Tell me about living in Woking?

[movingtotheburbs]

We're moving out of London and are strongly considering Woking. We've got family there, it's a great commute for our London jobs, schools seem ok. But is it actually a nice place to live?I'd love to hear from people who live in Woking. Do you love it? Which bit do you live in? What schools are the best? (DC are primary age) I know it's not as pretty as other Surrey towns but I'm more interested in what the people are like and if we'd feel a sense of community. TIA

The pizza express there is very memorable apparently

Sorry couldn't resist

@lookoutkid Haha yes so I've heard...

Don't live there but spend time there. If we weren't fully integrated where we are ans because we don't want to hassle of moving schools etc, we would move there. I like it.

Would provably just outside or even a but further like Ripley, but it's a much nicer place than it used to be and I find the people.friendly and pleasant

Whenever someone suggests moving to Woking they are told that there is a fast train to Waterloo. Some of the villages outside of Woking are lovely. I like the theatre. Don't know much about the schools.

It's ok as a place to live.

Lived on Goldworth Park 1994 to 2000 then moved to Barnsbury where we lived for 11 years.

My husband commuted to London. I worked in Woking.

Can't comment on schools as we don't have children.

The Wolsey Centre and the Peacocks are the shopping centres. Woking Swimming Pool is at Woking Park which is a nice park.

Horsell village is popular. Knaphill is nice.

Nearby towns are Guildford, Camberley and Aldershot.

Woking has good facilities but is pretty charmless as a town. Cinema, theatre and trains are all good (in so far as any train service into London is these days). New Marks and Spencer in the new shopping centre if that’s your thing. Council appears to be strapped for cash but then whose isn’t? Particularly good on waste collection IMO! Four big state secondary schools and lots of good private prep schools but no private senior schools currently (Hoe Bridge is opening one soon). There are loads of buses to the senior schools around and about or the train gets used a lot by schoolchildren too.

There are some lovely areas around Woking itself. PP mentioned Ripley; Pirbright over on the western side is nice (with a closer but less well served station at Brookwood) and Horsell is popular with commuters. A bit further out is Chobham which is nice too. Chobham Common, Ash Ranges, Horsell Common and Basingstoke Canal are all there for walks and outdoor stuff. If you use Woking for the facilities and trains and live a bit further out I think it’s great!

As regards community we have been here for more than ten years and when we moved actively chose to stay in the area because we had made friends here. Lots of social opportunities based around sport or churches, or hobbies, whatever you are into and the schools seem to do a lot too.

You can get some great street food in Market Walk in the town centre. It smells amazing when you walk down there.
The nightlife seems somewhat lacking in terms of bars, but that could be because people go out in London instead.
They put a big screen up in Jubilee Square for major events e.g. sports, plus giant chessboards and perhaps table tennis. Anyway lots of people gather there to watch and eat lunch whilst children play.
There's a big celebration for Diwali. I've never been but have heard good things about it.
Traffic in the town centre can be difficult with all the building work going on. Not least the Hilton which they seem to have been building forever.

Thanks everyone, so helpful!! Can anyone comment more on schools? Anyone know Woking high? The primaries look good. Any areas to avoid- possibly sheerwater?

Sheerwater is mostly social housing, with associated problems. There was a scandalous story very recently of a woman with mental health issues who had died in her flat in Woking (Sheerwater I suspect). It turned out no one had seen her for over three years.

Goldsworth Park was the largest housing estate in Europe when it was built forty odd years ago.

Maybury Road area isn't very nice.

Paradoxically, Maybury Hill is very posh and expensive !

Old Woking seems to have its' share of troubles. Although nearby Kingfield looks nice IMO.

St John's village is expensive for property. Personally I can take it or leave it.

Bisley is a little bit too far from the centre of Woking for me. However, some people may take that as a positive ! It would shorten the journey to Camberley/Frimley if you needed to go there. There is a pistol shooting range in Bisley. All legitimate but you can sometimes hear the crack of pistol fire on Sunday mornings. HMP Coldingley is in Bisley.

Mayford looks nice and is slightly closer to Guildford.

Oriental Road has some big properties on it. It's a busy through road though. Being close to the Shah Jehan Mosque (Britain's oldest Mosque) might be a plus point for you. The Lion Retail Park (built on the site of the Lion Works. You have to be my age to know that !) is at one end of it. The other end of the road provides access to Woking train station.

Send looks nice too. Depends how far from the centre of Woking you want to me. HMP Send is a Womens prison

I don't live there but have been many times and have friends there. I'd say overall it is nice. Some areas are not that great, like the bit north east of train station (has that inner city, high crime gritty vibe), but by contrast there are lots of very nice suburbs further out.

Main complaint is traffic - driving anywhere in that area is terrible - the roads are completely overwhelmed vs the number of people. You can see this just looking at the map on google - basically a load of villages became towns, then merged together, without any real new roads being built.

Traffic is impenetrable in the centre. Villages like Bisley, West End, Chobham are nicer, but public transport isn’t good and they are more expensive areas.

Horsell is close to the town centre (and expensive), not keen on Brookwood, except for the train, which goes to Woking. Similarly, Knaphill, St John’s aren’t great imo.

Woking High and Winston Churchill are the state secondary schools, unless you’re Catholic and can go to SJB. There are primary schools in all of the villages- Horsell, Knaphill, Bisley, West End, Pirbright, Chobham etc.

Woking high is great. We live in Horsell. V nice, friendly village with lots going on, v good high street with actually useful shops, nice cafes etc.
Horsell schools are excellent - ours went to infant school (Horsell village school) then up to the junior school and are now at the high school which is also in Horsell so v convenient. They’ve all been great for our kids and I’m v impressed with the high school. Children from a much wider area come to the high school too, or to Winston Churchill. Other options if you’re catholic, though I know plenty who just went on to Woking high.

