Does anyone know or live in the Luton area??

[Englands Disney Gang]

DH has been told he has to work from the Luton area for 4 months from Feb....means he will be staying there all week and coming home weekends. To make life easier his firm have sorted a flat in Constable Court, Dunstable Rd, Luton....he has to either accept or decline it without seeing the area!! (we have seen interior photos and they look great!!) does anyone know the area and can tell us what its like its just we have never been to Luton!!???.... sometimes I will be visiting with the kids so really need to know. Many Thanks!!

 

[Queenie]

Well, Luton is not a nice area really, I used to live there. I believe Dunstable is relatively nicer but the centres of both are pretty rough, certainly not the kind of places to be walking around after dark. I can't tell you about that specific road but I'm sure it will be fine providing you're sensible which I'm sure you are.

 

[Laurafoster]

Luton town centre is pretty dodgy, especially after dark. That said some area's of dunstable are meant to be really nice! Sorry i cant be more helpful. If he can stay a bit further out Harpenden is quite a nice area and is about 5mins away.

 

[Dicky Knee]

Luton is the worst place I have ever had the misfortune to live. I lived in the Stopsley area (one of the better places to live in Luton), and whilst there, had my house burgled, my garden vandalised and they even tried to burn my garage down (but being "thickoes" they didn't realise that concrete and metal doesn't combust too well! However, they did burn the elderly ladies wooden garage down 10 doors up the road). The Arndale Centre has a significantly higher proportion of Chavs than most other shopping centres in the UK. The town centre car parks are dingy and badly lit - so much so, that when I visited London I would drive the 15 miles to Stevenage and catch the train from there (by the way, I'm 6' 1"). Also, one Saturday afternoon at 4.30 a girl was raped at the bottom of the stairs in the Arndale Centre and nobody noticed!! (this was 15 years ago.). My job required me to work there last year for a year, and if anything, it has got worse.

As Laurafoster pointed out, if you can go to Harpendon all the better - very posh, and good rail links. Also Flitwick, approx 15 miles to the north, again excellent rail links.

Sorry if this puts a bit of a downer on you, but Luton is a dump (sorry Lutonians).

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

DH has been told he has to work from the Luton area for 4 months from Feb....means he will be staying there all week and coming home weekends. To make life easier his firm have sorted a flat in Constable Court, Dunstable Rd, Luton....he has to either accept or decline it without seeing the area!! (we have seen interior photos and they look great!!) does anyone know the area and can tell us what its like its just we have never been to Luton!!???.... sometimes I will be visiting with the kids so really need to know. Many Thanks!!

Whereabouts in Luton? Luton is a real pain to drive around in the rush hour and depending where your DH has to work could mean a "long duration" journey. I live 14 miles north of Luton and if I were to leave home at 8.00am it would take me over an hour to get to the town centre!

I'll also join the rest of the other replies here and say that Luton is definately NOT a nice town.

 

[Hilary]

My SIL was brought up, and still lives, on the outskirts of Luton so I've emailed her to ask if she knows this particular location. I'll post back when she's replied

 

[Dicky Knee]

Dunstable Road runs from a part of the Luton Ring Road all the way to Dunstable - a distance of about 5 miles. Constable Court could be anywhere a long this high density stretch of road, but I would hazard a guess that from it's name the flats would be near the police station on the Luton Ring road.

 

[Englands Disney Gang]

Thank you for your replies.....now starting to worry about my husband working there. He needs to be within a certain mileage area to his work as he is on 'call out' so cannot live further out also with it being only a few months his firm want pay high in rent!!. I know its only for a few months and being from London myself I can honestly say that I never knew Luton was a bad area.....maybe I am niave!!
Any other info on the actual road and its area would be great!!

 

[Pootle]

My DH works away from home most of the time and his main criteria is how quickly he can get to and from work with minimum time spent in traffic and maybe that's why your husband's firm has chosen this location. Plus it's close to the motorway.

I really don't think Luton is that bad and like most towns, there are 'desirable' districts too. The journey time between "very posh" Harpenden (where I live ) and Luton just 5 miles away, shoots up at busy times. I really doubt the crime rate there is worse than many places although I don't actually know.

Sure its town centre wouldn't win any beauty prizes but for convenience the Arndale is hard to beat and if it's raining or very cold outside it's even better ). Dunstable Road is a busy, wide road but for 4 months it might just fit the bill.

 

[Englands Disney Gang]

Thanks Pootle that eases my mind a little.......he will be home weekends so really as long as he has somewhere to lay his head at night thats the main thing. His work certainly do think of location to work and who blames them!!
He certainly wont be shopping!!!....he never does here!!
As long as there is a supermarket nearby and a couple of decent takeaways and a pub!!.....I just dont want it to be somewhere which is really rough and he has to watch behind him everytime he leaves the front door!! (hes also worried about the car.....typical bloke!!)

 

[Hilary]

Reply from my SIL in Luton:
"It's an OK area. I personally wouldn't choose to move to that area, although
there are definately worse in the vacinity!! Don't know if that
really helps."

HTH

 

[magicgirl]

Luton is a nice place to live. Like any major towns there are rough areas but there are certainly some very nice areas. The Arndale Centre has been revamped as have the car parks and is now a nice place to shop. I would suggest that you phone Luton Police Station an ask what sort of area the flat is in. We have always done this probably becouse DH is an ex copper.