Kent—the best town/area to live for London commuting

I grew up in New Romney Kent. I moved up north.

Anyway. If I pick a town in Kent to work in London.

It'll be Folkestone. Yes it's further away but have high speed train. Folkestone to st pancras in less than 1hr.

Seaside with plenty cafes, interesting old street character. Cheaper properties. Good way to spend evening/weekend
 
Fely06 said:
Hope travelling won’t kill me!time and £££!
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It will. And most of Kent is terrible. The drug problems are insane. I had a site there (via work) that took 3 builder's skips worth of needles to clear. This was behind a large billboard which turned out to be the most popular junkie hang out. Chatham Hill...not even once.

I have nothing useful to add other than perhaps reconsider.
 
If you like cafes and bars and want more cost effective housing in Kent within 1hr 30min of Canary Wharf I’d go for Folkestone (the new harbour arm has some amazing pop up food places) or Cantebury. Both on the high speed train line and get you to Stratford in an hour and then it’s a few stops on the DLR to Canary Wharf.

I live in a village between Ashford and Cantebury and I can tell you the High Speed line is a thing of beauty. In 25 years of commuting I learned the quality of the commute is as important as the time. I much prefer a table, ‘international’ spaced seat, power outlet and a smooth ride for 50 minutes on the high speed than the 12 minutes I used to do like a sardine in a tin can from West Dulwich to Victoria. Headphones on, box set on the laptop and I get out the other side feeling pretty good and relaxed.

It’s not for everyone to live that far out but honestly the only thing I miss is being able to get a cab home very late at night (about £200 in an Uber!)
 
I was born and raised in Lee Gree, Greenwich but have family in Sevenoaks. Grandparents used to run a shoe repair shop in Dunton Green. Uncle lives in the Weald, Sevenoaks.

I lived for a year in Orpington with my sis, my dad worked at an MOD place in Kent where he met my mum. He trained in Woolwich Arsenal.

For 10 years I used to drive and park from Lee Green to Beckenham, and got the train from Kent House.

I own a house in Hoo, a small village near Rochester. It’s nice, we’ve been here ten years. It has a village with a good chippy, curry house, coffee shop, gym etc (with pool).

Commuter links via Strood (About 3-4 miles away) and you can get the fast train to London St Pancres in 33 mins. Expensive though. The village has a coach commuter service running through it daily (Not weekends) called Clarke’s which I’ve used for 9 years. First London stop is Canary Wharf and from Hoo, assuming ok traffic, takes about an hour if you get the first service which leaves the village at approx 05:50. Coach is about £3k a year.

Lots of walking, cycling areas and green areas. Our house backs onto a field so that’s nice for the dogs.

10 mins away from the A2, 15 mins to Bluewater, 20 to Dartford tunnel assuming clear roads (never clear!)

The village has come a bit of a victim of its own success though, hardly a village now with all the new houses and flats popping up. More like a small town!

Mother in law lives in Vigo so we’re very familiar with Kent.
 
HoneyBadger said:
I was born and raised in Lee Gree, Greenwich but have family in Sevenoaks. Grandparents used to run a shoe repair shop in Dunton Green. Uncle lives in the Weald, Sevenoaks.

I lived for a year in Orpington with my sis, my dad worked at an MOD place in Kent where he met my mum. He trained in Woolwich Arsenal.

For 10 years I used to drive and park from Lee Green to Beckenham, and got the train from Kent House.

I own a house in Hoo, a small village near Rochester. It’s nice, we’ve been here ten years. It has a village with a good chippy, curry house, coffee shop, gym etc (with pool).

Commuter links via Strood (About 3-4 miles away) and you can get the fast train to London St Pancres in 33 mins. Expensive though. The village has a coach commuter service running through it daily (Not weekends) called Clarke’s which I’ve used for 9 years. First London stop is Canary Wharf and from Hoo, assuming ok traffic, takes about an hour if you get the first service which leaves the village at approx 05:50. Coach is about £3k a year.

Lots of walking, cycling areas and green areas. Our house backs onto a field so that’s nice for the dogs.

10 mins away from the A2, 15 mins to Bluewater, 20 to Dartford tunnel assuming clear roads (never clear!)

The village has come a bit of a victim of its own success though, hardly a village now with all the new houses and flats popping up. More like a small town!

Mother in law lives in Vigo so we’re very familiar with Kent.
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But, but, but...Kent??!?! It's a hole mostly!!
 
SeatIbiza said:
But, but, but...Kent??!?! It's a hole mostly!!
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Do you really think so? Have you spent much time in either of the two huge Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty or the marshes? Or the seaside towns of Whitstable or Broadstairs? Some of the bigger towns like Ashford, Chatham, Gravesend or Dover aren’t fantastic but for every one of those there’s a Whitstable, Sevenoaks or Tunbridge Wells that can rival many Home Counties towns depending on what you want.

Live near Ashford and you can get a train that runs three times an hour during normal peak time, gets to St Pancras in 35 minutes and you always get a comfy seat - yet in the summer months you can get home and go have an evening picnic on a sandy beach in half an hour from disembarking if you want.
 
Agree to a speed train from Folkstone. But it will comes to a premium. Have good 6 months for house and area hunting! Bit nervous with the location! Single lady walking at night :) Anyway, so grateful for all your comments! I love Kent and can’t think of any other parts of London:((
 
Do your sums too. While the property prices are considerably lower, a season ticket on the high speed with travel card is something like £8k a year now and that’s if you’ve got the money to buy it annually which gives you 12 months for the price of 10. Do it monthly and it’s not far of £800 and that’s a fair chunk of London mortgage potentially.
 
Kent is like Surrey in a lot of ways, parts of it like Beckenham have basically been absorbed into Greater London, then you've got a lot of lovely countryside with some historical cathedral cities like Canterbury. Some highly affluent areas like Tunbridge Wells too. Also benefits from a nice coastline that Surrey doesn't have.

I don't live there but have family there, it definitely is not a dump of a county, it's called the Garden of England for good reason it does have some fine countryside.
 
PC777 said:
Kent is like Surrey in a lot of ways
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Couldn’t agree more and I’ve lived in both for over a decade at various points. Royal Tunbridge Wells is quite like Guildford, the villages in the Surrey Hills quite like those on the North Downs and the mediocre towns like Woking a bit like Maidstone. I’d say the few rough parts of Kent are a fair bit rougher than Surrey though in fairness and the biggest issue for me has always been because of it’s size and location it takes an extra hour to get anywhere else in the country by road than starting in Surrey.
 
PC777 said:
Kent is like Surrey in a lot of ways, parts of it like Beckenham have basically been absorbed into Greater London, then you've got a lot of lovely countryside with some historical cathedral cities like Canterbury. Some highly affluent areas like Tunbridge Wells too. Also benefits from a nice coastline that Surrey doesn't have.

I don't live there but have family there, it definitely is not a dump of a county, it's called the Garden of England for good reason it does have some fine countryside.
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Theres what I call old kent with towns like canterbury and sevenoaks and then theres Medway and Swale which are basically London overspill and horrible. Also the govt seems determined to make it into the country's largest lorry park. So there are still parts of the Garden of England left but they're disappearing.
 
Are sure you want to live in Kent?

Kent-toilet.jpg
 
I live in Tunbridge Wells and would certainly recommend it. Train into London Bridge is about 45-50 mins and another 10 to CX.

I actually bought a flat myself for about £200k a couple of years ago, you'll need every penny of it unless you want to be a distance from the centre of town or on busier streets (sketchy parking).

Happy to answer any questions you might have about it.
 
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