HELP desperate to leave London dont know where to go?

[lulu40]

I have lived in London all my life and as I have hit the big 40 this year believe there must be more to life than negotiating the tube everyday, along with the really horrible estate I live on, the lack of good schools etc etc. The problem is I dont know where to go - it cant be too far from London as my dp would not be able to change jobs -I too have thought of Brighton or somewhere on its way there - I would really be grateful for any suggestions - thanks

Redhill, Reigate, Crawley, Horsham and Haywards Heath and maybe East Grinstead are all between London and Brighton (some are a bit of the direct route) but all have good train access London.

The house prices in all of them are a bit steep thought (like most of the south east).

Me too Lulu, we're looking at Petersfield don't tell anyone though. R

I can recommend N.W. Essex. Attractive countryside, great commuter links (main line to Liverpool St., Stansted Airport, M11), v. good schools, low crime rate. Houses not cheap but better than much of the South-East. As well as being about 1hr 15 mins from London by car we are also 40 mins from Cambridge. The only downside is the lack of public transport (if you live in one of the villages.) The proposed expansion of the airport may or may not worry you. Many of my neighbours commute into London each day and dh does it 1-2 times a week. Nowhere near Brighton, I know, but a bit cheaper.

Simonhoward, where are you? I'm in Crawley...and incidently desperate to get out....

Where do you live in London? South East London is still quite cheap and areas like Forest Hill & Sydenham are still cheaper than most of London (& Brighton, probably) and surprisingly leafy but won't make your husband into a commuting machine (I like mine to come home early to do ds's bath and let me lie comatose on the sofa). No tube in SE London! Bad for house prices but good for me as I get badly claustrophobic on the tube and can't go on. We have old-fashioned overgrounds instead. Otherwise look at the towns around Brighton and Hove as they are cheaper but house prices are bound to rise as people get priced out of Brighton.

Jenny2998

Why are you desperate to get out of Crawley?

And yes I do live there.

The North Kent coast is nice, Faversham & Whitstable etc.

Commuting is hopeless from there, though, SueDonim! I have often mulled over the idea of a little clap-boarded house in Whitstable, until I hear announcements at Cannon Street apologising for the 1.5 hours' late arrival of the 5.43am from Faversham...it's such a shame, they are both such nice towns.
Lulu40, Aloha is right, SE London is cheaper than many other parts of the M25 area, and it is very leafy, especially over where she describes, and around Shooters Hill. As an SE Londoner born and bred, I'd say it has mixed blessings. A lot of the state school provision is a bit rickety, especially at secondary level, and parts of SE London have problems with racism in the community. Certain other types of crime are not so prevalent, though, and the best thing is you are never far from a park and the beautiful countryside of Kent and Sussex.
You are probably going to post and say, Yuck, I already live in SE London and that's why I want to leave!

Oh drat, Marina! I haven't lived there since 1979 (just go to visit rellies now) so I wasn't aware of the commute problems - or at least, that they were any worse than those elsewhere nowadays!

Moving out of SE london slightly, Rochester is pretty, historic and, as far as I know, not mega expensive. Friends of mine who work in the City happily commute from there.

How about somewhere along the Thameslink line? Bedford to London Bridge is only about three-quarters of an hour and there are some lovely villages and towns in the area.

In Bedfordshire house prices aren't too bad, you've got great access with the M1, A1 and M11 close by. Luton and Stansted airports do a variety of national and international flights. Milton Keynes for you big mall shopping experience, Cambridge for history and culture. Knebworth nearby for your concert venue.

My SIL is moving to Wales and her partner approached his company to see what they could offer him, otherwise he'd look for another job and they agreed he could work from home and only come into London once a month! Its worth asking...

I already live in SE London 3 minutes away from Kennington tube - to get a house in Kennington I would literally have to sell my soul to the devil (if I beleived in him)!!!! I was born here and lived all my life and that is why I need go get away from it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lulu40 - I used to live in Oval and we occasionaly go back to see some of my friends that haven't had the good fortune of moving out. We moved out about 5 yrs ago, when I was pregnant with my eldest, due to the reasons you state: poor schools; awful estates, and also due to increased crime wave (we had a gun pulled out on us at McDonalds when I was 7 months gone - another story).
We are now living in Middlesex (Uxbridge/Ruislip area) and it has everything. Tube for London (about 40 mins to West End). Close to M25/M40/M4. Schools are excellent and under-subscribed! There is some lovely countryside around and some nice pubs! Houses are definitely cheaper than Brighton. We have the best of both worlds - close enough for a night out in London and the countryside on our doorstep.

