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

Historic yet buzzing and cosmopolitan, this royal town beside the Thames is a favourite for top schools, good shops and a fast commute. 
Daniel Lynch
Anthea Masey18 May 2018

The Thames-side town of Windsor is preparing to celebrate the wedding of the year. More than 100,000 people are set to line the streets when Prince Harry marries Meghan Markle in St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, the world’s largest and oldest inhabited castle, on May 19.

Well-wishers will follow the happy couple through the Berkshire town and down the Long Walk, the three-mile avenue from the George IV Gateway to the Copper Horse statue.

The council, the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, which had to backtrack on a suggested bid to ban rough sleepers on the big day, is set to festoon the town with bunting and banners.

The meadows of Windsor Great Park will be foraged by Harry and Meghan’s chosen florist Philippa Craddock for wild flowers and foliage for the floral displays in the chapel.

Up to 240 volunteer Royal Ambassadors will guide visitors through the streets. A car park for 6,000 cars must be booked in advance and is being set up in the Review Ground off the Long Walk.

Train companies serving the town’s two stations promise extra services. Giant screens will be mounted in Alexandra Gardens and the Long Walk, while local entertainers will perform and street food vans will feed the crowds.

The Thames-side town of Windsor is preparing to celebrate the wedding of the year
Daniel Lynch

Harry and Meghan have invited 2,640 people into the castle grounds. Two lucky Londoners have been chosen to be there — 14-year-old Laurelle Henry, Young Mayor in Lewisham, and Pamela Anomneze from Haringey who runs Studio 306 Collective, a social enterprise that uses the creative arts to help people recovering from mental health issues.

Harry, who attended Eton College, will be more than familiar with an area where he and Prince William spent their teenage years. Eton might be just a bridge away but the village has all the quiet charm that escapes Windsor with its hordes of tourists.

Local Savills estate agent John Henson says the firm plans a Harry and Meghan window display at its High Street branch and he is inviting his clients to come and celebrate with them. “The wedding has increased interest in the town. Our applicants are up 46 per cent on last year.”

Property website Rightmove agrees — its indicators show a recent 24 per cent surge in property searches in the town. Henson adds: “Two weeks ago, all the flags of the Commonwealth nations were out here for the Commonwealth Conference. Now the flags are going up for the Royal Windsor Horse Show from May 9-13, and then there will be a new set of flags for the wedding.”

Windsor is close to the M4 and a short drive from Heathrow, with aircraft noise as a consequence. It is 21 miles west of central London with Slough to the north; Datchet and Heathrow to the east; Windsor Great Park and Ascot to the south, and a ribbon of pretty villages linking it with Reading to the west.

Henson says Windsor is buzzy and cosmopolitan with an amazing park, an open shopping mall, good schools and an easy commute to London and other local employment hubs at Slough and Reading.

The castle and the Queen add to the glamour and sense of history. “About half our buyers are local, young couples and families trading up, while others are incomers, often moving from south-west London.”

The property scene

Windsor offers a wide variety of homes, from period cottages to elegant Georgian houses, Victorian terraces, Thirties and more modern houses plus modern riverside flats.

The most expensive house currently for sale is The Priory in Church Road, Old Windsor, an eight-bedroom listed 18th-century home, at £4.45 million.

In St Leonard’s Hill, a private road south of the town centre, North Lodge has six bedrooms and is on the market for £2.7 million. The favoured “golden triangle” sits between Kings Road and Frances Road, adjacent to the Long Walk. A four-bedroom listed Georgian house here is £1,575,000.

What's new?

Thameside is a Shanly Homes scheme of 28 townhouses and two- and three-bedroom flats and duplexes overlooking the river. They are ready to move into, priced from £610,000 to £2,695,000. Contact Savills on 01344 295361.

Victoria Residences in Victoria Street, by Frontiera Real Estate, offers 11 two-bedroom flats, two-bedroom duplexes and penthouses and one four-bedroom duplex penthouse. Prices from £695,000 to £1.25 million. Through Savills (as before).

Castle View in Helston Lane, with 65 one- and two-bedroom flats for over-55s launches this month and will be finished in the autumn. One-bedroom flats from £390,000 and two-bedroom flats at £515,000. Contact Savills (as before).

Work starts this week at St Marks’s Row in St Mark’s Road — five terrace houses and nine two-bedroom flats by Spitfire Bespoke Homes, with prices likely to range from £750,000 to £1.3 million. The official launch is in July, with completion in July next year. Contact 01628 308860.

Affordable homes

Help to Buy is available on three of seven new two-bedroom flats that remain in Sheet Street, priced from £515,000; at St Annes Mews in Bridgeman Drive, a scheme of four three-bedroom semi-detached houses, from £550,000; and at two remaining flats at Sefton Lodge in Clewer Hill Road, a gated scheme of one- and two-bedroom conversion flats. Contact Hamptons for all three schemes (01753 415265).

Renting

Savills’ lettings manager Adrian Moody says the Windsor branch is second busiest outside London. “Our tenants are a mix of people working in nearby Reading and Slough and families where a member commutes to London. Eton College is not a major driver although we’ve had one or two parents from the Far East renting when they visit pupils.”

Staying power

Windsor has a strong local market — very definitely a town where families put down roots.

Postcode

Windsor and Eton are in the SL postcode which also includes Old Windsor and the surrounding villages to the south and west of the town.

Best roads

Park Street in the centre of Windsor is a wide street of Georgian houses. Many of the houses in Kings Road have views of the Long Walk. There are lovely Regency houses in Clarence Crescent, where a seven-bedroom double-fronted white stucco house is currently for sale for £2.5 million.

