Chatham & Gillingham??

Rumana03

Does anyone know if Chatham and Gillingham are good areas? We are trying to buy a house but our budget is small (£240k) so looking at different areas. Not sure which ones are good. We went to Basildon yesterday & that turned out to be quite a rough area from the looks of it.

molerat

Medway as a whole is pretty rough. Gillingham especially has been pretty bad as far back as I can remember - pre 2000, if you wanted to go for a night out, pint and a fight Gillingham was a good choice - and London "cleansing" hasn't helped. There are good and bad areas as everywhere but I suspect with only £240K to spend in London commuter belt you are unlikely to find much in any of the "nice" parts.

Rumana03

molerat said:

Medway as a whole is pretty rough. Gillingham especially has been pretty bad as far back as I can remember - pre 2000, if you wanted to go for a night out, pint and a fight Gillingham was a good choice - and London "cleansing" hasn't helped. There are good and bad areas as everywhere but I suspect with only £240K to spend in London commuter belt you are unlikely to find much in any of the "nice" parts.

Colchester seems to have houses in that price range and I think we would be better off considering that as a potential area to buy in.

Noneforit999

Medway gets a bad name but like anywhere else, there are nice parts and rough parts.

If you like to pop into town to do your shopping, Chatham and Gillingham towns are best avoided but if you are happy to live on the outskirts of them but still in Medway, plenty of places are fine.

Have a look on Rightmove and just avoid the central parts of both towns and look slightly further out.

Jackie1813

Try looking at areas such as Lordswood  and Walderslade on the outskirts of Chatham, I lived there for 29 years and was very happy. Only moved to relocate in the North East.

LadyL2013

Medway gets an unfair rep due to a couple of areas that you should avoid like the plague. There are lots of good areas there too. As a rule of thumb avoid areas around Chatham and Gillingham highstreet and Luton Road area.

In my opinion the nicest areas in Medway are Rainham, Hempstead, Lordswood, Walderslade (especially Walderslade Woods), outer Strood towards Higham, most of Rochester. There's great connections to London and lots of good schools including grammars.

onylon

Definitely deprived areas. Chatham used to be a big navel/shipping hub and the local economy has never recovered from the decline of those industries. When I lived there the trains into London were unreliable and I missed having good local shops/bars/restaurants within walking distance. 

That said, there is a nice community feel and we did find some good hobby clubs etc, particularly around Gillingham. People were happy to share lifts, were generally friendly and up for low cost activities.

FTB20

Jackie1813 said:

Try looking at areas such as Lordswood  and Walderslade on the outskirts of Chatham, I lived there for 29 years and was very happy. Only moved to relocate in the North East.

Hi Jackie, sorry to jump in. We are looking at a house near downsview but we don’t know the area well. Is this an area to avoid or is it ok? 

Dark_Star

Medway is  ghastly. Lived in Gillingham, worked in Chatham. Moved elsewhere, quiet & rural in a different county. Peaceful.
Cannot recommend any of it. Sorry. 
Depends what you need as well.
House/Flat? How many bedrooms? Garden? Transport links? Parking?
On Rightmove you can put a County instead of Gillingham or Basildon  eg Kent or Sussex, max budget & it will show you every property in that area. You can weed out what do you not need using the filters e.g. land for sale etc./no. of bedrooms & so on
Hope that helps 

Noneforit999

Dark_Star said:

Medway is  ghastly. Lived in Gillingham, worked in Chatham. Moved elsewhere, quiet & rural in a different county. Peaceful.
Cannot recommend any of it. Sorry. 
Depends what you need as well.
House/Flat? How many bedrooms? Garden? Transport links? Parking?
On Rightmove you can put a County instead of Gillingham or Basildon  eg Kent or Sussex, max budget & it will show you every property in that area. You can weed out what do you not need using the filters e.g. land for sale etc./no. of bedrooms & so on
Hope that helps 

To be fair, Medway is bigger than just Chatham and Gillingham. 

Sure, the towns of Chatham and Gillingham are fairly run down and I wouldn't want to live within walking distance of either town centre.

However, Medway is fairly big and there are plenty of nice places to live which are nowhere near those towns.

The Hoo peninsula has plenty of nice villages and you are still only a few miles from Strood which has HS1 into London in around 33 minutes.

Lordswood and all round there is fine, its classed as Chatham but really its far enough away not to be and its close to an M2 junction so ideal for commuting etc.

Most populated areas of the UK have good and bad bits. We have lived in Medway (albeit on the Hoo Peninsula) for 6-7 years and have never needed to go into Chatham or Gillingham towns. Bluewater is like 15-20 mins in the car

Jackie1813

 Sorry had not seen this. Downsview is one of those areas with very nice parts and awful parts. Visit at different times of the day to find out what the neighbours are like , look at the houses around the one you are thinking of buying are they all well maintained ? We looked there years ago but, liked Lordswood a little more. Good Luck.