Possible move to Oxford

[YummyVictoriaSandwich]

Hi all

There's a job in Oxford (Headington) that I'm interested in. We live in London.

I know nothing about Oxford but have always wanted the right opportunity to leave London.

I don't particularly like the city but from my googling, Headington sounds similar to London in terms of traffic, pollution, crowding etc. Is this the case?

Have primary aged children so school choice is very important (particularly secondary school)...somewhere academic with good behaviour etc. would be nice.

Any nice quiet and clean areas surrounding Headington that are easily commutable (e.g. less than 4 miles) by car?

Affordability....ideally 3-4 bed semi for under 600k.

Essentially I don't want to move to a mini-London!

Please can anyone pls help with areas and schools etc?

Thanks so much!

Anyone....pls... :)

I used to live in Wheatley, that was really nice and I think within your budget.

Somewhere like this?

Oxford's traffic 'calming' measures coming in would stop me living there and could cause major problems to your commuting plan.
Oxford city council HATES car owners.

Thanks

Oh dear.... thanks for the heads up

How far are you happy to commute? I've recently moved to Abingdon, south Oxfordshire. It's a good balance for us, a proper town (we considered the villages but we are townies 😅) but not London huge or busy (ex-Londoner here). It has excellent schools and you can easily get a 4 bed for £600k. 30 mins to Headington, less out of rush hour.

I'm from Headington originally, my parents still live there and I now live in one of the surrounding area's - am happy to chat if you want x

We are also considering a move to Oxford so watching with interest.

@RudsyFarmer happy to chat to you too if it'll help x

Would love to live in Oxford…always assumed nothing for less than a £million .. I would like to channel my “ Inner Morse”

There are lots of houses for less than a million, mine certainly didn't cost anywhere near that! 🤣 us normal Oxford folk don't generally live in big grand houses 🤣

It's easy to channel your inner Morse/Endevour etc, and it is a beautiful city in the most part but the same as everywhere we have some less appealing places to live - but even these places are less affordable 😢

This^^

OP, just out of interest, you say you don't particularly like Oxford so what is it about Oxford that you dislike?

Headington is good.

Hiya
I just had to read my OP again!!! Sorry..what I mean is I don't like "the city" ....as in cities in general lol! Not Oxford specifically. I don't know Oxford hence hoping for guidance...would prefer to live in a quieter area with a village feel but would need to commute for the job and from some of these posts it sounds like driving and traffic is an issue there....

There are a lot of absolutely beautiful villages surrounding Oxford.. but yes traffic is an issue.
I'm in West Oxfordshire so not city centre (couldn't afford that!) and for 600k you could have a very nice house in any of the villages near me. If you are happy to have a little commute Long Hanborough is nice (and has a train straight into Oxford..20 mins) Burford is gorgeous, but you have to go into Oxford on the A40 which is a pain at peak times. Eynsham is also lovely.. it's just off the A40 and has loads of social events and decent schols.

Headington itself is not particularly nice IMO but there are some good schools (especially if you are looking at independent ones)

I live in a village near Wheatley and commute into Headington for work. It’s a nightmare. The traffic is hideous, the city hates car drivers. The train station in Oxford is no where near Headington so that would mean an agonisingly slow bus journey across the city on top of the train commute. The park and ride service is ok, but bus routes seem to get cut and piled onto other services increasing the travel time and reducing the frequency. The city was not built to deal with the amount of people in it yet they insist on piling more and more people in it without doing anything about the infrastructure.

If you’re dead set on moving to Oxford I would definitely consider not moving to one of the outskirts villages. I have lived and grown up in two of them and thoroughly hated the whole experience.

You could always get the Oxford Tube from London to Headington, I used to work with someone who did that.

I used to work in Headington, the traffic is a nightmare but public transport is great

OP wants to leave London though.

I’ve never lived in Oxford but used to visit regularly when DH and I first started going out and I’d get the coach from London every other weekend. Strikes me as a good size city to live in or be near if you don’t like cities, parts of it are very pretty, it balances the town-gown thing better than Cambridge, there are lots of lovely villages around and you’re on the edge of the Cotswolds in one direction and easy reach of London in the other.

Headington always struck me as a bit of a dull suburb on the main drag in from London. There’s Thame and Wallingford on the Headington side of the city but I don’t really know what they’re like.

The comment about the local infrastructure not being able to cope resonates. traffic was always a bit of a nightmare when I was going regularly 15 years ago. Isn’t that the same everywhere though?

Commuting into Oxford is an absolute nightmare. I’d rather live in London, at least the public transport is functional.

I've lived in both London and Oxford and still visit both regularly. Oxford/Headington are most definitely not a 'mini London' however I completely agree with the PPs on the traffic issues which have got worse.

I love Oxford and would love to live there again if I could afford it however Headington is a boring suburb with lots of student housing and not much of a community feel, it also doesn't feel anything like the historic (and very beautiful) centre so you don't really feel like you're in Oxford there. Some of the West Oxfordshire places recommended to you are lovely but completely the wrong side for commuting to Headington.

The best way of living in Oxford is somewhere that is within walking or cycling (everyone cycles!) distance of work and school. If you're car dependent it is pretty miserable and as PPs have said the council are bringing in ridiculous sounding new traffic measures which will make it worse.

Oxford I think is also tricky for schooling - it has some excellent private schools but the state options are quite mixed. Primary is generally fine but secondary is not so good imo (but don't have recent experience)

In terms of housing, £600k is a relatively small budget for Oxford for what you're looking for. Oxford housing is not that far off London prices while the salaries are much lower. In Headington/close by you'd be looking at a terraced house or ex student house for that with tiny garden. Lots of the properties are quite run down/poorly maintained or badly converted to squeeze in as many 'bedrooms' as possible as used for student accommodation. Avoid Cowley/Blackbird Leys area as that's the roughest area of Oxford (doesn't compare to rough areas of London but not somewhere I'd want to bring up children).

I'm sounding quite negative about Oxford - as I said I love it as a place but would only want to live in the town again if I could afford central north Oxford (£2m +)

If your work is inside the ring road then I would try to buy a house also inside the ring road. Then you can cycle. My sister lives in Marston and it's great. Really good green space. Good schools.

But you might struggle on that budget.

Iffley fields is lovely, great community spirit. You can cycle to headington (you will get lovely calf muscles from the hill as I did when living on the aptly named hill top road 😁)

Oh the snob levels. Headington is nice, it has some good Primary schools, and a Secondary that seems to do well enough for it's students - it's not a sink school. The traffic calming measures are not quite what they seem, ignore the hyperbolic posters. It's a small city, you could live in Marston and easily get to a job in Headington, especially if you cycle. If you want quieter, try Risinghurst or Sandhills which are neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Headington. (Bus service to the latter two a bit dire however.)