Living in Ascot: area guide to homes, schools and transport links

Take a bet on Ascot: a polished little Berkshire town, only 30 miles from London, with good schools and family homes.
Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Harry and Prince Andrew, Duke of York during the Royal Procession on day one of Royal Ascot 2014 (Image: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
Anthea Masey12 February 2016

Since 1711, in the reign of Queen Anne, Royal Ascot has been one of the highlights of the summer social season. This five-day festival of horse racing has pageantry and glamour in equal measure, with the arrival of the Queen and other members of the royal family in open-top carriages flanked by liveried footmen. The flamboyant millinery of tomorrow’s Ladies’ Day is likely to attract more column inches in Friday’s papers than the racing itself.

The small Berkshire town of Ascot is 30 miles south-west of London and well-placed for the M3, M4 and M25. There are trains to Waterloo and many of the schools act as feeders for Eton, Harrow and Wellington. The area is surrounded by heaths and woods, while Virginia Water’s landscaped grounds and the vistas of Windsor Great Park are added attractions.

Queen Elizabeth II attends day one of Royal Ascot at Ascot Racecourse on June 17, 2014 (Photo by Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse)

Ascot is more of a racecourse with a town tacked on as an afterthought, a problem recognised in the recently adopted Neighbourhood Plan which promises big improvements.


Estate agent Daniel Burstow of the local branch of Savills says Ascot and the surrounding areas of Sunningdale, Sunninghill and Virginia Water are popular with west London families who get a lot more house and land for their money than in Fulham or Wandsworth — with house prices in most inner suburbs of the capital now as much as 40 per cent above the autumn 2007 peak.


In Ascot, with the exception of outstanding houses, prices have only now recovered to the level achieved then, and the price differential is an additional incentive for families to consider a longer commute.


What there is to buy in Ascot
Ascot and the surrounding area has a wealth of spacious “executive-style” mansions in large gardens. There are currently 63 houses for sale above £2 million and another 75 between £1 million and £2 million. However, there are also cheaper Victorian cottages and terraces and modern flats, with 70 properties for sale between £500,000 and £1 million and 102 at less than £500,000.


This is also an area where older-style houses are being knocked down and rebuilt, usually in a traditional style. Seven such properties are on the market, varying in price between £2 million and £4.5 million.


Wentworth is a large estate of detached houses built around three golf courses at nearby Virginia Water. Occupying 1,750 hilly, wooded acres, the Wentworth Estate is one of the country’s most coveted addresses. The original developer, WG Tarrant, who built large Arts & Crafts houses in the Twenties, went bankrupt during the recession that followed in the early Thirties, although his son went on to build houses on the estate in later years.


Today, Tarrant houses at Wentworth have either been extended or demolished to make way for larger houses. The Wentworth entry price is now £2 million, with houses backing on to the golf courses starting at about £4.5 million and the very best houses selling for more than £50 million. Price per square foot in Wentworth is around £1,000, while a good-quality new-build family house in the rest of the area is around £500 a square foot, and more modest houses and flats go for between £300 and £450 a square foot.

Kennel Avenue is one of Ascot's most sought-after addresses

Best roads: Anywhere on the Wentworth estate. In Ascot it is St Mary’s Road, Friary Road, Coronation Road and Kennel Avenue. In Sunningdale it is Fireball Hill, Sunning Avenue, Ridgemount Road, Priory Road and Titlarks Hill Road.


Renting: Gillian Mooney, the lettings manager at the local branch of Savills says there is an active corporate lettings market with overseas executives who are working here for two or three years keen on the two international schools for their children. “We also get families who decide to rent before they buy in order to get to know the local market and the best places to buy”, says Mooney.


Travel and commuting: Ascot is well placed for the M3, M4 and M25 with easy access to Heathrow and Gatwick. There are trains to Waterloo from Ascot, Sunningdale and Virginia Water which from Ascot take between 53 and 61 minutes. The trains stop at Clapham Junction for trains to Victoria and Vauxhall for the tube trains.


