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The great suburban/commuter towns of SE England

Living in Weybridge I guess I live slap bang in commuter/banking belt - it's depressing it really is

Weybridge itself is a pleasant place to live but too expensive for most commuters.

Surbiton is pretty much London now 0208 codes and london transport zones and buses. Yes it may be in the Royal Borough of Kingston but I just see it as a London Borough Wannabee- complete with kids that say 'innit' a lot and speak estuary English. :rolleyes:

I can't really comment on M4 corridor as I don't live there but would hate to be on that motorway between 8 and 9 in the morning.
 
zenie said:
Surbiton is pretty much London now 0208 codes and london transport zones and buses. Yes it may be in the Royal Borough of Kingston but I just see it as a London Borough Wannabee- complete with kids that say 'innit' a lot and speak estuary English. :rolleyes:
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yeah innit.
 
In defence of St Albans - its quite mixed and not all posh (but bloody expensive to buy) - 20 mins on Thameslink - but a proper city not a commuter town.

For the ultimate work on suburbia and social London read Alan A Jacksons splendid book "Semi Detached London" ......
 
i went to leatherhead once, thought it looked a real miserable town....but dorking, on the other hand seemed a real pleasant place.... :)

they're commutable aren't they?

m4 corridor, marlborough is very nice, so is calne, hungerford i didn't much care for
 
marty21 said:
i went to leatherhead once, thought it looked a real miserable town....but dorking, on the other hand seemed a real pleasant place.... :)

they're commutable aren't they?

m4 corridor, marlborough is very nice, so is calne, hungerford i didn't much care for
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I think Dorking fairly crap transport links to the big smoke what with it being out in the sticks. Leatherheads a bit bigger and better connected. I think :confused:
 
zenie said:
Living in Weybridge I guess I live slap bang in commuter/banking belt - it's depressing it really is

Weybridge itself is a pleasant place to live but too expensive for most commuters.
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I didn't know you lived in Weybridge, we're practically neighbours!

I live in Ashford.
 
marty21 said:
i went to leatherhead once, thought it looked a real miserable town....but dorking, on the other hand seemed a real pleasant place.... :)

they're commutable aren't they?

m4 corridor, marlborough is very nice, so is calne, hungerford i didn't much care for
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I'm still looking for some Slough feedback.

:(
 
Hollis said:
I'm still looking for some Slough feedback.

:(
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watch the office :)

i drove through slough once....found it rather dull tbh

it hasn't got the excitement i feel in my bones when i drive through wood green :cool:
 
marty21 said:
i went to leatherhead once, thought it looked a real miserable town....but dorking, on the other hand seemed a real pleasant place.... :)

they're commutable aren't they?
Click to expand...
Well, in my mate's case he lives in one and works in the other! But Dorking's about fifty minutes out of Waterloo, yeah.
 
My nearest one is Croydon and it is an utter hell hole to be avoided at all costs at a weekend evening time. As grim and rough a place as I have ever witnessed, but you can be in central London in 15 minutes from there.

Also lived in Witham up in Central / North Essex. It was a lot smaller then than it is now but I thought it was wonderful. It was small enough to retain that villagey feel without being dead and was only 40 minutes from Liverpool Street.

It's 10 minutes North of Chelmsford, which back then was also a relatively plesant place (for a big town), but I do believe that has now descended into urban chain bar hell, the same as the rest of them.
 
Truly Topcat said:
My nearest one is Croydon and it is an utter hell hole to be avoided at all costs at a weekend evening time. As grim and rough a place as I have ever witnessed, but you can be in central London in 15 minutes from there.
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New Addington is truly worse! (Can I have a fondant fancy too?)
 
Derian said:
New Addington is truly worse! (Can I have a fondant fancy too?)
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Feel free to the fondant things!

And yep agree totally - there is New Addo, Monks Hill and what was the dreaded Roundshaw.

True cess pits of humanity.
 
Donna Ferentes said:
But don't overlook the splendid brutalist architecture, not that you can of course...
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How could I forget?? There truly is nothing good about the place, I must get myself back up towards sleep Essex!

Ooh have been to Uxbridge a couple of times and it looks ok on first impressions....
 
Truly Topcat said:
Feel free to the fondant things!

And yep agree totally - there is New Addo, Monks Hill and what was the dreaded Roundshaw.

True cess pits of humanity.
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Cheers! *munch*

I am the product of struggling for survival in the depths of New Add for a few formative years.

Dorking's OK (back to thread). Not so sure about trains tho?
 
Dorkings good for antiques, err.. if thats what you look for in a town...

There was also quite a good free party scene down there but I think it might have quietened down a bit now cos some crackheads set light to a barn or something.
 
Sorry to dredge up Sutton again, but I lived there for 6 months - and it was the most horrible place I have ever lived. Everyone seemed to be perpetually furious and looking for a fight. Awful - the Spanish restaurant getting smashed up the night England went out in 96. Horrible place.
 
Reading to Redhill line
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That line puts the D into Dull - comes to something when you're on the train and Guildford is a highlight. ;)

And Redhill - do trains to London ever stop there?
 
I think so. Trains go into both Victoria and London Bridge. I'd guess the Brighton train would be the former?

I know someone who shares your opinion of Sutton, by the way. Celebrated loud and long when he got to leave.
 
Explorer said:
what about Southend, Basildon, Laindon? All the lovely Essex towns


all utterly awful
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definatly!

Southend isnt too bad, there are some nice parts a couple of ok bars. The seafront at night is just plain weird and quite scary. Friday nights have to be seen to be believed.

Basildon and Laindon(which is part of Basildon) are utterly awful and depressing. the people are all mental, always on a look out for a fight. They honestly believe that London is a hell hole and Basildon is some sort of oasis. The pubs are complete crap. in the town centre there are 4. the Beehive- which charges £2.85 a pint and is probably the best of a bad lot. Moon on The Square is a wetherspoons, full of weirdos who will not leave you alone, plus you cant smoke. Towngate is just basically crap with no atmosphere. there is a new pub which isnt bad, but it's a little too trendy for Basildonians- hence its always empty. Colors- the supposedly 'gay' pub- well, dont get me started on that!!
Basildon is a town that just needs to be knocked down! :mad:
 
davesgcr said:
In defence of St Albans - its quite mixed and not all posh (but bloody expensive to buy) - 20 mins on Thameslink - but a proper city not a commuter town.
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Precisely! A city in its' own right! And it can't be that posh if it let me live there for the first 15 years of my life.
Watford, on the other hand, is soulless, bland, identikit commuter hell. Hardly a single original, charming feature to the whole town.
Ditto Potters Bar. Yeuchh!!!
 
People call Milton Keynes - "The Keynes" - and are usually very loyal to the place.

Personally I hate it (windswept / grid pattern / "estuary England" ) - no history (unsurprisingly for a place developed in the 1960s onwards)

Having said that - its really turned out to be a London suburb by default - it provides green space / affordable housing of all sorts / and a 40 min journey to London - pretty well what the 1920s /1930s suburbs did.

My comments are those made by social commentators on the suburbs in the 30s - Orwell for example - hated the boredom etc of the suburbs.

Nothing changes.
 
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