Kentish Town or West Hampstead with a 18 month old?

[221BakerStreet]

Hi mums!
My husband, our daughter and I are relocating to London. Daughter will be 18 months old when we relocate. He works near Canal Reach and my office will be near Paddington. We love doing a lot of things over the weekend and taking her out everywhere. Considering that we want to keep our commutes to under 35-40 mins, which of these areas would you recommend? We'll also need a day nursery since both of us work 9-5pm. I'm zerioing down on these two areas after a lot of research but not having visited them yet, would love a sense from you all. Thanks!

I lived in West Hampstead before kids...we moved back up north after that!

It's a nice place to live. Nice bars and restaurants. Good transport links to the city. Access to leisure centre at Swiss Cottage...walkable. Theatre nearby.

I live in north london, although not either of those areas. West Hampstead is nice. Kentish town is very convenient, but to me it feels like a bit of an in-between area rather than an area in its own right, i.e. it sometimes feels like a bit of an extension of Camden, or the join between Camden and the leafier areas by Hampstead Heath further north. It may just be that i don't really know the area though other than driving through. Dartmouth Park to the North is nice.

Kt is brilliant! Loads of fab schools as well, both primary and secondary. Secondary options are much more limited in WH. Funnily, I’ve always seen WH as an in-between, drive-through place - all about perspective!
I think you’ll be happy w either!

Yes both are pretty fantastic so it’s a good decision to make! Maybe base it on which gives the shortest possible commute on average to the two of you give you are both FT and your little one will be in nursery?

Kentish Town feels more ‘in the thick of it’, more densely populated, than WH to me but it sounds like you’re still at a point where that’s a benefit rather than wanting somewhere more suburban. But as I say you’re a winner either way in my view.

Echoing WhyOhWine, West Hampstead is quite villagey in feel, popular with young families as far as I'm aware. Kentish Town has always seemed like one of those areas around a tube stop (urban streets and not much of a community feel) on the way from gritty Camden to leafy Highgate. But it's more than a decade since I was in either area so it may have all changed. Both have decent transport links. You'll need to go and experience them both before deciding.

Thank you all! This is helpful. Rental stock seems to be more diverse in west hampstead. we're moving from sleepy connecticut (on the outskirts of manhattan) to london and someone said they find west hampstead "boring" as compared to kentish town. i feel that maybe i have a much higher threshold for "boring" coming from suburban US (which is hella boring imo). any thoughts on the boring/lack of character aspect would be helpful too. TYSM!!

Thinking about this a bit more:

• Is this a short or long term move? If long term, then you need to think about schools and you have way more options in KT than WH.
• Whose commute are you going to prioritise? Canal Reach is about 10 mins walk from K Town (you mean the new Kings Cross development, right?? Meta?), while Paddington is a (lovely!) 30 min canal-side cycle ride/40 min tube trip. Cf W Hampstead, where the journey to Paddington is about 20 mins by tube, and Canal Reach is 30+.
• What do you like doing in your spare time? If you want outside space (eg for running), then KT probably wins because it's so close to Hampstead Heath/Regents Park etc. If you want to drive out of London all the time, then WH may be marginally better as it's further out.
• Could you afford a place in/around KX? Tapestry buildings or something? You'd both have super-easy commutes then. Not sure how great a sense of community there is in those buildings tho.
• Budget???

Are you sure Connecticut is on the outskirts of Manhattan? Do you mean on the border with New York State?

its called "greater new york area" lol. i call it the "souless waspy extension of the city" lol

Connecticut is commutable to Manhattan, deffo. I've done it!

Thank you moonbows. Some answers from me:

Thinking about this a bit more:

1. Is this a short or long term move? If long term, then you need to think about schools and you have way more options in KT than WH.

> We're hoping long term but we will evaluate at the 2 year mark. However, we want to be in a more central/fun place while we rent for the next 2 years. Will consider buying a 3 bed 2 bath after that but probably can not afford places like KT (Think more muswell hill for our future home budget)

2. Whose commute are you going to prioritise? Canal Reach is about 10 mins walk from K Town (you mean the new Kings Cross development, right?? Meta?), while Paddington is a (lovely!) 30 min canal-side cycle ride/40 min tube trip. Cf W Hampstead, where the journey to Paddington is about 20 mins by tube, and Canal Reach is 30+.

> Would be nice to keep both commutes under 40 mins. Hubs is a very involved dad as well so we tag team pretty much equally in child rearing duties (sorry kind of a non answer I know)

3. What do you like doing in your spare time? If you want outside space (eg for running), then KT probably wins because it's so close to Hampstead Heath/Regents Park etc. If you want to drive out of London all the time, then WH may be marginally better as it's further out.

