Advice on moving to Colchester from West London

[maggie84]

Hi,
Need some advice on Colchester location and best areas to look for buying 3/4 bed house. Also looking for advice on good primary and secondary schools.
DH works in Canary Wharf, do people commute daily and is it a reasonable journey. Journey time from google says around 1 hour commute, but wanted to check if there are many people who usually travel daily.
TIA

I used to commute from Colchester and it wasn't too bad. I didn't try to squeeze on to the fast train in the mornings though, I generally got one about 7.30am that got into Liverpool Street about 8.40am and stopped at a few stations on the way, including Stratford. An annual season ticket costs around £6000 I think (more if you add on a travelcard). The only problem with that line is that it's the only one to East Anglia out of London, so if there's a problem on the line, there's no real alternative to get home (or into work). I had that issue a handful of times in just over 2 years of commuting.

I commuted from Colchester to Liverpool Street from 2008 - 2010 and again from 2012-2013. It's certainly doable. In 2008 I used to get a train at about 7:30 and aim for one that stopped a few times so I got a seat, rather than the intercity from Norwich. In 2012 I used to get the 6.03 which was a fast train (work let me do 7am to 3:30pm rather than 9am - 5:30pm) but earlier enough that I got a seat.

Location wise, how close you are to the station makes a huge difference. You need to consider how much it is going to add to your commute. I walk a mile each way which adds a fair chunk.

Schools are very full. So it would depend on what age your DCs are. Children in catchment do get priority so it's worth considering the catchment lines when you buy.

My husband and I travel from Colchester to London for work, he does 5 days I do 3.

Timings are as above, we leave around 7.30 and it takes about an hour. We drive to the station which is another £130 per month for parking. We don't mind it to have more space etc. We live in a lovely area which is off Maldon road, near Lexden which is a nice part of town.

Schools are indeed v full, my daughter is at Hamilton school which is popular - there is a nice community feel here. There are a few private schools in this area if that's of interest. We are actually selling at the moment!

Thank u all for ur reply.... details provided r very useful.
We had been for a house viewing last week and liked a house in Stanway area..near tollgate shopping .Can someone please let me know about the area... is it good for families? The nearest school to the house was Stanway primary.... if anyone's DC's r already studying in the school....can u let me know about the school.

I'm afraid apart from the handy shops I don't know the area/schools! Good luck with it all.

You are quite a long way from the train station in stanway/tollgate.
You might find Marks Tey station easier to commute from.

I don't know about Stanway primary but I do know that it's a feeder school for `Stanway secondary which is a high demand school that people rate very highly. Hamilton is a lovely school and so is Prettygate Primary but they feed into Philip Morant secondary which has a few issues at the moment (but obviously things change over time and it might be all different by the time you are thinking about secondary). Make sure you check catchments, there are a couple of 'dead zones' where you are out of the catchment for more desirable schools.

Stanway is a long way from the stations in Colchester. Traffic is often bonkers going towards the station in the mornings, so as a previous poster has suggested I would go from Marks Tey.