to want to move to London next year

[GitAwfMayLend]

Hate living in Gloucestershire. It's bollocks.

I work in Swindon - loads of Londoners commute down here.

DP can work anywhere.

DD has got GCSEs and would need a college place, but she would certainly be up for it (has the wanderlust like me and DP).

I love living in London (with DH and DD). Came to live here having been raised in villages in Kent and have never left (aside from stints in Oxford and the US). It's buzzy, close to all sorts of free and cultural things, loads to do but very quiet too (where we live).

If North London is your bag but not expensive places like Hampstead and Highgate, Islington or Crouch End, then Hornsey is not as expensive as Crouch End but still quite nice area and close to tube and overground. There's also Noel Park conservaton area - nice-ish and residential and again close to great public transport. Also Hampstead Garden Suburbs is reasonably priced compared to Highgate and Golders Green that it sits between.

ooh where is Noel Park exactly Bssh?

I guess I'm just used to the convenience LadyClarice . It only takes me 20 minutes to get to Oxford Circus so an hour would feel unreasonably long to me!

Aminula do you think people who don't like hackney don't know anything about house prices? Because it has expensive houses it has to be desirable? How simplistic. No wonder people get ripped off buying substandard housing in shi*ty areas if it's that easy to attract them.

Lol at this thread

I am the queen of London commutes (don't ask) and whatever you do, don't move to anywhere other than west London if you are still having to commute to Swindon or you will die a slow death

Re parts of London - as you can see, there is a real divide between inner and outer London. A lot of people don't consider outer London still London but it is and can offer v good value for money!

We lived in hammersmith/Stamford brook/goldhawk lane for years and it was, without doubt, the most convenient place I have ever lived in

Don't rule out outer London though - lots of value and generally more space and more families

Ps just to avoid confusion, I regard inner London as zone 1 and 2 and outer London as zone 3-6

Serenity - it's a lovely area. It really is. It has a huge park, and a common, and it still holds the shape from its village past: winding lanes, churches under shady trees, pretty houses. As I'm sure you know, Pepys writes about taking a carriage out to Hackney for the country air.

I was hunting for a photo that showed the "villagey" bit of Hackney, which is in the deep East - and (very) near to the bit of E. London (Bethnal Green) that GetOrf was drawn by in her OP. That's, literally, just down the road.

The price, sadly, is because the balance between "Oooh - cute villagey feel, etc" and "Eek! Hackney" has tipped towards the former. And the Olympics.

Zone 2 isn't inner London. It's for people who can't afford zone 1 but still want to make those in zone 3 feel inferior :)

Spats about how close to central London you are are a London tradition to be embraced. People who either grew up in London or live in zone 1 never usually bother with it though.

I used to work in hackney. Mare street specifically. Eeekkkkk

Oh, and what the picture doesn't show is that it has a great deal of glossy stylishness too. Lots of shops selling "lovely" things. So it's villagey, with a sharper edge of focussed urban chic. That's part of what people pay for in "shitty" areas.

I love London's many "villages". They have very individual characters.

I lived in Hackney for 8 years. There are definitely nicer parts of London, especially if you need to commute out westwards GetOrf.

Get me though! I live almost light years from "focused urban chic", so this is fantasy-thread for me!

I can't believe I've only just found this thread, I've been thinking like this all day.

I'm originally from Glos but lived 20 years in SWLondon; Clapham, Battersea, Tooting. We've just moved to Cheltenham last year.
I have very mixed feelings and although I agree with you Get and Pia, about Gloucester and Chelt, I can't help feeling defensive.

However, London is very special. I'd move back if my situation was different and maybe when Ds is older and if I am richer I will.
I think if your DD is 16 then she will love you forever for moving back now! All people I ever met who grew up there love it.

I love Tooting but would try anywhere North or East

Whatever you do, rent first and live in the area to see what it's like. A couple of streets can make all the difference and you won't find out until you actually live there.
I didn't realise Acton was rough, maybe I'm rough!

