Anyone from this part of the world? I know the area a little, and we’re thinking of looking for a house round this way. I prefer it to Croydon way. Just looking for a quick rundown of places to avoid in particular, and where the nicer bits are. We’re looking at the cheaper end of the spectrum. Carshalton? St Helier? Benhilton? Belmont?

Thank’ee 😀

The closer you can get to Epsom Race course/Banstead the easier it will be to get on to the north downs for a ride.

I used to live down the A217 near the Kingswood Golf Club and could get on Walton Heath after about 2/3rd mile from the house and then ride for hours hardly touching a road.

I grew up in Lower Kingswood; Sutton was where we went if we had a particular desire to go to crappy shops or get stabbed outside the cinema.

I lived in Croydon (first house) until recently, very good transport, nice enough area (as long as you choose well), but got very sick of having to explain to everyone that I lived in ‘the nice bit’ when they pulled the face that they pull when you tell them you live in Croydon.

Sutton is reasonable, Banstead/Epsom much nicer, but more expensive obviously.

What about Redhill? Trains are OK, and you can get straight on to the downs.

Dave

I live in South Sutton on the boarders of Carshalton Beaches and have been very happy there for almost six years.
I would avoid St Helier and Benhilton if budget allows, but like anywhere there are good and bad parts to any town.
Ideally my advice would to be to look SE in between the Brighton Road & Carshalton Road.

Trains from redhill are good, town not so good.

Epsom is also good for trains.

Ashtead further south, better for riding access.

Lower Kingswood trains line not so good, last train back from london is/was stupidly early.

look here for some routes around that areas:

http://www.a-trip.com/users/home/12398/

going towards ranmore the stuff gets more technical

St Helier estate is one of the most god depressing places on earth, used to be full of violent people (the good old days; http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-most-dangerous-pub-in-britain-just-last-week-a-customer-was-shot-in-the-face-with-a-sawnoff-shotgun-cal-mccrystal-reports-1374856.html). In the middle of the estate there were poor transport links and pretty rubbish shops but it may be nicer now – it’s been a few years since I was there for any length of time. Also consider creeping a bit closer to Morden if costs allow. Carshalton always looks nice, it’s come up a lot in the last ten years or so

Lower Kingswood trains line not so good

Definitely no good; no station!

Kingswood trains on the other hand…

😀

Dave

Definitely no good; no station!

Kingswood trains on the other hand…

you make one slip up and the haters are on you !

alfabus

what’s that nasty mgb doing at 2:07 amongst all those lovely alfas?

I lived for Sutton for 14 years and bascially anywhere South of the town centre will be fine. Either South Sutton, Belmont or over towards Carshalton. Although South Sutton is flat-land. St Hellhole is probably best avoided. If you don’t need to be very close to the stations that will knock the price down a little.

You can ride out from Sutton across the downs all off road to the north downs and further out.

Some great bike shops in Sutton (bias alert! :-)) too.

As above, you looked at Tattenham Corner line to Purley, great rail links and plenty of off-road riding.

I used to live on Pound street in carshalton, very sedate and nice, if a bit noisy traffic wise, also lived in Sutton for a while, on the carshalton side also nice. Avoid st helier!

Pearsons is in sutton, but that might only mean something to the roadies

Sutton is considered fairly ghastly.

Its a small suburban town centre in a built up area that attracts all the violent drinks who can’t be bothered to get to Croydon for a proper fight.

Sutton Library is famous for featuring in the best seller “Boring Postcards”. Its about on par with PReston Bus Depot and Heston Services in that regard.

I do get my motorbike serviced in Sutton, but most of the people I know in Sutton choose to drink elsewhere. Banstead would be nicer.

I second the comment of being south of the town centre. You will be given a welcome to Sutton parking ticket as soon as you arrive.
Anywhere off Upper/Mulgrave road should be ok.
If you feel like wearing a tracksuit and swearing loudly into your mobile phone the town centre is the place for you.

I’ve worked on a project in Sutton, I thought the residential area to the west of the town centre was nice enough, the town centre was OK for daytime shopping. I’ve also worked on a project in nearby Wallington, I have nothing positive to say about that place though if not too close to the centre some residential areas seem OK.

Used to play 5-a-side football in a league in Sutton. All the teams from St Helier were a right bunch of…

Have a look on Channel 4’s website 4 on demand for the show Phoneshop for an insight into everyday Sutton life.