Safe family friendly commuter town to London

[ByCheekySeal]

DH and I are looking to get out of London. We're currently living in SE in zone 2/3.

Our budget is around £950k, we're looking for at least 3 beds and a garden. We both will need to be in London (Baker Street and Kings Cross) for work 2/3 times a week.

Any reasonable suggestions? Tunbridge Wells is high on the list, but we're not sure if that's a little too far.

Our son is 1 and will be in nursery 5 days a week, so we really need somewhere that we'll be able to get him a place when we move.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Kingston?

The Woking area has a good train service from Woking to Waterloo and Hook Heath or Horsell are pleasant areas to live.

Bishops stortford

Or better for King's Cross:
Hitchin
Old Stevenage
Brookmans Park
Hertford (for Hertford North)

Why do you want to leave London - what’s your motivation? That’s important for deciding where to go. Are your WfH days staggered, ie will there always be at least one of you WfH? If not you’ll probably need a very short commute to get home for nursery pick up at 6.

Also how much are you willing to spend on travel? E.g from Dorking in Surrey an annual season pass to London inc tube travel is £4400. So between you and a partner that’s nearly £9k p.a. on commuting. Closer towns will be cheaper - but obv less house for your money.

Starting with Where do you work and what train station would you come into is how I would start looking. We work a ten min walk from Liverpool st so looked at towns on the train lines coming out of there. Honestly the commute is much nicer if you don’t have to do the tube as well as the train. Next I would look at how long you want to commute? And can you get back for nursery pick up? Plan from there. From King’s Cross I would look at Hertford and Welwyn Garden City

Cambridge. Direct trains into King's Cross and you'd get a lovely house for that budget.

Didcot?

Woking, but check parking prices. West Byfleet is nice, the trains to London are often slower than the direct Woking trains but you're more likely to get a seat. Horsell, Knaphill, St John's all around Woking.

Ampthill in Bedfordshire is lovely. On the Thameslink. Harpenden is also a great place to live but a bit more expensive.

Manningtree?

You could look at most places on the met line past Pinner - and you'd be able to get a fast metropolitan line into KX and Baker Street or the Chiltern Line to Marylebone which is less than a 5 minute walk to Baker Street

They're on the underground so cheaper trains than overground lines, and can get season tickets etc however if you travel off peak can take longer.

• Northwood
• Moor Park
• Croxley
• Amersham
• Chesham
• Chorleywood

Then most of Hertfordshire have either Thames Link or West Coast Main Line and come in to Euston. Trains more expensive but you will probably get more for your money is most of them (bar St Albans) and the trains are relatively quick

• Berkhamsted
• St Albans
• Harpenden
• Hitchin

I'd look at places on the kings cross or St Pancras lines, also consider your commuting costs as these escalate fast outside the m25. Friends of mine have raised their family in harpenden, another commutes in from Leicester but only her and it's a specialist job (props and costumes) so a real passion, but means they can have a house with an acre of garden.

St Albans and Harpenden both go into St Pancras but property (and train fares!) are pretty expensive, although your budget would be ok.

Welwyn and Hitchin are slightly cheaper but I don't think the train is as fast.

I'd definitely go north of London for that commute. Hitchin, Ware, Saffron Walden, Sawbridgeworth, Cambridge or the surrounding villages...

If you want to be in the south then Horsham is very nice. Much nicer than Woking which I personally think is awful.
But heading to N London for work I would look north as well.

St Albans area?

I don't know it well but have visited a friend a couple of times - about 15 minutes from Kings Cross.

This is incredibly helpful - thank you!

We'll always have one of us working from home and will commute in on alternate days. Fortunately DH gets a contribution to his travel from his employer, so we're hoping to be able to share a travel pass.

We're leaving London for a quieter life, the area we live in has gone downhill and I don't feel comfortable walking home from work anymore. It's also not where I envisioned having kids.

Unfortunately sharing season tickets is very much not allowed. I don’t know if they’re still issued with a photo card but if so then you won’t get through a ticket inspection. If not you might get away with it, but it’s a big risk to take.

I googled this after I posted as I thought surely that's not okay - looks like that was wishful thinking 😂

Didcot is horrible! Don’t do it.

Thame? Or us that too far

Welwyn Garden City
Letchworth Garden City

Totally agree, I lived in Didcot as a student for about six months it was the most miserable experience ever. Never ever again.

Cambridge on the other hand is lovely.