I hate Surrey

[BettyBeer]

Is that unreasonable? I properly hate it.
I don't live there but most of my family do. Everyone seems to be obsessed with property prices, extensions and who's in the best bloody school! I even went to a cafe away from my family and the two tables close to us were discussing house prices and where the best catholic schools were.

Sorry if you live there but it just all seems to be greedy, self important twats. Am I wrong to make a sweeping statement about so many people? probably

You don’t see the excitement?

A retired couple brought for £80,000 in 1970

Now valued at £2 million. Easy in nice part of Surrey. No mortgage as paid off years ago.

They want to move to be closer to their son, who lives in Newcastle. They buy a modest cottage for £250,000.

They walk away with 1.7 mil.

Fairly normal figures. I’d say fairly exciting stuff!

YABU, my beloved maternal grandmother lives there, my aunties, cousins, their children and my late mother is buried there. They are all kind, generous and lovely people so YADBU.

I have felt this way for a long time now. It’s nice to know someone else feels the same way too.
The traffic is also horrendous! Seems to take forever to get anywhere! With all the selfimportant people seeming to travel outside Surrey for work.
Of course not everyone is the same.
Just feels like there’s a lot of it in Surrey.

I grew up in Surrey. DPs belonged to golf clubs. Awful, boring and snobby. Yorkshire ILs now boast of a second cousin who lives with her family in Surrey, same town that I came from. It is apparently wonderful. Schools (Roseberry) are fantastic and so on. Trouble is second cousin is quite possibly the dullest, smuggest middle aged woman you could meet. When her siblings and step siblings are fine. No idea why the aunts hold Surrey living in such high regard.

OP you are definitely not being unreasonable.

Kikidelivers No I don’t & that’s the same for most people who bought 50 years ago in London or the SE. Why would their son be living in Newcastle? My parents paid 60k for their 2m house in the 80s as did all their friends. No-one has downsized to anything under 1.2m as they want to be near children & gcs & plenty of that equity is earmarked for pensions or care home fees or for helping their kids on the ladder.

If your childless then rejoice I guess but I still don’t understand the obsession. Ever increasing house prices are not good for productivity.

Head. Wall. Bang.

I live in Surrey and have done for the past 20 years in a town that has been lambasted on this thread. I was brought up in a run down seaside town in Scotland so moving to ‘affluent’ Surrey was a real eye opener.

I love it here but sometimes I do find it suffocatingly busy.

The stereotypes you mention do exist but you would actually have to choose to mingle with them -they don’t lurk around every corner. In fact, there are more stereotypes to be readily found in the town I grew up in and where my parents still live.

As for discussing house prices relentlessly; every time we have visitors (not from Surrey) THEY will always bring up the fact that the price we paid for our house would buy a mansion where they live. Property prices are obscene here and it’s not something to be proud of.

I'm from Surrey. Everything you have said is true - I am obsessed with making a nice big home for my kids and getting them into a nice school. Ironically though I've moved away to West Sussex so that I can do just that....

I think you are way out of order for making such a sweeping statement and only on MN would you get the replies that are on here...

Had you have made any other criticism about another part of the UK there would have been outrage.

I live in Surrey. I am originally from London, as in born and bred with generations of family from there.

We all moved away from London ten years ago. The place has changed beyond recognition and it no longer felt like home.
I hate London now and am so glad my DC are not being raised there.

Bet there will be outrage now. How veh dare I not like London.

We love Surrey. Yes there are snotty parts but that’s everywhere.

YABVU and shallow.

Here, have a

As for why would they have a son in Newcastle, I refer to your own post

rs. 3 of my neighbours & their families have left London, 1 to Bristol, 1 to Edinburgh & 1 to Manchester.

You say for better quality of life and salary.

So you have answered your own question there

Kikidelivers Shall I just pass you a knife so you can end it & put yourself out of your misery 😜

My Daughter was born in 'Middlesex' - which is now 'On-Thames, Surrey' and moved out to the real Middlesex - nearer to Uxbridge, Hayes and West Drayton. She has now moved back to Surrey and she constantly berates the yummy mummies that are abundant at her DD's school - I thought she was exaggerating but having done my share of school pick ups I have to agree - Porsche Cayennes with personalised number plates, huge Mercedes and 4WD's all over the place!! It's a little state primary which feeds into the junior school next door, but the OFSTED was Outstanding so they are queuing round the block to get in - my DD lives within the catchment. It isn't a myth IMO that these parents are very self obsessed, aspirational and entitled. The area however, is green and pleasant, and you can take advantage of the facilities in the wealthier towns for next to nothing (or nothing). The parks are well maintained, there are Libraries and sports centres and lots of things that are under threat in other less wealthy areas, so I think you should make a negative into a positive and take advantage of being lucky enough to live in Surrey! It's a large county, the Council Taxes are high, but the town centres are well kept , with floral displays and decent shopping centres. We live close to the fabled Virginia Water, and drive past the 'Mansions' and the Wentworth Golf Club regularly - and stare in awe - as would most people!! It's not all bad - but it's down to how you view it! I work in the Health Service and I cross paths with every part of the community - they are very diverse - as they are in Liverpool, Manchester, Yorkshire, Wales and every other part of the British Isles!

