Buying or selling a house in
Oxted
Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, below the North Downs and about twenty miles from London Bridge. It divides into Old Oxted, a medieval crossroads settlement on a steep narrow high street, and New Oxted, which grew around the station after 1884. Southern run direct trains to both London Victoria and London Bridge. Vine Estates handles a small number of sales here personally.
What it’s actually like
Oxted is really two towns sharing a name, and that is a large part of its charm. Old Oxted is the narrow hill with the timber frames and the pubs; New Oxted grew up around the station and holds the shops and the everyday life. Most people meet the station end first and enjoy discovering the older half. The bypass took the through traffic out of the old town in 1971, which helped enormously.
“Two direct London terminals from one station. It sounds like a small thing and it makes an enormous difference.”
David Johnston
The houses
Old Oxted was founded in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries around a crossroads near St Mary's Church, and its high street descends steeply towards a tributary of the Eden — timber-framed and vernacular, agricultural in origin. The railway of 1884 stimulated a rapid phase of building: small houses and villas around a new commercial centre, much of it Tudor-styled with stucco frontages. The A25 bypass of 1971 took the through traffic out of the old core.
Getting to London
Oxted station is managed by Southern, with Thameslink at peak. Off-peak there is one train an hour direct to London Victoria, fastest around 38 minutes, and one to London Bridge, fastest around 33 minutes and non-stop to East Croydon.
Schools
Oxted School is the coeducational secondary academy with a sixth form, founded in 1929 as the first mixed grammar school in Surrey. St Mary's CofE Primary serves the town, Moor House is a state-funded special school, and Hazelwood at Limpsfield is the local prep.
Common questions
What is the difference between Old Oxted and New Oxted?
Old Oxted is the medieval settlement on a steep, narrow high street near St Mary's Church, with timber-framed and vernacular buildings. New Oxted grew after the railway opened in 1884, about half a mile north-east around the station, and is characterised by early twentieth-century mock-Tudor and stucco frontages.
How long does it take to get to London from Oxted?
Around 33 minutes at the fastest to London Bridge and around 38 minutes to London Victoria, with roughly one direct train an hour to each off-peak. Having two direct London terminals from one station is unusual for a town of this size.
Is Oxted in Surrey or Kent?
Oxted is in Surrey, in the Tandridge district, and is Tandridge's administrative centre. It sits close to the Kent border, which is why it is so often grouped with west Kent in property searches. Administratively it is Surrey, and so is its planning authority.
I know these areas well
If you can see where you're interested in on this list, that's somewhere I already know well — the roads, the stock, and what tends to sell fast versus what sits.