Living in in and around Dulwich

[Kofodi06]

Hi, we will soon (around june) be moving to London. My kids will be in JAGS and Dulwich Prep and work wise Farringdon. We will be renting in the beginning, closer to at least one school. I checked previous posts and Dulwich village seems nice and popular but haven't seen any rental openings as of now.

1. How are areas like East/West Dulwich, Herne Hill..?
2. Any other areas that we can consider. Budget wise would like to stay inside £3500 Pm

I have family who live in Herne Hill. It’s lovely. brockwell park is big and beautiful, and has events in it during the summer. There’s Brockwell Lido for outdoor summer swimming. Herne Hill train station has really good links into central london and out to Kent and Gatwick. There are direct trains to Farringdon:

https://timetables.thameslinkrailway.com/TL/#/timetables/3242/Table%20H

The little pedestrianised centre of Herne Hill outside the station is lovely. It has a couple of nice pubs, a really good deli (maybe two? I think there is also a Greek shop selling fresh Greek food but not sure). Blackbird bakery is a really high quality bakery. There are a few lovely little independent shops. It has a market there every weekend. There’s a post office, mini sainsburys and mini Tesco. Upmarket fish and chip shop, roti takeaway place, lots of other options for takeaways / eating. Links to Brixton for more extensive eating out and for the tube are good. Fantastic local community.

i would say Dulwich is known as being a bit posher than Herne Hill. A lot of the residential roads are a bit fancier and there’s not so much traffic going through it due to the council putting a lot of LTNs (Low Traffic Neighbourhood) in place in Dulwich. This has forced a lot of traffic to re route through Herne Hill. Many in Herne Hill are very upset about it (understandably). Croxted Road in Herne Hill is badly affected by it, for example. I don’t know Dulwich well at all so can’t comment on the high streets and transport links etc.

I would love to live in Herne Hill, and would be trying to find something in the areas I’ve highlighted in yellow, ideally 10 mins or less walk to the pedestrianised centre

Another lover of Herne Hill, here, OP. You might find it easier to approach your search with postcodes -

Herne Hill is SE24, and the best direct link for Farringdon (I think - you'd best check).
Dulwich Village and West Dulwich are both SE21, but Dulwich Village itself has very little rental property (and what there is gets snapped up by those who want to put their primary school children through the village school. Charter is also a tightly drawn catchment, and is increasingly popular. )
East Dulwich is SE22. Great place to shop and eat, but possibly rather cramped terraces for living- parking a challenge, not much space for bins, pushbikes, sort of thing.

Also, ask the agents about properties for rent in the Dulwich Estate mid-century estates of Peckarman's Wood, and around Sydenham Hill railway station. These are good houses, made very fashionable by the likes of The Modern House property agency, with gardens, garages and space to park, some of which have direct access onto the very lovely, well maintained Sydenham Woods. And Sydenham Hill railway goes to Farringdon via Herne Hill in under 30 minutes, including the change at Herne Hill.

I visit Dulwich Picture Gallery at least once or twice a year and can agree about the comments about train services.

Assuming your children are secondary age then you could expand your search a bit along the No3 bus route and also the extensive network of Dulwich School busses which I think are shared between the three schools.

Herne Hill resident here who also works in Farringdon. For work transport purposes, Herne Hill is your best bet although it is increasingly posh/expensive and whilst your budget isn't small if you want a larger period house (4/5 beds) it wouldn't be enough. There are certainly more rental properties in Herne Hill than Dulwich village.

Completely agree with @Newbie887 that you should focus your search on the so called north Dulwich triangle (I live within it). It is closer to JAGs and a short walk to Dulwich village. There are direct Thameslink trains to Farringdon taking 18 mins from Herne Hill (and also Victoria which gets to St Pancras which is one stop on the tube if the thameslink line is down). There's also Denmark Hill station not that far away as a back up (which has trains going to Blackfriars/Farringdon too).

Herne Hill is a really lovely place to live and very popular. Lots of clubs/sports teams for kids and activities. Holiday camps for the school holidays. Tonnes of families and lovely houses. Also a great Sunday market. It's also super well connected transport wise and you're close to Brixton/peckham/East Dulwich for the restaurants etc.

Agree that the LTNs are a bit of a nightmare - our neighbours with kids at DPL tend to cycle. Another option would be west Dulwich/Tulse Hill - the Farringdon trains at Herne Hill go through Tulse Hill first and there are trains from west dulwich to Blackfriars (where you can change easily/quickly to a Farringdon train) but less convenient for JAGs and I prefer the community in Herne Hill.

I've lived in the area for about 15 years (Tulse Hill and then Herne Hill) so happy to answer any questions you have!

Agree with all above. Herne Hill is lovely (esp Railton road outside the station) and sounds like a strong option for your commute to Farringdon and school run to JAGs. HH and Dulwich are great places to live. If you are in HH, Dulwich village, Brixton and East Dulwich are easy to get to. More rental stock in HH (rare in Dulwich village but occasional properties come up).