Letchworth vs Hitchin - pros and cons

[househunter9301]

Hi all,
Hoping to get your insight - me and my partner are making a move from a small 2 bed property in Cambridge looking to upsize to a decent 3 bed with garden in a town with a shorter commute to London (I commute around 2 times a week), we are being priced out of Cambridge 💴 really for what we want in our next house. Our budget is around 650k.

It's clear you can get more house for your money in Letchworth! Below are a list of things that are important to us, it would be great to hear from you all on your thoughts on Letchworth vs Hitchin (or any other suggestions!).

• Would like a med to high spec house, large 3 bed with decent garden walkable to a station in a smart area. Off road parking bonus (we have a car but prefer not to use it unless really necessary)
• We have a dog and enjoy walking in green spaces 10mins from house
• We both enjoy going to the gym and sports clubs (e.g. Hockey or Rugby)
• We would like a good orchestra and choir to be commutable to :)
• We want to be able to easily make friends where we move so friendly clubs/general people would be ideal!
• We plan on starting a family 🤞 and childcare will be needed / good schools / things to do with young children

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts on the above 👆 🙏

I’m talking about Hitchin but Bitchin would be a better name for the place. I’ve lived here for 10 years and it’s been awful. You sound like one of the cliquey mums

I'd live in both (I'm in Stevenage), both lovely towns. You'll get more for your money in Letchworth and it ticks all your boxes. I have lots of friends who live there and there is so much to do, also while the town centre is a bit tired, there are all the basics and the retail park has a choice of supermarkets and B&M etc. Hitchin is prettier and better for shopping but property much more expensive.

Have to say it sounds like you’re the problem. Look closer to home. People tend to gather around happy and smiley not downbeat and grumpy. Sort your life out. The generality is hitchin is a warm middle class town with an affection tied toward being proud of what we have. Hitchin Bid and herts museum along with a beautiful gothic church in centre ground set off what has been classed as one of the best small towns in the country to live. But as the saying goes you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Perhaps you need to try harder to mix. Turn that frown upside down and pull your big girl pants up.

The problem is it’s not an interesting place and the people aren’t great. I have met a handful of lovely people but most are rude. Even on dog walks people don’t say hello, it’s just weird.
having a different opinion to you doesn’t mean I’m the problem. I don’t need to pull my pants up to pretend to like a dull little town
my life is very sorted, I own a lucrative successful business, I’m happily married with 2 kids but this place isn’t interesting. As someone who has lived all over the world, it was an error on our part to think we’d be happy somewhere like this. We’re moving back to London soon to be back amongst culture and the arts. Hitchin is too mediocre for us.

Oh stop your moaning. As I say people gravitate toward nice. You will find hitchin is well travelled living all over the world is nothing brazenly new to hear a lot have done it including me. As for dog walking you tend to know who to say a happy hello to and those you should just walk on by. Human instinct not particular to hitchin I might add. You can just tell who the grumpy ones are. Here’s a suggestion ….. move back to London. I moved from New York 20 years ago to London and then onto hitchin and have never looked back. Perhaps you should take a lead little miss grumpy pants. Believe me you are the lower minority when it comes to hitchin thoughts. But you have an opinion and I respect that as deluded as it is. As for lucrative businesses do me a favour, we sold our business 10 years ago and can afford to live anywhere in the world and at the age of 42 I could easily do that comfortably however I choose to stay in hitchin. You never know I may bump into you at the try and smile club where I offer advice to the few that attend. Give it a go as much as you think you have a sorted charmed life you will find many in hitchin have that too. What makes you stand out is that your miserable within it. I think you have some sadness somewhere and perhaps I can usher you through the quinoa aisle of hitchin Waitrose to stop the bottom lip from quivering. Grab a wine and chill out. Oh, and move. Dullards not wanted here. Xx byeeeee

@Ballbuster1 so sorry to hear this! How intriguing! In a smaller, middle class majority town this does not surprise me (but is quite sad and disappointing youve had this experience). I'm sure there's some great people you can vibe with though amongst the noise- hope you find them for your sanity's sake (or maybe move?!)

I love Letchworth and have posted about it loads under different names over the years. Love the fact it was a garden city, and really quite a creative place when it started up. Nearly everywhere is walkable to town. Station in the centre (compared to Hitchin where it can be a pain to get to). Lovely cinema. Fab indie bookstore. Vegan eateries.

Cheaper housing stock than Hitchin and a better variety to my Rightmove eyes.

