarmouth

newsgroupmonkey_

You lot were much harsher than me
I was trying to be nice about the place.

FreeBear

newsgroupmonkey_ said: I was trying to be nice about the place.

Just wait until comments are made about Thetford

Large military presence due to the number of army & USAF airbases close by. High unemployment & drugs problems (another dumping ground for the homeless). About the only nice thing to say about the place is it is well placed on major trunk routes & has a mainline railway station. Both handy for a quick exit.

trix-a-belle

I concur with the comments regarding Great Yarmouth, I used to work there and couldn't wait to leave at the end of the day.
The Norwich to London line has its benefits and its definite problems so I'd agree with the above comment to consider Stowmarket as its the change point so you can easily get across to Cambridge also which is on the direct line into Kings Cross. I think Woodbridge would be over budget.
Beccles is worth consideration, its got a better train link than the north of Norwich suggestions, I think it goes direct into Ipswich to change to London Liverpool Street, also has a few banks, shops, Boots, Superdrug, big Tesco, Lidl, Morrisons & is abit more affordable, again just over the border into Suffolk.
There are nice places such as Wymondham & Attleborough (could be better could be worse a bit like Beccles, definitely better than Thetford) which are on the Norwich > Cambridge line to connect to Kings Cross, though not all trains stop at them, each with a main supermarket or 2 & small selection of shops.

Whatever you choose i'd definitely say take some long weekends and get a proper view on the options as it will be a big change from the South East, as said being a non driver is going to make it very difficult. Look carefully at the train times and connections.
You say South East office location rather than London so if you're going to be having to get a further connection out of London to your office location that makes connections for 1-2 days a month in the office more painful as anything will require connection through the main London hubs & i'm not sure the train times will be that great to allow that further time.

GDB2222

MysteryMe said:

I lived in Norwich for about 10 years, I think if I was looking to live near a train station then Norwich is a much better bet than Great Yarmouth TBH. There are some nice parts of Yarmouth but they are not around the station.  People were commuting every day from Norwich so travelling once or twice a month would be a doddle, don't forget the inter city trains have tables / fold down tables so it could be feasible that could get your laptop out and work on the journey. Without knowing your budget, Diss is a decent shout or maybe somewhere like Woodbridge in Suffolk, which is a nice small town.  It's on a branch line so not as quick as direct but then Ipswich on the main line is much nearer London than Norwich.

"People were commuting every day from Norwich" - I'd have a look at the link below. It sounds like people were absolutely hating the commute. 
I have an acquaintance who did it full time for about 10 years and he has stopped recently and said it pretty much gave him a breakdown at one stage. I heard some other people chatting about this topic in the office the other day and they thought it is only possible if you keep it to 3 days a week.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Norwich/comments/9t1j0g/commuting_from_norwich_to_london/

Once or twice a month might be okay, but you have to be certain that the employer would not change their mind and want people in the office every day.

MysteryMe

Not sure what point you are trying to make. I said plenty of people do the commute and that is accurate. Obviously some will hate it, others will not bothered by it at all especially if they are able to work on the train, which many do.  I don't need to look on reddit, I lived in Norwich I knew people who did it. 

NameUnavailable

Alan Partridge. Nuff said!

verytired11

I am moving out of London to Norwich!  It's a lovely city and beautiful surrounding countryside and near the coast too.  However, the housing market there is absolutely red hot.  I started looking before covid, and couldn't believe how cheap everything was.  Now, not so much.  Everything is going to best and final and well over asking price.  However, you can still get a really nice city centre 2 up 2 down walking distance to the station for under £150K.  I am not sure about the pricing of flats.  I would definitely avoid great yarmouth as others have said.  The train service to London has been rubbish for 18 months or more, but all the works seem to have finally come to an end.  When it runs well, it's fast but it's the amount of times it's not running that's the problem (although tbf that's mainly at weekends).  I won't need to commute that often and I have a car, so it's manageable.  I wouldn't want to rely on the train line on a daily or even weekly basis.  But i can definitely recommend Norwich - it's got a laid back, artsy vibe, good pubs and lots of them, it's pretty, and the people are friendly.