Man of Kent? Kentish Man?

MasterPlan1

MasterPlan1

MasterPlan1

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Any fellows here from Kent, that know the Central Kent area rather well? i.e. around Canterbury?

My missus has just got into Canterbury Uni starting next year, I currently live in Gravesend, which is quite a trek to get to Cant from G'send... I was wondering if anyone knows the Canterbury area/surrounding towns, and what they're like, housing prices for rentals etc.

I was looking at Faversham, £600pm can get me a quite nice little 1-2 bed house, but obviously I have no idea what Faversham is like. So anyone care to educate me on the surrounding towns, their nightlife, chav\troublesom populus, travel into the capital, train fares, journey times to Canterbury\LDN and whatnot...

Thanks a million. :)
 
Canterbury, erm if your looking at student accommodation off campus then the place is a haven for you if not id get into some estate agents and see what is around, i think 600 pcm is gonna be at a push tbh

As for night life pubs galore! one for everyday oif the year plus more :D various clubs around which are all half decent, personal preference avoid chill at all costs, studio41 best place to be on a saturday or monday night! great club, dont go on a friday though...thats a death sentence lol

Obv lots of students about and a lot of foreigners too makes canterbury a busy place, cinema is crap but every amenity you need is there, kingsmead a good/alright gym, recently opened a bowling alley in town

Asda is 24hrs which is lush! :D lots of quiet parks to sit in around the place, personally i really like it here and have settled well, generally people keep to themselves but people seem to be nice for kent LOL chavs, well there's lots of em but crime is very low around here probably due to the presence of the police all the time and what id call 'pro-active' security team around white friars, chav haven would be outside McDonald's at around 7-8ish in the evening lol i feel very safe walking home after work at 4 in the morning after all the drinks have been kicked out even on my own

anything else just ask and i will try and help :D
 
Faversham is a dump, full of "chav families" and such. Avoid if possible.

Canterbury is a good area to live, although I will say avoid London Road Estate and Spring Lane Estate, I used to get grief when I lived in both areas. It's a student city as there are three Unis here now, plus the College.
 
Sittingbourne any good? I was looking at the newly built Eden Village... £400-600pm doesn't seem too bad. I basically want somewhere which isn't too much hassle to get to London from, I was looking at moving slightly closer to home, like Rochester... I myself, basically need to get into Vauxhall for 7am, and trains which run as late as midnight or later to get back to (I work shifts in a data centre)

Getting to London from Canterbury is a 1:30 trip, I'd prefer to keep my travel time to London ~1hr. This is the main thing :/
 
MasterPlan1 said:
Sittingbourne any good? I was looking at the newly built Eden Village... £400-600pm doesn't seem too bad. I basically want somewhere which isn't too much hassle to get to London from, I was looking at moving slightly closer to home, like Rochester... I myself, basically need to get into Vauxhall for 7am, and trains which run as late as midnight or later to get back to (I work shifts in a data centre)

Getting to London from Canterbury is a 1:30 trip, I'd prefer to keep my travel time to London ~1hr. This is the main thing :/
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I think Sittingbourne is the arse of Kent, excluding Medway naturally.
 
I got a high speed train from London to Ashford the other week. Costs a bit extra though.

I lived in Canterbury for three years - what uni is she at, Kent or Christ Church? As already stated, avoid London Road Estate and Spring Lane, Wincheap is your best bet, or Hales Place if you can stand the students.

Places to live nearer London - anywhere on the Medway is a dump, Rochester has prositutes walking up and down the street, Gravesend is...urgh and Chatham and Gillingham are vile. I reckon if you pick well in Chatham you'll be ok. Rainham and Sittingbourne are ok. I quite like Faversham but it is a bit chavvy.

Don't know a lot about Maidstone but it looked OK when I visited. Tunbridge Wells is nice too. If she wants the student lifestyle, though, living in Canterbury really is the best way, even if you live on the outskirts.
 
She's going to be at Kent, the problem with the HS trains are I believe they're purely rush hour... So getting in for 7am won't be possible. Chatham\Gillingham are definate nonos, I know them too well. Rochester along the Esplanade looks nice, I have a few mates who live there... Rent varies quite drastically though. :/

I've got about 6 months before we start looking seriously, as that's when her current jobs contract ends, so I've got a while to hunt, sort finances etc.

I could deal with Gravesend, but the commute for her to Canterbury would be a little annoying, I hate having to transfer trains, and she'd have to go Gravesend > Rochester > Canterbury...
 
the thing is with kent wherever you go there's a **** part and a nice part, the size of these individual parts may vary from place to place so asking generally is sittingbourne ok you're going to get mixed results. I live on sheppey (now that is an awful place) but like i said before it has it's nice areas (a small one at that tho lol), in response to your sittingbourn question i thik it's ok, there's some nice bits if you look towards the out skirts. stay away from kemsley tho. Really though do you need to move? canterbury is not far from gravesend.
 
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Whitstable yet. I go there everyday and it's a brilliant place. Seaside, good air, haven't had any trouble from undesirables :p Not sure what the trains are like to London/Canterbury, but it had a semi-decent bus service to Canterbury.
 
Seems like a lot of us have connections to Gravesend!

Communting to London is bad enough at the moment, let alone any further out. Gravesend (and a bit further down to the Medway towns) are pretty much half way between Central London and Canterbury - its not a bad drive down to Canterbury.

If you dont mind paying the much higher fares for the high speed train services then maybe Ashford? - only an hr away from London.
 
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