weybridge or woking? sell me your side of the story...

[zebramummy]

well, actually i meant little house in weybridge or big house in woking? which is better 'connected' with london (not just in transport terms) and what are the schools like/ catchments/competition for places etc. (ds has just turned 4).

Oh, actually, I do see a few 4x4ers- parked blocking the road delivering/collecting their children from St George's.

CarGirl- I think you're right. I was born and brought up round here and even I think it's insular. I spent a few years living near Bath and everyone was friendlier there. I don't know what the reason is - I don't think I smell . Maybe just the proximity to London, work hours etc. I dunno.

think it is work hours, I mean you can spend more hours commuting than seeing your dc each week! I actually used to speak to people at bus stops and befriend them where I grew up. Now I am just grateful that I have neighbours where I feel comfortable about asking to "borrow" an egg. My dh didn't believe me that my parents actually went halves with their neighbours over buying a fence and they put it up together!

Funnily enough I lived in Hampton before moving to Woking (outskirts).

It has a lovely villagey feel and is very friendly I found, but the commute was very slow - took longer than it does from out here. Also house prices higher. We chose the bigger house out here.

We live on the outskirts of Woking, just past St Johns.
Dd's infant school is Ofsted Outstanding, it's linked Junior school where ds is is Ofsted Good. (having had experience of both I personally prefer the Junior schoo and I know Ofsted is not everything.
The infant and Junior schools in St Johns are great too, as are the ones in Horsell, Chobham, Bisley and West End.

Where we are we are in the catchment areas for two secondary schools Winston Churchill School in St Johns and Woking High School in Horsell. Both are deemed to be very very good, and even the wealthy families locally happily send their children to either (ie they could afford to go private but feel no need

We are definately the 'poor relation' living here as we are in a 3 bed Victorian semi surrounded by roads of big 4 adn 5 bed detacheds. But despite this we like it here. We have been here 12 years now. There is a community feel, we are involved with the school, the Scouts, our village has a large comittee (we are not on it) which is organising band evenings for teenagers etc, I really like it here. And it feels right to be raising our children here.

Woking itself is not pretty, no, but then you would not be living in teh city centre.
Only last week I cycled to Woking along the canal and was surpised by how beautiful the countryside along the canal (and only a stone's throw from Woking centre) is.

Sorry, appalling spelling and punctuation. Sorry.

many thanks - ds woke up so i had to leave quite suddenly yesterday. i was wondering whether woking was as cosmopolitan as london - what about the outskirts of woking? weybridge is starting to frighten me tbh - i hate 4x4s and size zeroism and i would find it really strange to move from a very multicultual part of london to a place that was anything but. what about cobham and hampton - do you find lots of different nationalities there? alwo wrt woking, could you still find property within walking distance of the station and shops - i do not drive??

Cobham is very like Weybridge, I think.

Woking has a large asian community but not much else, perhaps a growing population of eastern europeans?

Yes there is housing within walking distance of the train stationg and shops or certainly on a main bus route.

Cobham/Weybridge not cosmo IMO

Well, I live in Knaphill. Whilst it is predominantly white (and dare I say it middle class) we have in our school French, Italian, Polish, Spanish, German, American Dutch, African and Malaysian families (and those are just the onse I know of) as well as a few Indians and Pakistanis.

The reason Woking (as in Woking itself, not the surrounding villages) has a large Asian population is because the Mosque there was built I believe in Victorian times and was (again, I believe, am a bit hazy on Mosque history) the first Mosque outside India. So there is a lot of history there. There is a large residential area near Woking town centre where the Asians live.

If you need a train link to Waterloo you may be okay in the Knaphill / Brookwood area. Brookwood has a trainstation with a direct link into Waterloo. And whilst it is pleasantly Surrey around here, it is by no means the Weybridge cappucino/4x4/yummy mummy culture.
In fact, most people are perfectly pleasant and nice.

thanks - i am so confused now - i am going to have to research this a lot less casually as new suggestions such as twickenham are starting to sound interesting too. i know that i am basing my search on a load of secondhand experience - incl anecdotal evidence; however, i was hoping that 'the right area' would jump out at me

Cobham has a much nicer centre to Weybridge imo, but I really think you will be hard pushed to find true multi-culturalism in that area. Tbh, when DH (who is black) and I go & visit my parents there, he still occassionally gets a few raised eyebrows. It wasn't that long ago that he was pulled over by the police a few times - the only reason we could see was that he was a black guy driving a decent car. Mind you, this was before Chelsea FC moved their training ground to the area so I am guessing that probably happens less now!

