Living in St Albans - worth it?

[december2020]

DH and I both work in London and currently live in a commuter town in Essex.
It takes me about 1.5h each way to get to central London/work (train is 40mins). DH drives due to his work and would need to drive to east London (checked google maps and currently he would have the same 45min commute - traffic permitting).

We've just got our first kid, so looking for something family friendly, has some independent shops and restaurants, good community and lots of green spaces but also a quick commute to London is very important for me. Budget is max is approx 700k (can stretch a little for the perfect place).

One of the areas we're considering is St Albans. Usually sans pandemic we'd go there for a day/couple of nights to see what the vibe was like and if it's for us as well as trial run the commute to see how we feel. This is of course not possible with the current lockdown.

I would love to hear your experiences of St Albans? Love it? Hate it? What are the things we should look out for? Is it worth the money for the commute and community?

So when we are able to finally visit and see it for ourselves we'll know what to look out for.

Have you thought about places around the north east fringes of London - which might be better for your husband’s commute? For example, North Chingford meets your criteria (around the station and adjoining high st, where your a stones throw from Epping Forest and I think you’d get more for that budget there - plus on the london overground and easy options to Victoria and central lines - this would be a lot cheaper than the very expensive St Alban’s line into London (and easier options for driving to the rest of east London too). Sorry, that’s not really answering your question! But thought it might be worth thinking about

So many SPAG issues in my post I was writing in a hurry haha

St Albans is a really lovely town. Its expensive for a reason.

I lived there for a couple of years and loved it. But that was pre pandemic when it had a lot of independent shops, nice cafes, pubs and restaurants. It’s hard to know whether those will recover. Unfortunately £700k won’t go very far.

Ooh I will check out Chingford - thanks for the tip!

I was worried our budget wouldn't go too far, but trying to weigh out a good smaller property with the time and work balance benefit as at the moment our situation would be unsustainable in the long run. It would be our forever home, so would still need to be the perfect compromise.

Really hoping to be able to visit post pandemic to get a proper feel of the area.

I personally wouldn’t consider St Albans if you need to drive to east London.
St Albans is lovely but it’s expensive and the traffic in St Albans and on surrounding main roads gets very busy, it would be too far for me, but I know others may think differently.

That's a great tip! It's definitely worth DH doing a trial run with the drive to see what it's like and what he thinks of it (I'd be commuting by train). So definitely something we'll have to do once the lockdown lifts!

There is no way that would be a 45-min commute in 'normal times'. Where in East London is his work?

We used to live there but moved away because the traffic drove us nuts. It used to get gridlocked at commuter time and you could waste an hour sitting in traffic trying to get from just outside the city to the station, a journey that would take 5-10 minutes at other times. That was about 10 years ago though.

It’s a lovely city with great shops and restaurants and a nice vibe though.

St Albans is gorgeous- nice historical feel with the beautiful cathedral. Lots of independent shops and cafes and little streets etc and a nice park.

However the commute into London is expensive and busy, although that's the same for a lot of commuter towns tbh. If you're looking for your forever home then 700k won't go hugely far.

You should check out Hitchin too - similar vibe to St Albans but your money will go a bit further

Do check out Chingford - the around the station is the nicest bit with the cafes and bars and greenery (further away from this is more residential and has a bit less charm, though perfectly fine). Nearby Highams Park is smaller but leafy and becoming more popular with families. Would also check out nearby Woodford Green/South Woodford, Buckhurst Hill and Wanstead (although limited choices in Wanstead for your budget). These are all nice areas, family friendly, but more practical commute-wise. Staying eastwards does sound like it would save a lot of to and fro for your husband and with much cheaper and quick transport links into central London.

He works around Barking and Plaistow, though on a rare occasions needs to be in Richmond. 45mins was just based on Google Maps but of course wouldn't reflect rush hour traffic reality, which is why we thought we'd do a trial run to see what it's like.

I work central (currently close to Marylebone but my industry jobs are all around central: King X, Southwark etc).

With traffic it looks like St Albans may need to be out. Will definitely look at Chingford as the proximity to Epping Forest is super appealing.
Ideally we'd look for a door to door commute of under an hour (DH has this currently but mine is 1.5 hours and with no family close by we need to be closer to balance home/work/nursery etc.)