After years of commuting for too long we have decided to up sticks and move closer to London. Surrey is out of our price bracket so am looking at West Sussex, Kent or Essex.

The places we have researched but not been too are as follows

Sevenoaks
Billericay
Haywards Heath (on the edge of my max commute time though)

Given the only coverage of Essex seems to come from TOWIE, the Wife has unfortunately already formed an opinion.

Pointers welcomed.

Where in London is your commute, which Mainline stn, and what is your max commute time?

Agree with dants, London is a big place and you should factor in travel time and cost as well as housing costs. All surrounding counties have good and bad areas.

Fwiw I would prefer billericay and sevenoaks to Haywards heath, but others may disagree…

Liverpool St. And ideally do not want a door to door commute of more than 1hr 15 mins

So that really means a max train journey time of 30-40mins(at a push). Obviously, Liverpool St would remove the 15-20 mins time between terminus and office.

May be worth looking along HS1 in Kent? Ebbsfleet about 15 mins from St Pancras and Ashford 30 mins. I don’t know Ebbsfleet at all, but Ashford, while not the loveliest of towns, has lots going on, and is 10-15 minutes from lots of lovely villages, and the downs.

Sevenoaks/Tonbridge/Tunbridge areas are very nice, but not cheap.

Hertford.

Go to Liverpool street station, look at the departure boards and pick a place to live from that list. Then you will have a direct journey and will never have to use the tube.

Wish I had done this before we settled in Berkshire twenty years ago. Getting to Paddington from here is easy, but getting to the city means another forty minutes on the tube…

flanagaj – Member
Pointers welcomed.

Find work outside of London and move further North or West?

Go to Liverpool street station, look at the departure boards and pick a place to live from that list. Then you will have a direct journey and will never have to use the tube.

If you have no particular ties to an area, and are confident that you’ll be staying with your company for a few years, then this is what I’d be doing. The only problem from a STW perspective is that not many of Liverpool Street’s destinations have anything in the way of hills. South-East, South and West of London there are at least a few small ones.

The only problem from a STW perspective is that not many of Liverpool Street’s destinations have anything in the way of hills. South-East, South and West of London there are at least a few small ones.

Really? I live 5 mins walk away from a mainline station into L st, Epping forest is 4 miles away, the Chilterns 1hr away, and road wise there are 3 cat 4’s within 10 mins ride time from my house.

Take your wife for a drive around Essex. There are some beautiful towns and villages and it & neighbouring Herts is very good road riding territory.

Kryton57 – Member
Really? I live 5 mins walk away from a mainline station into L st, Epping forest is 4 miles away, the Chilterns 1hr away, and road wise there are 3 cat 4’s within 10 mins ride time from my house.

MTB Heaven!

P.s. comparing Essex to TOWIE is akin to comparing the moon landings with Red dwarf. Take her for a drive and open her eyes.

cannon street is a ten minute walk to liverpool street so you could still look at kent and sussex. sevenoaks is nice and it`s close to some decent riding spots and pubs and restaurants.

Is it literally Liverpool street too? London Bridge is only 20 mins walk so that opens up Sussex if its further South.

Fenchurch Street is only 10 minutes walk too, so you’ve got several potential termini to go and look at the departure boards for. If I had no allegiances it’s how I’d choose too.

I live in Robertsbride, East Sussex. I’m only 10 miles to the coast, loads of cycling of all varieties, and it’s a 1:10 train journey to London Bridge. 5 min walk to ML station in the village, 4 pubs and a curry house!!

On my line, you want to be farther out than Tunbridge Wells, otherwise you guarrantee standing in morning rush hour.

The next 4 stations are Etchingham, Stonegate, Frant and Wadhurst, each taking at least 5 mins off the journey, and putting 10-20k on the house price!!

Really? I live 5 mins walk away from a mainline station into L st, Epping forest is 4 miles away, the Chilterns 1hr away, and road wise there are 3 cat 4’s within 10 mins ride time from my house.

I did say ‘not many’ of Liverpool St’s destinations have hills, not that none of them have hills. Also, I think counting hills an hours drive away is cheating slightly, since the all the areas so far suggested are no more than 2 hours drive apart.

I moved to the SE for a London job about 18mths ago.

I was originally looking around Haywards Heath but due to having to initially rent and having dogs, we ended up in a small village near Tonbridge.

We ended up buying here as we quite liked the village. It is not good MTB country, hardly any bridleways and pretty flat but it is really good road biking.

I bike to the train station, 15mins, get the train into London Bridge 50mins, and walk 15mins to my office. It works out about 1hr 15 – 1hr 20 door to door. Which is personally about my limit.

Sevenoaks is noticeably more expensive than Tonbridge, 15mins closer to London makes a big difference to house prices.
If you have to drive to train station then don’t forget car parking costs of about £5 a day on top of your train fare.

From what I have been told from others, the SE Trains that run in Kent give a better service than the Southern trains that cover Sussex.

HS1 from Ashford is 35 mins to London I believe.

Lots of nice villages and pubs if you know where to look, bit cheaper than traditional commuter belt land. Good riding if you know where to look and who to team up with, granted not the hills of other places or the technicality but riding none the less. Closer to the Alps too!

Slightly further Folkestone is on HS1, much cheaper properties, still same riding and again plenty of villages.

Not as generally pretty as West Sussex probably but it’s there if you know where to look. Drop me a line if you want a better look.

There’s a line up to Cambridge from Liverpool street too, so Hertfordshire has a number of options too. Thing is others have realised this too, so prices are elevated accordingly!

Hastings line is also SE Trains.

