Living next to Twickenham Stadium- advice please!

[GJD2016]

Hello there,
I was hoping anyone living on the main entrance road leading to Twickenham may be able to give me some advice.

My partner and I are considering putting in an offer on a house that is on the main drag - and I am just concerned about how badly match days do impact your family weekends! Main concerns are parking, security (drunk people using your garden / fences to relieve themselves I've heard l?!), late night noise etc.

The place we have seen really is our dream house to raise a family, and Twickenham is such a lovely place too- so am trying to weigh up the pros and cons before we put that offer in!! I.e. Yes match days are awful but over all the joy of living there far outweighs the odd burger left on your drive etc!!

Thank you so much in advance, really appreciate any help or thoughts.

Hundreds of Years ago I lived in Hampton and had a Saturday job in Twickenham! On match days everything ground to a halt, I'd go to the pub after work and wait until the roads cleared so I could get the bus home.

I can't imagine what it is like living there now. Although, I have been to matches recently and we always park in the side streets of St Margrets - sorry to anyone who lives there!

My dad owned a house on Whitton Road years ago - early 90's. Rugby days take over completely but you get used to it. And it gets back to normal incredibly quickly. I'm sure that particularly if you're English (we're not) you can really enjoy the spectacle of the event. It has its own unique atmosphere. Of course, it's such a big venue for a range of events that it's not just 6 nations and test matches that there will be congestion for, so that should be factored in too.

You get used to it and learn to manage the inconvenience. It helps if you love rugby so are happily to watch the game along with the 70 000 people on your doorstep.

In terms of drunken louts, it's mostly fine except for army v navy and the 7s matches.

Be thankful you missed the chaos of the world cup.

You can rent your drive out for lots of money, I have a relative that does that.

Your concerns are pretty much spot on. Transport is a pain on match days and yes, people do pee in your garden and throw beer cans over your fence. Your parking spot will probably get stolen. That said, you just learn to work around it, and, while it gets very busy on match day and there's lots of drunk people, I've never felt unsafe or known anyone's houses/ cars to be damaged - rugby crowds are very friendly.

A lot of work goes on between the Stadium staff and local residents to make it all work smoothly.

And I believe residents are offered tickets to matches.

I would contact the stadium and ask to speak with their community liaison.

There will be disruption to roads on match days but stewards and staff try and get them away from stadium as soon as possible.

There is a 6 nations match on 27th Feb ( I think ) If able go down and take a look at how it is managed.

I used to live nearby. Not so near that it was a major problem but we would have people parking outside our house and picnicking out of the back of their range rover outside of our house on match days.

Residents can enter a ballot to buy tickets. We once got selected for tickets for a concert there. Think it was U2? You still have to buy them though!

There is residents parking for match days too.

I'd much rather live near a rugby ground than a football ground (apologies for the massive generalisation...but I would).

Six Nations every year but the fixtures are quite spread out. There won't be another rugby World Cup in England for a long time now. Worth checking the match day road closures around the stadium. If the new house is inside you'll need to leave at the crack of dawn to drive anywhere on a match day. If it's just outside then you will almost certainly lose your parking!

I'd rather have Twickenham than a much smaller football around.

OP take a look at below link

www.englandrugby.com/twickenham/twickenham-community-information/

Dsis used to live there. I think the issue is just to be very, very aware of matchdays (and concert days), in terms of avoiding the horrific travelling implications, both for road and public transport. She'd end up planning to be either home all day, or out from mid-AM to the evening. When she lived there, the Tesco would shut on matchdays due to parking/traffic chaos, which occasionally caught her out.

I think it'd be a massive PITA personally. What if you wanted to do any of the following on a match day:

Go on holiday..loading car up a major pain;
Have a kids' party/ friends round...ok if very local and not coming by car;
Nip out to the supermarket/diy store/other boring weekend functions... and the come back to find your space gone.... not so much of a worry if car has a driveway...

Full of joy and looking on the bright side, me ;)

And the NOISE. We used to live on Richmond Hill and could often hear the roar from the stadium. It must be infernal if you're literally next door.

And as for rugby fans being 'well-mannered'.... really?! IME they are very loutish: posh louts but louts all the same. And with mahoosive vehicles people crushers to boot.

As someone who actually lives there currently...

Whitton Road and the side roads to it that allow shortcuts to the town centre, suffer the worst from urinating and littering. London Road is virtually unscathed by this.

Ref traffic, we get listings well in advance, either plan to be in or out. I sometimes go to London for the day, aiming to be back for final whistle, sometimes I stay local, walking the river or go to Richmond.

It's not really a problem. Noise is negligible where I am. Occasionally get a crowd roar if I just have the radio on.

I don't live on the run up to the stadium but I do live right in the middle of Twickenham. Rugby fans do tend to be nicer IME (lived in Wembley too), but then I worked for a Northern football club and the fans there were lovely so maybe it's a Landan fing. Anyway, pubs cope v well with lots of fans on a match day, though they put their food prices up which is a bore.

Army v Navy is carnage, mainly of the rivers of piss variety. But that's only once a year and the cleanup afterwards is impressive.

In short, I love Twickenham and DH and DC do too. It's a great place to raise a family.

Do the Mormons still take over the stadium once a year?

Not sure about Mormons, but Jehovah's Witnesses have their annual meeting there. Doesn't require quite the same level of clean up afterwards.

Oh yes it's JW not Mormons!

I would think very carefully about the house, personally I would rather be in something smaller, not near the stadium. We live a couple of miles away. Twickenham is great with really good schools, transport etc.

My friend is in the Police and polices the stadium and it is actually quite a large number of days per year that the have various events. She has told me quite horrible stories of people weeing and pooing in people's gardens on event days. Some people could shrug that off, but others would be quite upset by it, only you know how you would feel about that. I believe there is a major event (saw a road sign) on the 27th, maybe you should go to it and see how you would feel.

When the JWs came a couple of years ago, I had to abandon a day out as after 2 hours of trying to get through the grid lock caused, it was just not worth it. The stadium is used for both Rugby and concerts and on those days the roads are closed for a couple of hours before and after the event. Therefore you would have to be very aware of the events schedule.

Although it is not every day or even every weekend there are also extra events, that would have an impact. For example, the England team had a training session that they held on a Friday just before half term, it was a day time event that they invited 15,000 school children to come and watch, it caused chaos in the area and the roads were completely grid locked with mini buses and coaches.

On a positive note house prices have risen steadily in the area since the 90s and even when we were in recession they levelled rather than dropped, which is good to know.

Good luck with your search.

A friend lives there and they have no issues at all really. People tend to clear the area very quickly after a match.
They do plan to be out/housebound on a match day.
When their kids are older they plan to join in with the neighbours bbqing "naice" sausages in their front garden and charging £5 for a sausage sandwich
They do tend to be mobbed by rugby fan family and friends who expect free accommodation/lunch/drinks if they travel there for a match.
They've put a large motion detector security light on the front of the house which they switch on for match days to avoid anyone urinating in the garden.

I've lived near a large north london football stadium and it was not pleasant. Helicopters overhead constantly, matches twice a week usually, lots of trouble and vandalism and you learned to keep an eye on the calendar to see who was playing and whether trouble was likely or whether going out in the area [a nice one] might result in drunken and v unpleasant attention on your walk home.

I have lived near Twickenham and near a major football ground.

I'd choose Twickenham every time....