Renting in Swindon (SN25, Abbey Meads)

[autunno]

Hey everyone, first post here. As my commute requirement to London is pretty loose (I only need to go there once a week, being remote other days), my search area is quite extensive and I saw a property in Swindon (near Abbey Meads) which seems appealing to me.

How is this part of town? I have already checked other threads on Swindon, and the general feeling is "meh". But particularly I'm concerned whether this part of town is safe, a good place to grow your family.

For some context, my wife and I are on our 30s and we're looking to have a kid next year. We want to move to a house (currently in a flat in London), but we don't want to commit to buying yet.

My main goal is to live in a spacious house in a decent neighbourhood for less than I would pay being close to London. I don't plan on staying there for more than 2 years, moving on later to a place (probably another town) in a better primary school catchment.

Budget is up to 2.8k max, but obviously paying less is desirable if it fits the criteria.

Abbey Meads is fine. In fact, most of Swindon is fine. There is a big Asda near Abbey Meads plus other big shops.
Swindon gets a bad rap, but its no worse than other towns its size. Full of people just living their lives. Very good road connections and easy to get to beautiful countryside on all sides.

Thank you Annonnimoouse42! Tbh looking online at some articles about drug and other problems in the downtown area makes me a bit less inclined to make the move, I may prefer a slightly smaller town if it's likely to have less problems like this I think.

I lived in Swindon for 4 years and never had any trouble even though I was very close to one of the rougher areas. Sure there are issues but every town has those.

Abbey Meads is what I would call the outskirts of Swindon anyway, you're not really near to the town centre/less nice areas. It's basically a giant housing estate with a few shops and maybe a couple of purpose built pub/Dr's surgery etc.

Depending on what your mode of commute transport is Abbey Meads is very close to the A417 for the M4 motorway access but quite a way from the train station. As the pp says there are loads of lovely countryside areas nearby, and if you do parkrun Swindon has 2.