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?

Biased as I live in Newbury, 5 mins from the station. I love it here, people are so friendly, lots to do and beautiful buildings and surroundings. Never moving.

Doesn't make it any less of a dump. Even the roughest parts of the UK have nothing on areas in other countries - I wouldn't want to live in those either.

My personal and recent experiences of Basingstoke are of the drugs epidemic, seeing many children being exploited through County Lines, machete fights, turf wars between drug dealers etc. I certainly wouldn't choose to raise children there if I were privileged enough to have a choice like OP certainly does. Not everyone gets the choice of course.

Where on earth have you been hanging around to see machete fights? It has rough bits, as does almost everywhere but most of it is fine.
Every year kids come out of the local college and get to Oxbridge so some people must be doing ok raising their kids here.

machete fights? Have you honestly ever seen a machete in Basingstoke? I had a Google and found 1 incident involving a man who’d travelled to Basingstoke from Peckham.

We've had county lines incidents in Fleet too, and Hart is regularly cited as one of the most desirable places to live in the UK, sadly anywhere with good transport connections will have county lines issues.

You honestly paint a picture I don’t recognise and I’ve lived and worked in and around Basingstoke most my life. I’d suggest anyone considering Basingstoke as rough has had quite a sheltered existence.

I've lived in Basingstoke all my life and don't recognise any of what is being described!

A bit dull and soulless... absolutely! Yes, there's some crime and drugs, but no more than anywhere else. We live on an ex council estate, no problems at all. I walk the dog at night with no concerns whatsoever.

Having said that, I live here because of family and friends. If I had the OPs budget, I probably wouldn't chose Basingstoke.

I agree Fleet is definitely worth looking at. Some of the houses on the new housing estates are shockingly high priced, but the schools are good, it is really easy to get out into the countryside as a pp said and rail links are good (not so good as pre-covid, but ok). Hook is ok too - about the same trains as Fleet as Fleet has lost its hourly off-peak fast trains. Robert Mays school is good and it's easy to get to the sixth form colleges in Basingstoke, Farnborough and Winchester.

A bit aspirational middle classed po-faced at times, but there are many worse places to live.

Overton is quite nice too - that's a good suggestion. Though I only know it from an annual running race :)

I grew up in Basingstoke so know it well.

Old Basing, Chineham and Lychpit are lovely, as is Oakley. Don't move to Popley or South Ham.

It's ok, there are lots of jobs but it's so boring! I'd look at Surrey if you can afford it.

Farnborough has some nice bits and there are lots of lovely surrounding villages, like Dummer

Newbury is lovely, my brother lives there

I wouldn't call Basingstoke "rough" but there are bits of it (very small bits) I would definitely avoid

Visit old basing, it's lovely, and the mill stone pub

And there are some lovely places up behind the train station.

This is gorgeous

This, sorry...

Farnborough has some nice bits

Has it? Where?

Can i ask what you are comparing Basingstoke to? I understand it doesnt have much history, but the crime rates aren't bad, and it's quite pretty and rural plus i've heard there's lots to do there. Reading is so much worse, it's built up, quite ugly, and ok there is a good town centre, but it's a pain to get too and parking is extortionate. It feels dirty too and traffic is a nightmare. Considering Basingstoke is only 45 mins into London, and also a great location for work, with many HQ near by, i thought Basingstoke had a lot going for it?

What makes you think Surrey has any more to do than Basingstoke though? Just curious why you mentioned Surrey?

@lunepremiere79

Newbury, avoid Basingstoke.

Basingstoke isn't fitting your description of what you want. It's fine to pop into festival place for a bit if shopping the movies & choices 'cheap eats' (not especially cheap anymore, but chain places rather than nice restaurants) or to the very much still open swimming baths, cinema, ice skating, bowling.

but then it's nice to get out of there & go home to Newbury which has a nice centre, the canal, some nice restaurants (or did pre covid anyway) fat nicer architecture & character.

I let the young teens go into festival place, the cinema etc, & over at the leisure stuff, but none of them are allowed up to the 'high street' there's nothing up there anyway.

Newbury they're fine.

This is king of surprising - the crime figures don't reflect what people are saying here - i actually thought Reading had much higher crime? I have only been to the shopping centre once and it was huge and not that busy which was nice. The ice rink and bowling alley looked a bit basic and weathered from the outside. The roads are very well maintained though, and generally the green areas look nice and tidy.. am i missing something?

The roads are very well maintained though

Definitely not all of them. But them have resurfaced the ring road and some others this summer. There are certainly still pot holes to be found, though.