Hello everyone,

I'm moving down Woking way and was wondering if there are any other Quins/RL fans in this expensive commuter town? Also, what do people think of it? So far I've had a mix of 'oooo, Surrey, very posh' and 'hmmm, Chav town'. Also seems to be at least a 2 hour train ride to Tickenham on a Sunday, yet apparently quite quick in the car, any one drive down that way?

Les

Les

I live in West Byfleet one stop towards Waterloo from Woking. Woking is OK but a bit Wild West on weekend nights - every pub with bouncers etc. When my 18 year old duaghter goes there of an evening - I say "off to Baghdad", but then I guess that is fairly typical sadly of many British towns these days. The good news is there is lots of nice countryside very near and the Aldershot Military stadium is quite near for Quins U.15's, 16's and 18's games (at least thtats where they were this year).

Regards getting to the Stoop about 1/2 an hour in the car but for reasons involving alcohol I mostly go by train. You can get to Clapham Junction in under 1/2 an hour from Woking (it has very good train connections) and then the fast to Twickers is about 15 mins so nowhere near the 2 hours.

Welcome to Surrey!!!

Lived there for too many years, then out Chertsey way, what PP says is pretty much spot on, but the good news is that it is dead easy to get out of the town centre into some really nice areas very quickly.

Don't know the area too well but its an easy drive to and from the Stoop - often take a diversion there on match days to meet or drop off 'Bournemouth Boy' at the station if he's only coming for the match and not home for the weekend. Takes about 5 mins to get out of the town and on to the A road for the M25, whizz round to the next junction for the M3 and then on to The Stoop. Agree that some of the countryside around there looks nice, MacLaren have their base nearby (may be of interest to any petrolheads) and The Jam came from Woking so it can't be all bad eh?

The Mclaren headquarters are amazing and being added to with their new road car production area. Woking was also where HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds, with the book starting with the Martians landing at the sandpits, which is the wooded area just off the A320 Six crossroads roundabout in Woking that you go round to get to the M25. He lived two doors down from me Ma when he wrote it.

Being the same age as Mr Weller I can well remember the Jam playing Deep Purple covers in the Woking Working Mens club pre their fame days

I'd echo the other comments - Woking is an odd town - great rail connections (20 minutes to Clapham so nowhere near the 2 hours you were quoted!), lovely countryside around and the town has pretty good facilities but it just always feels dead!

I lived in Chobham for a couple of years and the countryside and commonland around there is lovely.

The train connection is great though - last train out of Waterloo at 1am!

Good luck with the move.

A quick tip for when they are ripping up the railways. If you can get to Surbiton there's a bus stop one minute walk from the station that will take you to Twickenham. (281 from memory, bus stop is by Waitrose.) I quite often come in that way. It is be a bit slower than doing it by fast trains, a bit quicker than doing it by slow trains but quite a nice way to do it.

I'd echo what has been said about Woking, it's a reasonable enough place with excellent transport connections. (Buses to Heathrow from the station for when you are off on holiday too.) However, if you fancy a quiet pint on a Friday or Saturday night chatting to friends then Woking town centre ain't the place for you. It's bouncer central, not much trouble but not really somewhere for a quiet pint with friends.

Cheers for the advice guys, I've had another look at the trains and time wise they don't seem to be too bad, but for some reason their really expensive (I got a return from Clapham to Woking the other day and it cost me £12?! With a railcard!).

I did get the impression that the town centre is a bit dodgy in terms of nightlife. If anyone knows of any nice, reale-ale selling pubs, let me know (also, anywhere I can persuade landlords to put the Rugby on?).

I'm aware of Woking literary and cultural heritage, since I'm going to be an English teacher, the HG Wells stuff might make a good school trip idea (also heard they have quite a good theatre there).

I have also heard that Guildford is really nice and I'll probably end up spending my weekends there

To be fair to the place it does have a fair amount of culture these days and a great theatre which has off London runs as well, Guildford again is a lovely place especially down by the river on a summers day, again a great theatre there.

Woking also [iirc had the first Mosque in the UK although I think it was called a college for oriental studies which is still in place on Oriental road and can be visited, it also off Monument road had a cemetery in the woods for the Indian soldiers killed in WWII but if got vandelised badly in the 70's and the graves were moved out to Brookwood cemetary just outside Woking, which in itself is well worth a visit, both sides of Cemetery pails road, private one side with fantastic history, and all other faiths/Military on the other side.

Waterloo station used to have a platform 1, which was dedicated to trains running out to Brookwood cemetary, loads of history there.

Oh and don't mention the house in the woods and the murder



Which school you going to?

If there is no football on a Friday night I get the RL put on in Corkers wine bar in West Byfleet (right by the station). Come and join me some time. Also free comedy nights once a month - next month 3rd August.

Cheers, I'm going to be teaching at Woking 6th Form College. It's located on a dodgy council estate but is apparently a decent small college.

Have visited the Shah Jahan Mosque as the wife is a Muslim, very beautiful building (and actually quite small inside).

Cheers, might join you, only other RL person if encountered so far was a Cumbrian friend of Sean Lunt's working in one of the estate agents (very random). Dumping all our stuff in a storage unit in West Byfleet next week so I'll get an idea of how far away it is.