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Advice on Weybridge/Brooklands

5 replies

Eli32 · 10/10/2016 11:38

Hello all,

This is my first post on here despite reading a lot of threads and taking a lot of valuable advice. We are currently working and living in London but the time has come to move outside and look for a house which will provide us more space than the current one. Key points to consider for us are the commute which should not be more than a hour, closer to parks, station etc. We are looking for a 4 bed house for a budget around 750k but the most challenging decision has been finding the right town/village since we have not lived outside of London. Schools are not a priority right now but it will be at some point in the future and that is something that we are also looking at. After exploring a few different places, we are now looking at Weybridge/Brooklands/Byfleet/Walton and wanted to find out if anyone could provide any advice on these places. We are aware that central Weybridge is too expensive for our budget but any thoughts on the Brooklands area especially close to the industrial estate where Sony/Mercedes are located? Would this be a safe area to live in?

Thanks in advance.

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specialsubject · 10/10/2016 12:04

Safe, yes. Also horrific traffic - we needed a bike to commute and that was a decade ago.

Walton is a good spot with more facilities than weybridge.

Think hard about walking or cycling to the station if at all possible.

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Eli32 · 10/10/2016 13:41

Thanks, Walton is certainly higher up our list but it is proving more difficult to find something within our budget over there.

Regarding traffic, preference is for us to walk to the station as long as long as it is a 15-20 minute walk. If not, we will be relying on the bus instead of driving to the station.

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NotCitrus · 10/10/2016 14:02

Brooklands is an industrial estate. Inoffensive. The B374 to Weybridge is gridlock at rush hour. As is most of the area, and there are a lot of bad-tempered local drivers. The local buses aren't very frequent.

You could probably get something around Walton/Hersham/Molesey, or go for West Byfleet now that the cost of phone calls to London isn't a factor (my parents went for Walton instead as it was a local call!), but like Cobham a lot of the land is fenced-off farmland rather than parks - ironically you might get more parks and cheaper housing towards Surbiton and south London!

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Lindy2 · 10/10/2016 14:23

All of those places are nice. Traffic does get busy at rush hour but isn't that the same for most places near London? If you can walk or cycle to the station then the hand aren't so much of an issue.
All have good train links, buses are not so good. There are good facilities such as parks, leisure centres, shops etc and this area of Surrey is pretty family friendly Schools are generally pretty good too. Where you get a school place though will depend on where you live. You won't get much choice and will generally get your closest or second closest state school. No capacity for wider choices.
The only point I would suggest you are careful with us flooding. Brooklands does periodically flood. Christmas 2014 was bad. If the house you like has flooded in the past it will almost certainly do so again at some point in the future regardless of new flood defences. Not all areas do flood though but it is something to be cautious of.
As you can guess I love in this area and I like it a lot.

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Eli32 · 10/10/2016 16:19

Thanks for the very helpful advice, we had not considered the risk of flooding. The brooklands area seems to be at high risk of flooding which is not ideal. We were also relying on the bus to the station but guess that needs to be ruled out as well, time to start cycling.

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