Advice on moving to Reading, potentially Southcote?

[HantsMa]

We’re looking to buy a familY home and looking at all areas so advice from locals would be appreciated…

Looked at Caversham and like it and have a good budget but even so we’d need to make some compromises to live there (in terms of space and period features, both of which are lovely!)

Have some viewings booked near the University area and old Earley.

A house on a private road just off Southcote Lane has caught our eye but if you drive further into Southcote it’s very council estate-y…. is it so bad it would be off putting?! What are the schools like? I can see lots of ‘good’ on Ofsted but would be lovely to get advice from a parent that goes to one of the schools.

Our needs are:
Not too far from Reading centre or very easy transport (lived in London so living in a suburban area very far from anything or where you need to drive everywhere/the train comes once an hour is not for us).

Good schools (not fee-paying)

Relatively safe… we have some tolerance as haven’t grown up in the Cotswolds or whatever but we have a baby now so we want to feel fairly secure i.e not an area we are likely to be mugged or burgled in, although I wouldn’t want around by myself at night anyway

An area with older houses. New builds are not for us.

Can walk to (but are not on top of) coffee shops, restaurants etc. I mainly WFH so value an escape in my lunch hour.

Does anyone have any advice?!

TIA!

Yes, my advice is stick to the areas you have already identified as good areas - Caversham, Earley (not Lower Earley unless you like huge housing estates) and the university area of Reading.

Other areas to consider are Woodley especially North Woodley and Wokingham.
Wokingham is a lovely market town with loads of shops, cafes, restaurants etc. But the train into London (Waterloo) is slow compared to the fast train from Reading (Paddington).

Southcote Lane I wouldn't bother with due to the local area.

Southcote is really not the area you’re looking for. It’s pretty rough and the schools aren’t great.

caversham, Earley and woodley would all be heaps better. Woodley is particular is fairly affordable and excellent schools.

No to Southcote. Reading Borough secondary schools aren't great if you take the two super selective grammars out of the equation. Earley and Woodley are both Wokingham Borough, with far better schools overall.

That's true about Wokingham borough council having better schools than Reading borough council.

It's slightly confusing because Earley is in Reading not Wokingham but comes under Wokingham council. It has an excellent primary (Aldryngton) and secondary school (Maiden Erlegh).

southcote is not desirable.
caverhsham heights ( not caversham park) and emmer green good, but traffic very bad to cross the river, university area is nice with walkable to shops, regular bus routes etc, north woodley and older parts of earley are okay, school wise caversham and emmer green have good primaries, for secondaries maiden erleigh school and holt ( wokingham) i've heard are good
there are some pockets of tilehurst (near the triangle, along westwood and oak tree road) are good, with little heath primary being good
avoid whitley wood areas and town centre areas and near oxford road

What's your budget? Woodley has most of what you're looking for.

Worth adding that Reading Buses are very good, so transport into the town from any of these areas is easy. Earley station is a (long) direct line to Waterloo and only five minutes into Reading to change for Paddington.

I would avoid Southcote. The other areas you have identified are much better, plus Woodley. I’d also look at Wokingham, much better schools excluding the grammars.

In Earley and University area, these are nice roads:
Culver Road
Bulmershe Road
Hamilton Road
Whiteknights Road
New Road
Talfourd Avenue
Green Road
Belle Avenue
Melrose Avenue

They have lots of period housing and features in easy walking / bus distance of town.

Woodley is nice and has plenty of amenities, shops and good schools, also easy to get to Twyford / Sonning / Wargrave for countryside

Caversham is a nightmare for traffic

Caversham is a nightmare for traffic I agree. However it has good schools, very easy access to countryside and many parts are walking distance to Reading station. Which is worth a lot if anyone in the family is a commuter.

Hi, is anyone living in Woodley, Reading? We're family of 4, living in Northolt at the moment and trying to move out somewhere safer, Woodley seems to be ok for computing to london. We need an advice of good and bad parts of Woodley, and general description what is it like to live there. Thanks

Woodley is fine. I don't know the area that well, but it's ok.

Woodley is nice and has plenty of amenities, shops and good schools, also easy to get to Twyford / Sonning / Wargrave for countryside and the Elizabeth Line into London from Twyford.

Shinfield might also be worth a look - there is loads of new housing going up there so plenty of choice. No idea abut house prices, though. It isn't far from the university area, just the other side of the M4.

What ages are your children? There's two secondaries - Bulmershe and Waingels in Woodley. There are single sex grammars in Reading itself, and a catholic secondary. You can walk to Earley Station v easily from Southlake area but there's a regular circular bus route all through Woodley into Reading.

I live in Woodley and I find it a bit of a pain to commute to London, although I appreciate other experiences may vary.

I live near the precinct (the main shops) so to get to London I need to take the bus to Reading station (25ish mins) which are every 30 mins and then a fast train to London Paddington (20-30min). The bus part annoys me mainly because it takes longer than the actual train to London, but if you were closer to Earley Station you could get the train to Reading Station (takes 5 mins, every 30 mins) or take the slow train direct to London Waterloo.

It would depend where in London you need to go really.

I do enjoy living in Woodley- there are some parts which probably are not as nice on the face of it but I haven't got direct experience as I've always lived very close to where I am now (last house move was less than half a mile). Personally I wouldn't want to live in Lower Earley (done that- but soulless as it's essentially a large housing estate) or in certain roads around the University/close to Reading centre.

If you ever do come to my neck of the woods feel free to give me a DM and I'll be a friendly face!

You can also move further out to Thatcham and Newbury for an easy commute to London and fantastic state schools.

Woodley and Wokingham is nice but everywhere around Reading feels so built up and claustrophobic to me.

As all pp’s have said avoid Southcote, Tilehurst, Theale, Reading.

Thank you 😊

Thanks for advice

Hello,
Did you manage to find a property?

Those private roads in Southcote feel like a different world when you turn into them, all wide and leafy and quiet.