Advice/thoughts needed!

Heather_Honey

Hi all,

So I have been offered a job in Woking, Surrey (about 20 mins into Waterloo on the train). The job looks great, pretty much exactly what I want to do and the pay is ok at 28k stg.

The problem is that I literally know nobody in London or in England for that matter. I'm worried about not meeting people and basically being completely isolated. Do you think being in Woking will separate me from 'London life'? I know that the trains stop running to Waterloo at around 1am, I wonder will that stop me from going on nights out. Has anybody here moved to London alone not knowing anybody?

I am 24 so basically just want to go to gigs, meet people, have fun and do my job. Wonder though will bring just outside London stop me from doing that though... Thanks guys

BrokenArrows

Heather_Honey wrote: »

Hi all,

So I have been offered a job in Woking, Surrey (about 20 mins into Waterloo on the train). The job looks great, pretty much exactly what I want to do and the pay is ok at 28k stg.

The problem is that I literally know nobody in London or in England for that matter. I'm worried about not meeting people and basically being completely isolated. Do you think being in Woking will separate me from 'London life'? I know that the trains stop running to Waterloo at around 1am, I wonder will that stop me from going on nights out. Has anybody here moved to London alone not knowing anybody?

I am 24 so basically just want to go to gigs, meet people, have fun and do my job. Wonder though will bring just outside London stop me from doing that though... Thanks guys

Unless you are a party animal and want to stay out till 7am till the next trains start then you will find it hard to enjoy the London night life.

I used to live in Windsor and the choice was to either go home early or to stay out till 7am.

Heather_Honey

Well the trains to Woking start at 5am...

Vokes

Would you consider living inside the M25 on that Woking-Waterloo line? Surbiton or Wimbledon maybe?

Heather_Honey

Maybe, I imagine that would mean higher rent though and the added cost of the commute... Not sure how far 28k will realistically go..

Vokes

Yes, definitely higher rent. And would be about £180-200 for a monthly train ticket from southwest London area to Woking.

Heather_Honey

Would surbiton likely to be served by night buses etc? 253 a month for the ticket...

djpbarry

Heather_Honey wrote: »

Would surbiton likely to be served by night buses etc? 253 a month for the ticket...

Surbiton is pretty far out from the centre of London. I don't know if there are night buses to Surbiton, but there are to nearby Kingston, but they take ages.

If it were up to me, I'd live relatively centrally and commute out to Woking. Sure, the rent will be higher, but you'll have a more active social life and you'll get more out of your time in London. That's just my opinion though - others will say you'd be mad to be wasting money on higher rent and the cost of a commute. Ultimately, it's up to you.

jonnyfingers

I've just moved from Woking actually so can probably offer some useful advice.

Do you think being in Woking will separate me from 'London life'?

The short answer is yes. The long answer depends on what you consider "London Life" to be.

I really enjoyed living in Woking. We moved there because I was working in Southampton and my other half was working in London so it was a good "half way point". Woking itself is a typical commuter town. The town centre is full of the usual chain stores, it has a great shopping centre with a good cinea, a few nice restaurants and a few nice pubs. There's a lovely park with a leisure centre, and if you want something a bit nicer Guildford is just down the road.

However because it's a commuter town the rent is close enough to London Rents. We had a two bed flat for £975 pcm, but if we were to move into that today we'd expect to pay around £1200 pcm. Also as there are a lot of commuters the train, while very fast to Waterloo, is absolutely packed at peak times. Tickets are expensive too with a daily return at £19.40.

Also because of the commuting culture I found the nightlife wasn't great. People tend to get up, go to London for work, get home around 7, eat some dinner and go to bed. There isn't much going in the evenings midweek, and at the weekends the usual 17 year old chavs come out to play. The only pub I saw with gigs was the O'Neills in the town centre.

I know that the trains stop running to Waterloo at around 1am, I wonder will that stop me from going on nights out.

Getting the last train home does tend to end your night a little early. We usually aimed for the second from last train which was around 12:30am, because the last train may be cancelled and you're absolutely stuffed then. But I find that friends of ours tend to leave at the same time anyway, even those living pretty centrally in London.


To sum up if you're working in Woking I'd recommend living in Woking, rather than living in London and commuting out. On your salary the train tickets would really be a lot, and besides Woking is a nice place to live. I can't vouch for meeting people and going to gigs because my fiancee and I didn't do too much of that. We had friends that we already knew before moving and didn't have a huge amount of time to meet new people after our commutes home. You might be different, and there are certainly plenty of groups and clubs, sports or social, that you can join if that's your thing.

But bear in mind that you won't be living in London. Yes you can travel in anytime you like on a great train line, but it will be expensive and will still take the best part of an hour to get there by the time you walk to the station, get the train and get a tube or bus to wherever you're going in London. You'll have to leave wherever you are around midnight to catch a train back. If the trains are ever not running it's around £100 for a taxi back. But you can definitely travel in after work, spend an evening in London and travel back without too many problems.

Also if you drive Woking is very well positioned for all the main motorways. You can drive to the south coast in about an hour. You can travel either direction around the M25 easily. The M3 and A3 can bring you into London, if needed. And the M4 is handy for catching the ferry home!

Anyway, that's probably a lot of info for you to take in. If you want to PM me with any specific questions then let me know.

biZrb

I work in Surrey, further out than Woking and I live in London and make the commute out. I love living in London, there's so much to do and its great being close to it all. I couldn't live near where I work, I'd be so bored and it would make doing things on the spur of the moment impossible as I'd have to factor in my commute to London and it would require a bit more planning.

I'd recommend living in London and commuting out to Woking. Certain trains will only take 20 mins to get to Woking from Clapham Junction. To make the commute easier you could live somewhere like Clapham, Battersea, Brixton, Wandsworth Town or even Putney.

However it will probably be the more expensive option as rents would be slightly more and train fair is expensive, but you'd manage on your salary.

Heather_Honey

Thanks so much for the detailed responses!

So hard to decide what the best thing to do is. I'd love to live near Clapham junction and make the commute out. Unbelievably expensive though, £700 for a for a room and over £300 for the train ticket compared with £600 rent in Woking... On a salary that will be about £1800 a month, I'm not sure that is even feasible?

I'm thinking that it could be worth looking at surbiton, less rent and slightly cheaper train... But I would need to make sure that there is a night bus etc. otherwise I might as well be living in Woking because I couldn't stay in the city centre late..

breadmonkey

I would not recommend living in Woking or Guildford - you want to be in London for the weekends imo.

I commuted from Battersea to Guildford for about two years on a similar salary. Money will be very tight if you go this option. Ultimately it completely did my head in and I've been much happier since I moved to a new job in central London.

Overall the experience taught me that if you want to enjoy life in London, you need to be working in London. Otherwise too much time and money is spent on commuting and it gradually sucks the life out of you

Sorry for the grim outlook!

jonnyfingers

breadmonkey wrote: »

I would not recommend living in Woking or Guildford - you want to be in London for the weekends imo.

I commuted from Battersea to Guildford for about two years on a similar salary. Money will be very tight if you go this option. Ultimately it completely did my head in and I've been much happier since I moved to a new job in central London.

Overall the experience taught me that if you want to enjoy life in London, you need to be working in London. Otherwise too much time and money is spent on commuting and it gradually sucks the life out of you

Sorry for the grim outlook!

I'd agree with this.

My opinion is if you really want to take the job then live in Woking and accept that you won't be in London that much.

Alternatively if you want to live in London then don't take this job and look for one in London instead.

It might be a tough choice but trying to have both will only stress you out.