Moving out of London - where to?

[bertiebadger]

DH and I currently live in a small 2 bed flat in very central London with a baby on the way. We are trying to shortlist places that we might like to move to in a year or so. Budget hopefully 500-600k or so.
DH grew up in beautiful rural Scotland and is craving more green space. I grew up in north London and love our friends, the community and the general feel. We're both liberal sorts of people.
Key points for us would be:

1. Good commute to London (city area, DH to Canary Wharf or city)
2. Feeling of space and greenery - decent sized house and garden and green space around
3. Fun young families - not too much Daily Mail!

I'd be very grateful for any thoughts!

If you're both going to be commuting, I would be wary of going too far out - I think the practicalities become difficult. It also becomes really expensive to have two season tickets

Look along the new Crossrail line. Not open yet but gonna be brilliant soon! The prices are high but you can zoom into Central london. Best of both worlds.

The Redhill/Reigate area is good for a quick service to London Bridge. The countryside is lovely and there is loads to do for young families. Reigate is a bit nicer than Redhill but Redhill has the train station with the direct service.

Having lived in the Suffolk/Essex area I would avoid that area if you want to avoid mixing with Daily Mail readers!

Tunbridge Wells is not as stuffy as it used to but it is still middle class. Money is important there and people have it. No university as such and little in the way of culture (if you consider the money people have got to spend on it if they wished to) They voted Remain as so many rely on jobs in London especially in the Finance sector and with wealthy people in TW able to buy niche finance stuff there is a fear this could trickle down Attractive town though and popular with tourists but never overrun.
Lewes is historical place inhabited by academics yet an hour from London.
Hertfordshire has it all plus loads of local firms to work in

You might just about get something in Sussex, in The Burgess Hill/ Hayward’s Heath areas. It won’t be huge on that budget, but nice properties do come up. You might find something in the villages to the north - Ardingly, Handcross, Balcombe area. Balcombe has a station and is only about 45 from the Thameslink stations. They are very green areas, and lots of commuters live there, so fairly liberal communities I would imagine.

Have you thought about what you're going to do for childcare as well? A long commute and needing to drop off/collect children sounds like a recipe for disaster (as well as being potentially very expensive).

BIWI that's definitely a consideration. That's why I'm keen to keep the commute down as far as possible. Somewhere like Petts Wood would be the same as my commute now. I'm a teacher so could love schools but love my school and don't want to.

*move schools

I think that wherever you look, do not underestimate the commute, and I say that as someone who used to live very centrally in London.

This would make places like Forest Row and Ardingly etc not feasible; it would be two hours each way which is 20 hours a week traveling. Not much fun. You could get round it by getting somewhere very close to the station but that’s not always easy.

My commute at the moment is 80-90 mins and personally that’s about the limit of what I could tolerate. Sorry if this is all stating the bleeding obvious but it’s easy to forget how this might feel on a daily basis.

Haven’t been mentioned I don’t think but perhaps look at Coulsdon area and Kenley, both right on the edge of the (beautiful) north downs and very quick into town, sub 1hr possible.

Kent definitely appeals too due to the schools.

Probably only if your as yet unborn child is bright. Think really carefully before you tie yourselves into a grammar system.

Hertfordshire is very liberal (lots of Lib Dem voters).

St Albans is an obvious choice but it's just as expensive as London tbh.

Hitchin might tick your boxes - it's less than 30 mins to London, beautiful countryside all around, quaint market town with a strong sense of community, lots of families etc.

@PotteringAlong good point

Another vote for forest row. Really beautiful spot.

@IlanaWexler Hitchin is very tory though! I wanted to move to hitchin for a really long time, so joined the facebook group to get a feel of the people there.

It is really very tory. Though not as Tory as Harpenden. I remember vividly (this was pre BLM) that there was this black lady who wanted recommendations for a black counsellor. The majority of the group made fun of her, saying that she was being racist for wanting a black counsellor as a black lady. Also someone asked for recommendations for chinese food when the lockdown started ,there were a lot of jokes about bats. Meanwhile in my East Finchley facebook group, when someone asks for recommendations for chinese food, absolutely no one makes fun.