Kikidelivers
I was referring to people my age who are either completely priced out of London or can’t move up the London. Also none of them are born & bred & have families closer to those cities.

No one paying 1m for a property today is going see it treble like it has in the last few decades.

I'm a homeowner too with 100% equity. Tbh, I'd rather be renting.

Itchy , not necessarily true . People were quite happy to label all the inhabitants of Norfolk ( except Norwich of course because Norwich is SO much better and more advanced than the rest of the county ) as racists , in a thread about a week ago.

I used to live in Surrey , until I grew up and couldn’t afford to . I go back regularly to visit family , and it’s not the Surrey I knew . Now it’s just another suburb .

I was born and brought up there, and although I didn't like it a huge amount, that was as much (if not more) to do with it being the patriarchal golf club flared brown corduroy 70s (which I hated). I go back occasionally and it seems very crowded and small, when I recall lots of trees and far fewer houses (one 1960s/70s boast was that Surrey had more woodland than any other UK county).

Some very pretty parts; easily commutable to London from much of it; people are people (I've encountered snobs and dickheads everywhere, so Surrey has no special claims in that respect).

Live in Surrey and I have come across some of those stereotypes but not really in my area - one of the poorer ones. There is a bit of an obsession with schools, because they seem to be fairly bad. I don’t think the quality of life is great here - lots of air and noise pollution, busy roads, no culture whatsoever without going into London. Unfortunately both of our jobs rely on living here so we’re stuck for the time being.

Also the NHS in Surrey is disastrous. Our GP is great but cancer treatment has all been sent to Guildford, which is a nightmare to access from where I live. It has been a never-ending round of cuts where I am. The postnatal group was cut. The HVs are virtually non-existent. The Surrey hospital where I gave birth was awful. Even registering the birth was a nightmare as there is no registry office in the poor bit, it was closed and now you have to go to the rich bit to register things - also a nightmare to get to by public transport.

@Itchytights I think people just notice it more when it’s about their home area. Personally, I wonder if I’m living in a parallel universe every time there is a thread about Londoners pondering whether to move “oop north” but are worried it’s too grim (because isn’t it ‘grim up north’ ha ha ha) and the ensuing comments of “oh I’ve heard you can by a mansion in the north for a tenner, isn’t it fabulous although of course you’d better not mind it raining all day every day” because we all know in ‘the north’ it is constantly raining. This time it’s Surrey but you can guarantee next week it will be somewhere else.

I largely grew up in Surrey although I also lived abroad at different times and I've now moved back to Guildford to raise my children. I love the area... pretty high street, quick commute into London, nice parks, library, sports centre, walks, pubs... I also like most of the people I've met. I know a variety of people but they are all families with hardworking parents trying to do the best they can for their kids. I don't find them at all dull and they all have better things to talk about than houses and schools. They are doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, small business owners, chefs, policemen.... with interesting life experience and interesting hobbies - why would their only topics of conversation be houses and schools?

Have lived in Surrey most of my life, as a PP said it was great in 70s and 80s but now it’s just Greater London really, all high prices and pretentious twats, I miss how it used to be and would move if I could

I live in Surrey too (after selling my flat in Kensal Rise for £££ so we could have a proper house with a decent garden). I generalise about everyone in Cobham (the village next to my far lowlier one) and Oxshott (footballers central) always buying the Daily Mail (There is always HUGE piles of Daily Mails in the shops - more than the other papers - I rest my case) We also love to guffaw when the travellers pitch up on the green spaces in Cobham, Effingham etc (happening a lot at the mo) cos everyone gets in a right tiz. I like it here though. Safe, green, quiet, nice schools (although there are 2 comps in my area - Leatherhead/Cobham environs - and about 100 private schools in same area ho-hum)

I grew up there but now have lived away.. totally agree. Can't stand the Surrey snobbery.

Yes house prices are expensive but they are in Oxfordshire, Kent, London, Essex etc etc etc. NOT JUST SURREY.

Family still live there and I'm bored of comments such as 'Oh we dont have an Aldi near us because it's Guildford'. ACTUALLY they do have an Aldi. Get over yourself.

I was thinking the same thing. I’m from and live in Yorkshire and we’re defo not all Rita Sue and Bob Too types...well mostly not 😂