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?

It's extortionate!

I would also say that Basingstoke is not very multicultural and is very Tory just in case these are considerations for you.

I grew up in Caversham, it's a nice villagey suburb, some great property and good schools. Two grammars in Reading if you can get in. Reading itself is better than Basingstoke but not by much tbh. Bog standard commuter town redeemed slightly by the lovely river and the uni.

Basingstoke is one big housing estate, Newbury has some character at least.

Newbury to Reading and Elizabeth line right into London.

@CrotchetyQuaver - you are so right, my friend in Basingstoke always gets lots more snow than us. They’ve got their car stuck in the snow a couple of times and had to walk home.

@Hoolihan - I’d say Reading is lots better than Basingstoke, loads more going on in Reading, lots of history and more cultural events. They’ve done a fab job of the abbey. Slowly getting more independent shops and restaurants. The council is throwing money at redevelopment lately.

Tbf, the schools are apparently improving because there was literally no worse to get!

I live just outside Hook, train station to Waterloo every half hour on slow stopping service, but change at Woking and you can save some time. It’s not cheap around here, but the schools are ok enough

my dc tho went to a school in Alton. Got a better education I think, but Alton IS a bit lot weird.

swallowfield or around there and you can get the park and ride into reading (which is a total hole of a place) and mainline services

i wouldn’t advise anyone to live in Basingstoke, sure it’s ok to access for shopping etc, but live there? No.

I've lived in Basingstoke all my life. It's interesting to read what other people think of it!

Plus point-
Train to Waterloo takes 45 mins
You can be at the coast in a hour
Surrounded by beautiful countryside
Decent shopping centre
Lots for younger kids
Some nice parks
Diverse (large Nepalese community)
Excellent sixth form college
Good gyms/ swimming pools, etc

Not so good -
Tory council
Not much for teens/ young people
Secondary schools aren't great
Very little culture/ history
There seems to be a lot of drugs, but that's probably the case with most towns tbh
When it snows, the entire town gets gridlocked!
Top of town is awful, lots of drunks/ drug addicts

I used to work in Newbury and although the town centre looks quite quaint and oldest worldly, there's not actually much there. The canal is nice. It's just seems incredibly dull tbh.

For your budget, I don't think I'd choose either tbh. How about some of the villages around Reading? Or Farnham is really nice.

That also applies to the whole of the SE commuter belt TBF.

@stuckdownahole extremely multi cultural here in Windsor !!!

@stuckdownahole - and in Reading, and a Labour council.

Sorry my last message was to @Crikeyalmighty

This is definitely a thing! Basingstoke is in a dip apparently, hence the snow seems to get stuck there etc....

@Sapphirejane a definite bonus.

Yes, the town centre is in the middle of the dip, so when it snows, everyone tries to get home at the same time and the whole town gridlocks. I was stuck for 5 hours one year!

Come Windsor area, soon be able to get lizzy line all way to Canary Wharf

@porkchop834 I know- couldn't believe how quick now from Slough to Tottenham Court Road- !! The planes are a bit of a downer though , hence why we are a bit further out near Legoland!!

Look at Speen because of the great restaurant The Woodspeen

Oxford surely?

You'd have to pay me a lot of money before I'd live in Basingstoke.

I grew up in Basingstoke but wouldn’t choose to live there as an adult. There isn’t much going on and it’s a place where you are very car dependent. I live in Reading which can be a bit marmite but I prefer it to Basingstoke and it’s only 25 minutes to Paddington.

it is, but you would be more than ok with £800K to spend. Biggest issue with Fleet is the fact that the local council want to build a new "village" on the outskirts - there simply isn't and won't be the infrastructure. That's an issue for Wokingham as well - about 10,000 houses going up and they're building new roads and cycle paths but I don't know if there's anything else going in in the way of infrastructure.

I'd agree with Caversham as a possibility.

Farnborough has some lovely houses but it is possibly the worst town centre I've ever seen.

One other issue with Fleet (and probably Alton though it wasn't so well served anyway) is that SWR has massively reduced the service on the train lines since covid. The morning peak isn't too bad, the evening peak is rubbish and the fast trains have stopped running. Farnborough isn't so bad and has a few fast trains still. You could look at Camberley and commute from Farnborough.

Farnham is nice too but on the less well served Alton line. If SWR needs to cancel trains, it starts on that line.

Christ, not Woking. Utterly soulless and bloody expensive.

For the Elizabeth line and your budget try Twyford or Maidenhead. Or Wokingham as pp suggested - if you’re on the Binfield side you can drive to Twyford.