Join the inbetweeners: commuter homes between London and the sea

Make a clever choice and you can have it all - an easy commute to London and time to enjoy the coast. Ruth Bloomfield discovers the "inbetweener" lifestyle in Haslemere, West Malling, Colchester and Lewes
25 February 2016
Kirdford
HASLEMERE, SURREY
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Haslemere is a vibrant small town with good schools, excellent sporting facilities and excellent pubs
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WEST MALLING, KENT
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West Malling is well positioned: only 30 minutes from the coast and 48 minutes by train from Victoria
£500,000: The Old House in King Street, West Malling, comes with three bedrooms and a Grade II-listing
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COLCHESTER, ESSEX
four-bedroom house in St Peter's Street, in Colchester's Dutch QuarterColchester has plenty going for it. The newly opened Firstsite arts centre, a metal-clad £28 million building known locally as the golden banana, has a great programme of exhibitions and films (and a trendy café). The town centre is something of a clone town, and traffic is a problem, but there are plenty of useful shops, gastropubs and restaurants such as The Lemon Tree.

The prettiest part of town is the Dutch Quarter, just north of the centre, full of Tudor and Georgian properties. A three-bedroom terrace in this area would cost from about £200,000. The best suburb to consider is Lexden, around 15 minutes’ walk from the high street, where a smart five-bedroom Victorian villa would cost from £600,000. Just out of town are pretty villages including Dedham and Nayland, where a five-bedroom period house would cost £800,000.

Many London exiles move out in search of good schools, and Colchester does not disappoint with two high- achieving grammar schools: Colchester County High School (girls) and the Royal Grammar School (boys).


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LEWES, WEST SUSSEX
Londoners love Brighton because it is coastal living with a city buzz, plus fantastic shops, restaurants, bars and cafés. But if you don’t need to be too near the crowds of summer tourists, go 10 miles inland to Lewes, firmly on the music map with its famous Glyndebourne Opera House. Trains to London take just over an hour (annual season ticket: £3,860).

Lewes, just on the South Downs, is a peach of a place with real community spirit: each autumn the residents celebrate Bonfire Night with a parade and showstopping fireworks display. It is beautiful and peaceful with interesting shops and good cafés, pubs and restaurants, and that has attracted opera singers who have sung there and stayed. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa bought there; comedian Sean Lock is also local.

There is a romantic castle, a thriving market, and the grandest houses priced up to £1.5 million, but £750,000 would buy a beautiful, period five-bedroom house, and £350,000 to £400,000 would secure a quality three-bedroom Victorian terrace.


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