Young couple moving from London to Bedford?

[Helena30]

My partner and I are both 30 and live in North London (Crouch End). We've rented here for 6 years and love it but are looking to buy with the view of starting a family in the next couple of years. We can't afford even a barely liveable 1/2 bed flat anywhere within the M25 so looking to go further afield.

My partner works in Old Street and will likely be commuting in every day, even post-pandemic. I work near Regent Street and will likely only be needing to commute max 3 days per week post-pandemic, maybe less.

We visited Bedford to view some houses recently, as it's really the only place we can afford a decent size (3 bed) house within our budget. I have family in the North, so easy access to the M1 and A1 is a plus for me! Having looked at the classic commuter towns north of London, we can't afford much better properties than inner London and then there's the train tickets on top, so Bedford is coming out as the best option.

I know it has a bit of a reputation but is it really that bad? The Castle Quarter seems nice and with a car, and spending much of the week in London - would it matter so much? Also wondered what the commute is like e.g. is the line known for delays and are you likely to get a seat?!

Any advice appreciated! Thank you

I grew up in Bedford and it’s not bad at all! I don’t really get this reputation it has. It is a nice place- nice parks, big lake, river & embankment, wide streets and attractive Victorian housing stock. The town centre is not posh but it is pedestrianised. Perhaps I’m biased but I think it’s a nice place to grow up

I live in Bedfordshire, not Bedford, one of the villages which has train station and a route into St Pancras. I personally do not like Bedford - it has got very scruffy over the last 10 years or so. Lots of empty shops and not so nice areas. Yes Castle Quarter is probably one of the nicer ones!
It’s worst looking outside of Bedford - Ampthill is lovely for example and a short bike ride or walk to Flitwick station. You could look at Harlington on that line too I don’t commute anymore but there were only ever minor delays when I did and I managed to get a seat most days.

It's ok.,embankment is nice and the hospital in my experience is very good. I didn't know it had a bad reputation! what's your budget..If you don't mind me asking? There are some very nice villages around bedford, would that appeal?

Ive spent alot of time in and around Bedford I didn't mind it! Like anywhere it has good and bad areas.

I visited a friend in Bedford quite recently and I’d always heard of its bad reputation. I was really surprised, friend lives in the Riverside area, which seems lovely, as was Castle. She seems to like it. I suppose it’s like many towns around London, there will be the areas where “local” people who’ve always lived in the area live, and the more gentrified areas where commuters into London live. It’s not going to have as many amenities and trendy places to go out as you’re used to having on the doorstep in Crouch End / Muswell Hill / Finsbury Park, but as long as you’re not expecting that it seems like a perfectly fine place if you want a family.

Thank you! Yes we were quite impressed on our visit. It helps that the sun was shining! It was hard to tell in the town centre which were permanent closures and which were lockdown-related. Obviously the town was dead but not sure how reflective of "normal" life that is!

This is good to know, thank you! Yes you're totally right. Sadly we have to accept that we'd be leaving our London life behind but we can't afford to have a family here.

I’ve lived in Bedford for almost 17 years. It’s fine. The town centre has lost some big shops in the last couple of years though (M&S and Beales and now Debenhams). It’s currently the terminus of the Thameslink line, so if you’re using that you’ll pretty much always get a seat when you’re London-bound. Not sure what the current situation is regarding the fast trains - they were looking at cutting the number of trains which stopped in Bedford a few years ago (I haven’t commuted to London since 2011).

I have a friend who lives in Bedford for the same reason as you, and another friend in Flitick whose DH commutes to London- no idea what it's like the as I've only visited her (nice) house on a housing estate, but she seems happy. I live further north but still commutable to London, so train tickets are more expensive to London, but we have much more house for the same money.

I lived there about ten years ago. It was fine, friendly if not a lot going on. Parks and schools are good. I think the train service is slower now than it used to be, and traffic can be horrible. Not sure I’d want to commute every day.

