Is Woodingdean a nice place to live?

The village itself has a wide range of shops - including those that run along Warren Road and Warren Way there is also a smaller selection of shops on Cowley Drive and a convenience store at  Lockwood Crescent. Woodingdean seems to be ‘bucking the disappearing Great British High Street’ trend. For people living in Woodingdean (or thinking of moving here) what do you need to know? There are two post offices – one at 104-106 Warren Road BN2 6BA in the Premier (formerly Best One) shop and one on Cowley Drive. There are 2 pharmacies – Well Pharmacy, Woodingdean 13 Warren Way, BN2 6PH  usually open weekdays between 08:45 - 18:15 and Saturday 8:45 - 13:00. Closed on Sundays.   Bridgman Pharmacy, 116  Cowley Drive BN2 6TD usually open weekdays 9:00 and 18.00 closed for lunch between  - 13.00 and 14.00 and Saturday 9:00- 13:00. Closed on Sundays There is a doctors surgey on Warren Road Woodingdean Medical Centre Warren Road Woodingdean Brighton East Sussex, BN2 6BA Tel: 01273 307555 Other Community facilities include

• The Deans Youth Centre,
• The Community Centre,
• The Woodingdean Library,
• Woodingdean Primary School (offstead report) and Rudyard Kipling Primary School (offstead report) , Downs View School for children and young people with learning difficulties
• Kipling Lions Pre School,
• Oak Cottage Nursery 
• There are also a number of places to eat in Woodingdean and the recent addition of Green Chillies has been well received by local residents

  There are 3 main bus services that serve Woodingdean The No. 2 bus  operated by Brighton and Hove Bus company that goes between Rottingdean and Steyning The No 22 bus operated by the Brighton and Hove Bus company that goes between Brighton Station and Woodingdean The No 52 bus operated by the Big Lemon that goes between Woodingdean and the Royal Sussex County Hospital via Ovingdean and Brighton Marina. There are also a number of limited service buses The No 72 bus  operated by the Brighton and Hove Bus company is essentially a school bus that operates between Whitehawk and Longhill school (limited timetable) The No 84 bus operated by the Brighton and Hove Bus company between Whitehawk and the Falmer university campus (limited timetable) The N0 91 bus operated by the Brighton and Hove bus company that runs from Ovingdean to Cardinal Newman school (limited timetable) We will be adding more information about the facilities, clubs and schools/nursery schools over the next few weeks but in the meantime you can visit https://www.woodingdeaninbusiness.co.uk/events. to find out what is going on for people living in Woodingdean. Shops and facilities do not necessarily make somewhere a ‘nice place to live’ One local explains about living in Woodingdean. On the day we moved to the village 15 years ago  it was wet, dark, cold and windy, and we really did wonder what on earth we had done. The following day , the sun was shining and our new neighbours popped round to say hello. They gave us some great advice; that a few days a year Woodingdean is a pretty dismal place – cold, wet, windy and poor visibility – but when the sun shines there really is no place you’d rather be. They were right! There are many pockets of excellent ‘community’ in and around Woodingdean – based not just on location but also around groups and activities. For the past two years the Woodingdean Players have put on a pantomime  – written and performed by local people.   The pantomime is a real community event – that involves people of all ages from all parts of the village. Sadly there is not a pantomime in 2017 - but the organisers have promised there will be one in 2018.  The December 2015 pantomime was Peter Pandemonium and reviews placed on the Woodingdean Players Face book page included 'To everyone involved in Peter Pandemonium thank you so much x you all made my first stage appearance such a blast..... The audiences were great and everyone went home smiling and in good Christmas spirit! 'An amazing event put on and supported by the community. Well done to everyone involved... ' What a fantastic evening! The whole family loved it. Will definitely book again.

'It was good fun! Makes you glad to live in such a great community.'  'You were all so good, such a lovely atmosphere in the room' 'Had a great time and laughed so much. It was brilliant'

ALadin Woodingdean - Woodingdean Players December 2016 Woodingdean in Business There is an active community centre where there are a mix of regular classes/clubs  and one-off events such as craft fayre’s and Elivis nights. They are currently developing their website and hopefully this will be lives shortly. The Deans Youth Centre https://deansyouthproject.org/  has clubs for youngsters from 7 years and also holds regular evening classes including circuit training run by Andy of Three Pillars of Fitness 

The Ryobu Karate Club  is very active and has a range of classes held at the Woodingdean Community centre . Woodingdean Youth Football team is a well-supported and successful team . Ryobu-Kai Karate classes take place in the Woodingdean community centre Other annual events include the Woodingdean Carnival which takes place in the summer months - follow the carnival on facebook , the annual Christmas Fair at Church of the Holy Cross and a range of fun days and activities put on by various clubs and groups during the year. Keep an eye on https://www.woodingdeaninbusiness.co.uk/events to find out what is happening  and on https://www.facebook.com/woodingdeaninbusiness/

There is a high proportion of older people living in Woodingdean and a number of clubs that cater for them – from the Reminiscence group to table tennis and walking groups. There are some nice quotes from some of the good people of Woodingdean on this video

So is Woodingdean a nice place to live – well yes! It’s not for everybody  but if you get involved then you are assured of having some fun. If you are looking to move to Woodingdean there are three local estate agents (alphabetically) Cubitt & West 26 Warren Road, Woodingdean, Brighton BN2 6BA More to follow shortly on what it’s like living in Woodingdean.