For me, I’m much more of a town / city person than a village person, so Horsell was a good compromise- the village is lovely but you can walk to the main town in 10-15 mins (from my bit of Horsell anyway), with cinema, arts centre, library, bigger shops etc. I’m lazy and drive to the leisure centre. It’s not in any way a beautiful town centre and I go to Guildford or Farnham or Kingston for nice pottering and Xmas shopping, but day to day it’s great, and there’s lots more good food options now - enormous improvement on 15 years ago! The food walk is great, and plenty of restaurants etc - as well as lots of Surrey pubs having good food.
And coming from SW London I do laugh when people moan about the traffic - yes it’s annoying sometimes but I caught myself getting cross the other day when it took 10 mins to do a journey that’s usually 6 cos of roadworks. Hardly dreadful.

Thanks everyone, great to hear Woking high is good. Sounds like Horsell is the place to aim for!

Horsell is lovely and definitely the best part of Woking to go for. Loads of families, nice High Street, great community. Very green and acres of common land to go for walks. Only 15 minutes walk to the station.

Horsell infants and junior schools are very good. Goldsworth school (infants and juniors) is also excellent. The High School has a really strong reputation.

Move quick though as it’s becoming hideously expensive to buy in Horsell. There is also massive competition to buy properties (particularly family homes) from new families moving in and existing families wanting to upgrade. Good luck!

This is a super useful post! I’m also following :) May I also ask about old Woking?

I understand some people are not big fans, and definitely hear more about horsell! But given the better value for money housing, I wanted to ask which parts of old Woking would you recommend or suggest to avoid?

any views around palace way road?

Any primary schools to avoid in/near Woking?

Hi

we are looking at moving to Knaphill in Woking but doing some research I worried about some of the news reports on crime can people tell me what it is really like to live there please?

Hi everyone, we are still planning on moving to Woking this summer but a bit concerned about the councils debt. Anyone know how this will affect people living in the borough?

We’re there now, on the west side of Woking. lived here for 10 years. The debt situation is shit I’ve got to say. Although there are strong community efforts to save the pool I am not convinced they’re going to succeed long term. That will be a huge shame for lots of families if that shuts. Of course the wealthier families can just go join David Lloyd or even foxhills so depending on budget it may not impact you hugely… The council still has millions of pounds committed to spend on the high rise projects in the town centre and the redevelopment of sheerwater. I don’t know how long it will take to recover, decades I imagine. Our council tax is going up quite a bit and will continue to do so for years I imagine. Any discretionary services are either disappearing (eg pool, the local bus service for elderly/disabled) or having huge cost hikes (eg garden waste bin increasing in price by 50%). Public toilets shutting. A fair few playgrounds which were up for renewal/ renovation now will probably be left to crumble for longer. Already I see damage that isn’t getting fixed; broken swings being out of action for months not a week or so. So just generally everything’s likely to be a bit crapper than it used to be for quite a while. Schools fall under Surrey county council at least. One of the malls - peacock place - is full of empty shops, rent and parking is high, quite a few “cheap shops” that stay for a few months and then go. Can’t imagine that will change any time soon. In terms of day to day life it’s hard to say without knowing your detailed situation.
Honestly the whole thing genuinely makes me so so angry and upset every time I think about how we’ve been utterly screwed by the council I have to stop now.

I still think it’s a good place to live but if we had the cash to move we might do. I’d probably be looking at camberley now if it wasnt for the commute to London. We usually head to camberley at the weekend, better shops, etc way cheaper parking and cinema, a great soft play.

Happy to try answer any more specific questions if you want.
Oh here’s a plus- got Anton du Bec AND Paul chuckle at the panto this year!!

@moggle Thanks so much for your reply. That does all sound a bit depressing. Especially losing the pool as we'd use it lots with 2 young kids. It's really tricky because the reason we'd move there is to be close to family so moving elsewhere doesn't make so much sense for us. It's good to hear that schools won't be affected. How does Camberley compare the Woking? Doesn't look too far away. Does it have good schools do you know? I'll have a look, thanks

I don’t know much about camberley beyond the shopping centre and leisure centre tbh, sorry.
There is still the Spectrum in Guildford which isn’t too far, and has loads of leisure options (ice rink, bowling etc etc etc). several of the local primary schools have pools that are used for external swimming lessons evenings and weekends, but it’s such a bonus having such a nice big pool locally especially with the lagoon pool. We also have a lovely new 25m pool in sheerwater but no leisure pool there.

I mean it’s still a good place to live. We’re happy. Like you say, good schools,(ours are at a state primary), even the “worst” schools are still decent. Just all a bit sad. Maybe I’m just being morose! Hard to know the long term impact really. At the end of the day it’s a sought after place to live with the short rail commute to London, it will always attract investment, so I’m sure things will be ok…

Interesting that you prefer Camberley to Woking now Moggle. I used to take my DCs to Camberley fairly regularly but post lockdown it felt really bleak with so many shop closures. We haven't really returned other than the occasional trip to the bowling alley. We go to Woking now instead!

The secondary schools in Camberley are Collingwood College, Kings ( can never remember whether it’s Kings International) and Tomlinscote, which is in Frimley. The catchment for Tomlinscote is quite small, so you probably have to live in Frimley. The surrounding villages like Bisley, West End and Lightwater send the children either to Collingwood or to Winston Churchill in Woking, or maybe Woking High.

You’d be in Surrey Heath, rather than Woking, but for the villages, the council would still be Woking. Frimley would be under Camberley. The villages are ( or used to be) more pleasant than Woking, but public transport to Woking is dire. A car journey from the outskirts of Woking to Guildford is about 20 minutes. On the bus it’s 90 minutes and infrequent.