Welwyn Garden City - the best commuter town (Welwyn Carden City)

Member Name: WGCer

Product:	Welwyn Carden City
Date:	09/01/09 (265 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Safe, friendly, green, convenient, affordable

Disadvantages: Not sufficiently gentrified...yet

I think it's about time someone actually pointed out what's great about living in WGC. I work in London, and yes, I'm one of those people probably driving up house prices in WGC. I bought a lovely two bedroom two storey end of terrace with a mammoth backyard for £175,000, which is about a tenth of the price it would have cost in London, or anywhere within the M25 for that matter (unless you're willing to live somewhere you could be shot or stabbed).
WGC is green, full of wide avenues and shady beautiful trees. I feel perfectly safe walking around at night by myself. Thousands of gardens dot the town. The people are friendly and chatty and are incomparable to the rudeness of Londoners. My neighbours look out for our house when we're away, and always say hello when they see us.
OK, so there aren't many restaurants (except Terra Nova is excellent, Pizza Express is always good, and there are a couple of cosy pubs around my area), but I work in London, so who needs restaurants? The shops are pretty good - we've got a John Lewis and the Howard Centre is always a lot less crowded than Oxford Street. I'm not a big shopper, but given I'm in London every day for work anyway, the lack of better shopping is never going to be a problem. Oh, and also the Hatfield Galleria is about a ten minute busride away. Cheap and discounted Le Creuset, Bodyshop, TK Max, everything you could want. There's a massive B&Q just down the road from my place, and the 24 hour tescos a short drive away is much bigger than anything I could ever get to in London.

It's about 25 minutes to King's Cross, so it's closer to central London than Clapham is. The commute is gorgeous - mostly lovely country side, and the train starts there so I get a seat every morning. No more noses in people's sweaty armpits on the tube!

Yes, I'd love to see a few more independent stores, the odd cafe (and yes, I also miss my local fromagerie from Clapham), but give it time and gentrification will come.

Maybe I'll open one myself.

Summary: Awesome place for a London worker to live in