Where on earth can we live?

[secretbookcase]

DH and I live in a wealthy commuter village. Not our sort of place really and we need to sell up and find somewhere cheaper now DC are grown.
We both work from home but I have meetings in London once, sometimes twice a week, so would like to be within reachable distance (1.5 hours max ideally).

We're looking for somewhere that has a very good cultural life (bookshops, indie cinemas, a theatre etc) and is not obsessed with money and status. Would need a station with reasonably easy access to London. DH wants close access to greenery so not a big city. More a market town perhaps.

We have about £600k and want 4 beds and a big garden which seems increasingly hard to find.

Do you live in a place like this or know of one?

Winchester?

Just watch train prices though. A friend of mine just had to move to Nottingham but keeping her job in London, with the idea of commuting twice a week. The season ticket was twice what she expected! £800 a month for 8 flexible journeys!

Leamington Spa ticks most of the boxes

I love it

Birmingham is easy on the train for the theatre, three local swimming/leisure centres, Warwick and Kenilworth are nearby. Train to Marylebone is 1.20hrs every hour

nice places to eat, sports clubs galore. parks, garden. 10 minutes and you're in the countryside.

Easy to get to most parts of the country as so central

DH wants close access to greenery so not a big city

I have found I could walk out of my front door and in 10 minutes be walking through the farmers fields with the sheep and go for 5 miles to the nearby village

Im more of a cyclist though and that is just the same with lanes and countryside in abundance

Another vote for Malvern. Maybe slightly longer on the train than you’d like (1hr 50 to Paddington direct) but it’s very affordable and stunning scenery. £600k would get you a very nice 4 bed with beautiful views. Easy access to other countryside too. Now lots of lots of people who commute to London around once a week, great Malvern station is often pretty full with London travellers!

Saint Leonards?

Tunbridge Wells

Frome

I came on to suggest Malvern too, although the commute is longer it's a lovely town and the hills are wonderful.

Woodbridge or Bury St Edmunds (mostly because I want to live there, but they tick your boxes).
Whereabouts in London? 1.5 hour door to door might be challenging.
I'm in Romford, occasionally go in to work in Westminster & its 1hr15m if absolutely everything runs like clockwork.

St Leonard’s, or Eastbourne?

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/101178926#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114767264#/?channel=RES_BUY

Direct train from Westbury to London

Saffron Walden

Thank you all so much. Loads more to add to the list - Malvern and Saffron Walden keep coming up.

@Nofaffing

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/101178926#/?channel=RES_BUY

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/114767264#/?channel=RES_BUY

Direct train from Westbury to London

That cottage in Frome is gorgeous. And DH mentioned Frome as somewhere that sounded right.

Berkhamsted

We moved to Folkestone, which I see has been mentioned several times, a few years ago from London and love it. Definitely fits your bill. Can’t recommend the move highly enough. However prices are (and have been for a while now) rising rapidly. You’ll get what you are after comfortably for your money, but possibly not for much longer.

Leamington spa not malvern

Lewes

There’s something sinister about Stroud.

Malvern, Stroud and pershore all tick the boxes.

my friends moved to folkestone last year...very happy but they do say its like 2 different towns...one part is very ukip chavy and the other part, where they live, posh and indie....etc.

@earsup

my friends moved to folkestone last year...very happy but they do say its like 2 different towns...one part is very ukip chavy and the other part, where they live, posh and indie....etc.

Your friend is 100% correct and describes it v accurately. However, I think if you move to a seaside town, any seaside town, then it is pretty par for the course. We have friends in the hallowed Brighton and actually I think the disparity is possibly even more stark there…

@SouthernFashionista

Lewes

There’s something sinister about Stroud.

Tell me more. What's sinister about Stroud?

How about Newbury? Relatively quick train to London, market town, surrounded by countryside & very low density towns/villages so the traffic is much lighter compared with many places, and the houses are relatively affordable still.

Hastings? Hythe?