Moving from London - where to?

[buntingandstarcharts]

Hi wise ones, I need some help. My husband and I have both grown up in south London and lived together in earlsfield for the past 10 years. We have a two year old and a baby on the way and finally realise that we can't live on our 2 bed flat forever. However, where do we go? We have a budget of £550k and need 3 bed, nice schools, community vibe, good train links to London, both our parents are in south London so we would want to stay south. We would welcome more countryside or open spaces. We realise that we won't get that anywhere near here so does anyone have any idea where might? We would definitely rather move to an area offering these things than to move 'not too far' to a cheaper inner London area - if that makes sense? Thank you so so much in advance, we are at a loss!

What part of London do you need to reach? Makes a huge difference to where might be suitable for you 😃. We scoured the south when we moved from London, settling on Folkestone a few years back and absolutely love it, but DH only ever needs to get to St Pancras when he commutes so it’s perfect...

Woking or along the train line to Waterloo - West Byfleet, byfleet, hersham, Walton on Thames.

Folkestone or Canterbury! Both under an hour to London. Folkestone has a fab seafront and cheaper than Canterbury but is run down in places BUT 'up and coming'. Canterbury is lovely, would get a 4 bed detached for 550 with good garden. Nothing much on the market atm (we want to size up) great schools, 15mins to Whitstable, lots to see and do and a lovely high street (pre Covid eek), beautiful surrounding countryside. We live here at LOVE it but have been tempted by Folkestone.

If you do move to Canterbury PM me, I have a 21 month old and another due in October .

There’s a Facebook group called “Life after London”. You might find some ideas there

following.

Had friends go to surrey & kent coast but none have to do a daily commute.

Parts of Surrey are lovely and some great schools, lovely walks (Surrey Hills etc.). The commute can be exhausting though if it's every day.

Rochester - trains to Victoria, London Bridge, Kings Cross, Cannon Street. Journey is 35-45 minutes. Trains every 10 minutes in the morning. Bromley South is 20 minutes away.

So many grammar schools that they considered closing one day recently because there were not enough clever kids applying to it.

Sorry should have said closing one down, not "one day"

We moved to the home counties, based on the nearest london mainline stations for work. To minimise tube travel and reduce stages of the commute.

Pros: Housing, green space, less pollution, less pressure on all kinds of services, more childcare options.

Main con - a v big one - is the time and energy of commuting. Two people commuting to London can be hard, DH hugely underestimated the toll on time, health and relationships (I knew it’d be bad). Pre covid he did 5 days week commute and I did 4. My health has been far better since wfh.

There is a high proportion of SAHMs where we live, partly due to the pressures of 2 commutes IMO. Before we moved I agreed with Dh that we’d minimise work travel and he’d share school/childcare runs - many, many men around here won’t do that. It often feels like the 1950s!

It might be helpful to say which London train station(s) you need to be commuting into, and how often.

You could make a case for having a look around both Sutton and Croydon (boroughs, not just the towns themselves). You're still within greater London so the commuting is much more flexible, and cheaper (on Oyster rather than rail travelcards). But also on the edge, so close to countryside, the Surrey Hills, etc.

If you want to be properly out of London it totally depends which station you need to be connected to and how long you want to spend on a train.

Don't rule out travelling north. I live in Wolverhampton and I have a friend who lived in Portsmouth. We used to meet up in London because it took the same time on a train.

Obviously that was to central London and I know crossing London can add a lot of time (I used to live in Finchley and visited friends the other end of the Northern line).

For you budget how would you like 4 bedrooms and three bathrooms in the 'posh' bit.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/77670750#/media?activePlan=1

Obviously no good for a daily commute.

Do you know how your work places plan the wfh/working in the office long term? Could make a big difference on where you choose to go. DH and I both know we won't be back in the office 5 days a week any more.

Thanks everyone. So my husband works in Soho, so Victoria, Charing Cross, London Bridge, Waterloo way x

What about Redhill/Reigate?

Redhill station is about 30 mins to LOndon Bridge or Victoria. You can live in Redhill itself or in Earlswood or Merstham which are each about 1 mile south and north of Earlswood and on the same line (Brighton line) and have their own stations too.

You’d get a good family house for your budget.

Good local schools. Lots of green spaces as near the north downs, and lots of open countryside. About 2 miles to M25.

It’s commuter land but also properly Surrey rather than London suburbs....green space between towns and villages rather than them all merging.

Reigate about 2 miles away is naicer and more expensive but you would be able to get something in South Park or Woodhatch areas which are a bit further from station. Lots of people in Reigate still travel from Redhill as it’s faster and Reigate is on a branch off the mainline.

@WombatChocolate oooh thanks so much! I've just had a look and both look really nice and a doable commute. The schools look great! We will have to visit. Is Reigate 'nicer' than Redhill? Do you know what kind of vibe they have - high street vibe? Thanks sooo much!

Rochester is just the posh name for Chatham, though I can understand why people want to use it.
I'd steer clear of the Medway towns, coming from London its like stepping back into the 70s.

