Come talk to me about Reigate

[Samnella]

DCs are 7 and 5 and in a good primary but the local secondary is dire so I am looking to move. Reigate is at the top of my list. We can afford a 3 bed house, commute to London Bridge is do-able and the primary and secondary schools look good, lovely town etc. Is there anything I need to know, bits to avoid (budget £600k max), are the schools (secondary) as good as they look, whats the trains like, can you get from Redhill easily where the trains are better?

I love Reigate. Used to live there and can't wait to move back (currently in London). Nice restaurants/shops and very convenient for London/M25/airports/day trips to Brighton, etc.
The trains take about 40 minutes to London Bridge if you get a direct one, and they usually start in Reigate so you can often get a seat. Sometimes you need to change at Redhill. Harder to get a seat on the way home, but it's not a long journey.
I don't know anything about secondary schools I'm afraid.
South Reigate is a bit less desirable than north, but not horrible. You should be fine with £600k for 3 beds.

Friends of ours moved to Reigate from London about 5 years ago for the same reasons. One more baby and a slightly bigger house later and they are still very happy. Can't give you more details about schools etc as i don't know, but no adverse comments and his commute seems to work OK. They are now in the area close to the station. All happy and welcoming!

I have friends who moved out to Reigate about 5 years ago, also from London. From the last person's post, I am inclined to believe they are they same people, which would be an odd coincidence. My friends have two boys and a girl. He takes the train. I wonder whether they are the same people?

Schools in Reigate are very good but oversubscribed, so be careful where you choose to live. An alternative would be Dorking (also great schools and a nicer town imho).

I ought to have added that it seems a very nice place to live!

I'm in reigate. The state senior school got an outstanding ofsted this year.

For £600k you can get a 4 bed Victorian semi without parking and a small garden. A detached 4 bed with parking big garden is about £850++

If you want the state senior look at the south side of the town- chart lane Side. You won't get in from the other side. It will only get worse!

Reigate Grammar is private so you can obviously live anywhere. Vvv academic great results but £16.5k a year each child.

Should add lots of people including my dh drive to redhill £90 to park at station and go from there as better trains.

The senior in redhill is the Warwick which has literally just been rated Good by ofsted.

Or if you are Catholic there is St Bedes in Redhill which is well regarded.

Thanks all.

my dh drive to redhill £90 to park at station and go from there as better trains. is this per month?

If you want the state senior look at the south side of the town- chart lane Side. You won't get in from the other side. It will only get worse! What's the alternative?

Yes the parking is per month.

From what I understand lots people on the North side go Private. If not I think you get the Warwick in Redhill or as the other poster said if you are catholic and go to church for 7 years ( I think) then you may get st bedes. Or there is a state boarding school called Royal Alexander & Albert but I think it is quite hard to get into as a non boarder.

People to the west of Reigate will probably get into Ashcombe in Dorking, which is a good school.

We live in a small village between Reigate and Dorking and love it. Moved there from London a while ago. We got more for our money than we would have in Reigate itself (we got a three bed, detached, large garden and double garage) for around £550K. Maybe consider the surrounding villages and Dorking as well as Reigate, although you would rely on your car more which does not suit everyone.

Not sure about schools as we don't have kids yet, but I have heard that Reigate schools are very very over-subscribed so I would research that carefully. On the whole Reigate is great and I really like it

We commute to London from Dorking. Costs £88 per month to park at Dorking station (although we cycle which is free), train costs £3012 per year to London (Waterloo or Victoria) that prices includes underground. Trains are civilised (always get a seat on way there and normally on way back) and generally quite reliable. If we have a really late night out in London we can get the 24 hour train to Gatwick and get a taxi back from there (cheaper than a taxi all the way from London). The train Dorking-London takes 50 minutes plus obviously your commuting time at each end. It's hard but do-able and lots of people do it.

Oh lots of people where we live use Redhill station rather than Dorking, but I prefer Dorking as a bit slower but you always get a seat

We're between Redhill and Reigate and in terms of commuting its great as we're 15 mins walk from the station in Redhill with direct trains to Victoria and London Bridge. If course we also get a bastard load of people parking in our road because they're too tight to pay for the car park, but there are rumours at the council that they're going to look in to residents parking schemes to avoid this.

Ds goes to St Johns, really good school and we're very happy but we're in the bulge year which won't happen for another 6 years (they can only accommodate one bulge year at a time) so unless you're the other side of the common (Somerset Road/Meadvale area) you won't get in to St Johns.

We're going to have to move in the next couple of years probably to Meadvale/Somerset Rd/Clarence Walk so we have a better chance of getting in to Reigate school. When we moved here The Warwick was in special measures and now 4 years later its rated as good which is a brilliant turn around, it's worth keeping an eye on over the next couple of years, schools are very over subscribed here and people have avoided The Warwick for years but if its improving and continues to do so I can see it also becoming over subscribed too!