Trains are a little slower from Cobham into Waterloo too.

What are your main drivers to move to Surrey?

When we were looking at the different areas I spent a bit of time in the various places, shopping/taking the kids to the park/having a coffee etc to see how it felt.

My Ds goes to St James .I really do think its a good school . Car girl my dentist is Portmore is that yours or the other one by the travel agents . Just curious . lol

Rydens have just had a fantastic OfSted report, now ranking higher than Heathside but unfortunately doesn't look as polished because of old buildings. They are having a dance studio built too and it will be on the corriculum.

yes I go to Portmore

car girl dont you just love gilly she is so the best . lol

I heard the head is leaving Rydens Hope the good work continues ,

she was recommended to me by a dental nurse so she is very good.

BAck to Zebra it is VERY white around here, multicultural with eastern europeans etc have a polish supermarket etc.

I would go for a smaller house in Weybridge vs a bigger one in Woking. Weybridge has more atmosphere, whereas in Woking you are either in grand houses or on cookie-cutter estates.

Woking does have a large shopping area, but it's not really that great. I was stuck there for over 2 hours while DD was at a party at The Apple. I was desperate for clothes and determined to come back with something. I ended up buying a pair of shoes, some tights and knickers from a fairly grotty BHS. The downtown area is probably more appealing to teenagers rather than the mature woman.

A lot of people talk up Heathside, but it's just another Surrey comp. A friend was at an interview there recently and withdrew half-way through the day...

We lived for six months in Weybridge when we first moved to the UK, and liked it. We couldn't afford to buy there, though, so moved slightly further west. My kids are at school in Weybridge and they are well acquainted with good public transport links.

If you lived in Weybridge, you would do all your food shopping in the big Tescos at Brooklands or Addlestone, or at Waitrose in Weybridge. From either Woking or Weybridge, you would probably use the giant M&S at Brooklands. I'm not sure where people in Woking do their food shopping - there is a choice of Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco depending on exactly where you live.

my situation is basically as follows - we live in a rather deprived area of london within a lovely little middle-class enclave - we have generally been very happy here but since ds started at the nursery attached to the local school (ofsted outstanding but prob a lot of value-added) we have been having doubts. a lot of our friends have moved although they were not london born and bred unlike myself so it is not such a big deal for them (even though we obviously miss them). i can only base what i am looking for upon what i dont like about where we are now:

1. new immigration (last 10 years or so) - sorry if this offends anyone but i fail to see the point of most of it (btw dh is not british). in general, i see more segregation in london than ever before and swarms of unemployable men clustered around the shopping area who are completely disinterested in our society other than selling their illegal gambling services or dodgy DVDs out of suitcases- i want to get back to the healthy and synergestic multiculturalism that existed a decade ago where the different ethnic groups were broadly working towards the same kinds of goals (family orientated, self-betterment, long-termist, wanting to be part of a community).
2. pickpockets, hoodies, children being treated badly by parents who are completely disinterested in what type of people they are in the process of shaping
3. if i had no budget, i would have like to have lived in barnes or st margaret's village but obviously....

I don't know how far out you're willing to go, but Molesey has quite a nice community atmosphere- carnival with floats done by various groups including the schools, smallish feel to it etc. Not particularly multi-cultural, but not bad. The Orchard infant school is lovely, as is St Lawrence jumiors. Also lovely big park area by the river, close to Hampton Court palace (can walk there along the river), sports clubs of various descriptions. East Molesey is generally thought to be 'better' than West Molesey.

In between Weybridge and Molesey is Walton-on-Thames. I don't know what it's like to live there but it's turning into a rather nice shopping centre, with a new centre opened up, restaurants etc.

There's a Waitrose in Goldsworth Park in Woking

Oh, and I would definitely look at Walton on Thames. The shops there are great, it's less expensive than Weybridge to buy, and there's lots of choice re types of housing and poshness of area.

thanks PRSB & babbity - i had a look at both - you seem to get a lot for your money in walton - i esp liked the houses with river views - cant believe how t-reasonably priced they can be. molesey was nice too but a lot more expensive and you seem to be paying a premium for a historically significant period house in some cases - how is it different from hampton which seemed much cheaper the last time i checked? any knowledge re schools in walton on thames? all i know is that gail trimble (university challenge brainbox) was brough up there though i am sure she is simply a one-off rather than a product of exceptional schooling!!

Gail Trimble did not go to school in Walton - she went to girls' hothouse, LEH in Hampton.