Commuter towns to London

South Ken is not an easy commute. My wife works at Chelsea and Westminster and commutes from Bucks, but it's a bit of a pain.
For the Natural History Museum I'd be looking for an overground train that goes to West Brompton.

Watford junction looks to be 35 minutes to West Brompton. Then you have 10 minutes on the tube or a short bus to South Ken.
Or you can go to anywhere in the South/South West that goes in to Clapham Junction and change. But some of the lines in to there can be a bit slow, e.g. Epsom, Windsor.
 
Another vote for Sevenoaks who’s Tunbridge Wells. I commute from the latter to Charing Cross, it would be nice to be a bit closer in Sevenoaks but the house prices are even punchier.

Agreed with those saying the commute to South Ken is a pain, my partner used to commute to the V&A and found it a pain.

Never been to Godalming I’m afraid!
 
Diddums said:
Godalming is looking like a decent candidate atm. What's the area like? Anyone live around there?
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I visited there when exploring commuter towns about 8 years ago. Seemed like a nice town with lots of independent shops, and the train service is quite frequent (4 trains to London an hour). In the end I ruled it out based on price and being slightly further East than we'd like.
The people I've known who live there are positive about it.
 
Had a mooch around Guildford yesterday, looks rather nice and I like the fact that it's perfectly situated for me to ride/drive in to work when the unions bend us over a barrel again.


Will need to check out a few more but to be honest it looks like it'll take a fair bit to beat Guildford at this point!
 
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Diddums said:
Had a mooch around Guildford yesterday, looks rather nice and I like the fact that it's perfectly situated for me to ride/drive in to work when the unions bend us over a barrel again.


Will need to check out a few more but to be honest it looks like it'll take a fair bit to beat Guildford at this point!
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Guildford is a great location. I lived there for 5 years. I also enjoyed the Hogs Back Brewery in Tongham that’s not too far away. You are next to the Surrey Hills which are stunning and you can see loads of wild horses.
 
delta0 said:
Guildford is a great location. I lived there for 5 years. I also enjoyed the Hogs Back Brewery in Tongham that’s not too far away. You are next to the Surrey Hills which are stunning and you can see loads of wild horses.
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I live not far from Guildford and know it well. As with many such places it has gotten considerably busier over the years and house prices around my way are some of the highest in the country - however, you can get into London easily, the coast isn’t far away at all and the Surrey Hills are indeed spectacular. Just try to avoid the plague of moronic spandex clad lunatics that frequent the area of an afternoon. They are down right militant.
 
Diddums said:
Looking for a new place outside of London, so I can get a bit more bang for my buck.

So far I've shortlisted:

  • Redhill - not the best area but not awful either
  • Crawley - prefer this to Redhill but a bit more asspensiff
Anyone else got any suggestions pls?

Cheers <3
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I once had very inappropriate relations with a lovely lady from Crawley*. I never knew the meaning of the word 'pneumatic' until I ... well, now I'm being indiscreet.

Good luck OP with your moving or rent increase or whatever.

* not that inappropriate.
 
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i'm amazed to see so many fellow Woking residents in this thread. Hello neighbours.

I highly recommend Woking as an option, not just due to the quick and easy commut to London, but also to both Gatwick airport, and even easier, Heathrow. Beaches are also not too far, and we're surrounded by amazing woods.

But best of all, i'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, our town got a shout out in one of Chris Nolan's best films, Dunkirk.

 
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Woking also has direct trains to Southampton/Bournemouth/Weymouth/Exeter/Salisbury/Portsmouth etc. I'd say it's second only to Basingrad in terms of connectivity for places SW of London.
I think it's arguably the best value location in Surrey when it comes to the ratio of commute time (25-30mins to Waterloo) to house prices, although somewhere like Guildford is less grotty.
 
We recently moved from north London. It was a toss up between Guildford and Woking. Preferred Guildford as a town (nicer shops/restaurants/etc.) but went with Woking for slightly faster commute and preferred the schools.
 
Had a look at a few areas over the weekend:

Bishop's Stortford - no, scruffy, felt neglected.
Godalming - no, lovely little town, people all looked decent, but far too dead.
Waltham Cross - no, the less said the better. What a dump.

Farnham, yes, provided we stay on the right side of the tracks. The other side looks a bit crap, but the high street looked nice, there was a nice atmosphere, enough restaurants and shops.
Hertford, yes, but it's a bit of a commute. I might hafta move there so I can become BFFs with @Yaayuh! tho.

Just enquired about this place, the bathrooms look absolutely awful and it has no dishwasher but we can work around those:

www.rightmove.co.uk

Check out this 2 bedroom terraced house for rent on Rightmove

2 bedroom terraced house for rent in Barncroft, Alfred Road, Farnham, GU9 8RU, GU9 for £1,495 pcm. Marketed by Greenwood and Co, Farnham
www.rightmove.co.uk www.rightmove.co.uk


Actually, I'll start updating the OP in case I need to refer to it, or if anyone else ever finds themselves in the same boat.
 
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Just be aware, anywhere south of Guildford is a nightmare for road commuting. The a281 and a3100 are very slow in the AM making for much longer travel times to get to the A3, and then the other way in the evenings.
I used to live in Bramley, just off the a281.
 
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