If you are prepared to look north of London we have a lovely house shortly to go on the market that ticks your boxes 🙂

Both our families are South so we will be sticking south but good luck selling yours

Reigate has posh market town vibe. It has lots of independent cafes and boutiques and upmarket chain store shops. Lots of people who move out of LOndon when they have families. BUT not quite so good for commuting unless you can locate where you can walk to Redhill station.

Redhill, about 2 miles away is much more mixed. Town centre being regenerated. Has bigger stores like an M and S(smallish) and a much more mixed population as you’d see in the town centre. Merstham to the north is a mix of old Victorian housing, 2 new modern housing developments and a largish council estate. Each bit of Merstham has its own feel. Earlswood, about a mile to the south of Redhill is mostly Victorian housing stock plus some newer properties including flats. Both Merstham and Earlswood have their own stations, parades of shops and primary schools and Merstham also has a newly built secondary on the edge of it. Children also go to Redhill or Reigate for secondary schools.

Your budget would get decent family house in most areas of Redhill and small family house in most popular areas of Reigate or bigger house a bit further out of centre to the south of Reigate.

@Ifailed

Rochester is just the posh name for Chatham, though I can understand why people want to use it. I'd steer clear of the Medway towns, coming from London its like stepping back into the 70s.

Really? Is it? Can you explain more or are you happy with a lazy insult to the area?

I walk past a thousand year old cathedral and castle on my way to the station and my son goes to a Sunday Times top 25 prep school that is probably a third to a half the equivalent price in London.

Unless I could afford to move back to West Hampstead or Chelsea I doubt I would move back to London.

Oxford. Gorgeous town, good train links, access to cotswolds and country walks.

Oh sorry I just saw you want commuting distance, not just family visiting distance.

Not oxford then. Kind of far.

I used to live in earlsfield, then Wandsworth and we made the move to Windsor after DS was born in 2014. It's lovely, great schools and loads of green space. Pre covid we were commuting, me driving to Wimbledon way and DH getting the train in every day to Waterloo, it's an end to end line so you always have a seat. You can also do Windsor to Slough then Paddington. We love it!

I second Canterbury. Have lived there half my life and South London the other half.
As soon as I can persuade DP to move jobs I think we’ll move back.

There are a couple of additional factors you need to figure in which are how long a commute is your DH prepared to do and what kind of schooling you will be looking for (I get with a 2 year old this is hard to contemplate at this point but it’s important longer term!). Various places in Kent have been suggested. It’s a grammar county, only 25% of kids get into the grammars so worse case scenario if you don’t have the money or inclination for private then you could be stuck in an area with poorly performing Secondaries. For anyone contemplating Kent, this really should be a factor! We do have some good Secondary schools but they are fewer and far between than non Grammar counties.

We moved from South London (East Sheen) to East Sussex and then six years ago to outer Sevenoaks. In Kent, in my area for £550K you could get a decent sized 3 bed in Tonbridge (good private & grammar options, decent Girls State Secondary, frequent London trains, access to countryside), parts of Tunbridge Wells (good shops, restaurants, grammars, excellent Faith Secondary & an up & coming State, just under an hour to London) & in some of the villages attached to Sevenoaks (Borough Green has its own station, 48 minutes to Victoria, good Primaries, decent Secondary (Wrotham), in catchment for the Tonbridge/Sevenoaks/Maidstone grammars and easy countryside access. Adjoining Wrotham and Ightham and Platt are pretty and £550K would get you a very decent 3 bed). West Malling (on the Victoria line) town centre is gorgeous - if you don’t mind a new build you will find lots of options in Kings Hill on the outskirts for £550K. The State Secondary is awful but it’s not the only option.

Further South, Canterbury is lovely and very historic with great train links. I’m personally less keen on Folkestone but I don’t think I’ve seen it at its best either with apologies to Folkestonians!

If your DH is happy to sit on a train for over an hour then East Sussex has some great options and it’s non grammar which means you could avoid the whole stressful 11+ process. I’m not sure what the commute time or house prices are in Lewes but I would take a look. Battle (very pretty historic town) and Robertsbridge (medieval village) both are on the Charing Cross line. The train time is about 1hr20 - fine if your DH doesn’t have to go in every day or is happy to work on the train For £550K you’ll get somewhere very nice. The countryside is gorgeous and hasn’t seen a lot of development unlike West Sussex and Surrey.

We took a look at Reigate 6 years ago - I liked it but was put off by the catchment of the good State Secondary being in an area of town that we found less desirable (I appreciate this might have changed since). I’ve only ever seen Redhill from the train station and got the impression it was pretty urban and built up (but could be oh so wrong!).

Just on Rochester - I personally would fall somewhere between the 2 PPs. The town centre with its castle & historic high street is lovely. I’d happily live in one of the houses near the cathedral. The outskirts of Rochester though do look pretty identical to Chatham and it’s got a very mixed demographic. No idea what the State Secondaries are like and if you are considering it, do look at that.