To want to move my family to London

[Miralala]

I've been offered a job in Zone 1 (mix of wfh and 5 hour return commute on diff days).

I really want to take the opportunity to live in London now, as live fairly rubbish city I don't like - however we have the 'ideal' life now with great schools, 3 bed semi, leafy suburbs, nice little high street and park 5 mins away.

We can up our house budget so could we keep any of that lifestyle anywhere in London for £700k? Absolute must is a nice secondary as kids are gentle souls and getting to secondary age, and son plays music, chess, etc - would be eaten alive in typical comp. I have no idea whether / where to start looking in London.

@HaveringWavering

kids are hard here - no love in their eyes anymore, more a come on then what you got attitude. Unless you can afford to send them to private school then it won't work and even then they have to walk the same streets of other kids hardened by life.

Bloody hell, that’s a bit dramatic!

Agrees while scratching her head at all the polite children she keeps bumping into in London who definitely go to state schools......

@Londoncallingme

I’ve lived in NW london all of my life, worked as a teacher and raised 4 kids here - this is a very good assessment.
We have a second home in a market town - I can see attraction of full time living there too, but the slower pace of life and lack of convenience do irritate me, but that’s because I was born and raised in London.

Yes have friends who have lived in London all their life and although they are amazed by the space and how clean everything is up here, they also can’t imagine how they’d live without some aspects of London. London is so very different to the rest of the country, as a young teenager the attraction of London definitely eclipsed the downsides and generally quite adaptable at that age anyway, think would be a harder move for most people later in life. Will be fascinating to hear the OPs experience if she does decide to move!

Many of the places suggested are only train and not tube. If youre first time in London living definitely get somewhere on a tube line NOT TRAIN. If you're lucky like where i live there's both. bt u wdnt get a house here for yr budget, maybe a small 2 bed flat. Altho there are ex council houses yhou could buy for that much, dont go on a bit estate bt in my road there is a terrace of a handful, 1 has just sold, in like 1 minute

Not read the whole thread, but 700k will get you three beds in Blackheath in good primary catchment. It’s lovely and leafy and has a beautiful high street and village feel. State secondaries aren’t so good round here, though.

When I say the secondaries aren’t so good, I don’t mean they’re dreadful. Just fairly mediocre exam results.

@MMAS

London is not what it used to be - Lived here having moved from Ireland at 18, then went to Spain at 39 as had got tired of it then, moved back in Dec 2019 - very big mistake. The London I had left was dead and buried in my opinion but price of property had shot up. People now trying to move out, me included, as no longer a safe place to live even in some of the suburbs. Your gentle souls will not meet a like kind - kids are hard here - no love in their eyes anymore, more a come on then what you got attitude. Unless you can afford to send them to private school then it won't work and even then they have to walk the same streets of other kids hardened by life. Why not stay where you are, find a B&B to say overnight for when you need to come to London (your work should be able to help on that?) and then make a decision. Check out the Staybridge Suites at Stratford International - talk to them as great for long term travellers - you might be able now to get a suite that you can keep as yours for 12 months at a good rate. In any event, would not recommend up-rooting your children (I don't have any and am on my own - now 60) to move to London just now. Keep what you have and check out above - great connections to central London and a high speed train also. Good luck x Not sure how things go here but if you need to talk when happy to do so.

Fucking hell, calm down.

@PurpleCatLady

Hate to break it to you, but your budget isn’t nearly big enough to get a house near a good state school. London is dirty, expensive and full of traffic. Why anyone would choose to move there is beyond me. We finally escaped a couple of years ago after both growing up there. Swapped our small terraced house in Tottenham for a detached house with an acre in Kent (and got some change), a stone’s throw from three grammar schools, and have never looked back. DH can commute on high speed line, we are all so much healthier and happier, and I no longer need my inhaler.

With respect, that may well be because you lived in Tottenham. Hampstead is green and convenient and beautiful. I think if I lived in Tottenham I’d leave too!

@mylifestory

Many of the places suggested are only train and not tube. If youre first time in London living definitely get somewhere on a tube line NOT TRAIN. If you're lucky like where i live there's both. bt u wdnt get a house here for yr budget, maybe a small 2 bed flat. Altho there are ex council houses yhou could buy for that much, dont go on a bit estate bt in my road there is a terrace of a handful, 1 has just sold, in like 1 minute

You see, I would say the exact opposite! A lot of people are put off by the idea of travelling regularly by tube and have no concept of how well the centre of London is connected by mainline trains. My MIL is always commenting how she has no idea we could live here and travel by tube so rarely. If you need the tube it will usually be easy enough to connect to a tube line from a mainline station.

To be fair @Londoncallingme, Tottenham is more in OP’s budget for a 3 bed house than Hampstead. However I agree that there are nicer places in London than Tottenham in OP’s price range.

