Left London for the suburbs - hate it

[Whereishome22]

Feeling miserable about this situation so want to at least have hope on the horizon! Moved from a part of London I loved to zone 6 suburbs end of last year and absolutely loathe it. It's a cultural wasteland, nothing to do, need to drive everywhere (which I can't yet), takes ages to get into work, and no local parks or playgrounds (two small kids). Suffering serious buyers remorse but anywhere I'd live in London has shot up in price Vs here, which has stayed steady.

So I want to leave and start anew in a town/ small city and want your help!

Budget is £850k, need at least 3 bedrooms but ideally more/annexe. Want a house with period features (not cottage more Victorian/Edwardian/1930s), at least 100 foot garden, good schools (this doesn't necessarily mean grammar schools) within walking distance, things to do, cinema, swimming pool, fruit and veg market, actually useful shops rather than gift shops and to be able to get a nice coffee, vegan food every now and then. Family in the South so don't want to be too far from them (i.e. Wales, Scotland, NE/SW England) and will need to commute to London one day a week (but don't mind it being a long one)

Places on the shortlist are:
Folkestone
Norwich
Tonbridge
Faversham

Any other ideas?

I lived in Broadstairs for a while, so not far from Margate. There is quite a lot of ASB. I also found it hard to fit in as there were things like yoga classes and film groups but they were always in the day and I commuted to London for work. There’s not a lot going on in winter, some shops close October-April.

A lot of hotels/boarding houses are used to house people (generally single men) who aren’t a priority for social housing. There are very high rates of alcohol/drug abuse and many seaside areas have very high levels of deprivation.

Don't know if it's been mentioned but you can get all that in Sheffield (select area carefully for schools) Depends what cultural resources you want to hand though. Theatres we have, music scene so-so, galleries not so much (Manchester is only an hour away by train mind). By and large people move here for the great outdoors rather than high culture.

I agree with Wokingham, or one of the villages on the outskirts of Reading / Wokingham.
Caversham / Pangbourne / Shinfield.
Or stay in London but z3 or 4!

Norwich is a beautiful, vibrant city but over 2 hours commute to London.
Far lower house prices though.

Hello from Caversham! You might like it here OP. It's not the most varied place in terms of culture but plenty to do in walking distance, good commute to London, and you can get there quickly for going out in the evening or afternoon too.

I think your budget would get you what you want although not on the most expensive roads, but on a road where walking to the centre is quicker anyway.

But it's hardly a cultural metropolis, or even particularly nice (sorry of you live there)

In London is anywhere outside of z1&2 a cultural metropolis?

I would make some suggestions but i think most of the places i like don’t need the OPs type there.

Have you ever looked at Claygate, Esher and Cobham?

Chelmsford? Brentwood?

Lots of Londoners move to Bristol and like it. It isn't cheap and even with your considerable budget there are some areas where it won't stretch far. If you were moving to Bristol with no need to consider commuting to London, I'd recommend Henleaze, Bishopston, Westbury on Trym, Ashley Down and St Andrews areas. All of these are in north/north west Bristol. Other areas like Southville and Knowle (not Knowle West) could suit but I'm not so familiar with that part of the city.

BUT what you're going to struggle with is (1) finding a large, not over-looked garden and (2) being within an easy commute of Parkway or Temple Meads (the two main train stations in Bristol, both have trains to London).

Leamington Spa is nice but small, also you'd really need to be able to drive to get to other places.

where do you need to get to?

I rarely use the car, it's easy if you live in the town and the train station is walkable for Warwick, Kenilworth, coventry Birmingham, Solihull and Banbury. The bus is every 10 minutes between Warwick and leamington but takes 45 minutes to get there rather than 3 on the train and they are every hour

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124553663#/?channel=RES_BUY

this is 5 minutes walk form the station, the main shopping area is not much more than 5 minutes and a park 5 minutes walk. decent schools, swimming pool is 15 minutes walk, library in the park round the corner. Market o Saturdays in Warwick for fruit and veg

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/125367011#/?channel=RES_BUY

this one is two minutes from a park with tennis courts and two minutes from the Main Street of shops - busy at the front with people passing by all day and 20 minutes to the station

Kenilworth has aa few properties that might fit the bill, its more like a market town, smaller than Leamington but you can walk everywhere in Kenilworth and th schools are good, plenty of parks and countryside

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/121203869#/?channel=RES_BUY

plenty of detached homes like this one above are purchased and then renovated inside and out

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/123988193#/?channel=RES_BUY
like this one - it had the same outer look as the previous but the builders rendered and put the wood on it.