Schools not as good a rep as Hitchin but everyone I know is happy with their primary and secondaries can change/improve (plus you can still apply to the Hitchin ones albeit with a low success rate).

Hitchin definitely more buzzy and more nightlife but Letchworth has improved hugely in the last few years and think it will continue to. Emil Dale performing arts school in Hitchin is moving to Letchworth in Sep which I think will be great for the town.

I have a son who goes to secondary in Hitchin so I do like it too (although I can't STAND the drivers there), I just think Letchworth is ace for young families and has loads of promise. Yes there is quite a bit of social housing in various places, but maybe that's how it should be.

You've got Benslow music in Hitchin, and apparently also both a chamber and symphony orchestra...

Thank you.
we are moving, we gave it 10 years but it wasn’t for us. We are city people!
good luck with your search x

@Crawlinsciences thanks for sharing 👍 all views welcome and I'm glad you enjoy living in Hitchin. I'd love to live in London but having lived outside of London all my career so far (I'm 30) taking a step back in terms of size of house isn't an option I can consider (or niceness of area :/) maybe I'll see you OK a dog walk one day!

I like Hitchin, but can't decide whether stretch our finances to get a 3/4 bed older property in the North OR get a more modern build in the south.

Also - is the walk to the train station from the east of the tracks awful? I saw a tiny walkway under a bridge to get across and didn't fancy doing that for rush hour trains 🙃

You’re a perfect example of Hitchin. Good luck to you.

Ha ha - boring. Well you know what they say...

Have you made any friends here?

Hitchin is full of fab people. I talk to people all the time on walks, round the market, in the shops. It's a really friendly place. I used to go to Yoga Mind Space regularly and it was a brilliant yoga group with one of the most inspiring yoga teachers - and I used to tour all the bougie yoga centres round London when I lived there as I was obsessed - never came across any bitchiness. In fact two of my friends came here for a visit recently as their kid wants to go to Emile Dale (a very good theatre school). We spent an afternoon (not five minutes) wandering the shops, he got some very nice vintage LP's in the arcade, she got a cool jumper in Riot Girl and we had a nice drink in the Coopers. They loved it and talked about how friendly it was and how nice it was to see lots of indie shops and restaurants instead of chains.

But it sounds like you don't like the people and hate the town so I'm surprised you still live here. Ten years is a long time to feel miserable - perhaps that comes across and is why you are not meeting the good people. I have a selfish fucker of a neighbour behind me but they're just up themselves and disagreeable rather than noisy so its not the end of the world.

I love loving here. Been here 18 years now. It is a shame it has got so expensive though.

I agree! Hitchin isn’t for everyone. Couldn’t wait to leave. I now live in a more rural but friendlier and less pretentious place.

Letchworth is fine, I had friends there who were happy with it. I would also look at Baldock.

She's talking bollocks.I have also lived all over the world, moved here from London, successful career and all that and Hitchin is anything but mediocre to me. Also I'd say it's quite mixed class wise. Certainly more mixed than the SW London area I lived in which was very unfriendly and not at all diverse or cultured. Just snobby.

Anyway this quote says everything to me - she's a superior arse and Hitchin would not have welcomed such a braggart. If this is in any way your own mentality OP, don't move here. You wouldn't like it either.

"As someone who has lived all over the world, it was an error on our part to think we’d be happy somewhere like this. We’re moving back to London soon to be back amongst culture and the arts. Hitchin is too mediocre for us."

Bye Ballbuster/Felicia...

Yes, I’ve met some lovely people here but we are city people and it was a culture shock for us to move somewhere so small and we’ve never got to grips with it. So we are moving as 10 years is too long to live somewhere we’re not into. I’m excited about going back to London. Small towns aren’t for everyone. I’m not the only person who doesn’t like Hitchin, older threads show other people moving back to London. It’s just not for us as we like a variety of places to go.
happy that you’re happy here but I just can’t feel it myself.

We’ve been in Hitchin 12 years now and I love it, we’re not planning on moving away until we’re old and want the retirement house on the coast.

The one thing I’ve really loved here is that there are so many people who have moved here from other places, so I’ve found it really easy to make good friends and build a real support network around us, because so many people are looking to make the same connections. The schools have been brilliant, the secondary schools in particular are excellent. The commute is pretty easy and, touch wood, not as unreliable as some lines. There’s countryside on your doorstep, loads of clubs and fitness places, and if you miss big theatres then it’s easy to get to London or Cambridge.