My husband and I are literally just doing the same thing due the birth of our son!. We have come across a lovely little place called Flitwick in Bedfordshire. It is on the Thameslink line and so is 35min to kingscross and 45min to city (this also means if you work close to these areas then you will not have to pay for an underground ticket as well). In terms of road access it is just off the M1 (J12). It is close enough to Luton, Milton Keynes to make use of their shops, yet far enough away not to be anythin like them!!

It has its own web site you can check out and if you go to upmystreet and put in mk45 you wiil see that it's acorn profile 13 which is pretty good. It's house prices are above average and in demand due to it being a decent place with decent schools! However they are still cheaper than London and if you are prepared to put in the work and go up to view in the evenings you can still get a nice property before they are snaped up by people closer.

Other decent places on the Thameslink line are Westoning and Harlington. There are also plenty of other nice places a short car ride from these stations such as Ampthill and Harpenden.

We tried looking south i.e. kent but the journey in was too hard and expensive (rail card and underground ticket, due to the trains not coming right in to the city).

Sorry to go on but I have really fallen for the place, it's surrounded by fields and forests, yet has good road/rail access,it's own well equiped lesuire centre (which does mother and baby swimming and has a creche),great shoping near by and has it's own 24 hour Tesco's by the station!

I'll stop now as I'm starting to sound like an advert!!!!!!!!!

Ohhh one last thing it's claim to fame is that it's leisure centre is the one from the old t.v. programme Britas Empire!!

Good luck with your search. If any one wants more info about Flitwick just let me know.

As for the journey from Brighton I have heard mixed reviews some people have said it is ok others have felt it is too long as it can be 1 1/2 hours by the time you add on travel at each end.

It's just occured to me that telling you how we found Flitwick may be of use to you to help search.

First we printed out the London transport links, then we looked at the lines that went out of London, checking where they stopped and what the journey time was in to London. Then we brought up maps to see the size of the towns and what was around them. Then we checked to see if we could afford houses in the areas (using rightmove), followed closely by checking their acorn profiles. Then we checked to see if the towns had a web sites. Once we had done all that we started looking for houses to view in the areas we had narrowed it down to. Having seen the areas for real when viewing we narrowed our search further and then used various internet sites to get as much info as we could on the towns before picking one to concentrate on.

Hope that helps.

Hi Simonhoward. Crawley is great. It has so much going for it, but I am a country girl, born and raised in a small(ish) village. I moved to Crawley as it was the only place I could afford. I find the town claustrophobic and desperately want to be somewhere with some space around me.

Jenny2998

Ever thought about one of the villages around the area, where the feeling of being hemmed in is a lot less?

Carrieboo, what's an 'acorn profile'?

Simonhoward, I can't afford any of the surrounding villages right at the moment. As soon as my finances allow I will be away

The other issue I have with Crawley is the schools which are really not good. This is part of what made me decide to Home Educate. There's no way I would send my children to a Crawley school.

emmagee

What's an acorn profile?

Every post code in the country has been put into a category from 1-54, 1 being the best and 54 the worst. The profile, literally profiles that area so you have a rough idea what it is like. It looks at things like whether the area is blue coller/white coller workers, what age ranges the people there are in i.e. are the people retierd or are they young families etc., do the people own their own houses, what kind of houses are there i.e. family houses/flats/bedsits, how stable is the area; have people been there a while or have most recently moved there?, the earnings of the people, the products they own, do they go on holiday and lots more. It also gives you info about the wider area such as local government, schools and their statistics, crime and the statistics, transport etc.

It is designed for businesses to use to target their products. We have put in lots of postcodes from areas we know to check it out and it seems reliable.

We used a Daily Telegraph publication Called something like Commuterland. It's a book that lists a load of places around London, with travelling times, rough gudes to house prices, season ticket etc. Will try and look it up on Amazon, and come back. Sorry to sound so vague, but have lent book to someone who hasn't returned it... GRRRR!

Lulu40, we're in the high rise metropolis of Croydon, I've been here since a twinkle in my Daddy's eye, and although we are looking to move further out, it really is excellent for commuting to London, being only 10 miles from the centre. East Croydon station is extremely busy, and only 15 mins to London Bridge, 12 mins Victoria and also serves Blackfriars and is also a major stop on the Thameslink. The new tramlink is great and you are also close to motorway/Gatwick. As I said, we would like to move to a more leafy neck of the woods, ie. Caterham, Purley, which are all about 5 miles out of Croydon. Unfortunately the prices are sky high here as elsewhere in the SE so it looks like we will be staying put! Good luck in your escape of Kennington!

Tunbridge Wells (or at least cheaper options such as Southborough, Pembury or High High Brooms). Very, very good schools. Or Chelmsford (Essex) aslo v.g schools.