To leave this rural idyll for the Big Smoke.?

[QueeferSutherland]

Am I?

I live in a wee village in Hampshire, minutes walk from an "excellent/outstanding" school, a short drive from friends & family, but DH & I are thinking of moving to London.

Neither of us have lived there, but it would be good for DH's job, and I'd like to be, well, nearer stuff.

Are we mad?

I agree with Highlandspringerdog - we are not wealthy, oooooh, no (but admittedly quite 'mature' parents and bought into the property market when it was not so difficult) but manage to have a nice garden, live within catchment of a small one-form entry 'Outstanding' primary in an area with a lovely community spirit.
I think it depends what sort of life you want. I would dessicate in Surrey, I just would. Other people run screaming from London. We had our dinner on Southwark Bridge on Saturday night (the bridge was closed off and lined with tables with white linen cloths and home made herb decorations, and everyone bought food from fantstic stalls and sat with strangers for the Thames Festival Feast) and I couldn't get over how lucky I am to live here and what a brilliant city london is. I love it that DS has access to so much culture and community, art and experience.

But out of interest, what does everyone do for secondaries schools? Where we live in SW London, we have a range of primaries, most of which are fine but there are just no state secondaries that aren't either (a) assessed or (b) religious - most are a mixture of the two. Most are also single sex, which I'm not keen on.
The good secular state secondaries seem to have impossible criteria (Graveney/Tiffin/Lady Margaret etc) or strict catchment (ADT). The poor secondaries are not just poor but are in special measures in rundown buildings with emergency heads and appalling truancy rates.

Everyone I know either goes private or leaves London. Where do people on here go?

14 hr days?

i think that's what you need to rethink not where you live.

Staranise, Graveney is easy to get into if you live in catchment - it's only the small allowance for selective places that are hard.
Kingsdale - improving very fast with a visionary new Head
Haberdashers in New Cross, if you live in SE London
Dunraven - streamed comp, good results given that it takes a representative comprehensive intake
Elm Green - parent-led streamed comp, lovely new building.
Chestnut Grove - another 'outstanding' school following transformation and doing well

A selection of schools that many educated and aspirational parents are very happy with. I'm not an expert on other areas.

Perhaps we'll have to move back to Streatham then! Elm Green in particular looks fab.
My brother is catchment for Graveney but has heard all sorts of problems about getting in - but you know what Chinese whispers abound re. schools...

Staranise - In Muswell Hill we are fortunate to have both Fortismere and Alexandra Park Secondary Schools as well as several outstanding primary schools which are not affiliated with a church.

It really depends where you want to live and where you are coming from. If the OP's husband is working 14 hour days and earns a good salary, I assumed they had a 4 bedroom with a nice garden. If you want to live in a 'not scary bit of London' (judging by the comments from my friends who live outside and find most of London quite frightening), then a similar sort of house in a nice area is going to be £££. But if it is a 3 bed HA house, then that's different. That wasn't in the OP though.

Where I live, 2 bedroom flats cost £400k+.

All depends on what you want, the sort of place you're happy living IMO :)

I don't think it's so much that a 'family' house in London costs over £500,000 (assuming you are the kind of family that at some point will have 2+ teenagers crashing around). It's more that you could take that £500K-£800K elsewhere and get something that is much better value for money. Or you could spend £200K-£300K and have a house. Maybe even a house with a garage. And a sea view. And a big garden. And even somewhere to get decent coffee.

London is nice - but is it really that much better than everywhere else? To me the answer is no, but other people live differently and their answer would be different.

Other places are as nice but there's so much work here and it's so much better paid (depending on what you do of course. Yes, we will have a nicer house/more accessible school but we will still have the same mortgage and either the same wage but long commute or local job and much lower wage. Everything is a compromise...

TBH, at the moment I would rather move out and have the nicer house and lower wage - I hope I still feel that way when we do!

The key is to find a job that isn't tied to London. You get paid more in London, but not that much more.

Yes, you are

It's worth having a think about future work, too. Can you progress and / or get alternative work in the same location? I know people who have very nice lives in regional or more rural locations, but once the kids are in schools, it becomes so much harder to keep moving, so you may find yourself in a cul-de-sac career or salary wise - or else needing to uproot children on a regular basis.

DP and I have very little choice - it would be almost impossible for us both to find the jobs we have now outside London, let alone both be able to progress.

Lucky we are happy living here!

Being close to a v good hospital is also important for us.

