to want culture and safety for my children?

[lalaworld]

We live in the French Alps but will move back to the UK in 18 months. The question is where to?

Dh currently does a weekly commute so part of the motivation is changing that but also to give the kids an English secondary education.

We love the idea of moving back to London but worry about moving these rural Alpine kids (ages 8-9) into the heart of the city. That said, we'll still spend school holidays in the Alps so they will get their mountain fix.

We're lucky enough to have freedom to live in many places, and would love thoughts on our options or any other ideas. Basically, do we try to replicate our Alpine life in the UK or go the polar opposite and have Dh around every day in a tiny city maisonette.

So...

Tiny place, very central London - Holland Park, Pimlico

3 bed flat, Zone 2 London - Highgate, Hackney, Dulwich

Bath (with daily London commute for DH)

Brighton (with daily London commute for DH)

Further afield with a weekly commute still (considering Yorkshire, North Devon or Cornwall)

Thoughts?!!

Have you considered oxford, Cambridge or Winchester commutes not bad nice community and countryside

Of all the places you list, Dulwich. I live near(ish) in SE London, and it is non-stop community festivals, classical concerts (we have our own orchestra, somehow), film festivals and other events for adults and children. I absolutely love it - and it's 10 minutes on the train to London Bridge.

Dulwich.

When people talk about commuting times, remember that you have to get TO the train station in your town, and then FROM the train station to your place of work. It's not just "only an hour into London".

I work in bath, daily commute by train is very, very expensive. Most London people I work with weekly commute. Know it's the opposite direction but the costs are really high.
Lovely place to for families.

Spare - DS is at a school there, hence my stupid commute!

There are some very trendy developments popping up around the power station and up towards Vauxhall. When I get a chance I wander up to the park and along the river. There are some amazing houses around there too on both sides of the river (sadly way beyond my means!).

Dulwich. Has a great train line into the centre (15 mins I think). It's also quite nice. That way you have a huge choice of culture in London and you see your dh more. If you can afford private there are good schools there. Daily commuting from those distances (e.g. Bath) would be too much for me. I used to commute from North Hampshire. The actual time on the train was 45 mins, for which I usually had to stand. The time door to door was just over 2 hours.

I bet if you can afford a flat in Holland Park, however tiny, then you can afford a house in a nice part of less central London, whether it's Dulwich or somewhere like Forest Hill/Sydenham/Crystal Palace, or the equivalent in other directions (e.g. Chiswick/Twickenham, Muswell Hill etc). As pp says, there's plenty of places between Pimlico and Bath (which is way too far for a daily commute if you want to see your DH), and there's plenty of threads if you search Property on good places to commute to London from. But if you want the hills and daily commute then Sussex looks like your best bet.

Crikey I couldn't even imagine a life where commuting 1 or 2 hours each way was a possibility. It's such a waste of life, sitting on a train. My commute is 15 minutes on a bike, 25 minutes on a bus. Capital city, lots of culture, fresh air. Mountains very close by. Add Wellington, New Zealand to your list of options, OP!?.

I lived near Dulwich for years - on Sydenham Hill? House prices were reasonable then though now I couldn't even afford to buy my old flat back!!!

Very leafy, and lots to do. Crystal Palace park nearby and Croydon is your access for trains to the coast.

I'm the opposite of you op. I left there and now I live in Switzerland, so I can understand your concerns.

I really don't think aspects of our life can be mirrored there unfortunately- I'm thinking of 3/4 year olds walking unattended to Kindy, Mittagstisch etc. (Sorry I'm on the German side).

I had a friend living in Kemble near Cirencester which had a line directly into London. Beautiful Little village with local school and character houses?

Not far from Bath and the Cotswolds are so nice.

Trills is right, you need to think about all aspects of a commute. We live near one of the main train stations to london in Yorkshire, and it's a 3.5 hour commute by the time we've got to local train station, taken 20 min ride to mainline station, changed onto london train, 2 hours to london, then 30 mins the other side on tube to get to wherever we're going. I absolutely love yorkshire and hate idea of living anywhere else, but we are still going to move down south as we can't keep doing this commute (had a job up here but new job is down south).

Good luck with the move, if you are a bit like us (sounds like you are) in terms of wanting family life together AND country life, I'd go for somewhere near enough to london for DH to do daily commute, i.e., no further north than northampton, no further west than oxford/reading and not too far from mainline station if you go south to hampshire/sussex.

Wimbledon? Good secondary schools both there and in Kingston (10 minutes on the train).

Oh, and to get to C London from WImbledon is a breeze - Waterloo in 10 mins.

Dulwich has great schools and accessible (walkable) woods and parks. It's not dreadful for airports either- taxi to Heathrow train to Gatwick, door to door less than an hour door to door from City by public transport.

Winchester, great schools and a cracking sixth form.

Vote for Brighton. I moved here 8 years ago and have since met dh and had children here. We love it so much, it's a perfect place to bring up a family and the commute is very quick. I only really ended up here by accident and never meant to stay but really love it.

A few colleagues have needed to make a similar move (Grenoble and Zurich to the UK). They decided on Cornwall and Norfolk respectively. But money was no object for them and the main breadwinner didn't mind the commutes.

Tiny or 3 bed flat sounds like a nightmare. Why not live somewhere rural with access to cities. That way you can dip in and out.

Cotswold's are nice.

befuddled because the cost of rural life is 3 hours daily commute for the breadwinner. That's a cost many families aren't prepared to pay.

It's an hour each way as far as I know. Which seems the norm. Although I understand people not wanting to commute. It depends on what you value most.

OP - I think you have to accept that you're not going to recreate the Alpine experience in the UK (though I'm sure you realise this)!

We used to live in Pimlico, but when we and other people had DC they all tended to "go Southwest". Richmond, Kew, Barnes, Putney, Fulham or Wimbledon. All great for kids and as safe as anywhere else. The majority here are highly cultured, I think you'll find Best independent schools in the UK on your doorstep - e.g. St Paul's, Latymer Upper, Kings College Wimbledon, Ibstock, Putney or Wimbledon High, plus some great state schools if you pick your area wisely. Very green for London - Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common are huge. Being near the river gives a more laid back feel and there's some lovely walks. Still slightly cheaper than Pimlico or Holland Park. You can be in town in no time. What's not to like?

Which part of London will your DH work in? Its hard to advise about daily commute without knowing that.

Unless he worked within a few minutes walk of Paddington, and you lived close to Bath Spa station, I wouldn't advise a daily Bath commute.

I think you need to make a family desicion first about weekly commute or not. Personally it wouldn't appeal to me and mine.

The next thing I would look at, once you've decided about daily commute or weekly, is door to door commute length he's happy with, to work out the areas you're shooting for. Then I'd look into schools, whether state or private.

Through combination of distance for commute, having schools you like where places for your DC are likely, and the right kind of vibe for you, you can get a shortlist. Then looking round both the local area and a few properties that you can afford should help narrow it down.

And if you'll have a holiday home in the Alps, or family/friends to stay with, then I suspect you'll want something quite different for your term- time home.

Befuddled - it can take me 1hr+ to go 4 miles in London and if the trains are buggered, you can add another half hour for a taxi. That is half of my commute (do I do it in reverse, then again in the evening).

'One hour out of London' actually = time + travel to station + delays + strikes + £££ + standing room only. Plus stress and getting home late every bloody day.

I am actually amazed the people travel from London to Bath every day!

Dh has had a couple of jobs that happened to be far out of town. I've had to commute weekly to Bath and Dublin and to a lesser extent Edinburgh from London.

You goes where the jobs are these days.