Moving to Woking

[movingadvice]

We are considering a move to Woking from SW London later this year (me, DH and DS 2). Would be great to hear from anyone who lives in Woking or has moved from London. It's perfect from a travel perspective for us to see family and friends / work etc - so I'm set on the area. Any advice welcome!!

My friend moved there and hated it, said it was "soulless" although her local area was lovely I thought.

The one thing that stood out was every single person we met there (including my friend) felt the need to tell you one thing.

"It's 22 minutes to central London"

I'm not sure if that was just something they were reassuring themselves with or if it's a postcode brag or what but I found it very odd!

Oh I spent a couple of years living and working there. Soulless about sums it up.

Depends, like most things, what you want- size of house, ease of transport, public transport, shopping, schools.

We used to live in a village about five miles from Woking. Public transport was pretty poor. I haven’t been back for ages, but I’m told the town centre hasn’t much to recommend it now.

If you’re set on the area, I’d look at surrounding areas, but I wouldn’t go back.

Soulless is a good description although it has improved over the last few years, a lot more restaurants in the town centre.

Train service is good, bus services utterly awful.

"Train service is good"

Apparently so. Only 22 minutes to central London in fact

It is fine and reasonably convenient. I don't feel particularly strongly about the location despite having spent much of my life in Woking.

The train service is good. Usually more like 30mins to Waterloo. Which for the distance out of London is good. Lots of people commute (or did!).

The town centre is being updated. Lots of new restaurants. Not sure what state it will be in with the demise of Debenhams. Think some big new chains are opening.

There's all facilities you might need. Loads of supermarkets. Swimming pool with leisure lagoon, gyms, chain restaurants, pubs on outskirts, garden centres etc. Lots of baby groups and clubs going on. I don't really feel there's so much of a community but I guess it depends on if you have specific interests you'd be into in order to meet people.

Do you have any specific questions about the area? Or where you're looking? It's a mixed bag in terms of where to live.

I'm about three miles outside Woking. The town itself is convenient...shops, cinema, theatre, swimming pool etc. It's not particularly exciting or pretty, but it does what it says on the tin! It has good transport links...train, M25, A3, Heathrow etc. The surrounding area has some lovely places to walk like Horsell Common, Chobham Common etc. When I moved here 12 years ago I looked to live in Woking, but I'm glad I'm just outside in a smaller town but I can easily get in to Woking or Guildford if I need to. Maybe explore whether you want to live in the town or a little bit outside...good luck.

Well we all know who goes to the Pizza Express!

I wouldn't move to Woking, it's not a very nice area.

I agree with everyone else, it's got got amenities - leisure facilities, shops, restaurants, theatre, cinema, kids activities etc but not much character. I'd look at living a bit outside the town centre if I were you; Horsell, West Byfleet, Pyrford are all nice and probably in your budget if moving out of London.

I heard it was only 22 minutes into London
Does that help?

Used to teach there, commuting from 'central' London (22 minutes away(!)). Fab secondary schools to choose from.

The 22 mins stuff irritates me. Same as planes when they say 'only 1 hour to lovely place from London!'.

Yes time sitting on the transport but the time getting there from home, potential delays. Probably a walk to a rammed tube or bus and then a walk...

It's not the actual experience is it

What I find interesting about London is wherever you want to go to and from including commuter belt etc the answer is invariably 'about an hour'

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had the "22 minutes" thing.

The fifth (I'm not joking) time it was said to me in a weekend I just laughed 😂

Thanks all. We're FTB's so budget is very small, and for the commute (!!) and accessibility to motorways to see family it really is about all we can afford. Alternative is Feltham; only one of us drives (medical condition) so trains would be lifeline.

Ah. For smaller budget you'd be looking at Byfleet, Sheerwater, Maybury, Knaphill, maybe still parts of West Byfleet.

Don’t move to Feltham.
What about Ashford or Staines?

Not Feltham!!!

Addlestone is cheaper than west Byfleet and probably Byfleet as it's either the stop train or change at Weybridge or walk to Weybridge.

Addlestone is preferable to Feltham though.

Ashfield an option too.

We need to be max 30 mins from
Clapham Junction due to elderly relatives and childcare - hence Woking! We've been a few times to look around and are pretty happy with local parks, amenities etc. Spoken to several nurseries which seem nice, is it really that bad?

Which Feltham - yeah not good. Woking far preferable!!

Woking has some lovely houses just outside the town centre. It's got a biggish theatre, refurbed cinema, art gallery, nice restaurants. I don't live there but nearish.

Is Godalming nicer?

It's not that bad at all!!! Woking town centre isn't quaint or a destination but its not run-down and is being updated. There are far, far worse places than that. You wouldn't be living in the town centre anyway. Different bits of Woking and three areas around it are nicer/less nice than others but there's a reasonable range. If you need to get to Clapham Junction fairly often my train, look and see whether you're better using Woking Station, one a stop further away or one slightly nearer. Suspect the places a stop or two nearer are on the slower lines or at least they used to be. Feel free to pm me if you've got questions on specific areas.

Reigate? Possibly more affordable towards Redhill, but you can say you live in Reigate : D You can walk between the two. They are building something big in Redhill- a new development of shops and such like.