Where to commute to Stratford, London from?

[ChurrosConChocolate]

Hello,

Was wondering if any one had any ideas to narrow down an initial search for us?

DH is about to start a new job based near Pudding Mill Lane. We currently live in a small 2-bed flat in South East London and it will take him about an hour to get to work. We have a DS (2) and another on the way. Neither of us are from London and not that keen to live here. Would much rather be somewhere smaller and quieter.

It has occurred to us that we could probably move out east and get somewhere much nicer, bigger and in a better (for us) location with about the same commute but we don't know Essex or Kent at all so don't really know where to look.

Any suggestions/ideas? Is Folkestone any good? Seems too cheap to be true... Is Essex just full of new soulless developments or are there any gems?

We would have a max of £300k and would want a older style house with 3 beds.

The recent thread on here about alternatives to Brighton said some nice things about Leigh on Sea. I've only been there once but it seemed nice.

Leigh on Sea is nice.

55 minutes on the c2c line into West Ham, then 10 minutes into Pudding Mill Lane via Stratford.

Also look at Ingatestone: National Rail train direct into Stratford, then one stop on the Dlr into PM (although the train prices are more expensive on this route)

Leigh

You could also consider Brentwood, Hutton and Warley

it's also on the Central line so you have a wide variety of places to suit most tastes. Commuting is horrible though. There will be times when several trains go by and you simply can't get on.

Pudding Mill Lane is actually on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) line. It is between Stratford and Bow Church - not on the Central Line, though the Central Line stops at Stratford. It would take me around 25 minutes on the main railway line to get to Stratford, change to DLR and a further couple of minutes to Pudding Mill Lane from Billericay. Other places on the mainline which you could consider might be Romford/Gidea Park, Brentwood, Shenfield, Ingatestone, Chelmsford, Rayleigh.

Woodford Bridge/Woodford if you like 1930's semis. About twenty minutes to Stratford from Woodford, big parks, ok schools, plenty around for about the £300k mark.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions, that gives me something to get started with!
Does Woodford still seem London-y though? I don't want to feel like I'm living in London!
Hadn't even heard of the c2c line so I'm off to look that up...

Anywhere I that really isn't nice that I shouldn't bother with? Anyone know anywhere in Kent that is nice that would be a reasonable commute?

I'd go out to Essex/Suffolk borders if you can. For example Manningtree to Stratford is just under an hour and the surrounding area has lots of nice villages.

There is a website which tells you commute times to various stations... I think it also tells you a bit about various Home County areas ... aimed at people considering a move outside London... I cannot for the life of me remember its name though! Sorry!

Diss, South norfolk...? About an hour on the train, direct line from diss station to Stratford and London Liverpool street.

I relocated here from south London 5 years ago. I love it. Excellent schools. Open space.

Actually it's horrible don't move here. (Keeps quiet!)

I would also consider where else in London you get access to, if your partner changes jobs - you are likely to be in the house longer than he is in a job. So if you buy in, say, North Essex (which is lovely, btw) because door-to-door it's an hour, and then 4 years down the line dh gets a job in another area of London, the commute will almost double.

Having said that, I would very happily move to Manningtree and ban dh from ever applying for jobs further away then Liverpool Street!

North West Kent: Ebbsfleet to Straford 10 minutes on HS1.

Try Shorne, Cobham, Meopham, Higham or even Gravesend itself.

Woodford doesn't feel like London to me, but I did live in Hackney!

I love Kent, but I could not do a train commute, it's expensive and horrid....

Billericay in Essex is nice as is Wickford.

There are nice villages near Marks Tey. Marks Tey is under an hour to Stratford. Nice villages within a ten minute drive to the station are Aldham, Fordham, Great Tey and Chappel. There are nice small village schools and great countryside.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I've been furiously looking up train times and houses on right move! Really we want somewhere near a train station so he could walk to and from it without any driving involved (otherwise we'd have to buy another car and extra expense of that and parking, etc) Hopefully he won't need to go in every day to London but we should know more about that once he's actually been doing the job for a while.

Went down to Kent last week and are quite keen on Faversham, about an hour on the train to Stratford and not too big a town, close to the sea and Canterbury. I take your point MrsAMerrick but he's doing a doctorate which is 4 years and then he'd really want to stop working in London so he'd either look for something more local to where we are or we'd move somewhere else entirely or we'd go back to live in Australia (where he's from). 4 years is a very long time to us (although I appreciate we don't want to be moving too much once we have kids at school!)

Off to explore Essex next time we get a chance!

Hi, the websites I was thinking of are:

www.commutefrom.com

www.commuterguide.co.uk

worth a look