Moving to Basingstoke vs Newbury

[lunepremiere79]

Not a AIBU, posting here for traffic.. I've seen a number of now older threads but wondering if anyone can give an honest opinion on moving to/living in Basingstoke. We are looking to move out from a London suburb and looking for a nice area with things to do (pubs, shops, some buzzy atmosphere) and also for our dd3 to grow up in a family friendly place with good schools and plenty of activities. We have visited and loved Newbury - it's going to be a bit of a trek to commute to London though (we both currently have to do it about 1-2 times a week), so Basingstoke came up as an option, as commuting to Canary Wharf would be the same as our current commute from North London. I keep reading that it's a mixed bag of areas and it seems to be a bit of a marmite place but that things are changing for the better and it's a much nicer place to live now? Is this true?

The ice rink isn't closed. It's on dodgy ground and needs a massive refurbishment, but it's not shut. The flumes are shut at the aquadrome but the pools are open.
Basingstoke is a bit rubbish tbh. No decent shops and nothing "nice". It's well located though.
Secondary schools seem to finally be improving.

I'd pick Newbury any day - travel is going to be transformed by the Elizabeth Line as well, it's part way there already.

I'm biased as I grew up there but it's even better now with the influx of the Vodafone money. Basingstoke - just no.

I like Newbury but I've never lived there, just visited a lot

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions - we'll take a look! Personally I don't mind a smaller villagey place, but DH is set on a bigger town (hence Newbury). In terms of budget we can probably stretch to 800k, but for that it would be good to have a detached house with at least 4 bedrooms, a couple of baths and a nice big garden. Not keen on new builds. We've seen this around Newbury but not around Basingstoke. We are also looking for easy access to M4 so we can be close to the family in the west, so Kent/Essex is the wrong direction.

I lived in Newbury for a few years before moving up north and it's a nice little town, but of course it's expensive but that's to be expected. It has everything you'd need, nice high street, and there's easy access to Reading and London. Can't speak to Basingstoke though.

You could look at Thatcham as well which is right next to Newbury.

We loved everything about Newbury when we went - so much history and character. Loved all the cute shops and the farmer's market and the canal. Just a great all-rounder of a town, plus the great schools etc.

Winchester is a bit too far south, as we need to be close to M4 for visiting family who all live in the west

We did look at Thatcham, but weren't really sure about the area tbh We want to be closer to the center of Newbury, so we don't have to drive all the time

I am not certain how much time the Reading-Canary Wharf connection would save on the Elizabeth line. It says that it would take 75 mins from Reading to Liverpool st, but there is already a fast train that goes between Newbury and Paddington, which takes 45 mins and then it's 30 mins to Paddington across London to CW, so actually it seems that the Elizabeth line is not actually going to change much, since I'd still have to change at Reading? www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-uk-elizabeth-tube-line-opening/

We would love a good fast link into Central London, but trying to avoid moving from one soulless place (where we currently live in the suburbs of London) to another. We want to live somewhere 'nice' for better quality of life and where our DD can have a happy childhood

For £800k look at Wokingham or Woodley. Both have good train routes and are commuter towns. Direct access to the m4 as well.
my husband commutes into London every day but his location varies as he’s network engineering.
from Woodley you can get a train that takes 4 minutes into reading for the fast train to Paddington or earley winnersh Wokingham are on the Waterloo line. That’s a longer train journey at about an hour and 20 ish to Waterloo.
schools in the Wokingham Borough are generally very good. We moved out of Reading Borough to Wokingham for schools and have been very happy with the decision.

What about Andover? Lovely large town just a couple stops from Basingstoke on railway line to Waterloo. Great services and family friendly too.

You'll easily buy a nice 4 bed in Winchester for that and also a huge one for that in Andover .

Just a thought.

Yo be honest for £800k you can live far closer to London in a lovely 4 bed house and have a shorter train commute than Basingstoke or Newbury!!

I mean you can get large detached 4 beds with garages for £450k easily upwards in Andover and fairly central ones for £600-700k!

Look at this gorgeous house with character inside too - £695k and pretty central 0.9 miles from train station 1 hour 9 mins to London Waterloo

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/125023877#/?channel=RES_BUY

This one for £575k 0.4 miles from train station and is very central in Andover

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/96545551#/?channel=RES_BUY

I would go to Guildford or Godalming or the guildford side of Woking (horsell) for that money . You will get a nice 4 bedder and a lovely town with tons to do , great leisure centre etc. newbury is nice enough and I don't deny you will get a cheaper house but I think for older children Guildford is better . My other suggestion would be oxford. We lived there for a bit .

That's interesting - I am trying to estimate the timings for commuting from Newbury and there seems to be a direct train to Paddington and then it's 30 mins to Canary wharf on the Elizabeth line. This is the best I can find, but it seems maybe there is a faster route?

This looks lovely, but if you do directions to Canary Wharf it's 1h 46mins one way, compared with Newbury at 1h 10mins..

Caversham? We walk to the station and it's 22 minutes to Paddington

I consider Basingstoke to be one big suburb, just lots of roundabouts and housing developments doesn’t feel like it has much of a soul. I can’t believe it has high crime? That PP poster must have been unlucky. With your budget I would look at Caversham, depending where, you can walk/bus to Reading Station which is 25 mins into Paddington. Train prices are very expensive though. Have you considered going into Kent? Will be easier for Canary Wharf.

Another option if you like caversham might be somewhere like and get on the reading line. Reading is your main shopping, but it's easy to nice places like Henley and marlow too from there

I see I have cross posted!!

Wow lots of hate for Basingstoke. I don't think it's that bad. The shopping is convenient and fairly varied, I realised the other day it is also astonishingly well kitted out for people with babies and kids. Went to Winchester for the day and finding changing facilities was a nightmare. There are loads of clubs and activities available. If you want to be walking distance to the station in a fairly naice house you need to look at Fairfields, Cliddesden Road and Camrose Way areas on Rightmove. Or the villages if you are happy to drive in. Bramley and Mortimer and are on the branch line between Reading and Basingstoke if that is of interest.

Do not move to Basingstoke 😭

One thing I would say about Basingstoke as someone who has passed it on the M3 countless times over the years is that the weather there seems worse than anywhere else on the motorway. If it's going to be raining or snowing, it'll always be around the Basingstoke turnoffs. Must be some geographical thing.

For your budget, I think you've got better options available to you.

I've lived in Basingstoke and I still work in Basingstoke.

Newbury is better hands down. Better housing better scenery. Basingstoke has a good town centre but there is quite a bit of crime.

I live in farnborough 20 minutes down the M3 and I love it. There's rough areas everywhere and I think county lines is rife in the whole
Of the U.K.

Farnborough is a quicker route to london on the train (AFAIK it's the same line from Basingstoke which goes to hook, then farnborough then london way)

I take the 40 minute train to Waterloo regularly.

I'd have a think about Newbury, Hook (gorgeous down 10 minutes from Basingstoke) or farnborough. Newbury will be a bit far for london links IMO.