Where is good to live in the South East which is good for Heathrow, and commuting into London and Crawley?

[Dottymcdot]

Just that really, DH job means he will travel every quarter. We need a decent primary school and secondary schools. Currently living on the outskirts of London, do not know whether to stay here, but house is too small and we cannot afford anything bigger. Any ideas?

Oh and current Crawley commute is two hours each way.

[cantspel]

How about the south coast. Brighton in east sussex or Worthing and surrounding areas in west sussex. Some good schools but check catchment areas, easy commute to crawley and heathrow. The coast of one side and the Downs on the other.

[Lulabellarama]

Horsham!
We're about to move to Horsham from West London and are very excited. It's a lovely town, great schools, wonderful countryside, not too far from the coast and only about 15 mins from Crawley.
We have bought a 4 bed house for half the amount that our 2 bed is valued at in London.

[Lulabellarama]

Oh and the trains to Victoria are between 47 and 65 minutes.

[silverfrog]

Oxted?

half an hour to Crawley, half an hour to London Bridge on the train. schools good. great access to M25.

[mummybare]

Horsham, Dorking, Guildford, Godalming... There are a lot of places that fit your criteria in the Surrey/Sussex area, and a lot of them are fantastic places to live. What size of town do you think would suit you? Which commute(s) would you want to prioritise? How would you be travelling and at what times of day? Anything else that might affect your decision?

[CMOTDibbler]

If dh is working in Crawley, and London/Heathrow are occasional visits, then I'd minimise the everyday travel and look in Horsham/East Grinstead/Haywards Heath area. For all of those its easy to get into London, and Heathrow is 30-45 mins if the M25 is OK

[Dottymcdot]

That sounds good. Only we have family in The north which will make this a fair slog.

[Traineetoddlertrainer]

Horsham about 15mins drive from Crawley on a good run. About 60 mins to Heathrow T5, but easy if occasional. Close to Gatwick too, so flying North may be an option (cheap Easyjet)?

[Bramshott]

Reigate / Redhill area?

[Dottymcdot]

Yes that is true. What about Caterham, why can you buy so much more house there?

[Dottymcdot]

Is there anywhere where anyone has experienced persistent racism? We are always a little cautious with this,

[Dottymcdot]

I ask as a mixed race couple, whose partner grew up in a country where he was persecuted for being a particular ethnicity. He does not was to place himself in this position again.

[schmee]

I'm sorry to hear that your partner has experienced this. Crawley is reasonably diverse but Horsham is much less so. I think somewhere like Redhill is quite diverse.

[Dottymcdot]

Thanks scheme

[Dottymcdot]

Schmee sorry iPad malfunction

[thisisyesterday]

why not move into crawley?

like anywhere it has its nice bits and not so great bits

i live here and it's quite nice really. i'm in furnace green, so we're walking distance to town centre and also places like tilgate and broadfield park

schools are good

[DENMAN03]

I would second Crawley. It has its bad reputation but you will pay £80k more for a three bed victorian house in Horsham..Trains are easy to London and lots of restaurants and bars in the town. There are nice parts like Pound Hill and the older parts with a good choice of houses. Only ten mins to gatwick too. I moved here recently following my separation from a rather lovely village about 10 miles away and have found it surprisingly nice! Very diverse neighbourhood and everyone is really friendly. I thought I would only stay 6 months but think I will now stay here. I work in Horsham and its a very snobby area with high prices to match, crap commute and not much choice of restaurants in the town (unless you like italian!)

[thisisyesterday]

Horsham should really give Crawley some of its restaurants.

we do go to Horsham quite often if we want to eat out because they have a lovely range of places to eat

[Dottymcdot]

Thanks everyone. We are all over the lace at the moment trying to fugue out what we should do. If anyone has any input on Godstone or Caterham too I would love to hear it.

[Dottymcdot]

Argghhhhh place not lace