Cambridge or London?

[carolineofcanton]

I previously posted about moving to Britain. Me and my family are relocating from abroad, and we were advised to consider setting up in London first. We have narrowed our choices down to Cambridge and London. We have visited both cities as a family, but we have no idea what they're like to live in. DH studied in England (not London) and has been to London many times, both as a student and later in his working life.

If London, what are some nice, family-friendly areas? We're from a city that is very safe and have heard that parts of London are dangerous. Not sure if exaggerated. What areas to avoid as a family? Our dream is to live in a house with a garden. I'm not a driver so good public transport is a must or I will have to earn a new licence/rely on my husband as chauffeur Does Cambridge have good transport links into london?

What is your budget? Either for buying or renting.
Where will you be working? If London then where? It makes sense to factor that into your decision too

We don't know what a suitable budget is for a "nice" area. Maybe 600k-800k?

Would get more space for budget on outskirts of London, right?

I adore Cambridge but I’ve always been here so I’m probably not the best person to ask!

Is all of Cambridge nice or are there areas to look out for? I've only visited the centre (e.g. King's chapel)

How many bedrooms are you looking for? For somewhere nice in Cambridge you will definitely be looking too end of your budget. Worth it though! Fabulous city to live in. It does have a train to London that takes less than an hr.
May be worth looking at Milton. Lovely village strapped to the top of Cambridge, New Cambridge North station direct into London. More bang for your buck house price wise. Ely north of that is truly beautiful but the train changes once now. Not sure how much that matters to you!

Thanks, very helpful. Is Milton easy to get to schools? And how expensive is the commute to London? Might be worth DH finding another job in Cambridge

We are family of four, three bedrooms should be enough.

Looked on property website, can afford 4 bedrooms in Milton! Can use extra bedroom as a guest room or study...

Milton has a nice primary school but the secondary school is usually Impington Village College. There is a school bus for that. Histon and Impington are better served with links to the city and probably better for teens.

That is a very broad question op!

Does your husband have a job to go to, if so where does he need to commute to?

When you say London do you mean suburbs or do you want to be in the centre?

How old are your kids? Will they be going to private or state school?

Milton has good links too - number 2 bus, park and ride and the cycle bridge, plus the North station just over the a14.

Cambridge and London are chalk and cheese. London is massive too so you could have a completely different lifestyle in one part from another.

What are your parameters? Work?

Milton has good public transport links on paper. It's much less well served than the bigger Histon/Impington who have the guided bus as well. Using the public transport is a big time investment and it isn't very reliable. It's not like London with a bus every ten minutes.

You say you don't drive, but can you ride a bicycle? In Cambridge, loads of people cycle around. Probably a higher percentage of cyclists there than anywhere else in the UK.

I much prefer Cambridge but whether commuting from Cambridge to a job in London is viable depends on the location in London and Cambridge. Its also very expensive to commute and can be delays esp in winter. If it's say by Cambridge station and work is by Kings Cross commute maybe a bit over an hour a day each way door to door. If it's a distance from either can be 2 hours each way and some times tubes can have nowhere to sit. Its worth testing the commute.

Season ticket Cambridge to London is 5,428

The main Cambridge station has very little car parking and it is very difficult to get - you need to arrive early (5-6am) to get it.

Many people who commute down to London drive down to Royston station, has car parking and cheaper season ticket. If you are going to do that you'd want to live south of the city (Milton is north).

The trains are about every half an hour. They are disrupted quite frequently - particularly at the moment - probably once every couple of weeks.

I don't know about the Cambridge North station - plenty of bike parking from what I can see.

In terms of areas of Cambridge itself rather than villages,

Chesterton is mainly post grad and academic housing plus some working class families

Arbury is a large council estate next to the King's Hedges area; both are usually described as close to science park by estate agents as both estates have a bad reputation.

Central Cambridge is lovely but very expensive.

I live in Cambridge. I wouldn't recommend it - traffic is terrible, public transport is pricey and unreliable. Train is good to London but you're stuck if there's train strikes! There's also no good shopping centres or near by good homeware stores. The closest IKEA is over an hour away, decent B&Q is 45 minutes drive etc. There are lovely parks etc in Cambridge to walk in and the river lovely in the summer but in the winter it's really not great.

You can't even compare the two. Cambridge is a small city, and London is an enormous city made up of small centres within it. It really depends what you need in terms of access to work, shops, schools etc. Of course parts of London are "dangerous" it's a city, but most of what happens is related to gang violence, people known to each other etc. If you can't drive, I would probably suggest a part of London with good public transport. Can you rent for a while whilst you look at different areas and find a house to buy? I only know south London but you could get a 3 bed house in somewhere like West Norwood, Crystal Palace, Herne Hill. Bear in mind the cost of commuting within London is low compared to travelling from Cambridge, so you could afford to spend more on a house, if your DH needs to work in London. I assume you are from the country you are moving from - you will likely find London much more diverse in where other people are from, than Cambridge. My friends who aren't from the UK all prefer London for that reason.

There are also places on the train line in-between but there are two train lines into London from Cambridge, one to Kings Cross, one to Liverpool Street. On the Liverpool Street route one Saffron Walden is lovely and about 2 miles from Audley End station, good schools and some nice shops and some local events like annual fireworks. Bishops Stortford is like a bigger, not quite as nice version but on the train line. But really depends where job is in London and in winter especially if train line goes down you are a bit stuffed, say once a month. If you have a job can WFH that's OKish but can be an issue if not. Also still quite pricey commute. But beautiful houses with gardens in Saffron Walden and a lot cheaper than Cambridge centre.

So much useful information thank you

Anyone know anything about Epsom?

It would probably be a good starting point to say whereabouts in London you need to commute to and how much your max commute time would ideally be (in terms of time)
Then posters can advise accordingly.
For example Cambridge trains go into King's Cross and Farringdon, but Epsom trains terminate at Waterloo. (I think)
getting from one side of London to the other - even centrally might add another 30 - 45 min to your journey.

I lived in London for 30 and it is still a fantastic city.

I enjoyed visiting Cambridge but found it rather boring after a few days...

They are very different places and it all depends on where you are planning to work, the type of lifestyle you want and so on.

I would try renting in London maybe first to see how you get on and then decide on where you might want to settle and buy a property rather than jumping into buying something straight away. It gives you time to work out exactly where you would want to live permanently.

With the ambition to have a garden, Cambridge and the surroundings are probably more likely to give more choice.

That said, a few people working in Cambridge I know, moved to Finsbury Park for the train line and (in some cases) a nice bit of garden. I also know of streets in Hampstead that come with a garden - and in that case, you get the huge green space of the Heath etc nearby too.