Commuter towns to London

It depends on what you want property wise, what the budget is and what the area has to offer.

Dorking (my home town)
Its a good commute to London but the town itself doesn't offer much. There are great walks over Ranmore, Box Hill etc and crime rate isn't too bad (avoid the Goodwyns area) but its so expensive I had to move out of the county just to find somewhere I could afford. (They were building shared ownership flats and wanted £325,000 for 1 bed!)

I used to live in Reigate briefly. Again good route to London (same for Redhill) but it's only a small town. Redhill is bigger but I've heard in recent years it's not a great area anymore. Can't really comment though as I haven't really been there a lot in recent years.

Guildford has a good selection of shops, some nice areas to walk but again pricy. (Pretty much everywhere in Surrey really)

There is Leatherhead but like most places you should probably avoid what's known as the dodgy side lol. (Kingston Road end)

Quite a few colleagues live around Cobham or Fetcham. Nice areas but again ££££

Crawley - meant to be a great area for commuting to London with lower house prices and yeah that's true but i find people are a lot moodier than my home town lol (i was complimented once on how nice i spoke to my nephews. Thought it odd until i moved and heard the way parents were speaking/swearing to their young children :eek:).
We have the shopping centre, airport close by and 2 train stations to get you to London. Plenty of McDonald's :D and people who can't park lol
Southgate is apparently the slightly better area crime rate wise. And when I compared the crime rates back in 2018 with Dorking they were fairly similar
A 1 bed flat would probably be around £220,000-£240,000 depending on the area.

Haven't been to Horsham in years so can't comment really all I know is they trash talk Crawley and Crawley trash talks them :D (obvs I remain switzerland)

If you're interested in a 2 bed shared ownership flat I'm planning to move soon :D
 
In terms of South Western Railway main line station towns...

Woking = 25 minute fast trains to Waterloo. Bits of it nice. Very high Asian representation in parts. Housing costs a bomb. Night life ok. Used to be better but then everywhere did.

Guildford = 35-40min fast trains to Waterloo. Most parts nice but avoid park barn estate area. Houses cost a bomb. Night life better than Woking. Not the main line but just off it.

Brookwood = just outside Woking. Smaller. Traffic can be bad. Smaller town.

Farnborough = cheaper housing than Woking and Guildford. Not sure why someone said it was "grim". It's ok ish I suppose. Trains are about 40/45 mins to Waterloo.

Fleet = quite nice. Houses cost a bomb. Used to have good night life but not so much these days. About 40/45 to waterloo as well.

Basingstoke = bit of a rep for being a concrete jungle stuck in the 70s/80s but like Bracknell, had a lot of development in the centre and has had loads of houses to up. Houses cheaper and more bang per buck. Trains about 45/50 to Waterloo.

If you live closer in than Woking, then the fast trains only tend to stop at West Byfleet (nice), Surbiton (not as nice imo) and Clapham (posh, expensive) before Waterloo. Towns like Weybridge (nice but Uber expensive) tend to require slower "suburban" train services which are typically the cruddy trains that stop at every stop. So in the time to get to Weybridge from Waterloo, you could get to Woking say.

Then you have all the branch lines as mentioned so depends how much train time is too much time.
 
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Peterborough (well the surrounding area) - I thinks it's 45mins to KingsX from there, I used to do that as a commute and it was manageable. Loads of cheap houses up there.

Tunbridge Wells - 45 mins to London Bridge. Can be a bit pricey, but cheaper than London itself, very nice place and area.

Battle - just under 1 hour 20 mins to London Bridge, beautiful area, this is where I moved to from West London last year and it's fantastic (and you get near the coast) - get a lot more house for your money that Tunbridge Wells. We went from a 3 bed ex council house in London to a monster of a house down here.

The trusty fallbacks if these are too far are Surrey (something like Egham, Staines or Guildford) or Buckinghamshire (Amersham, Beaconsfield etc) - there not cheap though.
 
Can't say I'd be in a rush to do that again albeit I was mostly commuting from Bromley/Croydon areas - it gets old and tiresome fast and I was often going the other way to the flow.

Dunno about north London but south is very hit and miss and people get very different impressions from living not all that far apart within a similar area.
 
Dialup said:
Basingstoke 50 minutes to Waterloo? Ay?

It's 25 if you get the fast train which is most of them.
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45 mins is the fastest train from Basingstoke to Waterloo.

BongoHunter said:
Peterborough (well the surrounding area) - I thinks it's 45mins to KingsX from there, I used to do that as a commute and it was manageable. Loads of cheap houses up there.

Tunbridge Wells - 45 mins to London Bridge. Can be a bit pricey, but cheaper than London itself, very nice place and area.

Battle - just under 1 hour 20 mins to London Bridge, beautiful area, this is where I moved to from West London last year and it's fantastic (and you get near the coast) - get a lot more house for your money that Tunbridge Wells. We went from a 3 bed ex council house in London to a monster of a house down here.

The trusty fallbacks if these are too far are Surrey (something like Egham, Staines or Guildford) or Buckinghamshire (Amersham, Beaconsfield etc) - there not cheap though.
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I expect the travelling either side of these stations would really add a lot and make them not feasible.
 
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jaybee said:
Do you remember Quake nightclub?!
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Lol I was a bit young for clubbing back then!

Guildford is nicer in every way I’m afraid.

The South West trains main line to Portsmouth Harbour is depressing. In fact that whole commuter corridor is depressing. There are nice bits of countryside for sure, but house prices remain eye watering and what you gain in countryside you lose in being more isolated with few amenities around the place. Be prepared to get in your car a lot.
 
BongoHunter said:
Battle - just under 1 hour 20 mins to London Bridge, beautiful area, this is where I moved to from West London last year and it's fantastic (and you get near the coast) - get a lot more house for your money that Tunbridge Wells. We went from a 3 bed ex council house in London to a monster of a house down here.
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if you’re going full on South Coast, I’d be moving to Brighton or the South Downs. Way better transport links and Brighton is so much better than Hastings I’m afraid!

Glad you’re enjoying the new lifestyle out of London!
 
I think Woking is alright, but I live just outside. You don't move here to go into the town centre. Everything outside the centre is semi-rural, and if you want to do some posh shopping you go to Guildford. The A3 and the M25 are in spitting distance, so it's good for getting on the road. I like living her.

Nightlife is questionable. But then you just go to Surbiton on Clapham Junction on the train in 20 mins, so that's not a big deal.
 
delta0 said:
45 mins is the fastest train from Basingstoke to Waterloo.


I expect the travelling either side of these stations would really add a lot and make them not feasible.
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Erh, no, it isn't.

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