north facing vs south facing???

[florenceuk]

Gardens, that is. We have a sunny south facing garden at the moment and are contemplating the minefield that is associated with buying a new house. DH refuses to consider any with north-facing gardens, even though this considerably narrows the options. Any views? Is it really terribly gloomy in a north-facing house? This is London, mind, and we're thinking about gardens which are at most 100ft long (I wish!) and fairly narrow.

[golds]

I have a south facing garden about 80ft and absolutely hate it, I would definately buy a north facing one. The again I don't like the heat.

My mum and dad have a north facing garden and its great, they have a conservatory they can use all year round, (my blinds are shut most of the year to keep heat out) the house seems only to shadow a little distance past the conservatory so they have it perfect IMO. The rest of the garden is sunny.

However, I used to work in a estate agents and alot of people would only buy s/facing gardens.

[golds]

Oh and I wouldn't say north facing houses are gloomy, the back of the house will only be like the front of your house now

[acnebride]

We have an east-facing garden - maybe not much help! - and I think it's lovely. in the summer we can have breakfast in the sun immediately outside the back door where it's sheltered, and in the evening we can eat at the end of the garden, which because we're in back-to-back gardens is really quiet.

Without a doubt it is a bit gloomier, but how bad this is depends on the layout of your house, whether it makes the most of the light etc. We're a narrow Victorian terrace and the house doesn't use the light at all. Again in summer it's fantastic to me that on the hottest day our house is cool. But it can get a bit gloomy in winter TBH.

[PinkFluffPudding]

Our garden is North facing, but you shouldn't let that alone put you off. True, a lot of N-facing gardens can be gloomy but a lot depends on how exposed they are and also how long they are.

Ours gets the sun all day, just happens to be in the rear three quarters of it, not next to the house. In the summer the sun goes round the top of the house and narrowly misses the top of the roof IYKWIM. It's quite long for a city garden, (40') so there's plenty of 'clearance space' for the sun to shine upon.

[PinkFluffPudding]

The other good thing is that the rooms at the front of the house (main sitting room, master bedroom and dd's room) are lovely and light. Our last house had a south facing garden but the front rooms were so gloomy we never really went in them, despite them being really big!