Guildford/Woking: What's it like?

[KezzieJJ]

Dh and I have decided that we would like to move to Woking/Guildford from SE London - but we don't really know the area. We are currently in Crystal Palace and love it here, but want a different schooling/lifestyle for our kiddies. DH works in Hammersmith, and myself in Waterloo.

Anyone live there or nearby who can give me an idea of good places to live, we know the villages are great, but obviously not as commutable into London for work as the towns themselves. We can only go to stamp duty price too, and want 3 beds and a garden for our money!

We also have a 3 year old and a 3 month old, so school and nursery is important too.

Finally - are there any good nanny/au pair agencies/contacts out that way as mini-cherub will need care when I return to work in March.

(I know ... not asking for much, right?)

ANY help greatly assisted - thanks in advance.

:)

What's your budget?

Gosh, sounds like you had an awful experience. We also moved out from sw london, but I can't say I recognise most of what you say - apart from the town centres on a weekend evening, but I think that's a problem common to most suburban towns.

There are some lovely community oriented areas around both towns. Of course you need to bear in mind catchment areas for schools, I don't know where you wouldn't, but you can work that out before you move. I think status obsession can be easily avoided by avoiding those people. If you have children, that also helps with getting to know people.

But budget is important, as it's not a cheap area, so can't really advise more until I know which stamp duty threshold you are talking about op.

By the way if 'everyone' is behind closed gates and going to private school, how are they also fighting in the town centres with racial tension? Don't you think there might be some middle ground somewhere? I'd rather live somewhere with a normal racial mix, than the south west where anyone who isn't white is an anomaly.

Thanks to everyone so far for the info - it's very interesting all round. We are really guided by stamp duty this time round as we are buying for the first time, so 250K - which in London, gets you a shoebox - which is why we are hoping further out will get us more.

That budget won't get you much further in this area I'm afraid.

If you want 3 bed + garden for under £250k, especially if you want to be in a good state school catchment, then you need to sacrifice commutability (ie live a drive away from a station). Either that or settle for a small 2 bed place or a flat.

Sorry op.

Have you looked a dorking? Longer commute, slightly cheaper, still very good schools and pretty.

There were some threads recently about cheaper houses within a commute of London, might be worth looking at the areas in those as well.

Friends moved from south London to Woking and are very happy there.

They got a 3 bed within your budget. Look at St. John's area.

Hi everyone, thanks so much for the updates. Brilliant food for thought. We actually found our PERFECT spot in Dorking, and I had moved in and renovated in my mind - however when we worked back to husbie's commute to Hammersmith, it just became nearly a two hour trip for him, although for me it was still under 60 mins. (Shame!) This is a great place to start though ....

Thanks. Am a newbie to this site so won't have seen them but will have a go at the search engine and see if I can find them. :)

Can he change job?

Sadly he spent 8 months finding this one - so we are hanging on for dear life! :)

IMO Guildford much nicer than Woking. Have u looked at Walton, molesey? Although for 3 bed house may need a slightly bigger budget.

Starfish, I really, really don't recognise your description of Woking at all! Angry and unpleasant people? Angst and aggression? Good grief.

There is a lot of money in Surrey, some people send their kids to private school and some people (not always the same people!) are status orientated, but it is a mixed area and not everyone is up themselves.

We moved to Woking 18 months ago and absolutely love it. Our neighbours on both sides came round for drinks on Christmas Eve & there was a well attended jubilee party on our road and on an adjoining road. People couldn't be any nicer IMO. I think you were just unlucky - or perhaps it was the precise area in which you lived.

Yes, Guildford town centre is more upmarket than Woking and it is obvious when walking around that there is an awful lot of money there. But Woking has plenty of good shops and I have never witnessed any racial tension.

I commute to Waterloo and I hop on the fast train at West Byfleet. I always get a seat and the car parking is £3.50 per day. I have friends who travel from Guildford and I understand it can be a nightmare. Sometimes they have to stand all the way in.

My three kids go to state schools and I am really pleased with both the junior and senior schools.

As I said, I love it here.

I would say don't be put off Woking. It is true that some parts of the town centre of pretty grotty but it is being gentrified as we speak. There is going to be millions and millions ploughed in to it over the next few years with high grade shops going in. This will do great things for house prices. There are some lovely areas to Woking - Hook Heath and The Hockering are lovely. Also, areas such as Horsell are very nice. The other plus is that the trains in to London are much better than Guildford.

Starfish it's not very diplomatic to be rude about people's home towns. I would like to ask you if you can name any town which doesn't have problems at 1 in the morning. Guildford around the station is awfulaye at night and had a huge police presence and yet you wouldn't know it from the high street in the middle of an afternoon.

I know that Starfish but so did other people so you're still being ride about other people's home towns.

Rude I mean

Ok, Starfish, I'll leave you to our facts and opinions and I'll stick to mine.