Living in Guildford. What's it like?

57Deluxe

Horsham you say...? That's why - you need to be a bit further North. You are in the Crawley Chav catchment area there...

Kebabkid

Budgie said:

'kin hell, after a quick browse at Rightmove, you don't get much for your money in Guildford, a 60s estate semi, although quite nicely updated, but £600k!?! I'm glad I live oop North

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-59825197.html

For the same price just up the road from here....

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-48514278.html

Madness!

This is my friend's place up in Derbyshire which just sold and look at what you get for the money

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-57898291.html

LoFi

Actually pondering Guildford at the mo - I'm spending a lot more time in London for work than I used to, and the 3.5-4 hr round trip from Winchester is getting me down a bit - knocking 25 mins off that each way would make quite a difference.

Bit of an ask, but anyone recommend nice-ish areas that are walkable (a mile) from the station? Budget £450-500k, don't need 3 beds (but would be nice), prefer a house to a flat.

Whitecat

Will second Woking as a good poor-man's Guildford if you need to be in reach of London. It's undergoing some serious gentrification at the moment (council is spending multiple billions on refurbishing the town centre) and has most things anyone would need, plus you are only 15 minutes drive/9 minutes train from Guildford itself and the trains to London average every 10 mins or so.

This is not to say it's inexpensive, it's still a bedroom town for London professionals, but it's more affordable than Guildford. 

Depends how much time you want to spend in Guildford town centre proper I guess...

mellowsun

Kebabkid said:

"Only come here if you can cut the mustard and keep your garden at award wining levels"

@57Deluxe - I must say, my friend lived in Wisborough Green (near Horsham) for a few years and experienced the above and he was the frigging vicar! 

Same in many top Hampshire villages. A friend moved to a very sought after village and the day they moved in, people came round basically with a list of expectations, which included the garden, and putting up bunting on fete days and certain holidays. I kid you not.

Sporky

Whitecat said:

Will second Woking as a good poor-man's Guildford if you need to be in reach of London. It's undergoing some serious gentrification at the moment (council is spending multiple billions on refurbishing the town centre) and has most things anyone would need, plus you are only 15 minutes drive/9 minutes train from Guildford itself and the trains to London average every 10 mins or so.

As a commuting base Woking is better than Guildford (having lived in both) - twice as many trains for starters. Guildford's the nicer town, but Woking has pretty much what you need and the traffic isn't as bad.

When we moved, though, Guildford was cheaper for a sensibly-sized 3-bed semi than Woking. Woking has Goldsworth Park but that's a fair way from the town centre.

Whitecat

Sporky said:

Whitecat said:

Will second Woking as a good poor-man's Guildford if you need to be in reach of London. It's undergoing some serious gentrification at the moment (council is spending multiple billions on refurbishing the town centre) and has most things anyone would need, plus you are only 15 minutes drive/9 minutes train from Guildford itself and the trains to London average every 10 mins or so.

As a commuting base Woking is better than Guildford (having lived in both) - twice as many trains for starters. Guildford's the nicer town, but Woking has pretty much what you need and the traffic isn't as bad.

When we moved, though, Guildford was cheaper for a sensibly-sized 3-bed semi than Woking. Woking has Goldsworth Park but that's a fair way from the town centre.

That's interesting - when we were looking (2008-2009) Woking was the cheaper of the two on average for a 3-bed semi as they were both on our radar. I guess things peak and dip...

Goldsworth Park has a Waitrose, a Post Office and a meh pub but that's about it, anything else is not walkable for sure.

Sporky

Whitecat said:

That's interesting - when we were looking (2008-2009) Woking was the cheaper of the two on average for a 3-bed semi as they were both on our radar. I guess things peak and dip... 

I think it was about 3 years before that at a guess - there was a bit more choice in Guildford at the time too. Not a lot in it though, and as you say it does vary.

We're about 2 miles from the town centre - if I'm going to That London Town I normally drive to Woking and park at my dear old mum's - it's quicker and (stuck record, sorry) there are more trains...

Drew_TNBD

I don't see the point in living close to London but not in London, especially if you work there. Travel will absorb much of the savings and you lose massively culturally speaking.

Whitecat

Drew_TNBD said:

I don't see the point in living close to London but not in London, especially if you work there. Travel will absorb much of the savings and you lose massively culturally speaking.

I have a 3-bed semi with a garden for the price of a 2-bed flat without, I can actually get to Central London faster than when I lived in north London overall, and the last train to Woking is at 1.05am so I can have as much culture as I have the energy for. It's way better living out here than it was in London - the air is cleaner, there's more greenery in general and I get the best of all worlds too in that I'm now just an hour's drive from the coast in addition to having that quick London reach.

The additional cost of the commute (which I don't do regularly but my wife does) is more than offset by the savings on the property.

Drew_TNBD

Whitecat said:

Drew_TNBD said:

I don't see the point in living close to London but not in London, especially if you work there. Travel will absorb much of the savings and you lose massively culturally speaking.

I have a 3-bed semi with a garden for the price of a 2-bed flat without, I can actually get to Central London faster than when I lived in north London overall, and the last train to Woking is at 1.05am so I can have as much culture as I have the energy for. It's way better living out here than it was in London - the air is cleaner, there's more greenery in general and I get the best of all worlds too in that I'm now just an hour's drive from the coast in addition to having that quick London reach.

The additional cost of the commute (which I don't do regularly but my wife does) is more than offset by the savings on the property.

