to ask people who live in a house in Central London what it's like?

[manicinsomniac]

I mean an actual family 2+ bedroom house, not a flat or an apartment or a divided up house etc.

I'm absolutely fascinated. Living in London is my absolute pipe dream but, even though I'm on a good salary, I am a single mum of 3 and would only be able to afford a tiny shoebox in an area of London that would make it worth moving to (I'm only 35 mins on train now so now worth going to zone 4+). Whereas I can rent a lovely little 2.5 bed house where I am.

I don't see much in the way of full houses when I walk around central London (we go a lot) but was walking down a street of them today and the people looked so normal. Not rich at all. And the houses looked pretty run to be honest. It made me think.

This is pure curiosity but, if you do live in a zone 1/2 house, can I ask:
Which area it's in
What the area is like to live in
Whether you think it's worth any sacrifices you may be making

and, if it's not too personal (sure it is for many and I completely respect that) whether you consider yourself affluent and, if not, how on earth you manage it?

I have to admit I'm so jealous!

[ElasticPants]

You don't have to be rich to own a house in zone 2, you just have to be middle aged.

I'm a homeowner with no mortgage and not middle aged.

[honeyroar]

Absolutely Waitingsanta, each to their own. You sound like you're very happy and in a lovely house/area. Enjoy!

[PirateSmile]

Has anybody who lives in an actual house in actual central London posted an answer yet?

[Binkybix]

I'm also a zone 2 house dweller, but honeyroar's set up sounds lovely to me

[Moonriver1]

Pirate

There have been posters on here who live in actual houses in actual central London. I live in zone 1 and live in a three bed terraced house. Someone upthread lives in NW1, that's central London right by Regent's park.

Re moving out 'for the kids'. I agree with others, there it doesn't make much sense to me. My teenagers love being able to go out on there own by foot, tube and bus since the age of about 10 or 11.

In fact it's now they are all growing up and getting to university/moving out of home stage that I like the idea of moving somewhere bigger and with more space for their friends, girlfriends or boyfriends, future kids so they have a lovely base to come home to in their 20s and 30s and beyond.

[PirateSmile]

I hadn't managed to read the whole thread but what I had seen was lots of posters who lived in flats in East Dulwich

[MissHooliesCardigan]

I'm so glad you started this thread because I can't tell anyone in real life apart from my parents that we've just bought a five bedroom house outright in zone 2 - a stones throw from Peckham Rye park. We just got incredibly lucky as we're certainly not affluent (both nurses). We bought a 2 bed house in 1996 for £75,000 and sold it 5 years later for £200,000 then bought our last 3 bed house for £275,000 which we've just sold for £795,000.
We're in a newish town house in a cul de sac where literally the only sound is birds singing but we can still be in central London in 25 minutes.
I love the fact that, at the weekend, there are literally hundreds of things we could do. I love the culture- of course it's great to have the South Bank and the west end and the Royal Opera house but I love the way that art and culture are just built into everyday life- the pavement art, the murals, the buskers, greasy spoon cafes that double up as art galleries, trees sculpted into statues, people randomly practicing circus skills in the park. I was on the tube a few weeks ago and a male choir jumped on and broke into song.
It's brilliant that teenagers can get around under their own steam for free and have so much to do. IME, London is incredibly child friendly. I'm very happy if any of you want to come and stay- I love showing people round. I've lived here for nearly 25 years and the novelty still hasn't worn off.

[DyslexicScientist]

Well done miss , I'll see you in the new year 🏨🛀

[Maybejustme]

Until 3 weeks ago, we lived in a 2 bedroom flat on the northern ege of Clerkenwell - just near Sadler's Wells. We have just moved to the countryside. DD is two and I loved it in town. There were lots of families with kids the same age as DD, lovely, interesting places to go, great parks and museums, etc. We could pop to the zoo or the transport museum just for a couple of hours. We had a little garden and a car parking space. However, once DD was born we didn't really make the most of the grown up cultural stuff London had to offer. I was just too tired to go to the theatre every night. Also, the part of town where we lived was fantastic on maternity leave and great while DD was little but it didn't seem so great for older kids, which was partly why we moved. The schools in Clerkenwell were a bit mixed. It is very lovely in the countryside but we have rented the flat out rather than sold it in case we have made a huge mistake!

[Moonriver1]

Miss

We bought our house for £600k 6 years ago, it's now worth 1.3m!

Of course the massive downside to our good fortune, is how prohibitive it is for younger people to get on housing ladder in London, very depressing. And the 'downside' for us (in inverted commas as I know how lucky we are) is that all our money is tied up in the house so to release money we will have to sell and move out at some point.

[girlguide123]

I live in west london (zone 3) and to me it's the best of both worlds. quite green round here & central london's within easy reach by tube or car

[Moonriver1]

Maybe genuine question, not criticism. Why do people move from London to the countryside rather than another town or city? If I moved from London I'd probably choose a town in Devon, Cornwall or Dorset.

