Is Crawley a nice place

[tulipsniffer]

Hello, I'm just wondering if Crawley is a nice place to live in terms of crime, friendliness etc.

It’s a shithole.
Lived there when at primary school, my mum went on for years about how unfriendly it had been. She was miserable there.

It ain't called CREEPY for nothing.

I live fairly nearby and we go to the cinema/bowling complex there sometimes as it's our nearest Cineworld and I get discounts for work. That bit seems ok? children's parties, bowling, Wagamama, Nandos etc. I've occasionally been to the shopping area and it's pretty average but no worse than lots of non descript town centres. I think there are lots of nicer places to live nearby and then use it for cinema and a bit of shopping.

No
Great Primark though

Well that's a pretty firm "No" then !

I looked on the link of the 10 Worst Places in England to live and was heartened to see my neck of the woods wasn't listed (my adult DS reckons we're Crime Central )

It's not amazing tbh - as a place to live in.

Handy as a pop in place for a quick shop or for the kids to see a movie, go swimming at K9 etc.

Also handy for the airport.

That's about it I think.

I’ve lived in crawley for most of my life, and a lot of my family and friends are here too. I like it here (we live in one of the nicer neighbourhoods). Town centre is ok, tilgate park is lovely and there are some nice local parks.
Some neighbourhoods are nicer than others - the house prices are generally reflective of this
There are definitely nicer towns close by.

All that being said, if my family and friends weren’t here, I would probably move.

I live in Crawley. I don't particularly enjoy it but it's tolerable. Our street is nice! The DC are in a lovely school which is keeping us here for now.

The shops are OK (most major supermarkets available), some of the parks are nice, quite a few amenities nearby, easy to get around. The roads are full of potholes and the people aren't always the best.

It's just another soulless, boring town imo, but it's livable.

Can you not go a bit further out to Haywards Heath? That's a really nice place to live. Quite pricey though.

What's your budget? Why were you thinking of crawley. 120,000 people live there so it can't be that's bad. It's more like a city. The facilities and bus routes are good. I lived there for 6 years and always walked home from the station and felt safe. My neighbours were lovely and I could afford a house rather than a flat. It's got 2 train stations which is handy if you commute. It's multicultural. The town centre, like many is quite run down and nice restaurants are few and far between. There are social problems like all places (especially newtowns). I only moved for help with childcare but still have plenty of friends there who are more than happy. I think it gets a worse rap than it deserves.

I’m very happy here, I moved for the good schools (my DC went on to study at excellent universities and there was no stress about catchment areas), really fast trains into London (every 10 minutes in rush hour), lots to do, closeness to the coast and South Downs and friendliness of the place.
Depends what you want I guess.

I wouldn't wish living in Crawley on my worst enemy. Truly horrible place.

How did you find swindon, and how does it compare to Crawley? People-wise, transport wise etc? Green space

Haha, i guess Crawley was worse then!!

Crawley is ones of those places that sucks your soul out without even trying.

My parents moved us there when I was 11 and it was the worst year of my life and that was 49 years ago. I moved to Horsham when I was 23 with my now exH. When I was expecting our DS my ex wanted to move back to Crawley as our money would go further. We already were on the rocks & I said that I was prepared to split up if he insisted & he could move there alone. We stayed in Horsham. We split up and he lives there now & I'm so happy for him

hahaha i lived there for 10 years - there are bad parts, like Bewbush and Broadfield, but also some nice parts like parts of Pound Hill, Maidenbower, Worth? I didn't find it terrible. I didn't even think the centre was that bad, compared to somewhere like Swindon or Slough, where you literally fear for your life!

I'm not from Crawley, but i lived there for about 10 years.. I didn't find it so bad, but it depends where you live.. there are some rough areas, but it's also quite suburban which i like, and the green areas are quite well looked after. I'm really curious what you disliked about it? I know the nightlife isn't up to much but you can always go down to Brighton or Tunbridge wells or even Haywards Heath? The crime did worry me a bit though

No! It is rough!

Is this a reverse? Lol

I live in between Crawley and Horsham.

As with anywhere, there are nice bits and not nice bits of Crawley. Tilgate with its park is lovely and I know Pound Hill is also meant to be nice. The town centre is a bit grim (especially compared to Horsham) BUT the shopping centre is ok AND they have a Longdan now which means I don't have to travel to the big Chinese supermarket in Croydon anymore 💪

I don't think I'd want to live there though... If we move, it will be closer to Horsham.

@Andrew89 I found it a sprawling place soulless place compared to where we'd moved from. I felt as if we'd been dropped into a weird urban experiment.

My secondary school was awful - full of bullies, hippy teachers who did not care or had any authority. More physically mature girls were routinely felt up by rampant boys and it was so commonplace that the girls would just shrug them off & carry on walking.

When I was a teenager the only place to go was the bowling alley and the griddle attached to it. There was nothing to do for youngsters.

It's full of bad memories for me unfortunately so I would never want to live there or have anyone I care about live there either.

My ex also lives in Crawley and for that reason alone I wouldn't go near the place 😄

People say everywhere is rough these days.. Redhill is rough, so is Burgess Hill and parts of Brighton, Worthing is rough, Croydon is extremely rough, Swindon is rough, most of Kent is rough, Slough is extremely rough, as is West Drayton, Hounslow, Hayes and Southall, so unless you have the budget for the more posh areas, what can you do?

I live in Crawley down a village between Crawley and east grinstead so that’s my nearest decent town.
plenty of work, plenty of greenery and things to do, nightlife, restaurants, train station, airport, not far from London or Brighton.
yes can be crime like many towns but in the village surrounding Crawley you rarely see that side of it, downside of the villages is you drive pretty much everywhere, schools are always full as are doctors etc and the public transport is crap.