To ask you where we should move?

[Buggritbuggrit]

We’re looking to move out of London, like everyone else. The issue is that we have no idea where. Neither of us is English, and we’ve never lived anywhere in England that wasn’t London. Please help!

We’re an interracial couple, so would ideally like somewhere with some racial diversity where neither we nor our kids were unusual.

DP loves the great outdoors and I love the hustle and bustle of Islington. We’d ideally like somewhere with both of those things, decent schools, house prices that aren’t insane and a manageable commute into London.

Apart from those criteria (and I have no idea if any of that is reasonable), we’d be happy with anywhere in the South East. Budget is about £600K. If anyone has any recommendations, I’d love to hear them. Ideally, I want someone to go ‘you have exactly described where I live, don’t worry about this anymore, move here at once’. So, if that were to happen, I’d be much obliged.

Another vote for Bristol. Easy links to London, surrounded by beautiful countryside, not far from the coast, and incredibly diverse. Not cheap, but you'd probably be able find a pretty decent house for about £600k there. I'd recommend you look at Montpelier if you love Islington. It's bustling, fun, vibrant and also has a train station.

This is Montpelier train station...

I agree with Lanique with regard to Montpelier, also check out Cotham, St Andrews park and even my favourite Bishopston, all are really buzzing, good transport links, schools, pubs, shops etc, also a great music scene.

My main advice is not to sell your London home and move elsewhere without first renting in your chosen location.

If you have never lived anywhere in the UK apart from London, and you love Islington, then you may find some of the places suggested here.... depressing. Or you may love them and never look back, but why not make sure before you burn any bridges.

I have friends who have moved out of London, and I can TOTALLY see the many advantages. I would happily move to many cities and some towns. But a new build village with an IKEA as the main attraction? Probably wouldn't suit you. Nor would I be commuting to London from Manchester (great as Manchester is).

I'm laughing at people saying Tunbridge Wells and Worthing are diverse. Couldn't be further from the truth. Both very much non multicultural.

I think you just need to spend a few weekends driving out to various places near London. We drew circles around places that were near train stations with a decent commute into central London.
I live near beaconsfield, which would tick a lot of your boxes, but your budget is too low, but there are surrounding villages where prices are lower.

@TeeBee

I'm laughing at people saying Tunbridge Wells and Worthing are diverse. Couldn't be further from the truth. Both very much non multicultural.

Me too Teebee

Milton Keynes

I've lived in Tunbridge Wells for 15 years and over that time it has improved on the diversity front: weirdly, (given the timing of this thread) only last week, I was struck walking through town how many different languages I heard. I still wouldn't say it is very diverse, but I would say that it is welcoming - it's definitely not London however, and as a PP said, the shopping in the precinct is now dire 😌 although there are many lovely independents and coffee shops.....

I'd also suggest Bristol. Fab city, loads of countryside nearby, decent train link to London (as well as Cardiff, Bath etc nearby too)

Just outside London , borough of Bexley or an area such as Beckenham
Tbh, after living in Islington you may find most smaller areas dull.

Leicestershire;Market Harborough isn't too bad to call commute into London on the train from

Sorry OP but right now you'd be priced out of the bits of Bristol with decent schools

Bristol. It's diverse, family friendly (and also good for teens and young people too as your kids get older), and a couple of hours by train from London.

Brighton.

Other diverse areas are in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire if you want commutable to London. Luton, Stevenage and Bedford aren’t that nice themselves, but they have pretty villages all nearby.

St Albans is lovely but expensive, though it’s a good commute to London and you won’t be the only non-English family there.

High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire is diverse and has nice villages nearby, but it’s compulsory 11+ exam for grammar schools there which you may not want to run the risk of/dislike.

In your circumstances though I’d suggest Brighton and Hove.

@hettie

Sorry OP but right now you'd be priced out of the bits of Bristol with decent schools

I think you can still buy a place in the catchment for Redland Green in Bishopston and Westbury Park for 600k. Not sure what the schools are like for Montpelier and St Andrew's.

You know you want to: Hangleton Road, Hove
www.rightmove.co.uk/property/89988934

Or this location is even better: Dale View, Hove, East Sussex
www.rightmove.co.uk/property/90627595

That said, I completely agree with @TheYearOfSmallThings who mentioned renting anywhere before buying and settling. We rented our London flat out and rented down here years ago while we scoped the place out. Bought then a couple of years later in a totally different area to where we’d originally imagined we’d live.

Good luck and do PM if you’d like to ask anything about B+H. I do miss London occasionally (born and bred NW Londoner), especially in winter as I think London’s so magical around Christmas time, but the positives far outweigh that, and London’s only up the road if you want to nip in and out again.

There’s West Sussex. Chichester, Portsmouth, Southampton for shopping. Chichester Festival Theatre, Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, museums, Goodwood, Singleton Open Air Museum,, the Witterings, South Downs, leisure centres et al.

Most of Sussex really isn't very diverse or multi racial. Brighton is great though, I really, really wouldn't recommend Worthing. I would consider a City a little further away for what you are looking for, Manchester or Bristol?

Bristol would be a horrible commute though. It's about 1 hour 40 on the train, but then there's getting across London and Bristol to work / home.

If you start form Montpellier then that adds between 20 minutes to over an hour to the journey, depending how long you need to wait for your connection at Temple Meads, then London travel too.

It could easily be a 2.5 hour journey. Twice a day? That's not sustainable.

DP did a 2 hour 15 minute commute into London. He started off trying to do it daily, then he stayed with friends in London during the week. (For me, being one left at home with the kids all week was tough) and then after a year he gave it up, we found it was totally unsustainable to live like that.

I know people do do it, and hats off to them, but it's not worth it IMO.

Not having lived outside London before, I didn't realise how much I'd taken access to a good jobs market for granted. After DP gave up on the commute we both looked for jobs locally. We're on salaries we wouldn't even consider in London.

My friends in London have developed their careers over the last decade and are doing very well. Mine has stagnated, as has DP's. There just aren't the same opportunities round here. I'm now working from home which really doesn't suit me tbh. Wherever you move to, do consider whether there are employers locally that offer your kind of work, if the London commute doesn't work out.

This, from upthread, is good advice: My main advice is not to sell your London home and move elsewhere without first renting in your chosen location.

Christ, Brighton really isn’t very diverse either! It’s great but it’s very white middle class!

Don’t leave London!!! My children are now teens and wish desperately they could be in London. We are in Ashford Kent so not a million miles away- we still use London for shopping and nights out.

Would you consider somewhere towards Greenwich where you could get the over ground into town in less than fifteen minutes?