Moving to Kent - can’t decide where!

[Canadatoengland]

Hi we are a family of 4 with a 4 and 6 year old and currently living in Vancouver. We are originally from the Channel Islands and now debating a moved back to the UK but to Kent as opposed to back to the Channel Islands!
My mum lives near Greenhithe in Kent and I would likely look for work commuting to London and my husband would be working all over Kent and London. I am finding it so hard to decide on an area! We want:

• good schools
• under an hour commute to london
• within a 30 min drive of my mum
• outdoorsy, lots of nice walks, picturesque
• good sense of community and amenities for kids to do sports etc

we will be renting initially and ideally would like to be under 2k a month for a 3/4 bed house

not sure if I’m asking for something that doesn’t exist!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or advice x

Try Longfield, Hartley, Meopham, Cobham

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155922902#/?channel=RES_LET

Rochester also has direct trains and direct road to Greenhithe. Places over to the west of the county, such as 7oaks, Tonbridge, it's much more difficult to get to Greenhithe - no trains, and the roads don't go in the right direction.

The Medway does curve around, but it's more usual to talk in terms of east and west rather than north and south of it. Strood is west, Rochester east.

Pupils travel to school by bus and train between Medway Towns, Gravesend, Maidstone and Sittingbourne.

Gravesend is near to Greenhithe, has HS1 plus other routes to London. But I haven't been there for some years, so don't know what it's like now.

Have to put in a word for Margate. Yes parts of it are rundown, yes the Westwood Cross Centre killed off Margate and Ramsgate High Streets. But the coastline and clifftop walks and fresh air are lovely, the Old Town is quaint, and there are some nice properties to be had.

But it's not really in easy commuting distance - although some people do - and if Canterbury is too far out for op, Margate is even further.

(And it's Math School, not Maths School. The full name is Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School.)

Agreed. All the charm and atmosphere of a prison cell.

Personally I’d pick Sevenoaks or Tunbridge Wells or not Kent.

Chatham, Strood and Rochester are all dumps. Somewhere like Meopham is nice and commutable into London Victoria.

Rochester is lovely I've a sister there. Also have visited Canterbury and rainham with nice. Not a fan of Chatham or stood

My son lived in Vancouver for a year and we had the most amazing time visiting him He was in Kitsilano..cannot imagine wanting to live in Kent instead !
We live in Tunbridge Wells area and recommend it for schools,safety and very close to beautiful countryside. Absolutely no black bears here but deer,foxes and badgers are in abundance.
London about an hour commute.

Folkestone is a gem
45 mins to Stratford; definitely one to watch

Canterbury is nice but the grammars aren't great. Rochester grammar has better results and possibly cheaper housing.

Agree Kingshill is absolutely soulless.

Bexley is nice, good grammar schools as well. Easy to commute, Bexley is a large borough, some lovely parts, some I wouldn't go near.Ive lived here for decades, also only 8 miles from Bluewater.

Oh is it Math School. I didn’t know, mine didn’t go there so I’ve just heard friends use the name.
I also didn’t know it was East and West re location of Strood and Rochester, even though I lived there for 15 odd years 🤣🤣🤣. ( Nevertheless I think the point was in trying to get OP not to be tricked by agents. )

In terms of Gravesend I used to work there and despite the local council trying to upgrade the town it didn’t have much effect. There’s only so many pictures of shop fronts you can put in shop windows before it becomes obvious they are all empty. My dh worked pro bono ( no money available from council ) to work towards helping the town improve, but it’s a long haul.
If you like Georgian houses though there are lots in Gravesend OP

Oh we live kitsilano! We are about an hour further out by the mountains.. it is beautiful and we would stay if we could. Tunbridge Wells seems to be coning up a lot as a popular area so will definitely look more into it thank you

Regarded as new housing estate really
hence all the roundabouts and American style entrances 🥴

Faversham has been somewhere i have been looking at but was interested to see no one else mention it (maybe because it is a bit further out) i think ultimately i just want somewhere rhat has a nice community to get involved with and for the quintessential english countryside look to it (currently looking at snowy mountains out my window so scenery is a priority as this will be hard to get iver 😂)

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155709950
Nice countryside here

If scenery is important I would think again about Kent.... There is so much building going on, it's everywhere. And so many blocks of flats.....

i grew up in Chatham and still go back occasionally. I would agree with the above comments about Chatham, Rochester and Strood. Some people say that Rochester is nice but the high street just looks closed down.

Some people say that Rochester is nice but the high street just looks closed down.

That's true of a lot of High Streets, though. Rochester is better than some, though it caters too much for tourists and not enough for people's everyday needs. Week Street in Maidstone (which was the main shopping street) is fairly dead, and Margate, as I said above, has been dismal for years. Out of town and online shopping has killed them.

Faversham is lovely has so much going on throughout the year has a theatre & independent cinema unfortunately don’t know what the rental prices are like.

I’m not keen on Rochester but then I wouldn’t want to live in Tunbridge Wells either .

Tunbridge Wells seems to be coning up a lot as a popular area so will definitely look more into it thank you

OP. T.Wells is the wrong side of the county for Greenhithe. Google says 41 minutes driving time, but I think that's optimistic. The suggested route takes you on the M25 for part of the way, so there's no saying how long it might take.

Does your mum have any suggestions?

Maybe you could say a bit more about the kind of things you like in an area, or what subjects your kids are enjoying or whether they'd be at state/grammar/private? Many good grammar areas don't have good state options as they take the top % out of the mix- so if your kids are not particularly academic a grammar area may not be a good option.

I’m living just outside Faversham. Well it’s just at the end of our road tbh
I wouldn’t move here if I had the choice again
Its a lovely town with nice market etc but there’s just so so so much new housing.
Prince William is about to build circa 2500 new homes right on the roundabout leading to it and further up that road there’s even more housing.
Thats before Shepherd and Neame get to the rest of their estate they want to sell. They own most of the surrounding farmland and it’s mostly up for grabs as they longer grow their own hops. They are offloading it all as their cash cow if you read their yearly reports.
So no, Faversham is not going in the right direction and that’s before we even talk about the problems with gps and school places. You can’t build thousands and thousands of new houses without the infrastructure.

Many good grammar areas don't have good state options

Grammar schools are state schools. All of Kent, and Bexley, which a pp mentioned, is a grammar area. OP would need to look at Bromley borough if she didn't want grammar schools.

Lots of Independent shops on Rochester high street.
Its quite the hub for that locally.
Certainly not closed down at all.