mmmmmmm…..just learnt got to move to Guildford for work, what would the best place to live for quality of life and access to road and mtb rides?
whats it like?

I would look for somewhere to live in the Merrow/Burpham area or perhaps Onslow village. Depends on budget, renting/buying/flat/house, do you want to be close to the town centre for bars etc?

MTB riding on the Surrey Hills is awesomw, pop into see us at Cycleworks.co.uk and find out more……

Road riding is really good too, steep climbs and beautiful country lanes, mainly south of Guildford itself.

Riding? The Surrey Hills, Leith etc. Only a matter of minutes away and some truly great trails!

You could live in Peaslake and be at the bottom of one of the bestest downhill sections in the Sarf of England!

I live at the other end of the Hogs Back to Guildford, some great riding in the area. Loads of bridleways, army land and common land + easy access to Surrey Hills (Leith/Holmbury/Pitch). Lots of great riding to be had.

If you are going to live in the town area then I agree with davefarmer.

If you can afford it look outside the town for one of the villages.

We lived in Wonersh for about 9 months before we bought a house in town.

Annual town centre road races sponsored this year by …errrr… Cycleworks! 😉

As others have said, excellent riding to be had right on your doorstep – Leith Hill, North Downs, South Downs nearby and Wales 2-3hrs away down the M4 if that’s your bag.

Guildford itself is a fairly posh commuter town, plenty of green space, killer house prices. Waterloo is 40-ish minutes away by train so well placed to take advantage of everything London has to offer.

In the interests of balance may I also recommend visiting the nice chaps at Beyond Mountain Bikes in Cranleigh? No professional connection to them, just always had good service and they also do shop rides.

HHH

nowhere in or around guildford is very far from the trails or great road riding. Its all going to be down to your budget for exact location.

May as well live in Guildford unless want to live somewhere more rural and be closer to the trails. I live close to Leatherhead and takes 30 to 40 minutes to drive in to Guildford in the rush hour.

Shopping’s not bad but the traffic is rubbish!

go live in godalming

If you’re looking for a guide on house prices, place next to me, ex-council 3 bed semi no garage currently on for £230,000 but needs a bit of work doing and I’m in one of the cheaper areas.

Agree with cg about traffic. With the A3 so close if it rains or an accident occurs then the whole place grinds to halt.

Place I used to work was 7 miles away on the other side of Guildford. On a good evening I was home in about 30 mins on the worst occasion it took 90 minutes.

If you know where you are going to work try an buy on that side of town unless you’re going to ride to work.

Woking is worth a Shout… MUCH cheaper.. 25 Mins to London for when you want to go out, its also in the middle of Surrey hills and Swinley forest.. 25 Mins to peaslake / Holmbury hill.. There are also some great loops on the door step Army land… Brookwood / into aldershot plenty of canals and you can cycle up to the thames Weybridge and Walton on thames (posh sunday nosh).. Horsell Common… to be honest if you want to head out your door Woking, Dorking, Goldleming etc if you want to load up and faff Guildford 🙂

Oh an other plus for woking better traffic, closer to the M3, M4, M25 and M40… Guildford will mean another 30 Mins to Afan or Cmw Carn / mendips if you want a sunday day out… CC 2hrs

Traffic etc all depends on the hours you work. I work 8-ish to 6:30-ish and live in Wimbledon, work in Guildford. Approx 35 minutes each way down the A3 at those times. At peak hours you’re talking more like 50 mins. If you can avoid the worst times then it’s not bad at all. Unless there’s any problem in Guildford/A3, in which case the whole lot gridlocks. This happens every few months or so, so I’ve never found it that big a deal.

Hope you really enjoy it – I know lots of people who’ve moved into the area think it’s a great place to be.

HHH

I moved to guildford from Liverpool for work for that very same reason. I am now trying to move home. The north downs on your doorstep is ok, but I was used to riding the clwyds, peaks and welsh trail centres and there is no comparison, an hours drive is a small price to pay. The place itself is lovely, but I would only live south of the a3 and the price of houses is obscene compared to up north. 300k for a two up two down! I have made some freinds in the time I have been here but I can’t wait to get home. The wife is pregnant and works in the city, so the journey for her will be hard work soon, plus the cheapest nursery we could find for our 3 year old daughter in guildford was £950 per month!!! To pay that for two kids is insane. I reckon if I was loaded it may be an ok place to live, but I am not, so up north suits my life so much more.

