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Where to live - working near Heathrow.


VERYSTORMY

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I might have secured a job. Good job and decent pay. But, it is based near Heathrow and the company office is in Windsor.

 

However, we don't want to pay huge rents, but I am happy to commute up to an hour - it would be by car.

 

So, can anyone offer any advice on where might be good? We would prefer more rural that city.

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Lived (kinda) in the area for 20 years. There are nice villages around Reading (and then you have to transport infrastructure that goes with it).

 

Pangbourne, Henley to the west/north .. Finchampstead, Hartley Whitney to the south.

Thatcham is nice, some areas of Newbury are too (Ball Hill) and the A34 is easy to use to get to the M4.

Some areas of Wokingham are nice (and some not so) and Ascot.

 

I also lived in Fleet for a while, just off the M3. There are some nice areas in the suburbs too - Church Crookham, Hook.

 

Avoid Bracknell, Basingstoke, inner-Reading, Aldershot, Slough.

Edited by Bibbs
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My son is quite happy with Farnborough and I am quite partial to Farnham but the DS was also quite happy with South Ruislip - he moved to Farnborough though having tried commuting from South Ruislip for a month - although only 30 miles or so it could take 3-4 hours on a bad day. So I would suggest anything that doesn't go anywhere near the M25!

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I might have secured a job. Good job and decent pay. But, it is based near Heathrow and the company office is in Windsor.

 

However, we don't want to pay huge rents, but I am happy to commute up to an hour - it would be by car.

 

So, can anyone offer any advice on where might be good? We would prefer more rural that city.

Wouldn't want to suggest anywhere but you might like to draw a circle of 15 miles from where you are going to be located at most of the time and choose a location and then use google maps to see how long to do journey at rush hour as it takes account of speed of traffic, that will then give an idea as to practicality of your location and then do a trawl on Zoopla for rental prices.

I suggest 15 miles because that is max you might do in 1hr, lots of people leave at 6:00 to miss traffic and do longer distances

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Oh, just to add, "an hour" doesn't really get your far.

 

I used to Commute from Reading to Hungerford and back, was at least 30mins each way. More like an hour if you got the time wrong.

I've also commuted across Reading, and that used to be 25mins.

And I've done Fleet to Reading and back, and that was 45mins.

 

These were all a while ago now, and friends in the area say it's got a lot worse of late.

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Oh, just to add, "an hour" doesn't really get your far.

 

I used to Commute from Reading to Hungerford and back, was at least 30mins each way. More like an hour if you got the time wrong.

I've also commuted across Reading, and that used to be 25mins.

And I've done Fleet to Reading and back, and that was 45mins.

 

These were all a while ago now, and friends in the area say it's got a lot worse of late.

 

Yes it was a while ago that I was doing that trip too, once I hit the M4 at Hungerford then it was an hour for me, but then I was not generally doing the trip in rush hours, but then again on our regular trips to UK heathrow / Hungerford still seems to be not far off the hour mark.

Still plenty of nice places in-between if looking for a rural place.

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I think like here the start point is what you want to pay for housing. Tons of small towns and villages within an hour's journey

 

Route is important to work out commute time. The motorways and all approaches get very busy. E.g. my outlaws line in Marlow and I've had occasion to drive to Windsor a couple of times in the mornings. Takes the best part of an hour going down to the M4 and off again at Slough, takes <45 minutes going the back way through Maidenhead and Bray

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We lived in Staines from 2001 to 2012 and worked in Windsor, Slough and a few other places. We rented in Windsor originally but moved after 6 months. Prices for rent and to buy are half that of Windsor and Staines is a really nice area with the river and the town shopping centre and cinema. There area few good schools too. Staines is a maximum of half an hour from Windsor even in rush hour on the M25/M4 and there are a few short cuts either on the A308 or via Warysbury. Heathrow is also only 10 to 15 mins away via the back roads (A30). Wraysbury and Datchet and also Ashford (Surrey not Kent) are also areas to consider, as well as Old Windsor, Englefield Green, Egham. Good Luck!

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