> We love parks, i'd love to go to play cafe's (a concept that's non existent here), all types of museums (especially ones that have child friend play areas), he supports Arsenal so I imagine we'd go to islington ever now and again as well. I love the vibe of columbia flower market, farmers markets, portobello road market etc - we're those types of people basically. not huge on night life etc.

4. Could you afford a place in/around KX? Tapestry buildings or something? You'd both have super-easy commutes then. Not sure how great a sense of community there is in those buildings tho. Budget???

> By KX do you mean Kentish Town? I doubt we would. We have to see our paychecks shake out but if we were to buy, the very top of our budget would be like 1.2M GBP. But I don't want to index on that too much currently especially since UK interest rates are so high, I don't see us diving into buying a home (We did that here and Connecticut and got stuck so I hesitate rushing into buying).
For rent, I'd like to keep it 2700 GBP per month for a 2 bed 2 bath (including council tax).

Lastly, if you're very well familiar with KT, would you tell me areas which are nicer than the others within KT itself? Would help me focus on the search a bit more. Eg. for WH, i read in other mumsnet forums that the closer you get to finchley road or in the direction of south hampstead the nicer it is and killburn and cricklewood sides might be more gritty city vibes. Such a distinction in KT would help.

Thanks bunches!!!

West Hampstead has lots of good nurseries and has amazingly good transport links (tube, overland, thameslink, bus). I think high street is nicer than Kentish Town. It has a lovely centre which is a working church, post office, soft play and cafe. Kentish Town itself is much “grittier” than WH, though Dartmouth Park is lovely. Also Kentish Town has the heath of course. Both have lots of bars/restaurants. Both have good primary schools, but Kentish Town has much much better secondaries (WH has none at all)!

Have you thought about Islington (Angel to Highbury)? Personally I prefer it to either of the other areas being discussed.

I did but friends who have lived in London said we might find Islington a bit too "gritty" being coddled by American suburbia. Personally was raised in Delhi so I have a high threshold for being fazed by city living issues but when someone says gritty i worry about raising a kid in those areas (maybe i should tour it myself when we get there).

I think only you can know how gritty you want your child's experiences to be. Why not rent in West Hampstead for a year, where there will be good nursery provision available, and then look around to see if there are areas that would suit you better?

West Hampstead. Work colleague moved there, had young children, has stayed there.

i've been in 8 years in West Hampstead. very family friendly, lots of toddler activities and GREAT connectivity for commuting the travel. we have Thameslink and underground and overground so you can go N / S / E / W on one train and if there are strikes there is always an alternative.

WH is more evenly placed between Kings X and Paddington. Kentish Town to Paddington is going east(ish) to west so more of a PITA.

I would say Kentish town is more gritty than Islington tbh. But you've got the amazing luxury of the heath on your doorstep with KT.

Another one to consider is Tufnell Park. Less hustle and bustle than kt but still close to centre

KT does have a lovely community feel to it. At least it does once you have kids. I like the roads that lead up into Tufnell Park best, around Lady Margaret and Lady Somerset Road but that’s just because they’re pretty. You could look near Kentish Town West station too but Queen’s Crescent isn’t so pretty and isn’t as pretty. Look at Tufnell Park in the Borough of Islington as well as KT in the Borough ofCamden

West Hampstead without question. Lovely friendly, "villagey" vibe, but still lively with good bars and restaurants. Great transport links - including the Thameslink which will take you to St Pancras (by Kings Cross) in 10 minutes. Also the North London Overground line, which will take your husband to Highbury & Islington for the football.

I've always felt Kentish Town to feel a bit more "gritty" in atmosphere, although not a bad area.

KX=Kings Cross - the new development around Coal Drop Yards, but I think may be out of your price range (is fancy fancy!)

KT details: east of High St nicer than west. Bartholomew Rd area is good, w more southern streets in that ladder smarter than N. N of Leighton Rd all nice. As others have said, think about Dartmouth Park and Tufnell Park too, tho keep a close eye on distance from tube. KT (and WH) are great because of many buses, tube, overground; other places may be more dependent on one form of transport.

In Islington, Barnsbury is non-gritty. Also Canonbury. Tufnell Park is Islington, actually.

i don’t like it much, but Queens Park might fit too - close to Paddington, family-ish.

It depends on which bit. The northern bit of the borough - yes. Not the area off Upper Street, the main drag. It’s anything but gritty. Houses are up to $3 million and Tony Blair used to live there.

I suggest it as it’s a 10 minute walk to KX, easy to get to Paddington. It’s much livelier than the other two areas - loads of shops, theatres, restaurants. Closer to central London and all it has to offer. All in all a very nice and highly desirable area. Great Georgian and Regency architecture.

KT is a bit of a nothing area IMHO.

May I ask what you settled on? In the same situation as you 2 years later :) Looking same areas and funnily enough considering MH for future buying as I hear secondary state schools are great!