London > Milton Keynes: to move or not to move

[LadyFatboobs]

A massively outing post so HAI GUYZ if you are reading

We live in Surbiton, small cottage, no garden, 2 DC under three, plans for another in summer ‘19, both contractors in the public sector, both working 4 days a week, both a bit fed up of the crush and busy of London.

We like the look of Milton Keynes; it’s a new town, it’s spacious, it seems to have lots of ambitious plans for the future, cycle ways, nice parks, lots of greenery, a snow dome (yeahhhhhhh), seemingly decent and efficient public transport links and it goes without saying we could get a barreload more space for the £400k we currently afford 68sq.m with.

We like the look of Shenley Brook End, Shenley Church End and the other Shenley, Great Linford beside Gifford Park and Furzton.

I have concerns we may end up mugging ourselves off commute wise (if we stay working in London) and as we will know nobody there, how easy is it to make new (mum) friends?

Also I love a Parkrun, looks like MK only has one?!

Please tell me if you’ve moved from London to MK, do you like it/love it/regret it and what would you change and why?

I don’t care if it’s “suburbia/concrete cows/roundabouts”. It seems nice and that’s just fine by me.

We are in an area you mentioned, commute to London is £600pm. Outstanding first, middle & secondary schools within ten minute walks, lakes & woods also. I don't like the centre much, or the expansion. If I had that budget for a house I'd buy in loughton.

I love Milton Keynes. I moved further and further away from London and eventually settled in MK.

There is so much to do here, it is the perfect place to bring up children. We live in the Broughton area, two good schools, absolutely love it!

Milton Keynes is soul destroying horrible. I really don't like London, especially with kids. But I would choose a tiny house in London over Milton Keynes any day.

I actually lived in a nice house in Shenley Church End for 3 yrs and around 2 yrs in another estate in MK. I was ok with it but since I couldnt drive at that time, it was a pain going to supermarkets etc. I had a very boring life there, my day was mostly spent raising my 2 kids and be totally dependant on husband for everything. Perhaps this whole thing skewed my perception because now I am living in South Manchester for the last 7 years and LOVE it. I still have to visit my old house in MK at times and can really feel the lack of human soul there. Feels very black and white in comparison to where I stay now. I cant give you a proper reason for this, but this is how I feel. Oh I also passed my driving test here after failing numerous times in MK

Have you considered Bicester in Oxfordshire? 45 mins train journey on the most excellent Chiltern Trains to Marylebone. It has a lot of new building going on as it's been given New Garden Town (or something) status. Train also links up to Birmingham and Oxford (plus a bus that I think goes to Milton Keynes?) It's on my 'list ' if we could afford my husbands train commute into London.

We moved to Wolverton a year ago and have fallen in love with where we live. Lots of community events and stuff for the kids to do. Beautiful period properties and five minutes to open countryside. I commuted to London for a short while, not ideal, but doable.

We moved London to MK, and I love it. My husband commutes in to London in less time then he did when we lived in London, and it's fab for bringing my daughter up. There's literally hundreds of parks to explore, the redways are fab for cycling, and the amenities are generally really good.

It has a bad rap, but everyone I know that's moved here loves it.

I'm always reminded of the Neil Gaiman quote when people are mean about MK:

"Note for Americans and other aliens: Milton Keynes is a new city approximately halfway between London and Birmingham. It was built to be modern, efficient, healthy, and, all in all, a pleasant place to live. Many Britons find this amusing."

I spent some time in a former life in Hemel Hempstead - now that’s somewhere I find soul-destroying.

I don’t get the same vibe off MK at all; following a variety of social media things around MK (not just super woke ex east London hipsters going on about matcha tea) there seems to be a bit of a buzz starting.

Possibly linked to naked council and town planner ambitions to whip Old Street’s Silicon Roundabout up the M1 and make MK a “tech hub of the future”.