Postcode: SL5 is the Ascot postcode; as well as Ascot it covers Sunninghill, Sunningdale and the villages of Burleigh and Cheapside.


New-build homes in Ascot
The largest local development is Lynwood Village on Rise Road a new retirement community currently under construction for completion in the middle of 2016. The developer is BEN, the automotive industries charity, and the village comprises 174 mainly one- and two-bedroom flats and two-bedroom duplexes and a small number of two-bedroom cottages. Set in over 20 acres of woodland there are leisure facilities including a swimming pool, a restaurant, bar and café.


Claremont in Beechcroft Close in Sunninghill is a Bellway gated development of 17 four-and five-bedroom terrace houses; prices range from £1.2 million to £1.45 million. Silk Woods in Burleigh Road in Ascot is a Berkeley Homes development of seven four-and five-bedroom houses; one four-bedroom house remains at £1.25 million.


Montrose Court and Kingsland Court in London Road is a gated development from Bewley Homes of ten two-bedroom flats in two blocks; prices range from £995,000 to £1.5 million for a penthouse with terrace. Westbrook House on Windsor Road is a Millgate Homes development of 14 two- and three-bedroom flats and penthouses; two two-bedroom flats remain; one at £795,000; the other at £850,000.


Up-and-coming areas: Sunninghill is a mainly Victorian village with a high street and village school. A three-bedroom Victorian terrace house costs around £500,000. Also North Ascot which has always been considered as less desirable than South Ascot.


The area attracts: Ascot’s wealthy buyers are a combination of families moving from west London, others from Russia, Kazakhstan and the Middle East and, increasingly, China and India. The schools are a big attraction for overseas families, with some drawn to top UK private schools, while others head for Surrey’s international schools — ACS in Egham, and TASIS, The American School in England, in Thorpe.


Staying power: a recent trend has been noted of UK couples moving back to London once children leave home.


Council: Ascot, Sunningdale and Sunninghill are in the Tory-controlled Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Band D council tax is £1,172.95 in Ascot and Sunninghill, and £1,175.25 in Sunningdale. Virginia Water and Wentworth are in Tory-controlled Runnymede. Band D council tax is £1,195.83.


Pictures by Graham Hussey

Lifestyle

The popular Fego Caffe, part of a small local chain with another branch in Sunningdale

Shops and restaurants
Ascot High Street has a branch of Budgens and a Tesco Express, a Starbucks and Costa Coffee, and an independent butcher, CE Lewis. There are also a number of pubs, restaurants and independent cafés, including popular Fego Caffe, part of a small local chain with another branch in Sunningdale. There is a Waitrose close to Sunningdale station and the centre of the village has a Pizza Express, a brasserie called Tablespoon and the attached Teaspoon Pantry, and a branch of home decor specialist Farrow & Ball.


Sunninghill is the local village with the best sense of community and feels like a throwback to the Fifties. Treacle Café gets good reviews and there are independent gift shops, useful corner shops, a supplier of Agas and a hardware store. At the junction of London Road and Silwood Road there is a branch of Oka, the interiors store co-founded by the Prime Minister’s mother-in-law, Lady Astor.


Virginia Water has interior designer Patsy Blunt and The Wine Circle, an independent wine merchant with a shop, restaurant, bar, deli and cheese shop. The best local restaurants are at Coworth Park, a five-star hotel, part of the Dorchester Collection owned by the Sultan of Brunei, where there is fine dining at The Restaurant and more relaxed eating at The Barn.

Spectacle: Roman ruins from Libya, re-imagined and reconfigured in the 19th century beside Virgina Water Lake


Open space: Ascot is on the edge of Windsor Great Park which is owned by the Crown Estate and contains Virginia Water, the large lake first dammed and flooded in 1753. There is also a picturesque cascade and a Roman temple constructed in the 19th century from the ruins of Leptis Magna in Libya. The Savill Garden is an enclosed garden within the park that charges an entrance fee, although locals can buy a season ticket. Chobham Common covers 1,400 acres of rare heath and woodland, managed for biodiversity by the Surrey Wildlife Trust.


