To want to escape the ghetto

[N15]

I have name changed for this for obvious reasons.

I live in a part of London that has long resisted gentrification, and has a stubbornly high (and rising) crime rate. Stabbings, and even shootings, are far too common. Neighbours have witnessed shootings, with their children. The local secondaries are seen as finishing schools for criminals, with a lot of gang involvement, and knives carried around.

I really worry about my children when they reach secondary school age. I would sooner home school than send them to the local secondaries, but I don't have the ability to home school due to working. I work as a junior doctor, but the wages are low, especially for London.

Any suggestions for an area with decent schools that doesn't break the bank? I would need 4+ bedrooms. Even open to buying land and building, anything to escape.

Would you consider moving to Scotland? The places to look for large houses for decent prices are Dumfries, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen area...

Wanstead, Woodford, Leyton or Leytonstone. All have four beds within budgets, a range of schools, and are lovely areas to live in.

House prices in London are expected to drop quite a bit over the next couple of years - circa 10%. £1 million would get you loads. I think the Woodford, Buckhurst Hill, Loughton, Epping bit of the Circle look nice.

Far too many. You can Google to find articles. In and near the schools.

I have spoken to pupils at the schools who say that they are afraid to go to school because of knives. Just because it's not an issue where you are, don't assume it's not an issue here.

£1m definitely gets a 4 bed in Sandringham catchment. As a compulsive rightmove watcher I can say this as an absolute fact.

Lots of decent places further up north that are more affordable than London...cities with large hospitals, and nice suburbs to live in, or small towns nearby if you want to commute. Lots of non-white faces, even if though the provinces aren't quite as diverse as the capital. Get your ducks in a row OP, and move well before your kids reach secondary age. Work out what your needs are - maybe within 2 hours drive of London if you have family there, or whatever, then narrow it down. Every region has good and bad areas, and you'll be able to find a job and hose to suit, even if it doesn't dovetail immediately.
My starting suggestions would be: Staffordshire, Northants, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Fife, Glamorgan but there are lots and lots of areas with a bouyant local economy that would be a great place to settle and raise your family.

Stokie is a nice area with a lot of lovely and expensive homes.

That's the thing about London - for the most part poverty, and everything that goes with it, sits cheek by jowl with wealth.

I guess it depends. If you're in the west green road/St Anns/Phillip lane area of tottenham than I can see where you're coming from. Moving a little bit down makes a big difference though. The area around Tottenham Hale is nice. I feel very safe there. Roads like Dowsett road, on the park end, Thackeray Avenue, are nice.
Can you try for Latymer? I understand why you'd want to avoid Park View, but you have a good chance of a place at Heartlands from the waiting list.
As for stabbings, it's all county lines and happening everywhere. My friends moved to Bucks and it feels like a posh tottenham there. All the crime, none of the filth on the road.

There is huge investment in the pipeline for Bruce Grove. I suspect they are really pushing to make that whole area around TH and BG 'naice'. I'm not sure it'll extend to N15 though.

We live in Southgate and houses are in that price range. It's a safe, pleasant area with excellent secondary schools but doesn't have the "fashionable" premium that you get in some parts of N London

I get it OP.
I was in Newham, been there my whole life and had to get out.

Sick and tired of the stabbing/shootings, not being able to get down my own my road because of constant police cordons, not to mention the wire-like drug dealers who terrorised the local shopkeepers and the police alike.

We moved out to Essex, and while not the best area Saltillo, it’s a million times better.

People don’t get it at all if they think it’s racist to not want to bring up your kids in such an environment 🙄

Outer areas of London? good schools, safer & get more for your money.

What? Stokey is very gentrified

Never understood why ‘gentrification’ is a frowned upon concept. Why do people resist it?

Because it generally strips away character & also lots of London gentrification is just higher prices but still high crime, etc

If you want to stay in London look at Streatham Hill / West Norwood areas where you can get a 4 bed semi for £1m (and some under).

You won't get the nice parts of Streatham for 1m!

Are you joking?

I envy you that this isn’t something you recognise.

We had two kids in one secondary killed within two weeks of each other.

One stabbed and one shot.

Her job is in London

And it often prevents working class people being able to stay in the area they were born in.

I have family who teach in Secondary Schools in Tottenham one by THFC and the other by Tottenham Hale Retail Park.
Move if you want to but before you do so go to the secondary schools and speak to teachers and see the schools for yourself.
Family members love both schools and the community spirit, the warm families that go there. There’s lots of issues surrounding poverty but I have not heard them once mention issues with gangs or knives. This is not to say it doesn’t exist of course it does but I would not say it is far worse in Tottenham School.
Friends who have kids at schools at the other end of the borough say their kids talk about kids in the school who drink and take drugs as money is not an issue with them.
As said at the start visit the schools and see for yourself the ethos and community.

There is a weird belief, mostly prevalent in the minds of people that have recently parted with large amounts of money to live in areas of London that even 10 years ago they wouldn't have walked through, and are then kind of surprised there are crack houses, people getting their pateks yanked off their wrist and organised gangs nicking their ranges

yeah & if you're born & raised you have a different view! 😆

But OP has and she says she is not white

So we should never improve an area?

For that money you could live in Winchester in the catchment of a lovely secondary like Westgate or Kings, and Peter Symonds for 6th form (or Barton Peveril which is even better)

tough commute maybe (1hr train) but doable as it would tick so many boxes. With any luck you can find work at Southampton or Winchester hospital at some point

lots of doctors move even a bit further to Chandlers Ford to be in the catchment of the much coveted (excellent)Thornden secondary school. I don’t know why exactly but that area and school is very popular with doctors

£1m for a decent 4 bed in Marshalswick? If OP found one she would then need to drive to the station and pay circa £1,200 pa for parking and £5k for train travel into London.

The OP probably didn't wants to feel she's getting a decent house for her budget.

I mean 800k for upper Norwood is mental!!and your 20 mins from the station!

Of course you're Tottenham. If the description of the area isn't enough, the username gives it away.😉

I'm in Ally Pally, just at the back of it, and it's a lovely area. We're planning to move to Somerset shortly to release equity and retire early but if it wasn't for that I wouldn't move just to live in another part of London. We've been here nearly 30 years. Wood Green as you know is pretty crap of late but Muswell hill, Crouch End are lovely, there's nice pubs etc and it's very Green. I don't have kids but the local secondary is APS and it has a good reputation. The nearest tube is Bounds Green and there's a National Rail at Alexandra Palace, takes about 15/20 minutes to Moorgate.

I'm looking forward to moving from London but I will miss Ally Pally. Except maybe the hills.