Any time I looked at doing it, the only way I could even remotely benefit from moving out of London was to move back to the Midlands and buy a 3 or 4 bedroom house. I had pretty high expectations I suppose - I wanted a fully detatched, and I wanted big enough rooms to build a studio.

Whenever I looked at Guildford, Woking, or elsewhere, it just didn't seem like that big a jump in quality of life and the financials were neck and neck.

Fundamentally, I have a ton of green around me, I have a garden and a front patio, I have a studio room for the time being until the nipper gets a bit older, I have access to the big city, museums and venues and pubs. I do hate the commute into work, which is why I never leave before 9:30am and 7:00pm, and I work from home every chance I get. I fucking hate hipsters though, so there is that to contend with.

We are going to have to upsize at some point. I'm hoping the rising property values in my area will facillitate that. Once I learn to drive. There is also the issue of none of my family living in London, and none of my wife's family living in the Midlands - so moving back "home" home isn't really ideal. I'd get bored too. But at the same time, I do want my daughter to have family around her. We've got the wife's sister and her boyfriend. That's it - the rest of her family lives in Japan 90% of the year.

fields5069

Sporky said:

fields5069 said:

I lived there for a few years, renting a small modern terrace in Cardwell's Keep. It was pretty rough in parts, one day I made the mistake of having a drink in that pub by the canal. I drank my pint and quickly left.

Ah, the Row Barge.

As rough pubs go it's more of a gentle nuzzling than a Glasgow Kiss, but yeah, not entirely gentile. I think it's improved recently.

The Jolly Farmer, on the edge of Whitmoor Common, is very nice, and there are plenty of good pubs in town too.

Yeah we were just out for a walk and the area doesn't really look that scuzzy. It was just like the missus and I had walked into someone's front room from the 70s, complete with staring kids. I had plenty of nice drinks elsewhere - Worplesdon Manor, the Tup, even the pub near Andertons.

Whitecat

Drew_TNBD said:

Whitecat said:

Drew_TNBD said:

I don't see the point in living close to London but not in London, especially if you work there. Travel will absorb much of the savings and you lose massively culturally speaking.

I have a 3-bed semi with a garden for the price of a 2-bed flat without, I can actually get to Central London faster than when I lived in north London overall, and the last train to Woking is at 1.05am so I can have as much culture as I have the energy for. It's way better living out here than it was in London - the air is cleaner, there's more greenery in general and I get the best of all worlds too in that I'm now just an hour's drive from the coast in addition to having that quick London reach.

The additional cost of the commute (which I don't do regularly but my wife does) is more than offset by the savings on the property.

Any time I looked at doing it, the only way I could even remotely benefit from moving out of London was to move back to the Midlands and buy a 3 or 4 bedroom house. I had pretty high expectations I suppose - I wanted a fully detatched, and I wanted big enough rooms to build a studio.

Whenever I looked at Guildford, Woking, or elsewhere, it just didn't seem like that big a jump in quality of life and the financials were neck and neck.

Fundamentally, I have a ton of green around me, I have a garden and a front patio, I have a studio room for the time being until the nipper gets a bit older, I have access to the big city, museums and venues and pubs. I do hate the commute into work, which is why I never leave before 9:30am and 7:00pm, and I work from home every chance I get. I fucking hate hipsters though, so there is that to contend with.

We are going to have to upsize at some point. I'm hoping the rising property values in my area will facillitate that. Once I learn to drive. There is also the issue of none of my family living in London, and none of my wife's family living in the Midlands - so moving back "home" home isn't really ideal. I'd get bored too. But at the same time, I do want my daughter to have family around her. We've got the wife's sister and her boyfriend. That's it - the rest of her family lives in Japan 90% of the year.

Well, to put it another way, I have all the advantages of living in London with none of the disadvantages because I have all the same things you mention re "access to the big city", I just have to ride an overland train for 25 minutes to start my intra-London journey in either Waterloo or Clapham Junction.

At the time we bought (which was after the crash in 2008, intentionally) to stay in London we would have had to seriously compromise on either location or property type... so there's very little downside. 

Your comment about hipsters reminds me of this though:

Drew_TNBD

LOL!! I actually agree with most of that!

57Deluxe

LoFi said:

Actually pondering Guildford at the mo - I'm spending a lot more time in London for work than I used to, and the 3.5-4 hr round trip from Winchester is getting me down a bit - knocking 25 mins off that each way would make quite a difference.

Bit of an ask, but anyone recommend nice-ish areas that are walkable (a mile) from the station? Budget £450-500k, don't need 3 beds (but would be nice), prefer a house to a flat.

you not gonner get anything that nice within walking distance of Station - example areas links attached:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detail.html?country=england&locationIdentifier=STREET^1228027&searchLocation=Walnut+Tree+Close

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detail.html?country=england&locationIdentifier=STREET^1791364&searchLocation=Denzil+Road&referrer=listChangeCriteria

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detail.html?country=england&locationIdentifier=STREET^446545&searchLocation=Farnham+Road&referrer=listChangeCriteria

57Deluxe

Talking of Guildford: Been over there today and on way back paid a visit to St Catherine's on the Hill and the Ferry crossing for the Pilgrims Way. Found a very old Beer Bottle bottom just poking out the storm-washed trackway as this was the site of the medieval Fair up until 1900s is masses of finds to be had... Pics attached:



http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/T/T06/T06097_10.jpg

http://i68.tinypic.com/24n179z.jpg