As people say, lots of decent villages around there. But what about somewhere like Bushey, or Amersham or Tring?

That's interesting to know, thank you! I guess the bad reputation is just what I've read online to be honest, I don't actually know anyone who lives there. If paying for 2 x annual season tickets from Bedford then our budget probably can't stretch much more than £350,000, which seems to get a nice 3 bed house in the area! Not ruling out villages but we'd prefer to be able to walk to the station (up to 25 mins ish)

If you’re wanting to walk to the station, then Poets or Prime Ministers might be better than Castle Road.

@ComtesseDeSpair

I visited a friend in Bedford quite recently and I’d always heard of its bad reputation. I was really surprised, friend lives in the Riverside area, which seems lovely, as was Castle. She seems to like it. I suppose it’s like many towns around London, there will be the areas where “local” people who’ve always lived in the area live, and the more gentrified areas where commuters into London live. It’s not going to have as many amenities and trendy places to go out as you’re used to having on the doorstep in Crouch End / Muswell Hill / Finsbury Park, but as long as you’re not expecting that it seems like a perfectly fine place if you want a family.

@ComtesseDeSpair That's interesting to know, thank you! I guess the bad reputation is just what I've read online to be honest, I don't actually know anyone who lives there. If paying for 2 x annual season tickets from Bedford then our budget probably can't stretch much more than £350,000, which seems to get a nice 3 bed house in the area! Not ruling out villages but we'd prefer to be able to walk to the station (up to 25 mins ish)

@levoyager67

It's ok.,embankment is nice and the hospital in my experience is very good. I didn't know it had a bad reputation! what's your budget..If you don't mind me asking? There are some very nice villages around bedford, would that appeal?

@levoyager67 Sorry tried to reply below but failed as I'm new to this site! But that's interesting to know, thank you! I guess the bad reputation is just what I've read online to be honest, I don't actually know anyone who lives there. If paying for 2 x annual season tickets from Bedford then our budget probably can't stretch much more than £350,000, which seems to get a nice 3 bed house in the area! Not ruling out villages but we'd prefer to be able to walk to the station (up to 25 mins ish)

@ComtesseDeSpair

I visited a friend in Bedford quite recently and I’d always heard of its bad reputation. I was really surprised, friend lives in the Riverside area, which seems lovely, as was Castle. She seems to like it. I suppose it’s like many towns around London, there will be the areas where “local” people who’ve always lived in the area live, and the more gentrified areas where commuters into London live. It’s not going to have as many amenities and trendy places to go out as you’re used to having on the doorstep in Crouch End / Muswell Hill / Finsbury Park, but as long as you’re not expecting that it seems like a perfectly fine place if you want a family.

@ComtesseDeSpair Sorry I tried to reply below but failed, I'm new to this site! This is good to know, thank you. Yes you're totally right. Sadly we have to accept that we'd be leaving our London life behind but we can't afford to have a family here.

@hellowembley

I grew up in Bedford and it’s not bad at all! I don’t really get this reputation it has. It is a nice place- nice parks, big lake, river & embankment, wide streets and attractive Victorian housing stock. The town centre is not posh but it is pedestrianised. Perhaps I’m biased but I think it’s a nice place to grow up

@hellowembley Sorry tried to reply below but failed - I'm new to this site! But thank you. Yes we were quite impressed on our visit. It helps that the sun was shining! It was hard to tell in the town centre which were permanent closures and which were lockdown-related. Obviously the town was dead but not sure how reflective of "normal" life that is!

Bedford has some nice areas and surrounding villages.. but I'd also suggest Northamptonshire for some lovely Cotswold style villages and a fast connection to London

The Bedford-St Pancras line is one of the most expensive commuter routes (per mile) so it'll be a huge part of your salary. Bedford is the first stop on the line so you'll always get a seat.

