Anyone near Dorking, Surrey?

[Morba]

Anyone of you fine people live in or around the area?
Anything you can tell me about the general area, whats it like, plenty of shops and normal things?
Or is it an old peoples area where young people drive through to get elsewhere or visit grandparents?

:]

 

[-westy-]

heh. Dork.

 

[mattpc]

Dorking, Toured their with the opera crew. Town centre has some very posh shops but some tramps and chavs on the streets. Witnessed a chav v tramp fight when I was there at 5pm on a friday. Had a decent night out there and trashed the local travelodge. That's all I know really!

 

[Zefan]

heh. Dork.

I was in a funny mood, that pushed me over the egde

 

[-westy-]

on a more serious note, you're not too far from Guildford, which has a fair amount of things to do.

 

[scorza]

I'm just down the road in Leatherhead. Used to be very quiet on the weekends (though not during the week as lots of people work here), but they're building lots of flats here now so the population has increased quite a lot (maybe by as much as 5%) and the town centre is quite busy on a saturday now. I imagine its pretty much the same as Dorking.

There ain't much to do here in LHD though - you can get what you need at the local shops, but to get what you want you need to go to Epsom or Guildford. There only other distractions are the usual pub/gym combination. There's some nice countryside in between LHD and Dorking - such as Boxhill and Polesden Lacey. And a vinyard.

 

[EYEREX]

Great place if your into fishing as bury hill is just up the road

 

[Morba]

sounds like a nice out of town sort of place then, that could be a good thing

 

[neil3k]

Is Dorking where geeks originated?

 

[Matteh]

It's not a bad area, got a couple of friends that live there. As said not a massive amount to do but on the other hand your not a million miles from Guildford or Epsom. I wouldn't of said that the chav/tramp population is any different to anywhere else really.

 

[D4VE]

It's not a bad area, got a couple of friends that live there. As said not a massive amount to do but on the other hand your not a million miles from Guildford or Epsom. I wouldn't of said that the chav/tramp population is any different to anywhere else really.

Exactly, they are everywhere.

Dorking is nice enough - Ive been there a few times. Nice drive there on the A25, good countryside.

 

[MastermindUK]

If you like antiques you're sorted - they have a whole row of antiques shops.

Other than that there's a Waitrose, some sort of motorbike display room.

an old peoples area where young people drive through to get elsewhere

Sounds like a pretty good description to me.

 

[Locrian]

Anyone of you fine people live in or around the area?
Anything you can tell me about the general area, whats it like, plenty of shops and normal things?
Or is it an old peoples area where young people drive through to get elsewhere or visit grandparents?

:]

Well i live in leatherhead which is next door. I dont venture there a great deal though, except for the dead cheap cinema at the Dorking Halls. Normal amount of shops and restaurants, a variety of people and age ranges, lovely scenery, box hill has a great view point you can drive up to. The road into it is fun. You get a lot of bikers cruising through, well you did until they all died and they stuck a speed camera there.

 

[-gem-]

yeah i know someone that lives there.

thats about it, really.

 

[pax]

Gotta love the Surrey Hills Explorer

You'll keep fit walking up and down Box Hill which has a great view of the area. Some nice pubs outside town, and two different train lines, including a direct to Gatwick from Dorking Deepdene.

Pax

 

[Morba]

time to really step up the searching i think
leatherhead is one of the top 6 places that are dearest to live in the UK i think! wont be moving there then

2 weeks ago i could find loads of nice places to rent, now they have all gone :/

will have to look further afield, thinking of places around Crawley and Horsham, close to Dorking and close to the coast

 

[Third Opinion]

I am from Leatherhead originally, to be honest the town and shops are dreadful. There is a lot of industry but thats about it. My wife is also from Leatherhead but we met when we both had moved away, it was like a huge coincidence. My father in law still lives there as he owns a largish garage near Tescos.

Dorking is ok but again the town is a little odd. It also has some seriously rough council estates that should be well avoided.

We moved in Horsham in Sussex which is much nicer and a very commutable distance for my wife to travel to Leatherhead to work with her dad. Its also a lot cheaper, nearly o% unemployment and a great liesure centre.

 

[Morba]

yeah, that sort of area is looking quite good.

i had a 2 hour drive around the dorking general area yesterday, didnt seem too bad, but 2 hours driving isnt really enough to get a feel for the place.

looks like im deffo going to need to rent for a while, im thinking i can spend around £1k a month on rent, which will get me a much better place than the same on a mortgage at this time (even tho im selling a house now!).

anything around 45 mins commute wouldnt be a problem for me (50 mins away is reading on the train!). so plenty of options really. want a nice area for me and the family :]

 

[Third Opinion]

Yes Horsham has one of the cleanest towns I have been to in England. The schools are very good and the houses are reasonable as far as houses go. Not a lot of nightclubs if they are your sort of thing but it has some nice pubs.

You can also drive to the coast from Horsham in less than 30 minutes.

 

[Morba]

see, now that would be good. wife and baby would love being near to the coast (were not far from Barry now but thats different!!)



how do you find it being so close to gatwick?