I have lived on the borders of Hackney/Bethnal Green for 10 years. Herewith my thoughts - I WILL ONLY MOVE FROM THIS PARADISE IF I INHERIT A CASTLE IN SCOTLAND

there are extraordinary parks, amazing musuems, galleries, restaurants from the £5 a pop amazing Turkish grills to £100 a head 6 course taster menus, food markets, flower markets, jazz clubs, comedy clubs, chic boutiques and grimy vintage shops, Brick Lane, walks along the canal to Islington one way or Limehouse the other. It's walking distance from St Paul's and from Fleet St if you're so inclined, there is a proper community spirit, musicians and civil servants and teachers and artists and everyone and anyone mixes together cheerily, your children will relish exposure to every culture, every kind of food stall, cafe, grocery and religious festival. London is the greenest capital city in the world (I fink!) and Hackney one of the greenest boroughs. Homerton Hospital is on the up and I have better access to NHS dentistry, an emergency walk in clinic (last year I cut the tip of my finger off, twice ) and a briliant GP than anywhere I have ever lived.

Transport - fuck fretting about the Tube - that's for surburban types . An endless fleet of buses can get me to London Bridge in 20 minutes and to Waterloo in 45. And you can walk, too - it's only 3 miles to Holborn and much of that is along the canal.

My 70 year old mother feels safer walking alone here in the evenings than she does in the small Essex town where she lives now. I feel saved and even loved here - recognised by shop keepers and the greasy spoon

It is the absolute dog's bollocks, as someone mentioned before.

Obviously being inner city there's dirt and graffiti and what have you, but IMVHO it is SO much more important to have a vibrant, thrilling, brilliant culture, exposure to as many kinds of people and as many wonderful experiences as possible, than to have (for instance) a neatly gravelled driveway and expensive kitchens. Chacon a son gout and all that, but I would never live anywhere else (and i've lived a spit from both Hampstead Heath and Crouch End).

LONDON ROCKS. EAST LONDON ROCKS MOST

GetOrf PM me if you want more deets.

Oh no LadyClarice I was agreeing with you Zone 3 on the east side is much further out than zone 3 on the west. I think because we have more tube network and less dragons

No, North or West!!! your teenager will soon discover the thrills of the East but, I think its for the fancy free. Dont you all diss the outer zones, it takes me twenty minutes to get to Kings Cross from zone 4

god that was long. too much coffee and Silk Cut!

(And anywhere outside Zone 2 isn't London. I'm joking JOKING!)

Agree with fox that if you commute to Swindon that you need to look in W.London or at least anywhere that is an easy commute to your place of work. It would be nuts to live in Greenwich/Blackheath or anywhere in SE London. Live within one train/tube line of Swindon or if you drive, avoid driving through London, which makes Hackney a bad choice.

Also consider how easy it is for your dd to get to her college.

In London, if you live in the wrong location for transport links, you could be so near yet so far. You don't want to make commuting any more stressful than it usually is (speaking as a Londoner).

come to Richmond!

One thing to bear in mind - if you move to an outer London suburb (eg because it is more affordable) it may prove to be more "suburban" than where you currently live. Often very limited in what's in the "village" centres & can take ages to get into centre London.

Personally I prefer larger towns/small cities which are a short commute into London but have plenty going on locally. I would like to live in London again some day but no further out than zone 2...

Agree with fox. If you're commuting to Swindon you need to be on the West side of London. There is a special time/space continuum for central London that makes travelling 5 miles eight times longer than travelling 5 miles anywhere else in the UK.

Is it Paddington or Waterloo for Swindon? I've covered off most Waterloo nice places but for Paddington consider Queens Park, Maida Vale and Kensal Green (not Rise!).

how many of you in zone 2 have got children, just out of curiousity? (Im a nosey cow)

trying to create a bit of Richmond community.