Cost of living in London

[BratinghamPalace]

Sorry to put this here and I know this has been done before BUT..... we may be moving to London, 3 dcs, 6,4,2. Barnes seems good for schools and distance to office. Desperately need help on cost of living in London? We will earn in dollars but spend in Sterling so I need to figure out if we can afford to move. Any help much appreciated. Time is critical!

"Beer - around £4 per pint"

In Sheffield you pay nearer £3 for a pint of beer

London is a great city btw, and especially with DCs IMO. I hope this thread isn't putting you off!

A friend of mine moved from here back to her native Dublin, and it was then that she realised how lucky we are in London, there's loads set up for parents and kids.

Most of our our museums and art galleries are free. (Went to the Science Museum with DS the other week, he loved it!)

Children travel for free on all London transport until they're 10, and on buses till 15.

There will be free activities fir children locally, especially the younger ones (toddler groups, singing sessions at the library, etc) which will be a good way to meet other parents.

I don't know what your status will be, but children in the UK are offered 15 hours free childcare a week with a provider of your choice (nursery or childminder) from the age of 3, until they attend school. Worth checking of you're eligible for this.

I agree about not getting a car. I didn't learn to drive until I moved away from London. I would just hire one if you want to visit other parts of the UK.

Montybojangles I guessed that, but it was the first link and I was just a bit worried that if you weren't prepared, the prices at Waitrose might be a bit of a shock!

Lovely food though :)

Sorry I didn't mean to sound like I was having a go at you Montybojangles, I hope it didn't come across like that.

No not at all, was just trying to give a range :)
Used to use the local Turkish shop myself when lived in north London, veg and meat were great, and much better value

Food at those small shops is great, in general food is expensive nationwide London is not that expensive as food costs are the same across the country.

Fares are cheaper in London than many provincial towns in terms of value per mile - for example if I and two children wanted to take the bus into town here we could have a return journey for approximately £12, the same money would get us day travelcards across London for any bus or tube we liked.
The only thing that is eye- wateringly expensive in London are the rents.

The equivalent standard of food is generally less expensive in Waitrose than it is in ASDA. Plus ASDA are thieving bastards.

I digress

Just a suggestion, the great thing about working in Hammersmith and why there are so many offices there, is the fact that it's really well served by the tube. Barnes and Sheen are south of the river and not on the tube. Getting over Hammersmith Bridge can be really slow. If your DH considers a tube journey to work you will find masses of areas open to you which are equally family oriented but which are much less pricey than Barnes. Houses in Barnes are £millions which tells you so is everything else. Forgive me, but since it sounds like you are budgeting carefully, you may want to look at areas where you get more for your money. Look at the Piccadilly line and central line to the west- loads of choice.

London is a wonderful city everything is on your doorstep or very close by unlike LA

Barnes is lovely quite and feels like are not in london. Putney, Richmond, Wimbledon, fulham, Blackheath and Clapham are all very nice

You will probably find properties here are smaller and rents higher for what get. Shopping some things are cheaper mostly more expensive, I think there is more choice here shopping (great cheese and bread in all supermarkets), clothes wise a little more expensive shoes far better here :) the cost of living compared to my family who live in la it is more expensive here. Eating out is more expensive here and so is going to the cinema not sure about childcare and public transport fares are very high but I do not know anyone in la who uses public transport

There is so much to do that is easy to get too and you can walk around central London and then along the river to get home (well depending where you live) though it wil seem very crowded, I always think la seems a little empty as it is never crowded

You will love it here :)

Barnes is great, I live a stones throw away. You may not need a car. Hammersmith is just a bus ride away. There are so many places within a bus ride (or cycle ride), so it is true you may not need a car, at least not to start with. And you dont have to feel like you need a Lexus, BMW, or Audi just because some of your neighbours do. Driving a Peugeot or a Citroen is fine, and bought second hand, just around 5k.
There are great schools in/around Barnes. Even bigger choice if you are Catholic and your dc are baptized.
Heating can be costly, we spent 1,8k on a drafty Edwardian end of terrace we rented last year. Council tax was 2k per year, in the borough of Richmond for a 3 bed property. Water around £500 per year.

Are you renting furnished or unfurnished?

