Equivalent of Weybridge in the South East?

[AllTheGoodOnesAreTaken]

Say if Wimbledon is Dulwich and Guilford is Tunbridge Wells, what is Weybridge?

Yikes hogsback , I knew I'd end up offending someone. Was my comment far from the truth?
I'm not a Londonder though so I hope I'd be spared...

We moved from SW London to TW (via the cheap side of Epsom) and haven't looked back - it's got everything that we wanted. Great people, fantastic schools, big town with lots going on - theatre, music, museum, library - close to London, close to the sea, fabulous countryside etc etc. We looked in an arc from Winchester to TWells, and quickly discounted most of leafy Surrey for being too expensive (well the houses we liked were - about 400k above our budget) and to be honest, too WAGish (apologies to all the leafy Surrey dwellers). We ended up in T Wells and although the house is smaller than I'd like, we've ended up in a fantastic road with brilliant neighbours and I feel as though I've come home.

Sounds great PanicMode. So what would £625K buy me and what secondary school would I be in catchment for?

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-27802117.html
Sorry, never know how to do links. This is a great road, and this has been on for a while - somewhat overpriced, so would be within budget.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33020159.html
This is in catchment for the most sought after primary in TW; not particularly period, but a good size house in a very convenient road - station about 5 min walk from here, and the High St with all of the lovely shops about 3 mins walk....

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33123386.html
Fantastic area, right next to the park, close to the same school as above, station 2 mins away.

The secondary schools are either grammar schools if your children pass the 11+, an outstanding CofE secondary, a good Catholic one, or a new academy school, or you try for a Tonbridge school, or Wadhurst.

HTH a bit!

No suggestions, I am afaid. Drove through Weybridge today, and often drive through Cobham on my way to work. Cobham is way too small for your needs. Struggling to think of suggestions. I think your budhet is way too low, for what you want. When i visited my MN PNG in Cheam (?) etc , I was thinking what a nice plce it was to like, that they had a decent high street. Will check out exactly where that was, and come back with a decent suggestion !!

Bickley or Chislehurst, fits all your criteria. Google, you'd be surprised. Stay away from Walton, schools not great, particularly secondary.

here is your necessary know how
Chislehurst YES lovely, great little village but actually, £650 wont buy much!
Trains brill, 20 odd mins to Victoria or London Bridge

Petts Wood
Amazing little place but pricey. Little parade of shops by station. very sought after. Mostly 1930 stock of houses but HUGE ones. trains to Charing X Cannon St and London bridge, also perhaps Victoria

Beckenham at a push is nice and again v pricey.

Sidcup much cheaper, high street not up to much but Waitrose is coming!
£650 would get you a detached 4 or 5 bed Victorian and there are plenty around
trains 30 mins to Charing X Cannon St or London bridge

Blackheath how could you forget Blackheath. Not sure on prices. But ticks all other boxes. 20 mins into london.

Schools - well if you are in London boro of Bromley, there are good schools depending where you live, the secondarys are good. They have a grammar system for top 5 % or so, one boy and one girls school. Got to be mega brainy

London boro of Bexley has 4 grammars, top 20%. One boys one girls and 2 mixed.

Also can sit Dartford grammar exam and got to pass it to get in. about top 20%

To be honest, those who dont get grammar can still get VERY good education in Bromley and Bexley but you need to live on top of good schools to get in. Some examples
HUrstmere boys and Blackfen girls SIdcup
Coopers Chislehurst

Hope that helps a bit

Thank you all so much!!! I'm looking into all the areas you've suggested. Thank you thank you.

Sorry one more thing, in Year 2, if child is graded level 3, would you say the child is grammar school material?

yes

too early to tell really though, you want to be heading for top 5s come year 6 so work backwards. 4a/5c end of year 5 level 4 at the end of year 4 etc. A cats score of around 120 usually means you're up to taking the exam

Okay thank you. I would only consider grammar if there was an excellent state secondary as plan B. Otherwise I would just go for state secondary.

hmmm. You could try Chertsey instead - since the town centre has been revamped it's a little less downmarket than it was but it's not as nice as Weybridge. It does have train links to Waterloo but you can either go via Weybridge and change (easy change) or go the long way round via Staines, which may or may not involve a change at Staines, depending on time of day.
Close to the river, station is in the town centre (which it isn't in Walton or Weybridge), nice walks, easy access to the M25 but not too noisy - not too sure about the schools but I think Salesian has a reasonable reputation. St. Ann's Hill is very nice indeed but a more expensive part of Chertsey. There are period houses available and they would be cheaper than Weybridge for sure - but you have to choose the right area of Chertsey.

Don't know anything about the other side, sorry.

Weybridge and Esher are both in the top 5 most expensive areas in the UK so probably not your best choices for getting the house you want for the money.

Have you considered Hampton? or Sunbury? Try looking at them as well (although the Hampton state secondary is still shite, sorry, but you are probably in catchment for Twickenham schools as well - used to be but don't know if that's still the case now)

If it's any help, Hampton is the last station inside Zone 6 on that train line so fares are cheaper into Waterloo.

Actually Epsom is a thought. Decent town centre. If you don't mind single sex there is an excellent girls secondary and a good boys secondary (the only state single sex in Surrey I think). Although on opposite sides of town so if you have different sex children catchment areas could be awkward.....Good primaries and a range of housing stock.

re Chertsey, iirc Salesians is a hard to get into Catholic school

Hampton - Richmond Borough is a nightmare for secondaries with linked primaries. hard to get into waldegrave (girls only) from hampton but not impossible (quadrant system i believe).
Hampton Academy is the main state secondary, not great, but should improve as the other schools tighten admissions. new head is very good from what i hear. time will tell.

don't know about sunbury.

Epsom/Ewell worth looking at, some of the best primaries (Wallis Fields) dk about secondaries but think good.

Visited a few places today:

Dorking, very beautiful but SO busy with cars; a bit noisy and stressful as pavements were narrow and couldn't walk in peace. Such a shame; I thought it was full of character though.

Leatherhead, not so keen.

Tonbridge, not keen AT ALL

Weybridge, still a strong contender but no many properties around

Sevenoaks, nice but didn't get out of the car; worth a proper visit.

So tired after all these visits and still so many places we haven't been to...

What about Walton - you may have to live on the correct side of it for good schools though?

Have you considered Onslow Village in Guildford? Still walking distance to the station and town centre, and you would be in the County catchment - which is an excellent school.

For your budget, you would get a 4 bed detached. Not likely to be victorian, but possibly 1920-1930's property.

I was going to say Hampton village, not sure of secondary school situation there, but lovely place to live.

Woking?

Looking into Walton, you do get more for your money but unsure about secondaries...

Onslow Village, if we cant's get a period house and be within catchment og George Abbot, I'm afraid there's no attraction there...

Hampton Village, is that Hampton Court?

Hampton village - I mean near Hampton station.

in budget

lovely

more of a period property

Gorgeous cece! (Is it yours ?)

Most of the local primary schools linked to Hampton Academy a sink school that the swedish are now trying to turn round. Over a third of the people send their kids to private secondary in the borough for good reason.