Maybe facebook is not an accurate representation of real life, but I have never seen any racially sensitive stuff on my London facebook group, but this is somehow a surprising number of this on my Hitchin Facebook group. I don't think that they mean to be racist, but i feel like expecting them to be as welcoming of diversity as a London suburb is hoping for too much. I also knew at that time that a small Home County town was not going to be the right fit for me and left the hitchin group.

OP, before you make the move, join the town facebook group and look through the posts. There are always some DM reader types everywhere but if there are a lot of comments that suggest this ( more than 50%), it would probably be hell.

@Desiringonlychild Well the Tories won the last election by a landslide so whether we like it or not we need to accept that most of the UK is very Tory. London is a Labour bubble but the OP shouldn't expect it to be like that elsewhere.

Having said that, Hitchin & Harpenden do have far more Lib Dem voters than most places in the UK: 21k in the last election. www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000749

Thats a more accurate representation than fb comments.

@IlanaWexler I wouldn't call Lib Dem very liberal tbh. They are centrist so they absorb both tory and labour voters who don't want to vote for the main parties for whatever reason. As for Hitchin, the Lib Dem candidate, Sam Collins works very hard locally, so I am not surprised he got so many votes and the local labour candidate, Kay, didn't really impress.

Libs Dems aren't exactly liberal. I wouldn't really consider myself very liberal and I vote Lib Dem.

I’m watching this thread with interest as I’d also like to move somewhere else as the overwhelmingly tory feel to where I live has got me down way more than I thought it would. I do get that places change as I think the OP mentioned earlier but I just feel like I don’t fit here. Think lots of range rovers, golf clubs, talk of schools and houses. Everyone I have met has been pleasant but there’s a high snobbery factor and somewhat 1950s feel too. I’ve had multiple men overlook me when I’m with my DH and ask him if he works up on London.

I'm in Maidenhead in Berkshire, and I love it! Lots of river walks and pubs in local villages. Lots of green space. Mainline train to London. And we're getting Crossrail. Great schools too!

Desiringonlychild I like your idea about Facebook groups - that’s a great idea for you, OP. I’m going to do the same with places I’m considering! (I can’t decide whether or not to leave london. I want more green, but do love my liberal bubble )

Marlow is a lovely town, good schools and easy access to M4,M40, budget f £600 would get 3 bed probably

Maidenhead has new Crossrail due at somepoint soon! £600 would get you a 1960s 4 bed detached, both have great community feel.

I actually did join a couple of Facebook groups, it's quite enlightening! I just wonder though whether people our age and stage would be the sorts of people commenting on them. So many good ideas here, thanks all. In the end I think it will have to be a bit of a compromise.

@bertiebadger it may be the case that most younger people don't comment on a town facebook page. I would never have dreamt of joining a neighbourhood facebook page when the main subject was where to get compost when I was 22. But it gives you an idea of the mindset and some people who live there. I once went to a pub in amersham and they refused to serve me (while serving a lot of white people). I am sure that the pub staff there is not representative of the whole of amersham; indeed I crossed the road and the pub opposite which charged £5 per pint & £14 for sunday roast was very happy to serve me and DH.

Its just that I cannot imagine something like that happen in London. if they wanted to turn away non white people, they would lose 40% of their customers, maybe even more. its like something that would happen in 1950 not 2020. Sometimes political inclinations aren't just a tick in the box, they give a hint as to the mindset and the values. There is a difference between a population that votes for Mike Freer of Finchley (gay tory MP) and the tory heartlands of the commuter belt. There is a difference between guildford (the ex MP Anne Milton quit the tories in disgust) and wycombe (the MP is steve baker of the ERG).

We moved out of London to Surrey. We live 5mins drive from the country side & a 7min drive to the train station, which takes us 20mins to commute into Wimbledon! Best of both worlds. Its green & peaceful. Expensive but you've got a good budget. 😊

@Vickie89 that sounds lovely! Whereabouts in Surrey are you?