I agree absolutely with WorkingItOutAsIGo, the smart move to save money has to be on accommodation, and so it's worth giving serious consideration to areas served by the tube lines to your work place. This is cunning, and thinking like a Londoner

Barnes is fabulous. Lived there for 5 years and moved away in 2008. Rent is expensive, primary schools good, secondary schools not so good. As there's a bus lane up castlenau it's quite quick to get the bus into hammersmith, can be slow getting back. 20 minutes into Waterloo on the train and near Richmond which is lovely. Mortlake and Sheen are slightly cheaper, but about another 15 minutes on the bus. Ideally you want to be able to get the 209 into hammersmith, it runs about every 5 minutes all day. Rent is very expensive, all other bills similar to what you pay elsewhere to be honest, though council tax in Richmond borough is a lot. Rent has gone up loads since we left, our last flat (2 bed garden flat) was £1000pcm when we left London, is now up for £1500pcm. If we could afford it I would move back tomorrow.

I live in zone three and LOVE my car. But then I drive out to Surrey and Berkshire etc a lot - I like to get out of London and the car is best for that IMO

The Secondary school is on the up. Latest ofsted is Good. More local people are choosing RPA now, and future generations are seriously considering it. They are doing extensive work, 10 million on new facilities. I would not discount it!

There are pockets of cheaper houses on the southern fringes of White Hart Lane and "Little Chelsea", and also on the North side of Upper Richmond road, south of the Train lines (with bus 33 to Hammersmith).

Which secondary is that? Is it the one in sheen? I did some teaching there about 5 years ago, am glad it's improving.

Barnes is lovely but I agree about possibly looking at other places connected to Hammersmith by tube if you want cheaper accommodation e.g. on the Piccadilly line to the west you could try Ealing (not sure if that's really any cheaper) or go Northwest. The likes of eastcote, rayners lane, S Harrow on the picadilly line are definitely cheaper. They don't really have as much character as Barnes, Sheen, Castlenau etc though. If you love that area and really want to live around there you could just go a bit further down from Barnes and look at Roehampton. This will be a few extra minutes on the bus but could be cheaper.

It does sound like Barnes is nice though, judging by the responses on this thread! (North-east Londonder, me!)

*Londoner!

Barnes is lovely and green but expensive - I suspect if you're looking for a 3 or 4 bed house to rent it will cost upwards of £2,500 a month. As QuintessentialOldDear said, houses in the UK are costly to heat as our winter can linger rather - more modern houses will have better insulation etc so in theory be cheaper. You can shop around for the best gas and electricity tariff deals and living in london will be as expensive as you want it to be - as others have said, the primary schools in Barnes are good so if going down the local state primary route for your 6 and 4 yaer old, it will save you a lot of money. If you're looking at independent schools, they can be eye wateringly expensive in London.

Hammersmith is very very easy to get to by car,tube or bus.

You could easily commute from Kingston, New Malden, Esher and other nice areas that are not as central to London, and it would cost a lot less.

Well there is:

[http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-24792405.html This near Roehampton Lane]] and this and further up this - and far from any decent primary school.

I would not recommend Roehampton proper. You dont give up an LA lifestyle and bring your kids to London to explore such areas. We have to be mindful that there is going to be a massive culture shock. As students, we can come to London and "slum it" - heck I lived in a warehouse when I came here - but as parents, we need to make the transition easier for the kids, not worse. If you come from a country where the standards of housing for average families seem like London Luxury, it is hard to start saving on accommodation and settle in a Roehampton High Rise, or Park Royal - however grand the name sounds.

OP has done her research, found an area with a reasonable commute for her husband, decent state primaries, and in a pleasant location (no doubt consulting with our good selves months ago.... )

Or in East Sheen (more affordable than those above)

Queens Road - limited stock in East Sheen right now!

Yes Teacher, thats the one!

My first link again: This near Roehampton Lane

Roehampton is not a particularly nice area either.

You'll have to decide if the extra rent you pay in Barnes for benefits of living in lovely Barnes outweigh the cost. There are cheaper areas of Barnes for example the Stillingfleet estate - what would be called a project in the US but believe me NOTHING like a US project, nice houses with big gardens - many privately owned now and a lot of young families. From there you can walk to Hammersmith.

You can buy winter clothes cheaply in Hammersmith Primark in fact a lot of cheap shopping in H'smith including TK Maxx, Savers, Poundland which can really help keep costs down. Heating is a big expense especially since our last winter lasted about 9 months, if you want to cut the cost you need a modern, well-insulated house.