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Original poster

To move from London to Guildford

27 replies

todayortomorrow · 16/05/2024 17:14

I live in Balham and might be done with London. Kids in Y4 and Y1. Thinking of moving to Guildford (the mount) with the aim of the kids going to Guildford County School for secondary. Might need to send them to private primary at least at the start as can't find spaces in any local state primaries but that is do-able. So my questions for others who have done similar moves is - did they work for your family? We'd both still need to come to London 1-3 times a week, and i'm worried that the grass is always greener. So while we'd get less crime, more space, less filth, we might be bored, struggle to make new friends, spend a lot of time commuting. Would love thoughts and any Guildford advice thanks

OP posts:
lightisnotwhite · 16/05/2024 19:53

Half of London ( the well of 30 - 40 year olds especially) now seem to move to Guildford and other stops down the train line to Portsmouth. You'll be right at home.

Question should be - what can you add to Guildford. There's enough money already. I suspect just another couple of massive SUV's and boosting the membership of groups for similar ex pats from London.

Serencwtch · 16/05/2024 19:10

I moved from Croydon to Guildford & best thing I ever did.
County is over subscribed so not everyone gets a place but the other options are also good eg George Abbott.
It's about 40mins into Waterloo by train. The strikes are a massive nuisance if you can't be flexible/WFH.
I can't think of anything I missed leaving London tbh.
The area around The Mount is okay. The council flat tower blocks are seedy but the area as a whole is okay. It's not the biggest student area in Guildford but there are still a lot of student lets up there.
The traffic up the Farnham road & onto the Hogs back is frequently bad as is the traffic around the one way system.
There's lots of planning applications for developments eg the old Debenhams site so the population will grow & become more like woking in years to come I suspect.