Where to live? Chertsey or Slough

[Frederick1984]

Hello all,
Wish everyone well, my wife and I are looking for our 1st home. We need some advice. Please let us know what's you thought.

We are currently renting a flat in Ashford, Surrey. And we are doing house hunting in the nearby area. We are looking for a 2/3 bedroom property below £350k. I am working in London, so transportation is a key for me. We have a 2 years'old daughter, so the school and hospital are also important items in our wish list.

My wife likes two new build development, one is Trinity in Slough, the other is Chertsey Halt in Chertsey. They both have £330k two bed apartment available (are the prices fair?). Both of them have hospitals around (Upton/St Peter). We can't decide which one to choose.

People said Chertsey is a nicer place, with good schools; but Chertsey is a little hard to get to London. 80 mins by direct train, or exchange in Weybridge. And it seems many big chains (e.g. Boots, Superdrug) are not in Chertsey.

Many people said Slough is not a very nice city. The buildings does look too 1960s. But it has a very fast train to London. I have been told schools in Slough is also good. I am not sure, any comment on the schools?

I checked the crime map. It seems Slough has slightly higher crime rate.

I don't think I have enough knowledge about these two places and two developments. Could my wife and I ask your advice please? Thanks for your help and wish everyone well!

Neither are particularly nice but if you must have one of the two, then Chertsey. Does your child have health conditions or why is it so important to be so close to a hospital? I don't know about commuting from Slough to London but as you identified the train from Chertsey takes an hour (or longer) as it is not a main line. I don't know where you need to get to in London but you are looking at a minimum of two hours right there just to get to the city. Someone suggested commuting from Woking instead which has got many fast and frequent trains but to get there from Chertsey at rush hour you would definitely have to allow half an hour, pay for parking at Woking station and walk some distance to the station as the car park is huge there. If you are going to commute from Woking, just live there!

Weybridge

Brookwood

Walton

There’s nothing wrong with Chertsey. It’s snobbery that says otherwise.

No one takes the branch line train all the way to Waterloo. Change at either Staines (2 minute wait), Virginia Water or Weybridge.

Slough is not a city.
The hospital for the Slough area is Wexham Park. Upton is more of a walk in clinic.
Slough is multicultural and has good transport links. The Trinity flats are close to the town centre, near Herschel Park, and are within 2 miles of Windsor town centre.
I would look at Woking, Feltham or Staines.
You can't really compare Slough and Chertsey. They are very different towns.
Chertsey is within the M25 and is in Surrey, both desirable.
Slough will be on Crossrail, and has grammar schools, if that is relevant.

I would suggest Staines too. Bit more happening, better shops than Chertsey.

Thank you all very much for your help! I am so moved. I was considering Stains but I didn't find property within my budget. I just did another search on Rightmove, and there are many more available; it seems property market changes so quickly. I also looked at West Byfleet, seems has a lot of outstanding school. It seems great.

I have been to redrew development in Addlestone myself, the only problems is they won't completed until August or even later. It means I need to pay extra rent on the property I am currently living. But Addlestone is a nice place.

My daughter doesn't have special medical conditions at the moment. It is just because I though to have a hospital or walk-in-centre nearby is very handy. I remembered I was storming to a walk-in-centre with a speed ticket because I thought my daughter is in critical condition; but the nurse there told me it is just a matter of drink more water.

Please let me know if there is any 2nd hand property in above area (Stains, Woking, Walton or West Byfleet).

Thank you very much for your helps!

Do not move to Chertsey just because of the hospital!!!

Woking had a walk in centre, not sure what happened to Weybridge one after it burnt down!!! If you live in Addlestone you could possibly walk to Weybridge station (fast train) and have the stop line as a back up.

I would agree with Cece. You do not want to have drive to drive anywhere during the rush hour(s)!!!

The other place is the area is Egham, -first class community. Primary schools are fine, not so much secondary, but that is the same across NW Surrey.

I would suggest that if you can, to rent for a few months. The area is very variable. There is a lot of post code snobbery round here, but that's Surrey for you. We rented in Chertsey when we first moved here to sass out the area and the schools. It has good access to motorways, but it is on a slow trainline so you will have to way up the pros and cons. You could actually move further out into south Surrey and still be on a faster train line.

Slough has Wexham Park hospital near but I would not recommend buying in Slough. Too grim. Plenty of nice places near by

I live in Chertsey and personally like it - a bit boring but affordability has enabled us to buy a home we love. It's known for its period properties as it's such an old town but, as with anywhere, I'm sure you could find a new build. As others have said, apologies to anyone who lives there, but I definitely wouldn't recommend Slough. Woking is better for transport links and, like everywhere, has it's good and bad areas. Much bigger than Chertsey so depends what sort of size area you want to be in. The local drs surgery in Chertsey is woefully negligent but St Peters Hospital was amazing when I gave birth there.

I’m in Slough.....moving to Wokingham as soon as possible. One word for you.....traffic!