Surbiton, London

Surbiton is heading up our list of places to live in London but don’t know that much about it. Heading to that there London end of May to have a look at places. Tooting, Twickenham and places close to that in the running. We’re after somewhere that has good transport links to Chertsey and Epsom/St Heliers (and/or cyclable to those places) but not too far to go into the centre of London. We’d also like somewhere with a bit of life- shops, bars etc and we’ve budgeted about 1k to 1.2k a month on rent. Moon on a stick also welcome 😉

Ta!

Surbiton was where Tom and Barbara Good set up their self-sufficient lifestyle, it seemed to work well for them. They had very pleasant neighbours too.

Great area but same as anywhere really – good & bad ….
Look at Teddington, best place i`ve found. Not cheap but plenty of life and good connections – 25 mins to Waterloo.
OR
Possibly Barnes, still got that villagey feel to it …
A few gems in the surrounding s.w. Landan area but plenty of holes !

Felicity Kendal, mmmmmmmmmm.

I used to have a recurring nightmare I’d have to choose between her and Jenny Agutter!

My friend and his family live there. Nice place with some big nice houses. I bet you need at least £400K to £500K min to buy a house there now. I think you might need to up your budget a little bit more to say 1.4k to have a chance for a nice one.

I lived there for 3 years and would happily do it again.

Quick braindump here:

The fastest trains into Waterloo are about 17 minutes, most of them are about 23 I think, and they’re frequent enough at most times to just turn up without aiming for a particular time. You’ve also got a late train back from London every night (1:05 am). Surbiton has plenty of nice restaurants and a handful of decent pubs, but it’s not especially lively if that’s you’re looking for. It’s quite well served with buses to Kingston for more shops/restaurants/bars etc.

Out-the-back-door cycling wise you can easily get to Richmond Park through Kingston by road. You can also do a nice casual pootle to Hampton Court and then back along the river. Offroad wise there are also some nice sections of trail about 20 mins away in Esher common, leading through to Oxshott Heath. You can cycle to the Surrey Hills in about an hour and a half.

What little i know of Surbiton seems quite nice, pleasnt areas handy for transport, I would also suggest Wimbledon, Kingston or Raynes Park (estate agents call it west wimbledon) at a push. St Heliers – now there’s a depressing looking place 🙂

I’ve been happily living the ‘Good Life’ in Surbiton for the last 14 years, prior to that lived in Epsom after some time spent living in Chertsey! The links into London are excellent and it’s also got good bus links. The Surrey ‘Hills’ are a short bike ride away for both road and mountain bike. The town has a lot of pubs and coffee shops with Kingston a short bus ride for very good shopping and also some evening entertainment, cinema, theatre and more pubs. The central part of Surbiton, walking distance to the station, can be pricey but areas heading towards Tolworth or Chessington can be cheaper likewise towards Kingston which has a lot of student accommodation for the university..

However personally in your situation I’d be more inclined to look at living closer to Chertsey. Have a look at Weybridge and Walton both of which have good rail links into London. The trade off for a slightly longer rail journey, maybe 10-15minutes longer, would be decreased rent and shorter commute in busy traffic. Epsom is also quite a nice little town, good rail links and surprisingly lively in the evenings, not sure about commuting from there to Chertsey though…

Lots of wife swapping apparently, or so a mate who lives there told me.

Felicity Kendall still live there?…

Surbiton was where Tom and Barbara Good set up their self-sufficient lifestyle, it seemed to work well for them. They had very pleasant neighbours too.

It might have been based there, but the actual house/street was in Northwood.

Why not look at somewhere nearer the hospital (I know its a bit in the ‘sticks’). Like most places, within 100 yds you can go from Chav Alley to Millionaires Row.

Reason for living further in is because gf works from home and after 4 years of Derby suburbia wanted a bit more life. I realise places I’m pitching aren’t proper london in some eyes but half an hour ish to centre of London is a pretty good compromise.

Tooting wins on curry points