Want to move out of London - Advice please!

[taliasparkle]

Hi all,

My husband, my 16month old son and I currently live in Walthamstow, East London, and we are desperate to move out to the suburbs. The only problem is we don't know whereabouts we want to go!
We want to be somewhere easily commutable to central London as we both work there and where the travel doesn't cost the earth. We also want to have easy access via motorways towards the South West and Kent/Sussex for visiting family. The main thing we're looking for though is somewhere that's safe and has good primary schools where we can bring up a family and stay long term.
We've been looking at Orpington, Sevenoaks and their surrounding areas but we really want some recommendations as we do not know these areas at all.
We want a 3 bed house and may be able to spend up to 300k.

Thanks a lot in advance.

Talia

Tonbridge has really good primary schools, is easily commutable by train and was a lovely place to grow up. 300k would buy you much more house in Tonbridge than it would in Sevenoaks, and the schools are better than the ones in Orpington.

Hi, thanks for your reply. The main issue with Tonbridge is the cost of the travel. But I'm glad you said it was a nice place to grow up. that means a lot!

ah, I'd assumed travel was a similar price from Sevenoaks.

Sevenoaks is good primary school wise and they have some fantastic private schools if that's an option but there's only one state secondary school so a lot of children choose to travel into Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells for school instead, which isn't a terrible journey but is expensive, or to Wrotham, which is very over subscribed. Although given how much the schools there have changed in the 10 years since I did GCSEs they'd probably be completely different again by the time secondary was an issue for you anyway.

I had lots of friends from school that lived in Sevenoaks and it is a nice area with nice houses but the town is a bit snooty so we generally all met up in Tunbridge Wells as teenagers.

I don't really know Orpington, my only experience of the town was a drunken house party when I was at college.

I'm looking at moving to tunbridge wells. Due to budget we are looking at the woodland road/close area of high brooms.

Can anyone give us some advice on this area please.

It's nice and close to H.Brooms station, but you will need to hop on the train/bus or drive for any non-basic facilities. Not sure about the schools round that part, but lots of decent streets with reasonable Victorian houses. On street parking tends to be the rule so make sure you fold your wing mirrors in, as can be a squeeze!

I've heard bad things about the High Brooms area. Is that not the case?

Does anyone know anything about Swanley?

High Brooms has it's rough edges, and I don't live there personally but pass through all the time, but it's Mayfair compared to Swanley...

Blimey, is it really that bad??

I really don't know anything about these areas. it's so hard to know!

I got down at High Brooms station once and felt as if i had reached a place in London Zone 5 rather than Kent. Personally I would stay away from moving near to that station. But that's just a one time experience so might be wrong.

300k. 3 bed house, and easy commute to London -- does not leave you with many options. I would have suggested Tonbridge (which is now getting expensive too). Orpington seems another option. Have you thought of Dartford. It will be a bit of a drive for you to visit family but prices are still reasonable there.

Canterbury is fantastic and on the high speed too. You've probably moved by now!