Plus it never bloody rains here, and I miss the drizzle we get in the north west.

Just out of interest where are you moving from?

depends how old you are. If you’re younger and still want the life of London, I’d suggest moving somewhere like Kingston / Surbiton, with very good rail links going both ways, and easy access to both the A3 and M25.

There’s bugger all to do in guildford otherwise.

And if you have family etc.. Haslemere’s a good shout. Blackdown (highest hill in Sussex)/ Marley/ Hindhead hills on your doorstep (literally), Southdowns riding distance away, and only 1 train stop away from Guildford. Trails very, very quiet – just the occasional banker but they ride in the daytime M-F these days!

jova54 – where are you then?

I’m north of Guildford – despite what loddrik says – mainly because I don’t have a wife that works in the city!! There’s a big new development here which was overpriced but is becoming a bit more reasonable now – QE Park. I’d probably steer you clear of Park Barn and Bellfields, although having said that their reputation is significantly worse than the reality. Guildford after all was top of the safest / nicest places to live last year (or was it year before). Tons of bars and restaurants, student town too which usually means decent-ish nightlife, and of course London and all its glittering delights is just a short trip on the train.

As for ‘trails on the door’. Bottom of my road is a bridleway that links to Whitmoor Common that links to Pirbright that links to Tunnel Hill that links to Porridgepot hill that links to Swinley with a minimum of fireroad and barely touches the road. And similarly up to Pewley Down and along the NDW to Newlands corner and onto Surrey Hills. Or west up to the antenna’s and along the NDW to Puttenham and all the trails on the south slope of the Hogs Back. Or….. If Bertros reckons you need to load up and faff from Guildford, he needs to try doing a longer ride 😉

Although having lived in Woking too (Goldsworth park, another area to google) there’s enough to recommend from there too. And also another decent LBS in Knaphill, Switchback plus Evans in Woking town centre. Not that I’m knocking Cycleworks you understand (was only in there yesterday after all) but there are others.

@ theotherjonv,

I’m in Bellfields near the footbridge, are you in Grange Road/Stoughton area?

Yep. Grange Road, just by the QE park. Small world! As the crow flies we’re what – 600 yards apart? I assume you mean the f/b that joins into Robin Way?

Oh – and I didn’t mean it about Bellfields 😳

Don’t worry. We’ve been in Bellfields, couldn’t afford anywhere else, for nearly 8 years and it is improving but only slowly.

That’s the fb I mean, use it to get down to Whitmoor common.

Here’s a random question. Did I meet you and your wife on the Downs Link about a year ago when you were looking for St Martha’s church?

I doubt it, the othermrsJonv doesn’t ride.

Will be passing the fb in about 15 mins heading over to Ash for an hour or so. Wave to me!

+1 for Godalming if you’ve got a family. It’s a little pedestrian if you’re young free and single though. There’s plenty of riding in most directions – out over the North Downs, the Devil’s Punchbowl, 25 minutes to Peaslake…

Anywhere north of the A3 is well dodgy, though cheaper. Anywhere off the Epsom Road is handy for everything, but expensive. Charlotteville particularly nice.

Godalming’s nice, so’s Haslemere, although it’s a lot further than one stop beyond Guildford! IIRC most trains are Guildford-Farncombe-Godalming-Milford-Witley-Haslemere, but that’s just the transport planner in me being pedantic.

I think the riding’s awesome, you’re not gonna go far wrong wherever you go to be honest.

There’s loads of decent shops too, I’m in Cranleigh, and can vouch for Beyond being an excellent shop, although not as good now I don’t work there 😉

Living in Guildford city centre is an utter pain in the arse!
I’ve lived most of my life in Liphook, Haslemere, Petersfield and for 18 months in Guildford, in an effort to make my wife’s commute into London easier. It was shorter and cheaper for her to get to work but everything else was terrible. We lived right in the town centre (College Road) so that she could walk to the station but my drive to Bordon (24 miles away) and back sometimes took almost two hours. It was noisy at night, the cars, houses and gardens in our road were habitually vandalised. Getting in and out of town during the day at the weekends was almost impossible and parking was a nightmare, even having paid for a resident’s permit. We have now moved back to Haslemere, a much nicer place all-in-all and much better riding, in all directions, right out of the front door. The riding out of Guildford isn’t very good in my limited experience. I used to put my bike in the car and drive down to Haslemere to go riding! Trains from Haslemere to Guildford only take 15-20 minutes.
Having said all that, if you’ve got the money to enjoy the shops, pubs, restaurants etc and didn’t need to drive in or out of town at the weekends it would be a great place to live. I do know a few people that live in Merrow and love it.

younger and still want the life of London … Kingston / Surbiton

lol 🙄

Anywhere north of the A3 is well dodgy

LOL

This is Guildford, not South Central LA

I’m assuming you mean Park Barn / Bellfields, and their bark is FAR worse than their bite.

