just_jenn

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I posted -- I came back in 2011/12 with an 18-month-old and my American husband. Some of you might remember he was struggling to find work, but landed a role with a firm of US lawyers in London around this time last year.

Well, it was temporary to start but it's 99.9% likely they'll make him permanent. So, we're looking to move "down south", as we're currently in Lincolnshire and he is leaving the house at 6.15am and getting home at 7.45pm (to work a 9-5 job).

I have an interview for a good role in Reading next week and I'm wondering if anyone can tell me anything about it? I'm looking for somewhere where I could easily commute to the University there, where hubby could walk to the train and where there a couple or more good schools (as DS starts in September and we will have missed the application deadline, so we figure better to be near a few rather than one outstanding.) I've heard the best areas are Caversham, Woodley and Tilehurst, but I'm not sure those would fit our requirements. We don't mind urban, as long as its safe.

Is it a nice place to live with kids? I know housing is expensive, but what about other things such as transport, nurseries, groceries etc?

Yogibear1961

Hi, I lived in Reading for many years, my children still live their. Caversham is a nice area, but expensive, Tilehurst, some parts are ok some parts lots of crime and bad housing.
My children live in Lower Earley, nice and safe and great schools, the grandkids school is one of the top three. Woodley is not a bad area as well, nice properties for rent or for sale. My granddaughter went to nursery in the town center so you can drop off by car or bus if you need too. Local transport in a Reading to the town is great. The town center was made for foot traffic only so you have to use the car parks which when I was their last quite lot per hour. But their are small car parks on the outskirts that you can park for a few quid for all day and then walk, takes about five minutes.
We are moving back sometime soon and we will be moving to the lower Earley or Wokingham area to be near family.
Tadley, Pangbourne, also nice rural areas, and Three Mile Cross and Arborfeild two more rural areas still have bus routes. Great schools.

Lower Earley is a ten minute bus ride from the uni which is in a place called Shinfield, some nice houses around that area not bradley priced either, but the uni traffic is really noisy and can get backed up. Stay away from Whitley really bad crime area, but housing is cheap.
Also in lower Earley you have Asda, Waitroise, Icelands which you can walk to if you have no car. In town you have Tesco and Waitroise. On the Basingstoke Road you have Safeways which I think is now Morrisons.

Not far from B&Q, Curies, Carphone warehouse and Majeski stadium if you like sport
And of course Reading is only 40 miles from London so a train ride is about 25-35 mins

SanDiegogirl

Lived in Berkshire for several years; not been there for 10 years or more, but when I lived there Reading was, while the biggest town in the area, certainly not the nicest.

Several mid 70's concrete office blocks and multi storey car parks gave it a very harsh appearance, and while the central shopping area provided good stores, the area was renowned for being ankle deep in trash during weekends. Like most centers of towns not the safest place in the middle of the night.

Having said that it has great transport facilities for both up to London, Heathrow airport, down to Wales and most other areas in England and the smaller towns and villages around Reading can be lovely. Caversham, Woodley and Tilehurst are suburbs of Reading.

I lived in Finchampstead about 10 miles south of Reading. You should look at Wokingham for a nice family friendly town.

Morley

Just moved back to Reading area after 4 yrs living in Brisbane & Sydney. Reading is typical uk town, with usual chain shops, bars etc - the train link to London is the big draw as are the suburbs, such as Caversham. If you can afford it you won't go wrong with Caversham Heights and you'd be hard pushed to find anywhere as good in the area, esp if you need the train link into the City.

Morley

Ps, in reply to OP, Reading is safe. Just watch town centre weekend nights, or certain parts of Whitley or Oxford Rd day or night! Again, much like any other town of its size!

christmasoompa

I live a few miles from Reading, in the Arborfield/Swallowfield area. I love it, as it's incredibly rural (we're surrounded by fields), but it's only 10 mins from Wokingham which is a nice town. I have to confess that I hate Reading, I think it's a dump and only go in there when I really have to!

But there's lots of nice surrounding towns/villages. I don't know about the other sides of Reading, but Wokingham Borough (which we come under) has some of the best schools in the country and is regularly on the 'best places to live' polls, although I do usually take them with a pinch of salt!

Caversham is nice, Tilehurst not a fan of, personally I'd avoid Woodley but that's just personal preference really as I'm a country bumpkin and it's far too built up for me. I also think it's quite run down, but the schools are supposed to be good.

Re: your other questions, I can't help with nursery fees I'm afraid (we moved here when my children were 4 and 6 - my son did briefly go to Poperinghe Pre-school which is outstanding, but whatever we paid would be out of date now anyway), but groceries we spend around £80 a week for 4 of us plus various pets. And transport the only cost I know is the commute to London as my husband does that most days (from Wokingham station). He parks for free nearby or cycles to the station and then his train ticket is around £300 a month. Whereabouts in London does your husband commute to, is he better off going in to Paddington or Waterloo? Both are options from where we are, but depending on where he needs to get to, that may influence your choice of location.

Shout if you have any questions about the southern side of Reading, I can't help much with the rest but we've been here for nearly 3 years now.

Good luck.