Leisure and the arts: horse racing and polo apart, golf is the most popular leisure activity with some of the UK’s finest golf courses within a few miles. The Wentworth Club with its three 18-hole courses is owned by restaurateur Richard Caring, who also owns London celebrity haunts The Ivy, Scott’s and Le Caprice. It hosts the BMW PGA Championship. There is also the Sunningdale Golf Club in Ridgemount Road, Sunningdale Ladies in Cross Road, the Berkshire in Swinley Road and Royal Ascot Golf Club in Winkfield Road.


The Guards Polo Club is at Smith’s Lawn in Blacknest Gate Road in Windsor Great Park, which also manages polo at the Coworth Park Hotel, and there is another club at Ascot Park in Windlesham Road in nearby Chobham.

Three facts to know about Ascot
Where and when did modern architecture get the thumbs down?
In 2003 Greenside, a listed modern movement house on the Wentworth estate overlooking the 17th tee of the West golf course designed by one of the most famous architectural practices of the day Connell, Ward & Lucas, was demolished illegally while efforts to save it were continuing.

Where near Ascot was the promotional film for one of the most iconic songs of all time, shot?
John Lennon and Yoko Ono bought Tittenhurst Park on London Road, Sunninghill, for £145,000 in 1969. It was here the film promoting the song “Imagine” was shot with John Lennon famously playing a white piano. In 1973 Lennon sold the house to Ringo Starr who sold it in 1988 for £5 million to the late Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the then ruler of Abu Dhabi. The house is now thought to be worth around £30 million.

Which Victorian gothic building was inspired by the Cloth Hall in Ypres in Belgium?
The Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water was built by the Victorian philanthropist Thomas Holloway. The architect William Henry Crossland was inspired by the Cloth Hall. He also designed the nearby Royal Holloway college, part of the University of London, where his inspiration was the Chateau de Chambord in the Loire Valley. The sanatorium was converted into flats in the 1990s and is now known as Virginia Park.

What the locals recommend on Twitter

@GregBowman5 @OpportunityLand For #ascot I'd recommend the wild beauty of Chobham Common over the golf course blandness of Virginia Water.

@kerrysheehan Residents Heath pass allows access even on race days.

@justclearuk we would recommend @jackiequinn18 as the most reputable local estate agents in #ascot

@Ascot_Property favourite restaurants @AscotGrill @CoworthParkUK - properties close to @AscotInsider (#RoyalAscot)

@SavillsUK Savills Dan Burstow recommends the @CoworthParkUK Hotel in Ascot because of its on-site equestrian centre and polo pitch

Pictures by Graham Hussey

Schools

Primary
The best performing primary schools are: Cheapside CofE in Watersplash Lane and Ascot Heath Infants, in Rhododendron Walk, both of which are judged to be “outstanding”; Ascot Heath Juniors is judged to be “good”.


Comprehensive
The state comprehensive Charters in Charters Road not only gets excellent results at GCSE but is also graded “outstanding” by Ofsted.


Private
Papplewick (boys, 6-13) in Windsor Road; Sunningdale (boys boarding, 7-14) in Dry Arch Road; and the Marist Preparatory School (girls, 2-11) a catholic school in Kings Road, Sunninghill. Private secondary schools are St George’s School (girls, 11-18) in Wells Lane; St Mary’s School Ascot (girls boarding, 11-18) a catholic school in St Mary’s Road; Heathfield (girls boarding, 11-18) in London Road and The Marist Senior School (girls, 11-18). The all-through private schools are: Hurst Lodge (co-ed, 2-18) in Bagshot Road and LVS Ascot (co-ed, 4-18) in London Road.

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