I can agree with Willej to some extent, there are a few areas particularly around student digs area that can be plagued by petty vandalism / unsocial behaviour but it doesn’t make it dangerous, far from. Example was when we had roadworks in my road earlier this year on average once a week some gormless sudent **** would block off the road with the cones or push the road signs over. One night working late in the garage I heard a group all shouty down the road and the scrape of the cones, went out the front and shouted oy, and they all just legged it. Hardly the behaviour of a criminal underclass though.

The riding out of Guildford isn’t very good in my limited experience

As per one of my earlier posts, I reckon you can put together a 95% offroad 80 mile loop (just short joining sections) with Guildford at the centre taking in Surrey Hills, Gorrick racecourses, Swinley singletrack…..

I put it to you, your experience is very limited if you think Haslemere trumps Guildford as a riding centre 🙂

Coming from Liverpool and hearing people say any part of guildford is rough is pretty laughable.

We were in haslemere for a few months before guildford and I cannot say the riding is any better, you can ride ok stuff within minutes of both places. I recently discovered the south downs which seemed very similar to the clwyds and was far more my cup of tea.

As I said before, I like guildford as a place, but for me the house prices and price of childcare are obscene and we cannot afford to live here, our standard of living is much lower than up north.

One more gripe, the bike shops are shite, an absolute rip off (£15 to loosen a bottom bracket) and seem extremely inflexible, why do something quick and simple while you wait when you can make someone book something in 10 days in advance and charge a fortune.

Guess it depends where you go, Beyond wouldn’t have charged that, and I doubt Cycleworks would either!

Cycleworks would and did I am afraid, I have tried most of the bike shops around here and all come up way short of Quinns in liverpool, I am now just going to wait until I go home once a month as I just cannot find one I am happy with. Bike shops are like chippys, find a good one and you will stay loyal….

I put it to you, your experience is very limited if you think Haslemere trumps Guildford as a riding centre

I wasn’t trying to play trumps, I was just saying that what I did ride from Guildford wasn’t a patch on the sort of rides I could do from Haslemere. Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough? Maybe the trail network in a 20 mile radius of Haslemere is vastly underestimated? Maybe it’s better for me and my riding buddies if it is?

Used to live in Bellfields (Lime Grove) right by the railway line, which is not so far from the slaughterhouse. My advice is don’t live right next to the railway. Not the best part of Guildford, but was cheap for student digs. Moved to a place just along from the back end of the station after that (handy for London-bound commute). Wouldn’t live in Woking, even if it is 10mins close to London, with more trains per hour.

I have to say I agree with theotherjonv, there’s better riding from Guildford than Haslemere, Black Down’s very over rated and the Marley/Hankley common area isn’t that special, nor’s the Punch Bowl. The Surrey Hills and the Gorrick stuff is far superior.

All IMO of course.

andytherocketeer – Member
Used to live in Bellfields (Lime Grove)

I live in Lime Grove. I trust you weren’t one of the students who thought it was great fun to bang on my front door at 3 in the morning and run away, or use my side door as a toilet, or throw your empty beercans in my garden.

If you were I pity your current neighbours but I’m glad you’re not round here any more! 😉

Ooh, it’s spensive down that way though, eh? Surrey Stockbroker Belt?

pk-ripper’s suggestion is not as daft as it might sound. Trains out of London, first thing, are almost empty, as everyone is going the other way. Likewise, coming home in the evening.

Hang on, I think me sausages are done…

Right, where was I? Oh yes.

I’d hazzard a guess that somewhere like Wimbledon might be a touch cheaper than Kingston, but that area offers a compromise between being in London, and not too far from Guildford.

It’s an idea, for sure, and one to give some thought to.

Move to Dorking, the riding is way better than Haslemere and Guildford.

And Head for the Hills is a great little bike shop….

Nick – shhh!

😀