To want to leave London but not sure where to?

[HayzCo]

Early 30s, “two under two” and renting with my husband in London. We want move out of London (for the usual reasons) and have the flexibility to live anywhere now, as long as we can get to London once a week or so. Neither of us want to go back to where we grew up but other than that.. don’t really have a clue where to start.

If you made the move out of London, how did you decide where to go? What criteria did you consider?

AIBU to just pick a place that ticks boxes on paper and make the place home?

I live in Cheshire, if I go from Crewe London is 1.5 hours, just v expensive in rush hour, you would get the 6.28 train to get in around 8 at London Euston. It is a 20 min drive to crewe Station, no traffic at that time in the morning.

@EdgeOfTheSky yes! I've got one at Ark Castledown and the other is at Ark Alexandra

I'd go for Petersfield in Hampshire. It has a good community feel I think, and is on the line from Portsmouth to Waterloo.

Are your jobs truly ‘portable’ or are you making assumptions about flexible working in the long term?

It’s important to me to be in close proximity to London (or another large city) for the job opportunities. Given current uncertainty think it’s premature to assume that one/two days a week in the workplace (eg office) will be the norm.

I moved to Epsom when I left London and never regretted it. It can feel semi rural depending on where you are, obviously. I could be walking in the countryside or on the train to London within a 10 Minute walk of my house. The town centre has never been the best, but it has improved a lot recently. You are close to Gatwick ( Epsom Airport) and the M25.

I have now moved away to the sea, but I would still have been happily there into old age I reckon if not for circumstances meaning I can live absolutely anywhere now.

Moved out of London now 14 years ago. What is important for you may not be important for everyone- so the first thing we did was to write these down. form memory at the time these included schools (most important), commutability to London, rural lifestyle, City in 10/15 miles etc. We then looked at places to live (Times guide is a good starting point and worked from there. We moved to South Norfolk and have never been happier. Other people based in London I know have recently moved to Wiltshire (1 hour to London from Swindon), and Worcestershire ( 1 hour and 45 mins). Our process was to take a piece of paper for each place, draw a line down the middle and write plus and minus at the top and go from there. Kids enjoyed doing this.

I agree with @maddening. Crewe itself is a dive, but Nantwich and Sandbach are handy for Crewe Station and are lovely.

Yes, it is a good spot, I am near Hartford and from here I can get to Liverpool in 30 mins, Manchester in 40mins, 1.5 hours from llandudno and a bit further to Anglesey, just over an hour to the Lakes, an hour to Birmingham, so a nice area and easy to get to lots of places.