Moving to Gillingham Kent

[Adrinac]

Has anyone recently moved ti Gillingham from London (south east). How’s the area Twydall. We have an 18 months old girl so also anything about primary schools would be great.
Thank you

I've visited many places all over the UK and Gillingham is literally the worst. Just no redeeming features at all. Grim is the only word I can think of to describe it.
Please don't move there!

We lived in gillingham for 10 years, it got worse and worse, and in the end I was scared to walk down the high street anytime after 5pm. I wouldn't live there unless you are really desperate.

@liveitwell it’s not the garden cities. It’s the multiple high volume housing estates taking over any and all green land. Each developer keeps the numbers low but they are all adjacent to each other so will just end a sprawling mass of houses with no amenities or transport link development as each development is low enough to get round it. Any bit of land right now has a planning application on it and when they get refused the developer just reapplies.

@1Morewineplease absolutely. In 5 years there will be no green space at all and trying to get onto a major transport link (either m2 or M20) will be hell.

Locals are being pushed out from towns like Rochester and strood and Maidstone by Londoners coming in but they are all now either a mass of restaurants and bars or charity shops and primark. Locals are having to move to villages so more and more housing is being built. Kent will be the housing estate of England very soon

I'd choose a smaller house in Tonbridge or somewhere around that area, than a bigger house in Medway.

@Sexykitten2005 are you in Thanet? They are building a huge amount of houses around Westgate Birchington etc which is going to completely envelop the existing villages there, all high priced housing which locals generally cannot afford

Ps OP I wouldn't move to Gillingham -it's awful!

Notice how when things aren’t going well in Kent, many of the locals claim it’s the fault of ‘Eastern European immigrants’, ‘Londoners’ etc etc?..This blaming ‘outsiders’ thing is how they went from being the Garden of England to voting to become the Toilet of England.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/amp/police-probe-toilet-of-england-sign-stunt-238277/

I know the Medway towns have never had a very good reputation but I don't know them much at all, except the centre of Rochester which I like.

But, if you currently live between Lewisham and Bromley, I guess you are in or near Downham, which also has a bad reputation and there's definitely good and bad bits there so guess Gillingham maybe the same.

I moved to Gillingham from Essex five years ago and I was apprehensive, we couldn’t afford anything other than a run down box house in Essex with the price increases and we got the house of our dreams in Gillingham, but I was worried that i was getting a nice house but a rough neighbourhood

I’ve not had any issues here, my neighbours are friendly and there are lovely parks nearby. The local school is good on ofstead. Yes the high street is rough but most people shop online anyway!! Compared to Essex, I actually feel safer, in Essex I had a bike stolen and a cigarette stubbed out in my face, Gillingham I haven’t had a single issue 🤷🏻‍♀️ I think everyone is different and we all have our preferences (I agree Gillingham doesn’t look that great) but I haven’t regretted it at all

[quote Sexykitten2005]@liveitwell it’s not the garden cities. It’s the multiple high volume housing estates taking over any and all green land. Each developer keeps the numbers low but they are all adjacent to each other so will just end a sprawling mass of houses with no amenities or transport link development as each development is low enough to get round it. Any bit of land right now has a planning application on it and when they get refused the developer just reapplies.

@1Morewineplease absolutely. In 5 years there will be no green space at all and trying to get onto a major transport link (either m2 or M20) will be hell.

Locals are being pushed out from towns like Rochester and strood and Maidstone by Londoners coming in but they are all now either a mass of restaurants and bars or charity shops and primark. Locals are having to move to villages so more and more housing is being built. Kent will be the housing estate of England very soon[/quote]
Yep!
I don't think that 'The Garden of England' label will last much longer, given that much of the development in Kent has been developed on all those fruit farms, hop farms and orchards that have gone under.

@jmrsmargate no I’m not Thanet although I know they’d like all that site to be housing too.

I am imagining SexyKitten is on the Hoo peninsula, it's destined for a large development at some point if they ever get permission. The A2 is struggling with the volume of commuter traffic now, as we know, and that will make it worse... as will the new tunnel, I personally believe.

On the subject of Kent, does anyone know what the fried egg graffiti is all about?

It's everywhere, I have seen it on the A2, on traffic signs, even on a cliff at the beach.

@Sexykitten2005 @1Morewineplease

I’m guessing close to me - KH/WM....

@wink1970 and @HostessTrolley nope both wrong. See how many housing developments are being planned. Also not Marden or Ebbsfleet...

@sexykitten2005 they’re burning the orchards near me to prepare for new development :(

Oh don't Hostess there was a beautiful wood in Parkwood that got destroyed in the great storm of 1986 (Michael Fish...blunder gate). The whole site was developed and built on within 10 months.

Notice how when things aren’t going well in Kent, many of the locals claim it’s the fault of ‘Eastern European immigrants’, ‘Londoners’ etc etc?..This blaming ‘outsiders’ thing is how they went from being the Garden of England to voting to become the Toilet of England.

No I hadn’t noticed. Because it’s incredibly obvious nobody on this thread has said any such thing. Even the article doesn’t mention anything relevant to that.

In fact the only person on this thread who has said anything remotely unpleasant or controversial is you, stereotyping people in Kent as such racist bigots they’ve made Kent ‘the toilet of England’.

Instead of virtue signalling, maybe it would be more profitable for you to sit down and have a think about your own prejudice and intolerance.

That was a completely irrelevant, unnecessary and uncalled for insult.

I thought most of the areas around Cliffe, Cooling etc were too marshy to build on? I’m ex-Kent, up north now. Would like to go back down when kids have flown the nest. I’d go for Broadstairs of anywhere in Kent.

I haven’t been to Gillingham in a long time, but I understood it was improving. Shame to hear that’s not the case.

Oh Deidre, I am ex-Broadstairs it has changed so much in the last decade. I still love it and I could happily live there again but my ds is still at home and likely to be for another four years....so many good memories.

How is it the local football chant goes, isn't it:

We can't read/
We can't write/
We wear gold and Nikes/
We are all from Gillingham and we are [something] pikeys.

@Ismellphantoms

"Rochester is a naice place to be that area is really convenient for a London commute."

It looks ok, but the red light district isn't (High Street area). My husband has been accosted by ladies, even when walking along with me!

I've lived in Kent all my life and certainly don't recognise your description of Rochester High Street. Quant by day, certainly lively by night, some decent restaurants and bars, yes, red light district? Not in my experience. Great for a pub crawl, though, once normality returns, if it ever does.

@Timeonmyhandsfornow think they mean new road

[quote Sexykitten2005]@liveitwell it’s not the garden cities. It’s the multiple high volume housing estates taking over any and all green land. Each developer keeps the numbers low but they are all adjacent to each other so will just end a sprawling mass of houses with no amenities or transport link development as each development is low enough to get round it. Any bit of land right now has a planning application on it and when they get refused the developer just reapplies.

@1Morewineplease absolutely. In 5 years there will be no green space at all and trying to get onto a major transport link (either m2 or M20) will be hell.

Locals are being pushed out from towns like Rochester and strood and Maidstone by Londoners coming in but they are all now either a mass of restaurants and bars or charity shops and primark. Locals are having to move to villages so more and more housing is being built. Kent will be the housing estate of England very soon[/quote]
I'm pretty sure that's representative of most places within an hours commute of London.

Land is valuable. Although I agree, my LA is very poor at saying no to developers and yes, when refused they tend to just reapply and get it. Unfortunately Central gov have set ridiculous targets for new homes.

Where I live there are lots of small developments within a village but luckily so far it's not had a detrimental effect. The village is still lovely.

That would explain it! That's more Chartham than Rochester!!