I live in a village near Bedford and work in the town. Like anywhere it’s got its good and bad bits. The Embankment, Castle Road and the new Riverside development are lovely. There are some really nice parks and my experience of the hospital has always been positive. The town centre is a bit rundown in parts and it’s a shame so many of the shops have closed but that’s the case in lots of places.

You do pay a premium for being within commuting distance but its a lot cheaper than London! I haven’t commuted for years but I don’t think it’s worse than any other service, you’d get a seat this end but coming out you often have to stand until St Albans (20 mins).

We moved from North London as well and looked at lots of areas before ending up here. I think Bedfordshire is quite under-rated - yes you’ve got places like Luton which aren’t great but there are also some beautiful villages, lots of green space and plenty to do and as you say it’s very convenient in terms of both road and rail travel.

I was brought up there. In the Castle Road area too. Was nice enough, very good food for size of town (Indian and Chinese). State schools results suffered from the large number of bursary places at the Harpur Trust Schools (now only 3 due to falling numbers). Castle area basically more expensive (and bigger houses) closer to the river and closer to town. I was brought up in a 3 bed terrace - had 3 decent sized doubles, 3 receptions (2 knocked through) and the soundproofing was fairly decent too. I think a lot of the castle road area is now one way, parking is pretty well all on street so could have issues. Walkable to the train station but not the quickest - just over a mile but flat - so cycling should work.

The area around the train station was the "roughest" and like most places it has lost department stores in the town centre (had all the now departed brands -Debenhams, BHS etc- in the past). Transport links are now massively better since the Bypass was extended to be fully dual carriageway between M1 and A1.

Decent sports facilities, swimming, cinema but commute relatively reliable and guaranteed a seat unless you get one of the not Thameslink trains. My parents did the London commute regularly and I did it for a while.

What about North Herts? I’m in Letchworth and we’ve just sold our three bed for less than 300 (admittedly not many are so low, but there’s a few in the 300-350 range).

Thanks everyone for your advice and experiences of Bedford. It was all so helpful. I'm happy to say that after a few weeks of visiting the area and house viewings, yesterday we had an offer accepted on a house in the Castle area!

Congrats on getting your offer accepted. I lived in a shared house on Castle Road for a few years and it's by far the nicest area you could have chosen even though parking can be a pain. My favourite part was the roundabout on Castle Road and Rothesay Avenue. A few locals have turned it into a herb garden and people are welcome to help themselves to free herbs. They do a little fundraiser every summer to keep it going.

You'll be handy for Santaniella Pizzas then😊

@Helena30 this is my experience/opinion others may disagree.
Until July last year I lived in a village close to Bedford having moved from Muswell Hill.
I went to Bedford a lot because one of my sons went to school there for 6th form and the other went to Bedford College and worked in a restaurant so I was in and out all of the time.
The castle area and around the river is very nice, you can walk all the way to Priory park and it feels nice and green. The Embankment pub does good food and allow dogs in, there are some quite nice coffee shops and ok restaurants, Italians, Indians, Thai etc and some nice pubs and bars.
I liked the market great for fruit and veg and plants etc, there are some excellent farm shops in villages around Bedford.
Overall we got on fine and enjoyed our time living there (8years) however it isn’t like Crouch End. There are some good community things going on in Bedford, good music and arts (ie The Circus of Illustration and the summer film festivals).
I think we made the mistake of moving to a village, which after 27 years in London didn’t really work for us and my DH ended up working back in London full time and the daily commute is a reel grind.
Negative things, I believe parking can be a problem on some of the Castle area roads, also parking at the station can be tricky and traffic in Bedford at rush hour/ school time is bad, the main shopping area of Bedford really isn’t nice although the small arcades are quite nice.
I found the middle of Bedford a bit scary at night, my son who is early 20s had a few tricky/scary times in Bedford and he was quite savvy/streetwise.
I think if you either have school aged children or interests, hobbies or a job that gets you involved in the community there are some great things going on in Bedford so you could have a nice time.