Surrey as a place to live!

[Lizzie2018]

Hi all,

After considering a move to North London, my brother suggested Surrey as a potential place to live. I have done the usual Google searches to see what the area is like but although I'm finding general information, I'm not finding any specific information. I guess what I want to know is, where are the good places to live and is there any parts to avoid? I also need to be relatively close to a train station so I can get into London easily.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance

I think we need a bit more of a 'brief'!

1. What's your budget, and what do you need to get for that (eg no of bedrooms)
2. Schools: private or state/secondary or primary?
3. General preference: small town/suburb-y/rural/town?

Well Surrey is a big old place with many good links to London. I like dorking for example and has good train links. But this is like asking how long is a piece of string. Horsham is also good if you wish to deviate into West Sussex.

‘Surrey’ is quite general. You might need to narrow it down a bit.

Budget?
Whereabouts in London do you need to commute into/out of?
Max commute?
Schools? (Private? State? Primary? Secondary?)
Budget?
Style preferences (new? Old? Do-er upper? Move in ready? Detached?)
Town? Village? Rural?
What sort of neighbourhood are you looking for?

It’s really quite a diverse county and totally dependent on specific location.

Most decent sized towns in Surrey will have good rail links, split between Waterloo and Victoria.

What you can afford is key.

I live in Surrey and love it, even though it it not particularly “leafy”.

Such a big area to cover. Perhaps look at the maximum commute time you want to do (stations along South West trainline). Add a 10-min buffer when you factor in using the tube.

When looking at houses/schools etc, don’t forget to factor in cost of train season ticket (£3k+ a year), train station parking (if you’re not walking distance) and council tax, which is high in Surrey!

I live in Surrey and many places are wealthy, but other areas just down the road are much poorer.

You really do need to know these different areas.

Surrey is lovely but need to answer questions above as it’s a large county.

we moved to Guildford from East London 9 years ago and love it. I work in London and commute 3 days a week. Train is fast and as reliable as you would expect for any privately run franchise - it mostly works and isn't nearly as bad as Southern.

My husband missed the 24 nature of London but agrees it is much better place for our family - open spaces, the opportunity to actually own a house instead of a weeny flat, good state schools, generally low crime.

I think for your search you need to follow the train lines. Anywhere along the Portsmouth direct line is going to be handy for you, it will just depend on how long a commute you can tolerate. For the biggest bang for your buck, look at Haslemere which is a lovely town with good facilities, schools etc and an entirely achievable commute.

Which bit of London do you need to get to? That's going to narrow it down somewhat? Do you want somewhere urban or more rural - you can get rural in Surrey. Do you need schools - some parts of Surrey have constant shortages of state school places so you may end up with an inconvenient school run. The flip side is there are plenty of private schools to choose from.

You're going to have to put in some legwork tbh! Depends where in London you need to get to and how often (presumably you'll need a better service if you're going in 5 days than 1-2), do you want to be in walking distance from a station, what else do you need, what sort of house do you want, what is your budget...........

We're just over the border into Hampshire in Fleet. Recently (and also in previous years!) awarded "Best place to live" in the country - it is lovely, good schools, high street, nice walks along the canal, the train into Waterloo takes 40 mins.

We're currently selling our house so let me know if you'd like to take a look

Ewell is nice. It’s just outside Epsom and in Zone 6 with a good train service into Waterloo via Wimbledon and Clapham Junction (from Ewell West), or Victoria (Ewell East). Good schools and lots of green space. Epsom’s nice and though it’s one stop outside Zone 6, it runs trains to both Waterloo and Victoria.

Epsom has the usual shops - M&S, Wilko, Waitrose, Lakeland etc. And Aldi and Lidl are nearby too. It’s a pleasant little town, However I’ve heard it’s a bit of a zoo in the evening when the yoof come out.

If you want to go further into Surrey, there’s Dorking and Guildford which I’ve heard good things about. Surrey’s a big county so hopefully other people will be along to help.

As others have said - depends where in Surrey! I know a few places in Surrey, including Mitcham, which is basically a not terribly posh part of London, and Tunbridge Wells, which is extremely leafy and middle class with some of the few Grammar schools left in the country.

Tunbridge Wells is in Kent wobblybanana

As others have said Surrey contains everything from the dodgy end of Croydon to the most expensive addresses outside of London in St George’s Hill. It goes from gritty urban to remote rural. From the outskirts of London to the borders of Hampshire.

Some focus and a wishlist required!