I grew up in Billericay (!) And moved out as soon as I could, which probably tells you what you need to know…

Was OK suburbia then, but a bit too Sarf Essex now in my opinion. Only a handful of miles from Basildon.

If I was forced at gunpoint to move back to Essex now, I’d be looking up the Chelmsford line rather than the Southend one.

i live in billericay (import from lincs), 6 mins from the station. there is some local riding but the nearest interesting stuff is epping forest which is about 30mins drive. it really isn’t as bad as the perception (i was a bit dubious to start with) but some things really are very ‘essex’. i would say the worst thing is how busy the roads are, but then i’m from a tiny village in lincolnshire so it might be like this everywhere in the SE.

the suprising thing is i can do a lap of the town on a mtb using about 70% bridleways – lots of open countryside views and so on. not the concrete jungle i was expecting – you need to go to basildon for that!

billericay does not have a tescos (does have a waitrose/m+s shop) or a mcdonalds, if that kind of thing matters to you

If you want good mountain biking trails and hills where should you be looking. Dorking way?

I can do 1 hr 15 from just outside Canterbury to Holborn, cycling both ends on my Brompton and using HS1. It’s certainly a lot less suburban/commuter belt around here than a lot of the other suggestions and I do love the area. Ashford and Folkestone are both a bit quicker due to being directly on the HS1 line, I wouldn’t say either of them is as nice a town as Canterbury, but the countryside villages near to both are very nice. It’s certainly worth consideration if you want a fairly quick trip to London without feeling too much like you’re close to London.

If you want good mountain biking trails and hills where should you be looking. Dorking way?

Yes. Dorking for good trails and hills, Swinley/Epping for decent trails without much in the way of hills. Along the North Downs into Kent, and South Downs around Brighton you still get hills, but less in the way of man made MTB trails.

I did look at HS1, but the whole point of moving is that paying vast amounts of cash to the train operators is just money down the drain and I would rather put it towards the mortgage.

I live in Berkhamsted in herts and commute into Liverpool street at the moment (35 mins into euston then 4 or 5 stops on the tube).

I’m in the Chilterns – 5 mins ride from 5000 acres of national trust land with lots of good riding. Aston hill is about 10 miles away – lots of riding in between too. The hills around here aren’t exactly huge but there’s plenty of decent twisty single track (can easily piece together 25+ mile route). If I want anything more I head to Wales.

Downsides are the cost of commuting (£110 a week at the mo) and property prices. But it’s nice and quite round here – low crime, plenty of other mtb types around the place (presume that’s a plus point – not sure).

Epsom?

Horsham? Bit further out admittedly. 7:46 train gets to London Bridge at 8:41.

You’ll spend far more on the mortgage than you’ll save on the train ticket if you start moving too close in (assuming its a nice place still!).

Go to Liverpool street station, look at the departure boards and pick a place to live from that list. Then you will have a direct journey and will never have to use the tube.

This.

I commuted on/off in and around London for 10 years from Aylesbury. If it was a walk from Marylebone then my commute was about 70mins, otherwise it could easily be nearly 2 hours – on public transport. Which is why I used a m/c 🙂

Although I could MTB from my house and be in the Chilterns 35 mins later.

That’s sort of my point. Folkestone / Ashford reasonable property prices which means can afford the train prices.
Agreed Canterbury is a lovely city and full of great restaurants but much pricier

Are you guys really spending 2:30 hrs a day commuting and a million pounds on train fares?

There’s got to be a better work-life balance available than that, surely?

That’s sort of my point. Folkestone / Ashford reasonable property prices which means can afford the train prices.

Ashford is the pox-hole of the south. a soulless place full of chavs, anyone with any sense leaves as soon as they can, only the moronic and morose remain. Folkstone isn’t much better, a port town between europe and london with no redeeming feature to warrant stopping.

Are you guys really spending 2:30 hrs a day commuting and a million pounds on train fares?
There’s got to be a better work-life balance available than that, surely?

Pretty much. Not that bad really. I try and drive half/ride half (22 miles riding each way) at least once a week, and work in an office closer to home once a week. Not that bad. Time to read the paper/a book/sleep/catch up on work.

I’m just amazed that anyone can find it acceptable; I mean really properly amazed!

2:30 a day is 180 minutes.
180 times 5 is 900 minutes a week…

That’s 15 hours a week just getting to work and back!
That’s 60, sixty, bloody SIXTY hours a month just travelling.

Wow.

I feel a bit aggrieved if it takes me longer than an hour each way, and can bike it in 30 minutes.

Wow again.

Work from home and spend more time with family and out on the trails );

Neither ashford or Folkestone may be brilliant towns but there are plenty of good villages and good parts of each town. Folkestones creative quarter may come to something and more cafes and restaurants are opening each year. There is the leas, coastal park and a good bike shop! Every place has its poor areas and Folkestone suffers with that but the times saw something about it recently and it could be on the rise.
To simply dismiss these areas would be a mistake as a lot of property for your money and still less than an hour to London.

and good parts of each town

would love to know the “good part” of Ashford is? the little hidden bit round by the church? the quaint looking East hill? the Tank and it’s colourful drunks? i’m really struggling here so help me out.

What is the budget and size of house you need, out of interest?

East Croydon to Liverpool street is 45 mins. Excellent rail links to the dirt or you can ride from your door.

Mr Smith – the station on the way out…..

Only kidding, I’m not a lover of Ashford, but frequently use the cinema there, and the outlet shopping centre because they are convenient, and I refuse to pay silly money for fashion……

Some of the villages just outside are lovely, and it has very good transport links, lots of housing stock, depends what you want from your town. Personally I couldn’t live there but I couldn’t ever live in London either.