To move to Woking

[WokingOrNot]

Posting here for crowd. I'm thinking of buying a house in Woking but don't know much about it (other than good connection to London and houses we can afford).
Do you think it's a nice place to live?
What do you like and dislike about it?
What areas do you recommend with good primary schools?
We're planning to visit it properly before making a decision but hoping to get some information beforehand.
TIA

I know nothing about it but drove through once. Looked alright.

Has a good pizza express 😉

I was waiting for someone to mention Pizza Express

It’s perfectly ok, not architecturally thrilling, but has a theatre and a lovely art gallery, good transport links and cheaper than surrounding areas. You’re not far from lovely countryside either. Good choice!

I grew up in a village on the outskirts and now live nearby. Not the best town centre but has everything you need, they’re doing a lot in the centre at the moment - big capital injection. Remains to be seen how that will pan out or if it’ll be a white elephant!

Brilliant transport links as you say. We’re considering moving back. I don’t know loads about the schools but from what I hear you just need to be careful for catchment for the good ones.

Housing stock is good in some parts, is there an area in particular you’re considering? South west of the town centre is nice, as is Horsell. St John’s direction ok but not much there that’s walking distance to the station. There are bits of Goldsworth Park I wouldn’t go for but apparently the primary there is on the up.

You’ll get a bit of a ribbing from people in the fancier bits of Surrey but ignore it, Guildford is suffering from a similar high street decline and thanks to the NIMBY brigade is quite slow to adapt, at least in Woking they’re doing things! And it’s much cheaper to get a decent house as a result.

As I say we’re thinking about moving back in that direction so I definitely wouldn’t rule it out!

Horsell has great primary schools and is v handy for Woking high, which (unless you are paying for private or going to a catholic school) is I think the best state high school in the area. Houses tend to be a bit pricier there cos it’s easy for the station, got a lovely feel and good local high street, and you can easily walk into town.
Woking is a great area - v easy to get out into countryside, it’s a very pragmatic town, lots of useful stuff but not very pretty. There are loads more places to eat out than there used to be. And Guildford is easy to get to down the road for pretty Xmas shopping. Lots of clubs etc for kids here too. I miss SW London but I don’t regret moving!

Pizza Express
McLaren
Good transport!

That I can tell you :o

Oh and I had my 14th birthday in the Pizza Express, no royal sightings to speak of though

It's not a terrible place but depends what you're after as more and more like London everyday. The surrounding villages are much nicer. Currently there's issues with the new tower blocks so the main thoroughfare had been shut which causes chaos. I wouldn't go out in woking alone in the evening but the same could be said right now for guildford too. Try looking at Horsell, Ripley, Clandon, Horsley, Chobham, St John's if you want a more village feel

Thank you for so much useful information, this is great 🙂

my great aunt used to live there.
i was always envious of the number of trains to waterloo and it took literally 27 minutes. (from woking to waterloo. nothing to do with my GA house)
plus gok wan did panto there like a month ago.

Moved to Woking 6 months ago, we are very happy here! We used to live Walton-on-Thames (wasn't very happy with the area and the schools are terrible), before this Surbiton and Highgate. We compared with Guildford, but found Woking to be much nicer (a lot more leafy, surrounded by woodland etc), better commute, cheaper housing, not as crowded. It ticked every box for us. We live in the "posh" bit just south of the station near the Hockering estate. Woking isn't cheap, but much better value than most Surrey tows. The schools are excellent (state and private), people are humble and friendly, the town centre is very handy and now we have a Gails bakery and M&S food hall I am there all the time! We are 10-15 minutes from RSH Wisley Gardens which is in Wisley, Woking.

As newly weds my husband and I purchased our first house on Goldsworth Park. We sold it and moved to a Semi-detached house nearer to Woking Park.

The town has had millions of pounds invested in it. It's always been good, IMO, for shopping, cinema, theatre, gym, leisure centre, eating, pubs etc.

My husband used to commute to London and I worked locally. We lived in Woking for nearly 20 years. It's changed and moved on in the last ten years or more since we moved elsewhere in Britain.

I've never been a fan of the, 'Chertsey Road' in the evening just because it's busy with pedestrians spilling all over the road from/to pubs and fast food places. But, I'm usually at home with my cup of cocoa by then, anyway !

I went to school in Woking & spent most of my 20s living nearby. It's a nice place, great for shopping, has a decent cinema & theatre, lots of bars & pubs. It's very easy to get in/out of London as you are near the A3 & M25 & of course trains are direct to London Waterloo. There are definitely worse places to move to..

Thanks a lot. We're actively looking now, wish us luck.

I go shopping in Woking, take ds2 to Big Apple for bowling and Laserquest. I think it's perfectly pleasant.

I lived by Brookwood Park for a couple of years. Loads of green areas, easy 15 min cycle into the centre/train station for work along the canal cycle path, plenty of shops and some basic stuff to do like decent pubs, a theatre, restaurants, gyms etc. Big shipping mall with all the usual chains. Really easy connections to Guildford or central London for nicer shops and things to do. A bit grotty in areas but no more than anywhere else I think. No idea about schools, but my massive garden backed onto a primary school with very cute and happy seeming kiddies who'd chat to me through the fence haha.

I personally hated it because I was in my 20s and more interested in gigs and urban life than the things Woking had to offer! But I could still see all of the good points for someone looking for those kinds of things. You could definitely do worse for the money!

We used to live in Knaphill very close to the Buddhist temple. It was lovely and there was such a nice community spirit. I was sad to leave.

It depends what you're looking for. I'd move towards horsell Rather than Maybury /old woking unless you can afford "the nice bit" or private schools.

Great transport connections, good housing but is getting more expensive

Hi there - firstly, thank you for making this post. There is so much negativity and I think people’s responses have been measured. I’m interested to hear whether you moved and what your personal thoughts were? I’m in the same position as you are wondering the same thing :)

Hey, we found a house but still haven't moved. It'll be probably sometime in Autumn. All the visits to Woking made me like it. It's green, everything we'll need will be walking distance, we found a good nursery, school, pub... Some neighbourhoods are not very nice, but that's true of every place. We're excited and wish we could move now.

Chesney hawkes lives in Woking 😁

Horsell is a fallacy that is often repeated on here like it’s a magical village that makes everything about Woking better. In reality it’s fine if you want to convince yourself you’re still in London with the commensurately smaller housing, some nice deli style places and food outlets, but that’s it.

the best housing in Woking by far are the south side of the railway line roads - south of Oriental Road but before you hit Old Woking Road. There’s some great older places there, proper size, driveways for more than one car. All walking distance to town centre and the top local schools.

Hook Heath and St Johns are nice as well but a tiny bit too far out for walking to town

there's plenty good about Woking but you’ll usually get the following on these threads from the sheep

• “it’s only known for a train line”
• “town centre is soulless”
• Horsell is the only good bit to live in

its like bingo every time

There are plenty of nice bits to live in, and I agree that there are fantastic houses south of Oriental Road, but they’re very pricey, and the local high schools down that area are excellent if you’re catholic or independent but harder if not - though now there’s hoe valley which is a bit closer to some of that area. Horsell’s a very nice bit, not the only one by any means, but it’s v handy for all those schools and the train and it’s a nice compromise if one of you wants a village and the other one much prefers being close to town. And the town centre is vastly improved!

Woking is very nice and has had a lot of investment, new cinema, shopping centre etc. The schools are generally very good.

Horsell, St John's, Goldsworth Park are all nice, as are the villages outside. The pizza express is fit for royalty 😂