There is a Lego Shop in MK so that would be a plus for me !! ( yes I know there are 3 in London but two are in the hells that are Westfields and the other is a tourist trap).

I live about 20 mins away from MK (south side) and we absolutely love going there. Usually to use the shopping centre and Xscape. Then there is the ice skating and skiing which kids love to do all the time. There seems to be everything you would need for an active lifestyle with plenty to do and on offer within stones throw of each other. Gullivers land is great for kids under 12 and amazing if you get the years pass. Very affordable so would be great to fill in the weekends when nothing else planned. (We get it every other year so kids don't get bored of it). Willen lake is amazing for picnics or just a stroll. You also have Wooburn safari park 15 mins away with lovely country drive to it. I would love to move to live inside MK but unfortunately tied down due to close family commitments. However we feel lucky to be just a short drive away from it. In my personal opinion. I think you would love to be in MK. Yes the roundabouts can be annoying but to be honest they seem to do the job as I have never really experienced major traffic jams even during peak time. Overall an all round thumbs up town!!

Hi there - we moved from London to MK with two small dc's. It is very different! Took a while to get used to the quiet!

It is very child friendly - there are some great facilities. We settled in quickly - once kids start nursery or school then you will quickly meet more people.

If you are going to commute to London then I would look at Loughton too. You can walk to the station from there but might need to bike or drive from the Shelley's.

Each grid square has its own infant/junior school then a secondary is usually for 2 to 3 grid squares.

We seriously considered moving to Bedfordshire from London. When we looked at the cost of commuting to London, we'd lose all the money we'd save. We decided we'd stay in London and use that money towards paying off a mortgage instead of commuting.

I once quit a job in London when they wanted me to relocate to MK. It's ugly and soulless and impossible to get round without a car (DW didn't drive so that was an issue). OK we did not live there, we just looked round it a couple of times. There's some lovely areas around it - particularly on the north side but given the choice between MK and Surbiton, I'd stay in Surbiton (we lived in Sutton at the time).

I love bed from London to MK and I love it , lots of parks and open spaces, good schools. We live in the shenleys I love it

Used to live in MK, loved it. Moved as we got priced out of housing market.

Consider other end of town too - monkston, Middleton, the huge estate by Waitrose (whose name I can't remember!!), MK village. Didn't like Broughton, felt very crowded.

Hospital was terrible years ago, but as pp said, it pulled its socks up. I gave birth there with dc1, great experience.

I do have to laugh at all the people who have driven through and think it's soulless because they haven't seen anyone. That's rather the point, as a pedestrian you spend little time in close proximity to speeding cars! The roads are efficient (a bit of traffic at key points, but can get anywhere in 20 mins) and totally set apart from pedestrian areas- there's loads of parks, lakes, river, canal etc...

OP we moved from London to MK, now live in a village just outside it. You do need a car. There's loads going on, but it can be a bit harder to find out about stuff than in a traditional town - Facebook is your friend. This is a good site for kid stuff: miltonkeyneskids.com.

One thing I've found is that there are lots of people who don't necessarily have big social circles, as they moved here to buy a house and commuted back to London. So mum groups are often very open to actually becoming friends!

I commute from Bletchley and get a seat every morning. Friends who commute from Wolverton say the same. The fastest virgin trains from MK are a different story.

A PP mentioned Bicester. It's lovely, but personally I wouldn't consider it, the roads can't take the traffic as it is, never mind once they've built thousands more houses.

MK is perfect for families- I 100% THINK YOU SHOULD DO IT. But. Not while commuting into London.