I would hate to live somewhere where you needed a car to visit friends, or go to the cinema, or even shops.

But there are so many factors, and every individual family has a different relationship to each of those factors.

Depends on the job - DH is very specialised and his salary would halve, even if he could find a job elsewhere. I'm freelance so I would be ok but I earn a pittance. We will probably still do it but it's swings and roundabouts...

What SassySusan said right at the beginning. And I only lived there with DH pre-kids. Can't possibly imagine having the same standard of living there with kids that we do now up north. The London weighting/extra job opportunities etc don't cover the extra cost of housing and travel so you need to really think about it. I would certainly live in the posh bits and be VERY happy, but I'd neeed loads of money and I'm never going to have that!

i wouldnt move to london but especially not if i didnt really have the money to enjoy it. i very much doubt youl get a ha house in london from where you are. you could be waiting untill your children have long grown up and moved out. id enjoy ur young fa,ily where you are.

14hrs is the norm for chefs, engineers etc

Woodrose thanks...sounds lovely but we won't be moving anytime soon at those prices!

FWIW we live 40 miles out of London (North Herts).

DH commutes to Kings Cross 40 min train journey, our local station is a 5 min walk away. How long do those living in London take to get to work on the tube or bus?

Local nursery primary and secondary all outstanding and a 4 bed detached in our town can be had for under £400K.

Childminders here charge £3.50 an hour.

Season ticket £3K per annum.

OP, what time of night does your DH finish work? Would it be after the tubes have finished?

(not that I can remember when the last one is from years ago - is it 12.30 ish?)

My experience is not as SassySusan describes, as it happens!
Apart from anything else, places that used to be suburban backwaters of drear and bad greek restaurants are now buzzing and full of tempting possibilities - East Dulwich, for example. (But it's also become very expensive, of course!). London is changing.

I was talking to a friend the other night about choosing places to live, and why I still feel that, of all the places I can afford, Brixton is ACE. On the tube, incredibly close to Central London, fabulous park (with Lido), brilliant independent muti-screen cinema, great shopping, a huge recreation centre, and improving. It's weak point is schools, but even then, if you pick the right street there a a couple of top notch choices. I don't live in brixton any more, but miss it. It has incredible charisma, fine dining, and culture and cool to knock Hampstead, Dulwich, Kensington or Chelsea into the last millenium.

But many people will write Brixton off as 'not nice'.

I have a friend who lives in the Dulwich/Herne Hill area, and the choice is stark - send child to failing local school, or move out of London. Or win lottery to buy house in decent primary catchment area.

Went to East Dulwich and really did not see what all the fuss is about, the main shopping street had some nice shops/restaurants mixed in with tyre showrooms and the like.

Pink Elephant - where do you live? Sounds Amazing! Takes DH about same time to get to work from here.

FWIW, I would LOVE to move out to the country - preferably Northumberland or Cumbria, but DH's job is tied to London

PinkElephant73 - if your friends moved over the other side of Brockwell park to the area StreathamHilary mentions in her 13.53 post, the houses would be cheaper than in Herne Hill and close to excellent primaries! And Rosendale, in Herne Hill / West Dulwich, a big community primary is well loved and 'Outstanding' primary! But it does vary within small margins of locality, and if London isn't your thing, then it isn't!

Blu thanks for that - I'll suggest they check that out. Is Rosendale oversubscribed - as I think they were aware of one good school nearby but v difficult to get into? They are not keen on moving out as both very metropolitan in tastes.

I love Brixton blu but I wouldn't want to live there any more. Mind you I am v old

Hey QueeferSutherland (just got yr name as I typed it out...)

Well, Lady Biscuit, I'm typing this on the edge of Crystal palace, :o) and this is our third place in 13 yrs in the same sort of area.

We're on the border of Crystal Palace/ Forest Hill/ Dulwich: on the edge of SE26/SE21/SE22/SE23. We have Dulwich woods, part of the Great North Wood across the road from our 1960s semi (I know, I know, it's hardly an Edwardian cottage on the edge of Hampstead, but needs must). I LOVE my area. Lots of parks (Crystal palace and dulwich); great transport- new overland ELL tube line, my local train from Sydenham Hill is every 15 min to Victoria in 12 minutes. My kids went to lovely preschools, and now at local state primary, 2 outstanding Ofsteds in 4 yrs...but not yet boden-esque East Dulwich...quite chilled, no chat about children's reading levels at school gate :o)

Have a look at house prices, OP, and see what you think. And best wishes for whatever you choose.