Move back to London from surrey??

[Peppaagain]

We are facing a real dilemma... We have a 10 month old DD and a 2.5 yearold DS and have just sold our house in surrey. The problem is we just cant decide if we want to live where we are, move further out or move back into London. I know most people would be shocked at the later, but we do miss lots of things about London (we lived in wimbledon before). Add to that i have family and friends in south east london which we don't have where we live here ( apart from people we have gotten to know in the last few years). Are we crazy to consider a return to london (we would either go back to wimbledon or dulwich)?? Has anyone else gone the other way??

Not crazy at all. If you can afford Wimbledon (I don't know Dulwich well) then why not? What would you gain by moving even further out in Surrey?

Well funny enough when i think about that, apart from bigger garden and access to nice open spaces i can't actually think of much else! In return we have longer commute (we both work in london which means longer away from DS and DD), property is actually not that much cheaper if you need to be near a station, and although the schools are good there are also good options back in london. London on the otherhand would mean a return to traffic, parking problems, less space etc etc... We just don't know anyone that has gone the other way and are scared that we are totally missing the point (i.e. have kids ->need space -> move to country!). We can't get the big house in wimbledon or dulwich but i feel that the benefits of being in a 'village in the city' might outweigh the space questions (would it!?)

We live in South London and are considering moving out somewhere else, but only if we could live mortgage free or with a significantly smaller mortgage. That would mean that we could share working and each have time with DD too.

Tbh, if there's no financial advantage and you'd have more time free in London I can't see the point in living in Surrey. We don't feel much need for countryside as we have big parks nearby (as you would in Wimbledon or Dulwich), and you can always go on day trips. We don't have a car, which would also be very tricky outside London I think, but I do see that parking is a problem in London.

we moved back this year after 5 years away. the commute was the main reason as we were both commuting, but we also missed London. I do actually miss my friends where we lived before, but that's the only downside for me about moving back. it's so nice not to be commuting and there is so much for children in London.

Do look carefully at the commute bit, as the commute from parts of Surrey can be less than parts of London. Do also look at secondary schools, that is when the lure of better schools gets most people to move out.
However I live in small town Surrey not rural village, which is a nice safe-ish environment for teenagers, if you live in a small village you can become a taxi.
I have known people move the other way, but it is easier if you can afford a big house and private schools in London than if you need the state system.

I agree - one of the main factors for me would be the secondary schools. That is one of the reasons that we moved out of London to Surrey.

I personally would never want to move back to London,as I always think it is so busy, dirty and just ughhh whenever I visit my friends who still live there.

Thanks all! It really is not easy as theres a lot to be said on both sides (typical libra i am!!). We exchanged on our house before christmas so now the pressure is on to decide. Likely we will go into rental to buy ourselves a bit of time. Ideally it would be great if we could settle on somewhere that we can really put down roots and take us through to secondary but i am not sure realistic that is - i wonder how many families do primary education in london but then move out of london anyway?

I would be very cautious about Wimbledon in particular in terms of secondary schools and you have to live on top of the primary school you want as well. I think you will be surprised at the traffic when you move back as well - it seems to have got even worse in the last few years.

It depends how far out you are in surrey really.
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Does anyone who lives "in London" find it as odd, that you refer to moving back to London when you mean Wimbledon or Dulwich, which are too suburban for me?

I said when we were deciding where to live that I wanted to live in London (meaning Westminster, Battersea, Clapham, Camden, Highgate, The City, Greenwich etc. really) or properly outside.
Judging from people I know, a lot of families move out when their eldest gets close to secondary age; even quite a few who are going down the private school route.

Wimbledon and Dulwich are London.

I think your decision should/will probably depend on your options for secondary schools. If you are going to go private you might as well move back

How can Dulwich not be London when it's in Zone 2 ?

look at the school situation. Think about what your dc would be able to do in their free time and whether you are happy about that once they are a bit older. What is there for secondary school dc to do out and about on their own?

think very carefully about schools, wherever you decide. have a look at catchment areas and make sure you can buy a house in an area that has a good school.

where we are the schools are actually better than the schools where we moved to strangely (we didn't really do our research when we moved out of London) so i am satisfied that they won't lose out in terms of education . we really did our research moving back though and rent in the catchment for a good state school. I also was lucky enough to get them into good primary schools.

I personally wouldn't live in Surrey, so can understand why you would think about moving back, but my sister does, and I can see that she has a nice life.