[AnyoneButSanta]

We're in zone 2, 30 minutes on public transport from almost everywhere or a brisk hour's walk to Trafalgar Square. I'd echo pretty much everything that MissHooleysCardy said. Also as time moves on and the DC approach university age, being in London means they have the alternative of staying at home and studying at a wide range of institutions or going elsewhere if they want to move out.

[BeaufortBelle]

Agree with PirateSmile. We lived in zone 2 for nearly 30 years in a large but not grand house. We were/are what I regard as at the privileged end of very comfortable. The children had fabulous teenage years in London. We always thought we would downsize and move more central with a place in the country when they were bigger. We very nearly did it but instead moved Just 12 miles away to a large detached house with a beautiful garden. This provides plenty of space for holidays when we have a full house complete with boyfriends/girlfriends/elderly parents. We weren't cramped before but this I better. I think we just grew out of London and wanting easy access to the centre for social stuff and the traffic and the noise and seeing next door's smalls on the line. If we go to the opera or theatre we can still park near our old home and jump on a tube and it only takes 20/25 minutes to drive there - faster at midnight.

We do have friends in Central London who have whole houses (and rather grand ones) but they are mostly hedge fund owners, bankers, senior partners of magic circle firms. Only one family started with no inherited wealth - all the others had houses in Clapham, etc, 30 years or so ago purchased with trust fund money.

Funnily our house here left us with more than small change but in a funny way we feel better off and richer here and it is undeniably nicer day to day. I think we outgrew the "edge".

[originalmavis]

Actually our first home was a mews house the size of a rabbit hutch next to Hyde park.

Quite sweet apart from the tourists who would peer in at you as you sat at the kitchen table in your jammies having breakfast.

I swear I learned how to say 'ohhhh, people actually Iive in these' in several languages.

We are now small and central but can walk home from cinema, opera, dinner, museums etc. in Covent garden, shaftsbury ave, Chinatown, southbank, Oxford St, Kensington etc.

[Moonriver1]

I'm sure your house and area isn't 'scummy' Waving!

Mavis We live in Kings Cross.

We get constantly asked if we are joking when we say where we live and people, quite seriously, say they didn't realise you could actually live in Kings Cross. I point out we don't live in the station in case they have misunderstood! People are also very rude and ask us why we live in a dirty, crime ridden area with prostitutes on every corner. It's actually lovely where we are and a very nice street with little mews-style houses. It's a great positions and Kings Cross has so many fabulous restaurants etc and has completely changed over last few years for obvious reasons.

[Moonriver1]

Blimey I sounded like an estate agent then sorry

[ditherydora]

We used to rent a modern 2 bed in zone 2. It was great. Really handy and fabulous for getting to museums, South bank etc. Proximity to town meant we used buses a lot which I prefer. My sister has an enormous Victorian semi in Zone 2. I love it and get house envy whenever I visit! They ate well ofg but not loaded but being baby boomers they could buy before it become impossible. They also spent a lot of money improving it.

[MissHooliesCardigan]

Dyslexic What do you like for breakfast?

[AppleSetsSail]

We're in a fairly big house in Fulham. Seems like you turn a corner in Fulham, though, and it can be fairly rough. The primary sacrifice we've made is that for the amount of money that our house is worth, I don't feel it should be this way.

[loooopo]

We moved out to the home counties to raise our 4 kids. It has been wonderful for them. We have an acre of wild garden backing on to fields and they have the free run of the village and woods as there is no through traffic. There are lots of young families and the kids run free - there may be 9 or 10 kids in the garden one minute building a den, swinging on the rope swing etc then they are off to someone elses garden or the woods/fields etc. The walk to school is in wellys across fields and through a wood which is magical in all weathers and seasons (Narnia like in the frost and snow, snowdrops in winter, bluebells in spring, crunchy leaves in the autumn. This year we followed the births of 12 calves over the summer in one of the fields we pass each day - the other field has 9 Shetland ponies.

Families stay long term as the schools are excellent (grammar) so the community is really strong. We are a 4 minute walk to an over ground which is 18 minutes into Marylebone which, as the kids have become teenagers they use frequently - oldest boys are keen skate boarders so have roamed every corner of London.

We drive in most Sundays during the Winter to central London (30 mins)as we can park for free, traffic is light and no congestion charge to take the children to museums etc.

I think that they have the best of both worlds - they have space, fresh air and physical freedom to roam and play un supervised - but London on their doorstep.

BUT we have kept our flat in Wapping and look forward to moving back for the culture when they all clear off to uni but we have since got a dog and our greatest pleasure is walking her off lead through the woods so our move back would have to accommodate the dog!!

[manicinsomniac]

I've really enjoyed reading all these experiences (though I'm totally green . Thanks for posting!