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?!!

Winchester is great but expensive. Have you considered St Albans. It's a lovely old city, with a fabulous park, great Roman heritage, some very good schools and easily commutable from London. Bath is a 90 minute train journey - that's three hours a day, plus whatever journey is at each end.

I would avoid Bath. While it is very lovely, as a pp pointed out, it is packed with tourists from Easter to November, parking is hell if you need to use the car to get out and about to the lovely countryside around it, which you probably would as First bus has cut a lot of services and is expensive. The city itself has changed a lot. We lived there for eight years and moved out about two years ago as the then major was making a real push to make Bath the hen and stag capital of the country. At the same time, they capped HMOs (Houses of multiple occupancy) but holiday homes are exempt from this. So all these lovely town houses started being turned into party houses for groups of up to 18, making neighbors lives hell. As others have pointed out, the commute is long and subject to a lot of delays, so if you live in the burbs to avoid the party houses, your DH will have a very long commute. But mainly, we moved as we were sick of the yobbishness at night, the tourists during the day and a council that viewed residents as a nuisance.

Btw, we have ended up in the Scottish Borders, which we love! Incredible scenery, very few people, miles of paths to walk our dogs and ride our ponies and we are a 50 minute train ride from Edinburgh for our fix of culture.

We are very outdoorsy and live in central London. I'd choose more time with kids/dad and less commute over living further out. We spend afternoons after school going to woods and parks, weekends going all over the place to access forests etc. We have a car, which he makes a huge difference when it comes to escaping the city on weekends. We also do loads within central London - galleries/museums/parks/shows. I've thought about potentially moving many times, but feel like we have a fantastic lifestyle living here.

krustykittens I was in Bath the other day. I know it well and have had family living there for many years. It's been a while since I last went to the town centre (avoid it due to the traffic and total nightmare that is parking) and was struck by everything that you just said. It was totally rammed with tourists, I saw a couple of stag / hen dos going on and the whole vibe of the place felt very different one to the beautiful old city I knew 5-10 years ago.

What a shame.... Bath is lovely.

FrangiePangie when we first moved in it was great. Everything was in walking distance and there was loads for us to to as a family, with the countryside right on our doorstep. I didn't drive at the time so it was the best of both worlds. Yes, there has always been an element of yobbishness at night when the pubs and clubs are kicking off but the kids would be in bed, so it wasn't an issue. The problem with the hen and stag parties, mostly the hens, is that they are causing trouble all day long. Keeping everyone awake all night and staggering around the city centre at lunchtime dressed up as penises, waving inflatable penises, handing penis shaped chocolates to young kids 'cause that is really funny (yep, that happened to us), etc. Our favourite memory is of a bunch of hens pretending to fellate one of those naked butlers on our residential street 'for a larf' at 7.30 in the evening with my eight year old watching out of her bedroom window. One of the houses on our street was converted to a party house and our neighbours got no sleep at all at the weekends. They couldn't sell unless they gave their houses away as no one wanted to live next to the party house! Our kids got older and decided they wanted to live in the countryside full time anyway and with the way Bath changed, we were not sad to go. Like I said, having a council that treated city centre residents with contempt didn't help. It is a terrible shame as it is a wonderful city with lots of offer families (the unis are great) but I don't miss it. I DO miss my lovely Georgian house though, as much as a pain to upkeep as it was!

I now live in a town about 8 miles from Bath but with a Bath area code and postcode; no tourism problems, mostly families, 15 minutes to Bath on the train and a 3/4 bed house can be had for under 200k. It's not suitable for commuting to London though as it's on the Bristol to Portsmouth line.

London is definitely the best option. It's great for older kids and teens but even if it wasn't I would prioritise time with their dad over any amount of countryside. Just get out of town at weekends if you need that.

If your DH works in London, and you can afford to live in London, why do anything else?

Herne Hill is a good option: next to Dulwich, 2 train lines, walkable or quick bus to Brixton for the tube, walking distance of Brockwell Park (across the road) and Dulwich Park. West Norwood; train line, Express buses into central London (they don't stop until the centre ), great school and community.

If you haven't lived in London for a while you will find that many many areas are now 'naicer' than they used to be, and transport is transformed by the Overground line.

Places on the edge of Crystal Palace park and in the Overground will be cheaper than Dulwich and have the almost the same travel time.

I used to live in Dulwhich when I was a teenager and have friends there still, it is a lovely place to live.

If you were seriously considering a weekly commute, @lalaworld, how about Scotland? Gorgeous scenery - plenty of mountains/hills - and you can fly into Glasgow or Edinburgh for the central belt, or Aberdeen for the Highlands.

The schools are good up here, and when you get to university age, there are no tuition fees.

Go for West Essex. Easy commute into London. Good schools. Easy journey to Stansted for those cheap flights to Alps any weekend you fancy some mountain air.

Parking and tourists were a nightmare in Bath when we lived there 16 years ago. I adore the city and selling my Georgian flat was painful to say the least but I personally wouldn't want to raise kids there. We are used to Devon and were beginning to feel a little chlostrophobic at the weekends. Really wanted wild spaces which Somerset just didn't do for us.

So how does capping the HMOs work?I'm intrigued.

GreenGinger2 There were a lot of complaints from people living in places like Oldfield Park that too many houses were becoming student lets and it was affecting the area negatively (too many cars, pressure on parking, noise nuisances etc), so the council brought in a cap that said no more than 20 per cent of a street could be HMOs (I think that is the figure). But because holiday makers are not living in a property permanently, houses rented purely as short term holiday accomodation are not considered HMOs so the cap does not apply. So now landlords are turning their properties into holiday lets and I have heard it is very lucrative. Pain in the backside when you have to live next to them though!

So can all the central Georgian streets with buildings split into flats already only be sold on if used as a holiday flat?

Incidentally our tiny 2bed flat has just been sold for £400k !!!!!!!
Kind of regret selling it now.

You are kidding, right?
Bath and Brighton? I love both and have friends and family who still live in both.
But with a commute to London? No way. The southern train to Brighton is a killer, delays, cancellations. lawyers & barristers I know moved to Brighton, but quit city life after 18 mths because of the stressful commute.

No, if they were already there before the cap then it's fine. But if the amount of HMOs on the street is already up to or exceeds the limit then a house bought by a developer after the cap was put into place cannot be turned into a HMO. Also, I am not sure if a house split into flats IS a HMO or if a HMO is a single house (ie, one kitchen, one bathroom) but multiple occupants? I would have to look it up. I can well believe how much your flat is now going for - prices in Bath have gone nuts.

Sorry to hog the thread but yes, a HMO is where multiple tenants share facilities, not a house divided into flats.

Realistically even in Yorkshire you're only looking at a 60/90 minute commute.

Huh? Would that be by helicopter?? By train its 3+ hours from Yorkshire to London!

Sheffield is 2 hours to King's Cross by train and on the edge of the beautiful Peak District. Lots of outdoor things going on, you can buy a 6 bed terrace in a good area for £400,000 within 15 mins walk of the city centre. Theatre tickets are about £30-40. What's not to love?

Op I would go for Bath or Holland Park, small flat but lovely parks so close to you great community there.

However can I as you for tips on where to go in alps please for a first time experience for us all, thank you .

Have a look at Abingdon/Didcot/Wantage areas. Great schools, easy to get to bigger cities like reading and Oxford to shop and 30minutes on the train to Paddington station.

SW London- easy train commute in circa 30 minutes from Kingston, Richmond, Teddington; on the river, loads of open space, Bushey Park Richmond Park, Hampton Court Palace and very, very good schools.