Working in Slough, where to live
Discussion
AC43 said:
Croutons said:
Anyone in Marlow itself? Is it just a 1* pub or is there more to it?
I live in London so can't comment on what it's like to live in some of the places on the thread but the company I work for has an office in Marlow and I'm there 2-3 times a month. It's very pretty and has good schools but also very small. When there's leaving drinks they always seem to go to the same bar. It's also hard to get in an out of on a train as it's on a branch line. So pretty & good schools but small and a bit cut off. To put that last point into perspective people from Marlow face a very lengthy commute to our city office which involves schlepping to either Wycombe or Maidenhead, taking a train into Paddington and then crossing London on the tube. If you ever found yourself working in London that would be a right PITA.Beaconsfield is a lot bigger and has the feel of a market town. Good rail links and also on the tube. Even better for schools but incredibly expensive when I looked about three years ago. I presume a lot of Londoners cash in and move there when they have kids. Then they stay put. I could have seen myself living there and there was enough to keep teenagers happy (plus London is easy to get to) but the price differential wasn't big enough. Probably even more eye watering now. Also, because people don't move, when we wouldn't have been able to get our kids into the local primary - we'd have had to send them to one in Slough to start. I'm used to lots of churn in London but people in Beaconsfield seem to put their roots down and plan long term for the grammar schools.
Edited by AC43 on Monday 21st March 22:04
I'd probably choose Marlow over Beaconsfield simply because I like walking along the river but then I'm planning on being retired in a year or two so trains and commuting to London is something I shall say good riddance to! Two of my children went to Borlase’s in Marlow and it was a very good school.
RichB said:
Let me have a go at that :-)
Marlow - at the top, prefer it to Henley, less Hooray Henrys
Henley – if you don’t mind the Henrys!
Windsor – Nice town, ok to visit and for shopping but too touristy as a place to live
Beaconsfield – Also a nice place but not on the river
Twyford – ok
Maidenhead – town’s rubbish but on the river and good trains to London
Ascot – slower trains and not on the river
The rest all sleepy ok places
Virginia Water but there’s not much there
Egham - ditto
Englefield Green - Ditto
Shiplake – middle of nowhere!
Staines – why?
ThisMarlow - at the top, prefer it to Henley, less Hooray Henrys
Henley – if you don’t mind the Henrys!
Windsor – Nice town, ok to visit and for shopping but too touristy as a place to live
Beaconsfield – Also a nice place but not on the river
Twyford – ok
Maidenhead – town’s rubbish but on the river and good trains to London
Ascot – slower trains and not on the river
The rest all sleepy ok places
Virginia Water but there’s not much there
Egham - ditto
Englefield Green - Ditto
Shiplake – middle of nowhere!
Staines – why?
Noticed you mentioned schools: would you be looking at private or state?
Private, you're best in Surrey/Berkshire borders (St. Mary's Ascot, Wellington, Eton)
State, Bucks is better if the kids are smart (the Challoners, Aylesbury Grammar), but the comprehensives are much less impressive
Private, you're best in Surrey/Berkshire borders (St. Mary's Ascot, Wellington, Eton)
State, Bucks is better if the kids are smart (the Challoners, Aylesbury Grammar), but the comprehensives are much less impressive
Thanks for all the info everyone, really appreciate it.
Hornetrider, your old thread got some hilarious responses, and in common with this one it's pretty clear Slough itself is not far up many peoples lists!
Schools - the kids are 6 & 2 and are in range of the Grammars in Cheltenham, subject to application of course which guarantees nothing. Happy with state then grammar (it is a big draw of Marlow tbh, Sir William Borlase's. Although with any area I'd want a good fallback or two, if possible). 2 at private school would be a push, certainly in Cheltenham there are a range from "difficult" to pay for to "feckin' impossible" but that's going to be the same anywhere I guess.
Traffic certainly looks an issue anywhere,
Should not need too much direct London travel, so prepared to compromise on that (which I'm assuming will mean more brick for my buck elsewhere), although if it happens then if I really want back in (8 years in EC1 was fun, but I'm too old for that now!)