Speaking as someone who has lived in both London and MK, I can honestly say that MK is a brilliant place to live. Anyone who has just driven through it simply won’t get it - if you’ve only driven the grid roads, they are deliberately created to be separate from the housing, so it doesn’t feel as though there is much going on, and if you only go to the City Centre/CMK, you absolutely haven’t seen MK. But there’s so much more to it! As PP have mentioned, there are some grotty bits and some drawbacks to living there, like with anywhere, but on the whole it’s great. I’ll admit I don’t know about the newer estates and am a North MK local so I know that area much better. It is a pretty cosmopolitan modern city amongst beautiful countryside. Look to living in the older parts if you want more community - Great Linford, Wolverton, New Bradwell, Stony Stratford. You could also go technically outside and head for Newport Pagnell, as that’s a decent size market town with all the amenities you could need, including really good schools. You do, realistically, need a car in MK, as the public transport is ok but not great. But wider transport links north and south are fantastic. There is a vibrant cultural and arts scene, and lots going on, especially away from the mainstream. If I ever move back to the UK, I’ll definitely be living there again.

OP have you actually visited MK in person? I'm a Londoner and last time I visited MK, the town centre actually gave me the creeps. I got this feeling of foreboding that was really horrible. The buildings are just weird. It actually scared me.

Thanks to the respondents!

So a few things:

1. I drive and so does DH. So MK is fine. Just thinking about public transport if I need to get home after drinks.

1. We simply cannot stay where we are as we have already lost money on this house, Brexit will strip it of further value, we have no garden and our house is very small, too small for a family of 4 wishing to rise to 5.

1. Ironically one of the reasons flock to where I live now is why we want to leave. I was brought up with a good comprehensive secular education. Bar one school only all the others are faith and the secondaries grammar. I don’t want to have to hothouse my children so that they can just stay even stevens with their peers as the system (here it seems) means £££ in tutoring etc.

Agree that to me it is weird that you can drive round and see nobody, yes that’s odd to me as a Londoner of 12 years’ residence. But we have visited MK 6 times in the past 12 weeks and I’ve had some really happy times in the many decent playgrounds with my children, randomly especially the undulating one up at the new Whitehouse development in MK19!

We will rent for a year; and then see what’s what after Brexit. I am a bit loath to leave my friends here but some have moved out (Hersham) or will move home (South Coast). I don’t want to be the one waving them off and crying about missing them compounded by regret at not selling before the market takes a hit next year.

MK is a mystery to me because I only ever drive around it. The traffic flow is amazing and the only time I've been stuck in a jam was on Black Friday for about 5 minutes.

From the road it seems soulless and like it really is not set up for pedestrians. I never see the vast swathes of green space. There must be a parallel pedestrian MK universe.

There are very appealing villages like Stony Stratford on the edge of MK.

Somewhere like Linslade (nicer end of Leighton Buzzard) might also
be worth considering.

I was house hunting in Surbiton when I was gazumped on a (particularly nice) basement 1 bed on Ewell Road. It was the last straw for me and London and I now live in a 3 bed house in a village not that far from where you're looking.

As others have said it feels a bit soulless but there are no downsides. Lots of nice places to walk and good road/ rail links.

But what is soul?

My life has been spent across two cities; beautiful in parts and god awful in others but both with crippling pollution, both with parts of the “town” centre just plagued by dicks and also with a sizeable amount of crime.

I love architecture, history, unusual cultural things but I think places outside London have the march on it now: heck Hull was City of Culture two years ago!

For me MK represents a chance to live somewhere really future looking, that’s still “new” but is trying to shake the bad bits of that newness (see ghastly buildings and massive errors in social housing).

I’m under no illusion it’s some utopia but seeing as we were all set to move to Rotterdam a few years ago I’m quite alright with non-ancient and traditional surroundings.

Lastly, MK has some of the most beautiful old oaks I’ve ever seen in its woods. I think the town planners in the 60s must have had a brief to build around some of them as opposed to felling them.

/end of existential musing

I don’t understand the soulless about MK , what does that mean?

Friends recently moved from London to Milton Keynes and love it there. We’ve been to visit - good safe vibe and their kids are thriving with all the outdoor pursuits.

Yes, a bit soulless, but how much soul do you need for busy working parents.

You need a car though.