Surbiton is in Zone 6 but has an 17 or 18 minute (I think) train service to London Waterloo. Not all the trains are as fast as that, but there are at least two an hour at that speed I think. The others are more like 25 mins. There are great schools around - Kingston Grammar and Tiffin if your kids are clever enough to get in. Also some fee-paying ones. Some of the other secondaries are very good, though they're 'ordinary' schools.

True.

Also, 700K could definitely get you a 3-bed semi somewhere around Surbiton. Certainly Tolworth - which also has a train station (though not as fast as Surbiton)

Just moved out of London because we couldn’t stretch beyond £500k but £700k would get a nice family home in south east London where we were. Crystal Palace/ Forest Hill type area is really great and nice and easy into central

@KewMummy87

£700k isn’t much in the nicer parts of London. You’d be very limited on area if you wanted to buy a 3 bedroom house. Highly unlikely you’d be in catchment for great schools at that price too I’m afraid.

This - sadly. We moved out of London once we became parents - and as a FYI sold our very pretty 2 bed house in Kentish Town, in catchment for good schools, for £700k....14 years ago!

I live in Hertfordshire, depending on where you live Holborn can be an hour ish to get to. Good schools and def 3 bed for 700k

@mylifestory

Many of the places suggested are only train and not tube. If youre first time in London living definitely get somewhere on a tube line NOT TRAIN. If you're lucky like where i live there's both. bt u wdnt get a house here for yr budget, maybe a small 2 bed flat. Altho there are ex council houses yhou could buy for that much, dont go on a bit estate bt in my road there is a terrace of a handful, 1 has just sold, in like 1 minute

Been in London for 30 years and I would absolutely not recommend making tube line proximity a priority - it isn’t!

Shooters hill! Crossrail to zone 1 and an incredible community. So much greenery and getting better every day. We bought a 5/6 bed Victorian terrace with an 100ft garden for well under 100k.

Also brilliant primary schools and grammars nearby

I’d take a look at Barnet. It has some of the best secondary schools in the country. It’s on the Northern line so easy enough to get in to zone 1.

@cafedesreves

Shooters hill! Crossrail to zone 1 and an incredible community. So much greenery and getting better every day. We bought a 5/6 bed Victorian terrace with an 100ft garden for well under 100k.

Second Shooter’s Hill in terms of what you can get for your money. You do feel quite disconnected transport wise though.

A relative of mine lives in Harrow. It's a 15 minute overground train ride to Euston. They have lovely parks and you would be able to get a 3 bed semi for that. Good luck whatever you decide.

I was born in and grew up in SE/SW London. I lived in West London for a time and before we left foe Kent in 2011 when DS1 was 9 months we were almost 10 years in our flat in SW London. Based on my knowledge and experience I’d say you’d struggle to get a house on budget that is in a good school catchment area. When we were weighing up our options we felt it made most sense to move massively far out and swallow the commute time and cost for a cheaper property rather than move to suburbs/traditional commuter belt which would still be hugely expensive on both the property front AND the commute costs

@MMAS

London is not what it used to be - Lived here having moved from Ireland at 18, then went to Spain at 39 as had got tired of it then, moved back in Dec 2019 - very big mistake. The London I had left was dead and buried in my opinion but price of property had shot up. People now trying to move out, me included, as no longer a safe place to live even in some of the suburbs. Your gentle souls will not meet a like kind - kids are hard here - no love in their eyes anymore, more a come on then what you got attitude. Unless you can afford to send them to private school then it won't work and even then they have to walk the same streets of other kids hardened by life. Why not stay where you are, find a B&B to say overnight for when you need to come to London (your work should be able to help on that?) and then make a decision. Check out the Staybridge Suites at Stratford International - talk to them as great for long term travellers - you might be able now to get a suite that you can keep as yours for 12 months at a good rate. In any event, would not recommend up-rooting your children (I don't have any and am on my own - now 60) to move to London just now. Keep what you have and check out above - great connections to central London and a high speed train also. Good luck x Not sure how things go here but if you need to talk when happy to do so.

LOL!

I was lifting some stuff out of the boot of my car last month and a couple of schoolboys - probably 13 or 14 - stopped to ask if I needed help.

Naturally it made me feel 103. But kids in London are the same as kids anywhere. Some come from good homes. Some have had a more difficult start in life than others. That isn’t unique to London. But most kids in London don’t have a bad attitude and they develop normal emotional responses commensurate with their age and life experience.

Honestly. The way you talk, you would think every child in London approaches with a knife out, staring from their cold dead eyes……so dramatic!

I'm in zone 3 se london and 700 wouldn't get you much of a 3 bed round here. My street they are over 800.

Some of this is extraordinarily melodramatic! By all means admit you couldn’t afford it, had grown out of it, were more bothered about a big house with parking and land and better air, but having lived in South West London in the past for quite a while and our son was born many moons ago in crouchcend (and yes I have been back)! There are some people who do still enjoy a bit of an edge, and the variety that London can offer, we also lived in Bath for 5 years too till we went abroad and enjoyed that too— but the idea it’s all a gigantic craphole is absolute rot— just don’t live in those areas!