Hornetrider, your old thread got some hilarious responses, and in common with this one it's pretty clear Slough itself is not far up many peoples lists!
Schools - the kids are 6 & 2 and are in range of the Grammars in Cheltenham, subject to application of course which guarantees nothing. Happy with state then grammar (it is a big draw of Marlow tbh, Sir William Borlase's. Although with any area I'd want a good fallback or two, if possible). 2 at private school would be a push, certainly in Cheltenham there are a range from "difficult" to pay for to "feckin' impossible" but that's going to be the same anywhere I guess.
Traffic certainly looks an issue anywhere,
Should not need too much direct London travel, so prepared to compromise on that (which I'm assuming will mean more brick for my buck elsewhere), although if it happens then if I really want back in (8 years in EC1 was fun, but I'm too old for that now!)
Another Beaconsfield resident here.
Hard to pick between Beaconsfield and Marlow, we looked in both, and would have been happy in either. Less of a range we felt in Marlow, and every house we saw seemed to have an east facing garden!
You will find plenty in budget in both areas, just won't be a 5 bed mansion.
Hard to pick between Beaconsfield and Marlow, we looked in both, and would have been happy in either. Less of a range we felt in Marlow, and every house we saw seemed to have an east facing garden!
You will find plenty in budget in both areas, just won't be a 5 bed mansion.
DeltaTango said:
You won't get anything in actual Beaconsfield for £900k,
That's not quite true. Friend of mine just sold a nice 4 bed detached for £895K in actual Beaconsfield (although it was on a main road).You certainly won't get a fabulous house for £900K but you will be able to get something acceptable.
B'field would be my choice if working in Slough, nice old town, vibrant new town, and a much better vibe than Gerrards Crawss. GX town centre is nothing special.
It's really not difficult to find an acceptable place to live in the areas surrounding Slough. I live in one myself. It's a generally nice area to live.
For the combination of proximity to Slough and schooling possibilities, I would say Beaconsfield and the surrounding villages are the best places to start looking.
For the combination of proximity to Slough and schooling possibilities, I would say Beaconsfield and the surrounding villages are the best places to start looking.
swisstoni said:
It's really not difficult to find an acceptable place to live in the areas surrounding Slough. I live in one myself. It's a generally nice area to live.
For the combination of proximity to Slough and schooling possibilities, I would say Beaconsfield and the surrounding villages are the best places to start looking.
...and Paddy Hopkirk lives across the valley from Holtspur...For the combination of proximity to Slough and schooling possibilities, I would say Beaconsfield and the surrounding villages are the best places to start looking.
Steve18 said:
RichB said:
Let me have a go at that :-)
Marlow - at the top, prefer it to Henley, less Hooray Henrys
Henley – if you don’t mind the Henrys!
Windsor – Nice town, ok to visit and for shopping but too touristy as a place to live
Beaconsfield – Also a nice place but not on the river
Twyford – ok
Maidenhead – town’s rubbish but on the river and good trains to London
Ascot – slower trains and not on the river
The rest all sleepy ok places
Virginia Water but there’s not much there
Egham - ditto
Englefield Green - Ditto
Shiplake – middle of nowhere!
Staines – why?
ThisMarlow - at the top, prefer it to Henley, less Hooray Henrys
Henley – if you don’t mind the Henrys!
Windsor – Nice town, ok to visit and for shopping but too touristy as a place to live
Beaconsfield – Also a nice place but not on the river
Twyford – ok
Maidenhead – town’s rubbish but on the river and good trains to London
Ascot – slower trains and not on the river
The rest all sleepy ok places
Virginia Water but there’s not much there
Egham - ditto
Englefield Green - Ditto
Shiplake – middle of nowhere!
Staines – why?
Have to add I am a Maidonian born and bred!!...and now live on the out skirts of the town.
IceBoy
RichB said:
IceBoy said:
Pretty accurate, I would put Maidenhead higher...