£850k?!?! Oh, I love being a Northerner.

For £850k, you’d practically get a mansion in Yorkshire and if your employer is like mine, they might let you come in to work in London two-three days consecutively every month if you’re able to overnight.

Sheffield is an amazingly vibrant city but still close to the countryside and it’s really not much further than you’re already looking at. Great links direct to London.

Now I've fallen down a rabbit hole of properties in Cambridge.
My personal favourite is this one Beautiful Cambridge property

Some seaside town as full of poverty and unemployment. They have become backwaters.

Places like Sevenoaks, Godalming and Guildford are nice but you are unlikely to get all you want in your budget.

100ft garden and a big period property for £850K No way. Ditto Cambridge.

More like £1M.

This weekend (among many other things) there's a 5k inflatable obstacle race, and The Kaiser Chiefs are playing. Dull dull dull.

@Whereishome22 I lived in Brighton for many many years and it has made so many places seem really parochial by comparison. I didn’t realise how much I’d hate this until I moved to West Sussex…

Anyway, I’d say Brighton and Hove if you can find what you are looking for in budget (by all means PM me for info on different areas as they differ hugely in character ).

I would say a big no to Worthing if you want culture and a bit of the vegan / hipster/ ‘right on’ vibe but a big yes to Lewes. Sorry to sound like a wanker with all those stereotypes but you get my drift. DH and I regret not moving to Lewes tbh!

Bristol sounds like a good alternative but I don’t know it.

Definitely Norwich. More bang for your buck. Good theatre, museums, parks and near the Broads for sailing, birdwatching everywhere, north Norfolk and the sea brilliant. Also decent music scene, masses of small shops, cafes and award winning restaurants. And a daily market in the centre.

I admire you for doing something about your dislike of a place OP and looking for somewhere you will be happier.

Probably been done already but what about Sussex (Rye or Eastbourne if you can't bear Hastings) or Dorset around the coast?

Don’t pick Brighton and a Hove - it’s a dump! I live here - for your money I would choose Tunbridge Wells !

Depends what dull is to you.

You could look at Letchworth. It's not 'cool' but you can go direct to Blackfriars, get a decent house for your money, some nice quirky housing (look at what has sold not just at what's on now), the whole town is pretty walkable, has its own cinema and lido, has a few vegan eateries. Loads of community stuff to do. Nice splash park and nice big common.

Some great primary schools, secondaries less so but there's a (quirky, vegetarian) private school in town too.

St Albans or Harpenden. 20 mins on mainline into London. Great schools. Harpenden might be a bit pricy for what you want in a home but St Albans it’s do-able.

Don’t pick Brighton and a Hove - it’s a dump! I live here - for your money I would choose Tunbridge Wells !

Agree with this. Have lived in both Brighton and Tunbridge Wells. The only thing with Tunbridge Wells will be you shant get the kind of garden you’re after on a £850k budget. You’ll need a minimum of about £1/1.1m - or £1.5m+ for character house and decent size garden. This is why people start moving out into the surrounding towns of Tunbridge Wells for the larger plots when they realise space is more important than the convenience of walking into the town.

I can tell you a bit about life in Folkestone. I have lived in London as well as other capital cities, and appreciate the fact that it’s only 52 minutes from Folkestone West to St Pancras. The primary schools are generally good or outstandingly and it has girls and boys grammar schools. There is a really wonderful park down by the beach called the Coastal Park, which has lots of adventure playground-type equipment, as well as plenty of other parks. There are three theatres, a cinema, a very interesting Harbour Arm with dozens of food stalls as well as converted shipping containers and old waiting rooms that house bars and restaurants, and an outdoor cinema screen in summer and a market on weekends. The lighthouse on the Harbour Arm is a Champagne bar. There is a triennial art exhibition which attracts big names, and the works are generally left in situ which means that the town has the UK’s largest urban art collection now. A purpose-built indoor skate park and climbing wall opened this year, and there are the usual municipal sports facilities, as well as private operators such as Bannatynes. The hills around Folkestone offer wonderful walks and sea sports are available in the harbour. If you like popping over to France, Eurotunnel is here too, or Dover is just down the road. There is a Saturday fruit and veg market at Folkestone west, as well as a market in town twice a week, I think.

Easy for people to be rude about Croydon without really knowing it but 'zone 6 Croydon' is the South of the Borough so actually pretty affluent, Tory area. So I'm guessing OP just has ended up in a bit of a dead spot. And its

Oops. And it's blue rinse brigade rather than exciting.

Agree with others - move further in a bit and get the space + proper London and transport links. Norwood, Crystal Palace, Beckenham, Penge.