St Albans or Sutton

[May83]

Hi all,

We need to move out of Greenwich, in London, by March. I’m looking for a safe, family friendly area with excellent state schools (my little one will start school Sept 2023).

I’m a full-time working mum, and 3 months pregnant with our next child. I want to continue working 3-4 days a week after my mat leave so the location needs to be well connected to London.

Also unfortunately I’m not physically/emotionally resilient with difficult/long commutes so that’s a big factor too. Equally, we want the best free education for our children…!

So far we’ve whittled down St Albans and Sutton as 2 potential areas to move to. I have some Qs I’d appreciate some inputs on please:

1. What’s it like living here?
2. How was your commute to London in terms of travel time and also the journey itself (changes/ seat/ temperature/ people)?
3. suggestions of other places with great connectivity to London, outstanding state schools, and family friendly safe areas are welcome too!!

Many thanks in advance…we need to move by March so am really hoping to make an informed decision with your input!

I think there's quite a big difference between St Albans and Sutton. St Albans is really nice but also very expensive.

You might want to consider Guildford or Woking which are 35 mins to Waterloo. Will you have to work in the office every day because having to do a journey 1-2 days a week is very different to 3-4.

What station do you need in London as that will narrow down the possible locations. I am guessing maybe Blackfriars/City Thameslink/Moorgate as you said St Albans and Sutton, in which case my suggestions may not work (though Blackfriars is only 10 mins walk from Waterloo).

Thanks for your suggestion - I need to commute to Stratford and will need to go in twice a week…

How about looking at bishops stortford and surrounding areas.

Commute from St Albans is busy and you’ll never get a seat during rush hour, parking is expensive at the station and so is the rail fare.
St Albans to live is ok, nice enough place but nothing really to do except eating, drinking coffee and pubs. Lake is overrated, one soft play out of town which is ok, odyssey cinema good but there’s a delay in the mainstream films being shown there (think it’s about a month behind).
Schools pretty good across the county but some areas of St Albans are nicer than others therefore some school areas seen as nicer - all very oversubscribed so you’ll need to live on the doorstep.

Sutton is great for connections into London but a rubbish area to live in

People are really negative about Sutton, but it’s fine. Belmont / Cheam / South Sutton is nicest. Kingston / New Malden is also nice. Great commute to London, I did it for years. It’s not a bad place to grow up.

Sutton itself is not really that nice but the borough has some really nice areas with good and quick rail links to London. Of the two, I'd be looking at Sutton rather than St Albans. Cheam (but NOT North Cheam), Belmont, and Carshalton are great and the schools are good.

I moved from Greenwich to Sutton about 10 years ago. People on MN seem to not like Sutton, but it's fine as long as you pick your area.

As pp have said, best to go for Cheam, Carshalton, South Sutton areas, or towards Kingston. The schools here are fantastic, and transport is great.

Pre-pandemic you wouldn’t get a seat on the trains to/from St Albans but at the moment even at rush hour you would have two seats to yourself. Trains have heating in winter and air conditioning in summer.
St Albans has lots of families, the schools are v good, lots of parks.

For commuting to Stratford I recommend Wickford and Billericay. I used to live in Basildon but the schools aren't as good there. Wickford and Billericay are reasonably priced, have good schools and some areas are in grammar catchments.

I live in Sutton and I love it. The schools and transport links are very good. There's enough to do in Sutton, but its easy to get to other areas either by public transport or by driving. I dont drive so good bus routes etc are a non negotiable for me. Feel free to PM if you have any questions about anything.

I’d look at Loughton, Epping, Woodford if you are commuting to Stratford. St Albans to Stratford wouldn’t be a good commute.

Purley or Couldson are both nice areas for young families with lots of nearby parks and green spaces, good schools, and much faster rail services via East Croydon into London than Sutton. Still close enough to apply for the Sutton Grammar Schools too if your kids are that way inclined.

I used to commute from Carshalton/Wallington to Stratford a few years ago and honestly found it exhausting. We moved away from the area when our children were pre-teens as really didn’t want them growing into teens in the area, plus the traffic was dreadful and cycling dangerous.

I grew up in Sutton and then Carshalton. I never liked Sutton growing up and still dislike it now. Carshalton is much nicer but unfortunately the lovely high street with the ponds is just full of traffic now but I digress.
My family still live in Sutton so I visit and I feel it hasn't moved on. A very narrow minded town with delusions of grandeur.
The schools have always been a plus point. I went to Nonsuch in Cheam and a sweet primary school in Sutton South but that wouldn't do it for me. I've only been to St Albans once and I would still prefer to live there.

I lived in Belmont for 3 years - agree with PP that that side of Sutton is much nicer than being in the town. We had a lovely detached house with a decent sized garden and off-street parking. It was all very suburban and the streets feel very safe. The downside is the journey to London can be longer than from Sutton - from Cheam you could get a direct train to Victoria but Belmont is on a slower, more infrequent line. You can get on the slow train and change at Sutton, or walk to the main road and get a bus to Sutton - but that extra change can be frustrating. At that time there were 4 trains an hour from Sutton to Victoria in rush hour and two the rest of the time. I think the commute to Stratford might be painful because you have to go in and out again. I used to commute to west London and it took an hour and a half if nothing went wrong. Some trains start at Sutton so not too hard to get a seat (I used to start at 10 though, taking the 8.38 from Belmont so slightly outside the busiest time). It frequently did go wrong so often it was two hours! At the end I was driving which was a more reliable 1hr 20mins (for 16 miles! My DH drove a 40-mile commute towards Reading in less time!)

Can you say a bit more about the reasons for why it’s a rubbish area to live in? I figured one can always live in Sutton but hang out in Kingston/ Richmond/ Wimbledon over the weekends for kids activities/ shopping…

Also how affluent is the area? Is it very poor with lots of council housing or relatively middle class

@Wotrewelookinat

I used to commute from Carshalton/Wallington to Stratford a few years ago and honestly found it exhausting. We moved away from the area when our children were pre-teens as really didn’t want them growing into teens in the area, plus the traffic was dreadful and cycling dangerous.

Thanks for your honest feedback - really appreciate it. Are you able to say what made the commute to Stratford so difficult? Do you think it’d be okay if you had to do it twice a week rather than travel in everyday?

Also, can you share why you wanted to move away rather than have your teenagers grow up there? It seems it has so many schools - primary and secondary - id have thought it was good for bringing up kids…

Agree with PPs you might want to look at Essex. St Albans is v v expensive and the commute will also be expensive

@nurserysearch111111

Agree with PPs you might want to look at Essex. St Albans is v v expensive and the commute will also be expensive

DH is not okay with East London. We can consider SE London but not East.

Do you much about Orpington? Living there and travel from there too?

@nurserysearch111111

Agree with PPs you might want to look at Essex. St Albans is v v expensive and the commute will also be expensive

Everyone says St Albans is vv expensive…what do you mean? Daily groceries/ classes for kids/ nursery fees or is it the houses/ gyms…

Sutton is awful. Run down High Steer, defunct old shopping centre as well.

Agree with the PP who mentioned Sutton is a tired place with delusions of grandeur. Hit the nail on the head bang on! Couldn’t have described it better myself!

House prices are expensive. Everything else (groceries etc) will be the same as the rest of the UK like anywhere?!

Orpington is pretty cheap especially considering it’s such a short commute to London Bridge