You're probably right - put it above Twyford but the Town Centre is pretty chavvy! I still love it! LOL
Iceboy
PS. I go shopping in Reading!!
Croutons said:
Schools - the kids are 6 & 2 and are in range of the Grammars in Cheltenham, subject to application of course which guarantees nothing. Happy with state then grammar (it is a big draw of Marlow tbh, Sir William Borlase's. Although with any area I'd want a good fallback or two, if possible). 2 at private school would be a push, certainly in Cheltenham there are a range from "difficult" to pay for to "feckin' impossible" but that's going to be the same anywhere I guess.
I used to live in Beaconsfield and am just down the road in Farnham Common now.When living in Beaconsfield as a kid I obviously had friends at different schools. People living in Beaconsfield generally either attended one of the 3 private schools or 2 state schools that are in B`field for boys or girls. There is also the state secondary (The Beaconsfield School) one of the surrounding private schools in other small towns (Thorpe House etc), and then generally on to either Royal Grammar School in High Wycombe, John Hampden Grammar School (High Wycombe), Dr Challenors Grammar School (Amersham) Dr Challenors Girls (Little Chalfont) or Beaconsfield High School for girls.
In short its a hard area to beat, having some of the best schools in the country in the catchment area. Its also a lovely affluent place to live although the last few houses I have built in B`field have been £2.75m - £4.75m although they were all behemoths.
Marlow is a lovely summer town but is also a nightmare in the summer when anyone and everyone goes there for a day out and it ends up as gridlock for a few months of the year.
Edited by rb5er on Wednesday 23 March 12:22
We moved to Marlow in 2003 when I was 13. It's not bad. Full of wealthy people, but with no class, or fake class...
There's some good pubs, the Marlow Donkey is ace, as is the Two Brewers. All the other pubs were nice, but then got refurbished into bistro type things and I stopped going to them.
You have a big sainsburys, a large-ish waitrose and lots of little clothes shops.
If you move near the river, watch out for flooding.
Lots of ace walks/picnic fields etc around though.
Oh, and commuting to Slough every day, sod that! I live in Thame now and still work in Marlow, and every day the A404 is backed up sometimes to Handy Cross to get towards maidenhead/M4. So you either need to go cross country, so Bourne End, Cookham, into Mhead via Boulters Lock, then I imagine the A4 out to Slough will be hell on tarmac.
Leave before 7am, and it'll be lovely!
There's some good pubs, the Marlow Donkey is ace, as is the Two Brewers. All the other pubs were nice, but then got refurbished into bistro type things and I stopped going to them.
You have a big sainsburys, a large-ish waitrose and lots of little clothes shops.
If you move near the river, watch out for flooding.
Lots of ace walks/picnic fields etc around though.
Oh, and commuting to Slough every day, sod that! I live in Thame now and still work in Marlow, and every day the A404 is backed up sometimes to Handy Cross to get towards maidenhead/M4. So you either need to go cross country, so Bourne End, Cookham, into Mhead via Boulters Lock, then I imagine the A4 out to Slough will be hell on tarmac.
Leave before 7am, and it'll be lovely!
IceBoy said:
Pretty accurate, I would put Maidenhead higher, simply because of the 19 min trains to Paddington (Faster than those closer to London!!!) and Cross Rail around the corner.
Have to add I am a Maidonian born and bred!!...and now live on the out skirts of the town.
IceBoy
Ha, long term resident here. I agree, the town center really does let the place down. Have to add I am a Maidonian born and bred!!...and now live on the out skirts of the town.
IceBoy
It defines the term dormitory town, it seems to me people simply live here to go to sleep, and put their kids through a reasonable schooling system, and all the stuff like working, shopping, socialising and entertainment is carried out elsewhere in the much better-looking Marlow, Henley, Windsor, Cookham, Reading and ultimately London.
I hate to admit it, but I'd say I like living in Maidenhead as it's so convenient to get to other places!
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff