To think Surrey is the most boring place on earth?

Have you ever been to Thornton Heath?

Ha! Try living in the Fens....I miss Surrey....

@OhTheDramz

You’re both right and incorrect:

Correct in that Kingston is part of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, which is part of the ceremonial county of Greater London. So technically as you said, Kingston is in London -

however -

Surrey’s County Hall is in Kingston, and centuries ago Kingston was part of the old “hundred” (county) of Surrey.

So as a result many people including my folks, believe Kingston to be an integral part of Surrey due to its historical association

@EnthusiamIsDisturbed

You said “many parts are Boden and beige”

Which parts?

And what makes them more “Boden” over say, Dulwich or Clapham? Both are places I’ve lived in, and both are places where white middle-class folk seem to create their own Joules-powered enclaves of parent friendly cafes, etc?

The amusing part for me is how many people I’ve met in the last 8 years who have left London seeking larger housing, more countryside, and come here.

So if all those Boden wearing ex Londoners are here, surely there’s more of them in London where they came from etc...

Agh, it’s so silly even arguing this stuff. As someone born and raised in London I know it’s vibrancy and cultural riches, but you’re comparing apples with pomegranates here - it’s not a fair fight so to speak as for many, London will always win out for being more interesting by default.

Rural Sweden is the most boring place on earth. AND IT'S BLOODY SNOWING AGAIN.

OhTheDramz

We'll have to agree to disagree - not least because the Post Office postcode finder doesn't show any counties

Kingston isn’t Surrey postally at all. Put any postcode from RBK into the post offices address finder and it will be

40 Mumsnet Lane
Kingston upon Thames
KT1 111

No mention of Surrey, as it isn’t Surrey.

What a strange viewpoint? You know Guildford is in Surrey right? Huge ice rink with ice hockey games, canal, every latest cool shop you could ever want or need. Huge university and science research park. Far from boring there.

In the same way Croydon is - postally - Croydon, Surrey.

It isn't. Postally it's just Croydon and the postcode. Some websites force you to put a county in but it is incorrect.

I moved to Surrey and love it here. Except, the London Surrey Cycle Race. Fuck off to another county the lot of them.

There are too many people & too many cars on the road in Surrey, as a Pp says. I hate how crowded the roads are if I need to drive.

@jackparlabane really? Lots of people I know moved back here or to greater London after uni. A bunch of us stayed put & went to uni IN Surrey. That wasn't by design though, I just liked my uni, if it had been further afield I'd have still gone.

I grew up in part of Surrey just like the OP describes. Best thing I could say about my home town was it was half an hour by train to Waterloo. No youth clubs except the Young Conservatives who closed theirs once they realised no-one went on to join the Tories, no way of getting anywhere if your parents wouldn't drive you. Everyone I knew went to university elsewhere and never went back. Then a new generation want to get out of London to somewhere leafier and produce more bored teenagers.

For the most varied county - and one of the best - in England, I give you... Hampshire.

I was fortunate to live in a beautiful corner of Hampshire for a decade. Some of the loveliest countryside yet only half an hour from the sea and several interesting cities. I don't miss the mud though!

A tip OP - you can tell someone is from Surrey by the way we pronounce Surrey a bit like "sorry".

West Sussex is similar I think, just with fewer £1mil properties

I like Reigate #shrugs

Nothing wrong with Hertfordshire either. Or any of the Home Counties. Some dire bits, some natural beauty, some great wealth, some poverty.

For the most varied county - and one of the best - in England, I give you...Hampshire.

Many parts are very Boden and beige

Nice but so dull

I was glad to move back to London

Kingston isn’t a Surrey address

Yes it is. In the same way Croydon is - postally - Croydon, Surrey.

Also, the northern boundary of Surrey used to be the Thames, not just on the western side, so a lot London used to be in Surrey, including even Bermondsey. And the main Surrey cricket ground is in Kennington. Now very much London but formerly Surrey. So its history is probably one of the least boring.

Agreed with above poster, there’s so much beauty and places of interest in Surrey, a Google-click away

Yes there are plenty of white Overfinch Range Rovers, overpriced beauty salons and boutiques, all the stuff you might expect if you go to Cobham or Weybridge on a Sat morning.

But you have to be looking for that stuff for it to bother you - there’s far more beauty here that outweighs that stuff anyway

Surrey Tory heartlands here. It's bloody lovely.

I agree, Chickidoo, there are some lovely places and interesting people in Surrey. The skating rink at Guildford, the canal and the wood, Heath and wetland nature reserves are some of my favourites.
I’ve lived in 9 different counties, there’s always something to discover.
Often something you’be not tried or considered before.
But then my grandfather used to say ‘If you’re bored, you are boring’

This is just beyond parody: OP i feel deeply sorry for you.

As it happens, you’ve uncovered one of the people you think are boring: I grew up here (born in NW Surrey), went to Oxford from state school.

I live back here because when it came time to buy, I couldn’t afford Zone 2-3 in London.

Surrey is an entire county, which seems to be the point of projection for people with FOMO at not having a Surrey postcode. So we seem to regularly get posts saying “it’s boring, everyone wears country clothing, everyone commutes” as a way of putting down something that I reckon some folk secretly envy.

Yes I’m a cliche, I work in the City. I don’t wear country clothing and neither does my wife. We don’t drive a 4x4, we do enjoy walks in the countryside (there’s farmland within six minutes’ drive of a mainline station with 12 trains an hour to Waterloo).

I don’t consider myself boring, having worked and lived abroad, run music festivals, club nights, all manner of things that don’t involve buying a middle class label to parade on show.

I think people who post about this kind of stuff are deeply insecure, strangely class-obsessed folk, who have to project onto others in order to justify why it hasn’t happened for them.

Kingston isn’t a Surrey address or anything to do with Surrey at all. Surrey county councils head office is in Kingston but that’s just the physical location of the offices. SCC has nothing to do with anywhere in RBK.

Anyway, off topic. I grew up in Ashford, Middx and I promise no one went to Oxbridge.

I think that about many of the ‘home counties’ and I live in one. Bedfordshire, Berkshsire, Bucks. All a bit samey.

Now Northern counties are much better, Yorkshire: North and West, Cumbria, Northumberland...:

Anyone who says Surrey is boring clearly hasn’t been to Hertfordshire which is boring to the point of being depressing.