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I'm in in Faversham. We chose it over other Kent options by spending weekends in various places and visiting other DFL friends around the place. We love it here. Real mix of wokring class trades, hippie drop-outs, arty middle class old ladies and young DFL (Down from London) families. Beautiful old houses, right on the creek and marshes for walks and nature. Plenty of good riding around on the south downs too. Loads going on most weekends, markets, festivals etc. I still think it's a real "undiscovered" gem. As in, it gets way less attention that Whitstable, Margate, Ramsgate etc. It's definitely less hip but it's got a charm all of it's own I think. We've been here three years and I still love it. It's just over an hour from St Pancras on HS1. Service is very good.
Downsides are parking can be a pain, and some bits of it (a few pubs in particular) can be quite brexity. Oh and the season ticket is expensive. My 2p is that anywhere further in along the Kent side of the estuary is rough as fuck. Further out is nice but the commute gets tedious.
I was visiting family in Sevenoaks last night. Not my scene at all. Reminds me of StAlbans. All chain restaurants and Barbour jackets. Fuck that noise
Dooks-Fatberg-
To be fair, I think my sister thought the same, both on the positives and negatives.
They did a lot of looking around and Faversham was their favourite.But other family are back in London now (I'm in Greenwich, brother in Catford, parents not too far but not too near in Downe), so with potential kid on the way then the ready made friends and family were a factor too.
They're very pleased with the choice they made, though I suspect they'd also have made Faversham work.
duncs
My sister and her partner were thinking about this.
To pick an area they just started spending most their weekends in various places. Get a feel for an area, local pubs, walking routes etc.
They settled on Faversham as she was mostly WFH with a day or two in London, they do a lot of trail running and liked the idea of being near the North Downs. Were thinking of kids fairly soon and moving from a 1 bed flat in Nunhead/Dulwich (Dog Kennel Estate) seemed prohibitively expensive.
They were never completely convinced about the idea of moving out of London and also really liked where they were.
Put an offer in on a house. It fell through. They mentioned they were oddly relieved when it didn't happen. (I don't think the 60% Leave vote and not seeing many non-white faces around felt like home - we all grew up in SE London. /csb).
Ended up buying a 2 bed house in Plumstead. Loft can be a 3rd bedroom at some point.
Haven't looked back.
So to pick an area, visit it a lot and see how it feels.
But if you like Camberwell then also consider something not so far away.