Househunting – this entry made more for personal reference than the enjoyment of others, though if you have any suggestions for sensible places to live they would be appreciated.
First stop, Feltham. But that wasn’t a long stop, its a soulless concrete place, or at least the bit of it I found was. It probably hasn’t really recovered from being the terminus of the M3, Sunbury suffers much the same fate, albeit in a bigger more drab sort of way. Not home.
Walton on Thames got a little more attention. This feels more like a real town, with a proper high street, I found a number of estate agents here, the first showed me a flat near the station – this was very much like my place in Finchley, ground floor and closer to the main road, but not in a particularly bad way. The second had an older character property, which sounded either like it could be really good or really bad. In actuality it was beautiful, in many ways quite a lot like my place in Oxford on the inside, but without the outside to go with it, wedged between a golf course and a garden centre. Unfortunately about two miles from the station, making it quite inconvenient. Could be home….
A little investigation into the trains from Walton suggests that actually it isn’t quite as handy as I had hoped, requiring a change at Surbiton to get to Wimbledon to change onto the district line. …if it weren’t so difficult.
Hersham was mentioned by a couple of the agents, but he looked at me funny when I mentioned Sham 69, so I assume thats not quite the image they’re trying to project for the area.
Surbiton next, and things are getting rather more urban, pretty much the junction of badness between the city and the countryside, all the worst features of both without any of the advantages, except for having stunningly good rail links with the centre of town. Not home.
By some confusion over the A3/A240 junction I ended up in New Malden next. Suffers the same problems as Surbiton, only more so. Not home, but some nice cafes.
South, then, to Epsom, via Stoneleigh. By this time it was getting too late for anything to be open, so I was relying upon taking note of agents web addresses where I could find them, and gauging the feel of the areas. Stoneleigh has a similar feel to Ruislip, probably having been built at a similar time, and contains a place called Nonsuch Park which has got to be a bonus. Nice feel, if a little clinically nice in sort of the wrong way. Could be home.
A minor detour to the wrong station in Ewell, where I found some of the rudest drivers I’ve met for a long time – yes, its *very important* you push in front of me so you can sit in the traffic light queue. Not home, unless I’m prepared to buy a 4×4 and take on a deep hatred of anything like politeness.
I missed the right station in Ewell, because it was getting late and I was getting hungry, but having checked some of the lists I picked up at the agents earlier in the day maybe that was a mistake….perhaps I go back some other time.
Epsom was just a wiggle in the road, avoided for no reason other than I’d decided I was going home. A bit ‘nice’, in all the wrong ways.
Leatherhead was the final stop, where the drivers weren’t much better, I’m sure thats a *pedestrian* zone. But the place was full of estate agents, all trying to shift rotten properties for stupid prices, 600k for that? But most of them had a few flats for rent in the corner where us paupers can huddle out of sight of their real customers. Might be home, but I doubt it.
And with that it was time to grab a random selection of snack food before heading home.
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