Moving out of London

I know it a bit, we had a wander around this weekend thought it had lots going on. Quite a few independent food & coffee places. The Crab Shack/Small Batch Coffee. New leisure centre, agree if you want clubs and bars it's lacking, but we would be able to afford a 3 bed house with a small mortgage, it's not Brighton which is a massive plus, although Brighton is only a bus ride/cycle ride away. Links to London are bearable, I work from home so I can live with that. You got the south downs for walking and its' by the sea. We are seriously considering it.

I instantly associate Worthing with retirement homes and the bifurcating main road.

That said, I'm a big fan of the South Downs and would move there instantly if the Mrs could countenance living anywhere but London (which she can't).

There is one long road with just bungalows along it, if we moved onto that road we would be the youngest by at least 35 years, that said lots of young families and professionals who can't afford Brighton have moved to Worthing bring some of that Brighton cool with them.

Brighton cool

🤔

Does any body here live in Shenfield or Romford?

I hear nothing but bad things, however the house prices in these areas are palatable compared neighbouring postcodes + added benefit of Crossrail

Would this even qualify as moving out of London?

Is @NurseHolliday an Ilford or Romford boy? I forget... Probably neither...

I'm from Romford.

It's in Havering, which was 11th or 12th highest Leave vote %.
I don't have enough time to write about Romford right now so I'll come back write a longer post, but the short version:

If you've never lived in a big town or city, Romford probably seems appealing, there's loads of shopping, food, bars, and even clubs(!), but they're all fucking terrible. If you've lived in London, everything will just seem a bit, shit.

The people are cunts and I hate the place.

Commute's alright, you can get a night bus home if you miss the last train, I'm not a property speculator, but I think you've missed the biggest jumps in prices if you're looking to see a return on your capital, but everything should probably get another big bump up when Crossrail is officially opened.

I'll leave the in depth summary of open racism for later.

But you can always pretend you're living the life of Karl Hyde I suppose.
So.
Swings/roundabouts.

Currently in Harston.
We're going to visit a few potential areas whilst on various local short breaks, so should get a better idea of what to expect. We haven't completely ruled out moving into Cambridge itself, but it is powerfully expensive; we'd absolutely have to compromise on both indoor and outdoor space to live in a decent part of town.

The people are cunts

everything should probably get another big bump up when Crossrail is officially opened.

open racism

My preconception of Romford was pretty accurate then

I look forward to hearing more

My mother and father in law are in Romford. Very very quick train to Stratford (8/9 mins I think non stop) - cheap to commute from. Central commutable on a bike. Some beautiful Victorian and Edwardian houses. Everything else said above is right. (Although some interesting little bars are open until up - a craft beer place has opened up on main road recently)

Easier accessibility to craft beer is an absolute indication of improvement so this is encouraging

City tree

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It's called the Gidea Park micro pub. I was in there today. It's alright. They do decent pork pies too.

Also Romford has a couple of very nice parks .

Isn't that because absolutely everyone in Romford goes dogging?

I'm not sure of that. I did bring the whippet in law with me to the pub and he was well received

Moving to Cardiff to start new job in couple of months. This is after a year of commuting to london from Aldershot way and previously six years living in peckham. Can't hack the >1.5 hour commute to london and wanna live near to work so I'm not a zombie all the time. Plus london is unaffordable for me and my partner now. What's it like cycling in the Cardiff?

I'm finally leaving London, going back to Leamington Spa (fancy). What's good up there these days? Been a while

Good enough to produce a tour winner ;)

He didn't stop pedalling till he left?

No! Til he luft!

No idea what the cycl8ng is like but the city is awesome

Generally fine I think, although I've not done a lot over here yet. Drivers can be a bit unaware/entitled as cycling is not as big a thing as say, Bristol, but you should be fine after London traffic. You'll see a few people cycling on the pavement so I wonder if some drivers think that's the way it should be.

We're getting the first of some good segregated paths built at the moment near the uni, which will hopefully be expanded to a small network if things get approved. The Taff trail and blackweir fields/ Bute park are lovely to travel through.

What area are you moving to?

If you're after club riding Ajax go from Maindy centre regularly (outdoor track the too) and there's a gravel ride from Llanishen on Tuesday evening, hoping to join that soon.

What's it like cycling in the Cardiff?

Don't know what the CC is like for commuting but plenty of hill climbing in the Brecon Beacons / Black Mountains.

And you have Tiny Rebel nearby for beer...

thanks for all the advice. I thought it would be different to london in that there probably isn't the same volume of cyclists on the roads.
@Silly_Savage - We are moving to Canton area and I'm gonna be working by queen st station and hopefully cycling in. So I'm assuming Cowbridge road? We also looked at a house right opposite that bike track in Maindy! I'm gonna be getting back about 3.5 hours per day from not commuting on the train to london so maybe a club could be good to try out!
@Mr_Sworld - I am very much looking forward to Tiny Rebel beers!