The walk from the east to the station is actually ok - yes, it’s a tiny walkway through the bridge but everyone is going in the same direction at rush hour so it’s ok. The north side is probably better to cycle from, it’s a bit of a trek, but there is a huge amount of bike parking at the station. We’re 25 mins from the station and that’s as far as I’d comfortably do, but I’m only in the office once or twice a week.

I don’t know Letchworth that well, but the housing stock is apparently cheaper and the town centre is looking nicer. It has less trains though, and the schools aren’t quite as good.

@TheDogIsInCharge haha I'm from the NW.... so no I'd say it would be hard for somewhere in the south to not be cultured enough for me!

I don't want to invalidate other people's experiences though - doesn't mean I necessarily read it and agree with it 👍 I would say though that compared to Letchworth or a big city like London, Hitchin does have a higher % of middle class. I may have been wrong to say majority but I looked at a demographic map recently and it was indexing VERY highly to the wealthier end of the spectrum.... still doesn't stop it being a lovely, friendly place though!

Hitchin more middle class for Letchworth for sure but that's neither good or bad really, huge houses and small in both places.

I'm from the NW too and think wherever you land around Hitchin/Letchworth you'd find it easy to find a community and like-minded people.

We don't have the NW coast but we do have a splash park and lidos :D

I love how people get so angry when I say I don’t like Hitchin. It is small with not a lot going on. If you like that, great, but I don’t have to.

Hitchin has a diverse and multicultural population, more so than Letchworth.

Getting to the station from that side can be a pain but my sister in law does it every day at around 0730 and says it isn't too bad because everyone is going along that walkway at the same time! If you are along St Michael's Road near the community centre and further then there is an alternative route that brings you out along Benslow Lane via a footbridge over the tracks.

They are apparently going to open up an entrance to the station on that side at some point but the land is owned by Network Rail (I think) and there have been "issues" about this in the past. Every time they want to build new houses it comes up as a sticking point but because most new housing is on the Letchworth side they will need to properly address station access. Traffic around the Woolgrove Road/Cambridge Road junction can be a PITA as well.

I lived in London, I LOVED living in London but I'd lived in Shoreditch, Hackney and Wapping and couldn't afford to buy there. I lived in SW London for a bit too but it wasn't for me. I used to joke I liked a bit of urban angst but what I really liked was the community in those areas I loved. Mind you, Shoreditch/Hackney in the 90's and Wapping in the 2000's would be a very very different place to Shoreditch/Wapping now. Maybe not Wapping. I remember meeting a woman in a park by the Thames whose family had lived in the area since the time of Sailortown. Boy did she have some tales.

Hitchin offered me the same kind of community as it was a town with its own identity, a centre, history and friendly people. Plus my mum and brother lived here so I knew about it and had visited many times before moving here. Ultimately, you need to visit both places a few times and see what you think. Wander round, talk to the market traders and shop owners. That way you'll know which one will be best for you. Or at least have a better guess!

@TheDogIsInCharge Just to mention that Emil Dale is moving to Letchworth, so your friend might need to make another visit!

Ah that's a loss for Hitchin. It's her daughter who would be going there though - I'll still be here in Hitchin for any visits.

Letchworth is possibly not so great for students and their social needs mind you. There's at least more pubs and clubs to go out in Hitchin and means they're not just sitting on Windmill hill getting drunk - although that is a right of passage and the end of school socials there are something else.

People like different things and have different personalities 😆 Where I live now wouldn’t suit everyone and that’s fine with me!

@househunter9301 If it’s an option for you to rent for six months in the place you are instinctively most drawn to, I would do that and see how it feels before you commit to a house purchase. I know that finding a rental can be challenging in the current market though.

As I say. When you know you know. And if all is being straight and true all do know, deep down in places people don’t often think about, we all know Hitchin is the classier place to live. Even those in Letchworth (that have lived in both and, thinking about it, those that haven’t) also know that around here Hitchin is the place to be. It’s just posher. Just the way we like it. Oh don’t get me wrong we do dip our toes into Letchworth when we want a lidle or Aldi or Morrisons but scanter back to hitchin for a glass of red and decent conversation in the hermitage Whilst having the shopping delivered from Waitrose. Around these parts everyone knows it. Ok the odd Letchworth resident will storm the buttresses with wild comments about a fascination of Letchworth is by far better. But deep down. Deep deep down they know….. we all know. Running and hiding and whipping yourself on an evening whilst watching married at first sight Australia will not change the truth that dwells within. Hitchin is the Andrex triple ply comfy bum and Letchworth is the Aldi own brand. Byeee xxxx