St Leonard’s Hill to the south of the town centre is a long private road with large detached houses from the Twenties onwards.

Up and coming

Savills’ agent John Henson says Maidenhead is undervalued and will receive a boost from the arrival of Crossrail and plans for a large town centre development bringing 500 new homes and more shops to the town.

Transport

Windsor will benefit when Crossrail opens in Slough in December next year. Residents already make the six-minute journey from Windsor & Eton Central station to Slough as part of their commute to Paddington but they will be able to get Elizabeth line trains from Slough directly to Bond Street and Liverpool Street.

For now, trains from Windsor & Eton Central, changing at Slough, take 30 minutes non-stop to Paddington; from Windsor and Eton Riverside it’s 56 minutes to Waterloo, and 51 minutes to Vauxhall, which connects to the Victoria line. Near junction 6 on the M4, Windsor is handy for Heathrow airport at junctions 4 and 4b.

Council

The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead is Conservative controlled. Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is 1,284.92.

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants

Windsor has a busy town centre with lots of big high street names represented. Windsor Royal Shopping Centre has been created on the concourse of Windsor & Eton Central station but there are also shops, cafés and restaurants on Thames Street, Castle Hill and in Peascod Street.

Windsor has its own independent department store, Daniel of Windsor, this year celebrating its 100th anniversary. The store is famous for its toy department and this year it is also packed with Harry and Meghan memorabilia.

Most high street brands are here, from budget names such as TK Maxx, River Island, Next, New Look and Topshop to mid-market chains such as Monsoon, Whistles, Karen Millen, Hobbs and Jigsaw, to upmarket brands such as Barbour.

Chain restaurants abound, with branches of Bill’s, Patisserie Valerie, Café Rouge, Côte, Carluccio’s, Wagamama, PizzaExpress and Nando’s. The Tower Bar and Brasserie in The Harte and Garter Hotel & Spa opposite the castle is popular for afternoon tea.

Outdoor eating is a feature of the little streets around the Guildhall; the Clarence Brasserie & Tea Room in Church Street is another favourite for afternoon tea.

Savills’ John Henson recommends an Italian restaurant, Sebastian’s, in Goswell Hill, a local well-kept secret.

Windsor’s independent shops are concentrated in St Leonard’s Road at the far end of Peascod Street. Here Michael Chell is a renowned men’s fashion boutique. Urbansuite and Urbanlux sell designer furniture from showrooms in a tucked-away mews, Trinity Yard; and there is a fishmonger, O’Driscoll’s.

Open space

The Long Walk in Windsor Great Park, with its views of Windsor Castle at one end and the Copper Horse statue of George III at the other, is one of the country’s best-loved vistas and after the royal wedding its iconic status will be cemented worldwide.

Windsor Great Park is also home to The Savill Garden, an ornamental garden created in the Thirties; find it in Wick Lane in Englefield Green. The Thames Path passes through Windsor on its way to Maidenhead.

Leisure and the arts

The Theatre Royal, Windsor, in Thames Street, is the town’s repertory theatre. The Old Court in St Leonard’s Road puts on a mixture of arts events including theatre and live music, with a wide programme of classes ranging from Lindy Hop to yoga, to life drawing.

The LEGOLAND Windsor Resort is a Lego-based theme park in Winkfield Road to the south of the town centre.

Windsor Leisure Centre in Stovell Road houses the local council-owned swimming pool.

Schools

Primary

The state schools in Windsor operate the once common, but now unusual, three-tier system with first or infant schools up to age nine; middle schools from age nine to 13, and upper schools from age 13 to 18.

The first schools rated “outstanding” by the Ofsted education watchdog are: St Edward’s RC (ages five to nine) in Parsonage Lane, and Hilltop (ages three to nine) in Clewer Hill Road. There are no “outstanding” middle schools, although they are all rated “good”; and the “outstanding” upper school is Windsor Girls’ (ages 13 to 18) in Imperial Road.

Comprehensive and grammar

Nearby Slough has state grammar and comprehensive schools. Those which get the “outstanding” rating are: Slough and Eton CofE Business and Enterprise College (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Ragstone Road; Upton Court Grammar (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Lascelles Road; St Bernard’s RC Grammar (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Langley Road; The Westgate (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Cippenham Lane; Herschel Grammar (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Northampton Avenue; Langley Grammar (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Reddington Drive; and Baylis Court (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Gloucester Avenue.

There are two new Free Schools which have not yet been inspected by Ofsted: Grove Academy (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Wellington Street which opened in September and Eden Girls (ages 11 to 18) in Bath Road, a new Muslim Free School which opened in September 2015.

Private

Windsor is famed for Eton College (boys, ages 13 to 18), the top boarding school across the pedestrian bridge over the Thames that links Windsor with the village of Eton. Old Etonians include Princes William and Harry, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and former prime minister David Cameron.

The private primary and preparatory schools are: St George’s (co-ed, ages three to 14) in Windsor Castle, which is the choir school for St George’s Chapel in the castle; The King’s House (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Frances Road; Upton House (co-ed, ages two to 11) in St Leonard’s Road; St John’s Beaumont (boys, three to 13) a Jesuit school in Priest Hill; Eton End (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Eton Road in the village of Datchet, a school started for the children of Eton teachers; and St Bernard’s (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Hawtrey Close in nearby Slough.

The all-through private schools are: Queensmead (co-ed, ages two to 18), the former Brigidine School, a Catholic school in Kings Road; and Long Close (co-ed, ages two to 16) in Upton Court Road in Slough.