To move to Folkestone - tell me all!

Rough town.

Another vote for Folkestone. I recommend the area to friends who are thinking about moving out of London. It has reasonable house prices, fast trains into London for work and offers a good quality of life.

@NemoRocksMyWorld and I must be neighbours or live pretty close to each other based on what she has described. The village is lovely and everyone is so friendly. We moved here from London 2 years ago and it has been one of the best decisions we ever made.

I moved from Kent coast to Brighton in 1978. University of Sussex. I thought Brighton was awful. Dreadful beach, messy town and poverty like nothing I had ever seen on Kent. I was horrified.

If I had £700k in Kent, it would not be spent in Folkestone.

I grew up nearby, and it was not great. It has massively improved in recent years and quite pleasant to visit. Can't say I'd want to live within folkestone itself though. It's easy to get to from lots of places.

Look at Stelling Minnis and the villages nearby, the location is fab for folkestone, Canterbury and Ashford. The views are wonderful. People are so friendly. So near the coast, great bang for buck around there, and pretty sizeable houses and gardens.

Hythe is overpriced.

You could try the smeeth/Brabourne areas. Wye and surrounding is nice too. Charing, challock and surrounding. Lenham is nice.

I miss Kent. We will move back in 15 or so years. Its beautiful. So much to see and do. I'll be looking in all of those places that I've mentioned!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-79986928.html
Buy this house.

Why stop at Folkstone - just keep going and move to France.

Big social reggae on the beach parties too
Every age group welcome
A beach sauna? @Coulddowithanap

I don't live in Folkestone but on the Kent coast. We have had no problem throughout lockdown getting fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish because we can get pretty much everything locally. It really has made me appreciate the benefits of living so close to 'nature's bounty'.

I arroved in Thanet in 1967 and left in 1978. My mother was brought up between Canterbury and Faversham. My gps farmed there. Mother still lives there.

It was very insular and I suspect parts of it haven't changed. My friends who stayed or gravitated back are rather small minded and still involved in sailing club, tennis club, golf, rotary, parish council.

My youth was YC's, rotaract, young farmers, sailing club. The yokels all wore identical coats, identical Chelsea Girl frocks, had the same haircut and thought Canterbury was exciting. Many hadn't been. I hope it's changed.

East Sussex is horrific now, I've moved to the west country as I hated it so much, Brighton in particular horrible atmosphere and an expensive dump of the highest order.
Folkstone is fun to spend the day and lots of interesting shops but I wouldn't live there for the reasons above.
I'd go for Broadstairs, Deal or Canterbury. Much nicer and you'd get an amazing house and garden there.

Sandgate is nice and peaceful, my brother lives there.

There was the beach sauna last year, wonder if it will be back.
Also if you like scuba diving there is a local club and plenty of wrecks to dive to in the channel.
Paragliders come to folkestone to go off the hills too.

@cakeisalwaystheanswer I agree that some areas are deprived but they have a real sense of community , stop reading shit and go and look yourself
You are a holiday maker, you make money from selling your 'business', give over with your self righteousness
@Lesleychestnutbob
Fantsastc independent restaurants /take aways
Indian - voted best in kent
Canal
Sea
Gorgeous beach with sand pits
Wet fish shop /buy straight from fishermen if you want
Roughs
A wild life park
A couple of castles
Independent :
Hardware shop
Habidssher
Chocolate shops
Interior shops
Clothes shops
2 butchers
Cafes
Bakers
Osteopaths
Beauticians
Tanning Centre
Conner shops
3 x Dry cleaners /altering clothes too
Bike shop
Card shops
estate agents
Chair shop
Rock a Billy clothes shop
Toy shop
Tattoo parlour
Vape shop
Underwear shop
Antique shop
Tennis club
The light railway
Cricket club
Sailing club
PYO fruit
Amazing florist shops
Independent veg /flower seller man
Farmers market
A cafe on the beach and a man on a bike selling French coffee
Not to mention the two food fairs a year, plus the venitian fete and Hythe festival, so yeah, you are right Hythe has nothing 🙄

Living by the sea in winter is awesome. All those bright freezing cold days to go walking on the beach. Even in the rain with the wind blowing, there's absolutely NOTHING better for clearing out the cobwebs. And the dc love it. I feel like mine are super privileged to live here. We don't have a lot in terms of money, but they get the sea, and countryside, quite a lot of really good attractions nearby and less than an hour to London by train. Don't write it off just yet op.

Broadstairs is lovely and much nicer than Margate and Ramsgate. Whitstables prices have gone up the last 10 years but on your budget affordable. Westgate is nice also Minster , Wye, Canterbury, Chartham, Ash, Preston . All much nicer than Folkestone.

@LesleysChestnutBob oh that's not fair, there's the canal and the light railway! But Hythe is 10 mins down the road from Folkestone and a lot less exciting it's true. Seafront isn't as good either.

I grew up near Folkestone and it was a dump ten years ago - lovely now. Great restaurants, alternative arts scene, lovely shops. I imagine the naysayers haven't been in a while. My parents live there on the seafront and I'm very jealous at this time of year 😁 and yes, if I had your budget I would not consider Brighton out of my reach - in Folkestone it will get you s mansion!

Folkestone has changed so much in the last 5/10 years. Yes there are still issues with deprivation in some parts of town but, with your budget, you could buy somewhere in the West End which is beautiful and doesn't have these issues. Or in Sandgate, also lovely.

So many lovely places to go walking in the area, The Warren is incredible and the hills. The whole Harbour area and Creative Quarter is great.

Please private message me, I have lots I can tell you.

I would far rather live in folkestone than in Hythe if I had a young family. There is nothing to do in Hythe unless you love waitrose and charity shops.

Yes and living by the sea in the summer is a whole different ball game on the winter

I would try to visit any of these towns once in the good weather and once in the bad weather. It is a world of difference and may be your cup of tea, or not.

Well said YellowHats. I do wonder how they market their place in Hythe to their tenants seeing as its 4 miles from the 'deprived hovel' of a town that is Folkestone with it's awful schools. Apart from Brockhill secondary in Saltwood, all the other secondary schools are in Folkestone so I imagine that would be hard to 'sell' to a family but I doubt they include their numerous links/statistics etc whilst marketing it!.
Anyway, I think they've put the OP off living here which is a shame cos the view I have on the secluded beach I'm sitting on right now is simply glorious

@cakeisalwaystheanswer I know where hythe is. Its not a world away from folkstone, you just exist in your DFL bubble there.

Why would having a cohort that is say top 40% rather than top 25% be in anyway concerning? Why would it matter if there was the full range of abilities there? There are actually a fair few people in north kent grammar who didnt pass the kent test too. As the PP said above a lot of it is due to lack of coaching.

This is why people from kent (and many other parts of the UK) hate people with weekend homes from london. They are snobby and judgemental, it makes me really angry that you deem it good enough to come let your children play in hythe, but not good enough for them to socialise with children 4 miles down the road.

I just wanted to say that with regards to Folkestone and Dover grammar schools, one of the reasons that they have their own test and don't just rely on the Kent Test is because fewer children are able to pass the Kent Test in these areas....not necessarily because the children round here are more stupid than in less deprived areas, but because a lot of the parents can't afford the tutoring that seems to be a key factor in a lot of the more 'middle class' children passing, or because of the many private primary schools that boast high Kent Test pass rates because they coach for passing.

Sorry for the rant - it's a subject close to my heart at the moment!