Move to Surrey

[ThisNewAnt]

Looking to relocate to Warlingham or Woldingham areas. Advice needed on where’s best. Are these nice places to live? Have a dog that needs off lead walking. Also looking for somewhere with community vibe to meet neighbours so do not want to be isolated.

yes loved it there but no properties at the moment and not sure how often they come up. Need to be purchasing in the next few months

Oh that’s a pity no properties there at the moment. Sounds like it’d suit you down to the ground. I’ve known people who’ve lived there and they like it.

I think it’s important you really are aware what sort of a journey you’d be setting yourselves and your DGC up for.
I’ve done many of these sorts of drive and I can’t think of anything worse, especially in extreme heat/ rain.
You may be deluded in thinking it would be very much better after 5 pm or at 6 am.
It will take up a great deal of your time and energy.
If it were me, I would look for something in the Bromley area .
You might decide to use a train sometimes after all and Bromley South to Peckham Rye is 23 minutes direct.
I also saw Bromley mentioned as the best place to live if you value a decent garden ( ie large).

Agreed. I suggested West Wickham or Hayes further up the thread - I travel to E Dulwich to see family and it’s a much easier drive.

@SixtySomething we are going to come down to view properties and look around again. We are going to do the trip and see as different messages on here saying twice a week I’m looking at 1hr15 each way. My husband won’t live in Bromley. he would rather have a horrible drive tbh. That’s up to him. I will look at Hayes, Chislehurst and West Wickham and check those areas out but thanks for your opinion.

My husband won’t live in Bromley. he would rather have a horrible drive tbh. That’s up to him. I will look at Hayes, Chislehurst and West Wickham and check those areas out but thanks for your opinion.

Those places are in Bromley…

Yes will view those places and also look at Chislehurst. My husband has said no to Bromley and Croydon as too built up.

Oh well tbh he doesn’t know Bromley at all - just he’d heard it was built up and a bit run down. Until he visits these places he is only going off what people have told him so we will visit ourselves and check it out. Chislehurst looks nice and there does look to be green spaces nearby

With your budget, you can afford Oxted. It is just a few minutes up Titsey Hill to Old Farleigh Downs. Titsey Place is a lovely garden for a wander round. You can also more quickly get onto the M25.

@Pippatpip thank you it is now an option but it’s the travelling time we need to sort as so many people on here are saying the commute is not great up to Family. I think we need to see if we are happy driving for such a long time. It can take us well over an hour to get to Manchester from our house so we are prepared for that

Out of West Wickham and Chislehurst I’d choose the latter. Nothing against West Wickham and have friends who live there but chislehurst imo is nicer.

Bromley Common could be an option? There are some nice streets just outside Bromley town centre but you might not like living near there. Beckenham is somewhere I’d give serious consideration to, I almost moved there over lockdown.

If you know you know😂

@silenceinthemind hi just coming back to you as getting mixed reports on travelling time from Warlingham to East Dulwich, Catford areas and back. How long a journey does it take you and what times do you do the journey?

@CharlotteStreetW1 are these times true? Other people saying its a nightmare and will take longer even at 6am ad after 5pm. Do you know someone travelling from Warlingham? Thanks

Well it's what he said. Perhaps he's going "against" the traffic? He'd be going in the opposite directions to your DH.

He does it five days a week so it can't be that bad.

Serious idea on how long it takes to drive from Warlingham area to Catford, Peckham Rye/East Dulwich from 6-7am. Done the obvious Google Maps which says 45 mins to an hour. Is this correct as other posters are saying its a horrendous journey and takes much longer. If so please let me know...

Get your DD to try it maybe to test?

Can’t you do a test run?

We live in Lancashire so hence asking any locals as we will relocate later in the year

For Peckham rye the route goes via park lane and Whitehorse Road/lane. Both these routes can get quite busy especially in mornings. For Catford you’re sort of West Wickham, edges Beckenham so looks easier journey. East Dulwich is more or less same route as Peckham rye with some changes. I

@Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain do you do the journey in a morning? Trying to get a realistic idea of how long it will take if people are saying its horrendous? We were looking at Cobham but was put off as journey time 1.5hrs

@LarksAscending we will come down and do it to test out. Was just thinking someone on here would know as there are a lot of comments about it. We are based in north of england at the moment so do not know anything about the roads there.

OP in your position I would look for an airbnb in warlingham and spend a week seeing what it's like to live there.

Hi OP. I drove from Caterham, through Walingham to the Horniman Museum just outside Dulwich the other morning at about 10.30 and it took me 50 minutes. However, from doing similar journeys on the first part of that route for school runs and son pickups in West Wickham (girlfriend lives there), I'd say the traffic would be much heavier 8-9 am or 4-6pm due to commuting and school run traffic. I reckon that could easily add what 30 mins to the journey? Maybe 40 mins on a really bad day?

So maybe an hour and a half worse case? Does he have to travel during rush hour? (I forget sorry)

I reckon this is realistic 6-7am, the traffic doesn't build up until 7.30/8.00 ime, at least on the route Caterham-Warlingham-West Wickham.