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

Found it. The book is called "The Sunday Telegraph Guide to Commuterland" . It's about £10 from amazon. Easier to read in bed than a computer screen!

Thanks to you all for your suggestions and carrieboo - you sound like you know your stuff thanks a million. Just spent yet another weekend dreaming about escaping I hope to start the search pretty soon.

I'm a fraud really! My dh told me the sites to look on and then left me to do all the donkey work! That said I did get to know them all pretty well by he end of it.

Carriboo, just to correct you, Acorn profiles have nothing to do with being 'best' or 'worst'. They are just different areas of the country that have different needs and expenditures.

And just to reinforce that, Buckingham Palace is in Acorn Profile number 55.

Sure, may be best and worst are the wrong words, but acorn 1 would have a more 'affluent' profile such as earnings, holidays, home owners. Where as 54 would be unemployed, no holidays, bedsits etc.

Mean't to add it's calculated based on areas so despite being what it is Buckingham Palace coud end up in a lower category as could any decent house, you have to take the whole area into account not just one property.

Just disscused acorn profiles with dh as I did not want to misslead or offend any one. The term 'affluent' is probably more appropriate as best worst are a matter of prefference.

There are only 54 acorn profiles. Acorn 55 is all those places which are unprofiled - for example all government buildings are acorn 55 as they remain unprofiled.

Do Acorn Profiles have a website?

if you go to http:www.upmystreet.com it will have a section about acorn profiles.

Sorry to bleat on about this, but I don't think you are right about the affluence thing - unless its the other way round. Currently I live in Acorn profile number 6 (mainly agricultural workers, low home ownership) but my old area of Brook Green, West London (affluent professional workers) is type 21.

I really do think its just grouping areas into 'profiles' rather than any kind of grading system.

Yes - our area is defined as "multi cultural" which doesn't necessarily have much to do with affluence.

Jenny2998

I went to school in Crawley and while I admit that there are a couple that you'd be daft to send them to the rest are not bad.

It is graded so that businesss know which end of the scale to target with different products rather than searching each and every profile for their target audience. Why your two areas are labbled as they are I don't know, at a guess it could be that agricultural areas are favoured due of plot size of the properties (thus percieved wealth), and the London one is lower because of London having higher crime statistics etc. than the country. I really don't know who made these profiles or who decided how it was to be graded, but it deffiniatly is and is used by an awfull lot of businesses in this manner. As I said before it is only an opinion as to what is better or worse, but the person who made them obviously thought that, that was the order!

Pluto are you from around TW ???
Yes TW is easy for London commuters - 45 minutes non stop train....

Where does your other half work in London? If west ish i.e. not the City then try north of Reading in South Oxon. You can drive to Reading to get a very frequent service to London. The countryside is nice, the schools good and there seem to be quite a few people moving out to here from London. Because of the county boundary it is not as developed as Berkshire and unlikely to be.
My other half worked in London for years and says he never minded the commute because it was such a nice place to come home to. I've always lived round here so am quite biased!