Hertford, Bishop's Stortford, chelmsford or Surrey?

[thelionsleeps]

Looking to move as husband has new job in London - as long as commute ok (up to 1 hr 20 mins door to door) we can consider anywhere.

Must haves - fantastic secondary schools and good rail links.

We want a 4 bed house and can spend up to £650k. Any recommendations on the above or any other areas we should consider? New job is in waterloo so anywhere handy for there would be great! At the moment it seems like we are just picking places off a map.

Look along the lines that go to waterloo. So only surrey of those 4 makes sense.

Commuting across town on the underground can be frustrating and uncomfortable so avoiding it would be preferable in my opinion. Surrey makes far more sense as your DH wouldn't have to schlep to Waterloo from Liverpool Street. Woking has fast trains that take practically no time - lots of our London friends have moved out that way after they had DC.

We live near Woking and the trains from there are great - lots of them and only about 25 mins to Waterloo. The line is so quick that if you fancy somewhere either a bit further from the station or a bit further down the line, the commute should still be less than an hour to Waterloo.

We live in Wokingham, Berkshire and train from here goes straight into Waterloo.
Schools are fantastic, very high achieving and a good choice.
You would also get a house within your budget in this area.

Consider Kent (along Southeastern Line to Ashford/Dover Priory/Folkestone from London Waterloo East), schools are good and some areas are in the Cranbrook School catchment area...for example

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44173629.html
or
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56981273.html

All the above posts make a lot of sense in terms of being on the Waterloo side of London - I've been on the tube all week and it's hellish - avoid it if you can.

However having said that I've lived in Hertford, Bishop Stortford and Chelmsford and you would get a great house for your money in those three towns. Hertford and BStort are pretty country towns but not much going on so they wouldn't be top of my list - the trains are slower and unreliable on that line too.

I loved (love) Chelmsford - doesn't look all that pretty wise - but it's a great community with lots on for kids and families of all ages, brilliant shopping, parks, access to Countryside. It's a great choice IMO.