Moving to London: House location for a young family

[ridinghigh]

Hi all, we will be moving to London from the Mideast in the first week of September 2012. Our kids are 4 and 7. The biggest worry right now is the house location. It should broadly be based on the following factors:

1. Not more than 20-30 mins commute from Paddington Station, which dh's office is close to (Kingdom Street).
2. There should ideally be very good state schools nearby.
3. Rental budget around GBP 1,500-2000 p.m. (we plan to rent for 6-12 months after which intend to buy).

Would greatly appreciate any inputs on the location. From some of the threads, I have gathered Ealing fits the above criteria. Any other locations you could guide us to, as the choice one sees online is just overwhelming. Thanks.

yes..by commute, i meant 20-30 mins direct on the tube/train. the commutefrom.com website is incredible, thanks yellow. i notice quite a few direct routes in less than 20mins.

kday, the issue is, all ongoing online school applications require an address (including brent's)! and that's something i wont have till landing in early september (unless i can borrow yours..;) . so really not sure how to get around this.

My DH, DS (22 months) and I have just moved from London. I miss it badly! Phenomenal place to live.

We lived in Maida Vale (two stops on the bakerloo line from paddington. Your husband's commute would be minutes). Maida Vale is very very very special. Beautiful park (paddington rec), lovely delis, flower shop etc. And you are a stone's throw from centrel London.

We paid £2300 a month for a 3 bed flat overlooking pad rec (with amazing communal garden. Really really sociable for the children, and me)

correction guys, i believe our purchase budget is possibly higher, circa 800k. (am not sure how much our 200k down could leverage us).

You could get almost that kind of commute on the mainline and an ok ish house in West Ealing or Hanwell.

But schools are your big problem, nearly all the schools in Ealing are under pressure, many of them having to increase in size. If you just roll up on the first day they will just fall about laughing - in the nicest possible way, and there will be absolutely nothing they can do to accommodate you.

There are no special provisions for people moving back from overseas, I'm afraid you'll just have to go on the waiting lists along with anyone else in this position. All the boroughs have websites which explain mid-term and late admissions.

we live in chiswick and if you landed here beginning september the only school you may just get into is a school people refuse to send their kids to. in the good local schools here some parents aren't even getting in when they live in the catchment area.

Would it be possible for one of you to come over early to sort out a house? Then you'd have an address you could apply from.

Sorry, Riding, I didn't mean apply now, just to check what the process is for new arrivals/late applicants. You're right that you'll need an address. I wish I could lend you ours, but I left London a year ago to rot in the Tropics for the good of my husband's career (not bitter about it or anything, though...).
Maida Vale would be fab - we weren't far and I loved going there. If you could afford it it would be great.

ridinghigh, if you're talking 20/30 mins on the train itself, not including walking to and from the station, then you are giving yourself a much wider range of places in London. I live on the opposite side of London, but it would only take me 15 mins of actual tube time to get to Paddington.

But you have to remember that it takes a long time to walk to and from, very often. I spend 20 mins on the train, but have a 50 minute commute because walking to and from takes 15 mins each way.

Harrow. Very good value, good schools, easy trip to Pad on bakerloo line or via Marylebone.

thanks yellow, thats useful. the paddington station to kingdom street (office) walk i believe is 8 mins. so yes, we would be wary if the aggregate commute (tube plus walk either way) breaches the 35-40 mins mark. work-life balance and spending quality time with the kids is important to us.
and yes, maida vale sounds like an interesting prospect, only 700m walk to the office, but schools look less promising.

thanks celtic, harrow appears promising, nice and broader range of schools (including a school where churchill and nehru went).

Don't know about last minute school places, but you could get something admittedly not huge within your price bracket in Hammersmith / Shepherds Bush (W6 and W12). Some good primary schools (Brackenbury, John Betts unlikely) and the state secondary options are much better now with the West London Free School and Hammersmith Academy. Really quite central - tube round to Paddington and walking distance to Westfield!

Maida Vale is quite expensive, unless you are Edgware Road or Kilburn end. Shepherds Bush/Olympia maybe? Olympia isn't too far really.

If you just roll up on the first day they will just fall about laughing - in the nicest possible way, and there will be absolutely nothing they can do to accommodate you.

Er, they wouldn't but it does mean you might be placed at a school you wouldn't necessarily have picked. Some Ealing schools have high mobility so families move in and out all the time.

FWIW my last rented house with DH was in Ealing, it was 3 bed ex-council for 1500. Not pretty, but had space and a garden.

thanks celtic, harrow appears promising, nice and broader range of schools (including a school where churchill and nehru went).

Don't think that was a state school. Harrow is a public school (in the same was Eton is a public school)

I think the average commute in London is about an hour if you use public transport, so you may need to rethink that!

Maybe Bayswater - the property would be on the 'cozy' side but the location is great for Paddington and you'd be close to Hyde Park (lovely for the kids if you don't have a garden).

Mrs Duffy - You do know that there is currently massive pressure on Primary places in Ealing and admissions are done centrally? There is absolutely no point in the OP turning up at a school on the first day of term with any expectation of a place. (- Having helped out in the office of my DC's school and witnessed this myself.)

Yes, there is high mobility but even if there suddenly was a place the school could not just allocate it to someone who rolled up on the day.

Of course I was joking about the laughing but the reality of the current situation in Ealing is actually no laughing matter.

Riding -8 minute walk from station = closer to 15 with time to get out of Paddington. Plus probably 10 mins to tube in morning unless you live in the adjoining roads. Your 35 mins only allows for 10 minutes on tube -just a few stops.

You might need to think about getting work/life balance another way. Living further out and working from home some days is popular?

I've just looked up Harrow and Wealdstone to Paddington on TFL. That's about half an hour (assuming no delays, and probably longer in rush hour. It says my journey is 10 minutes, it is definitely closer to 15). Add on 15 minutes at the other end and you are already past your longest acceptable commute and you haven't added on time to get to the station and wait for a train yet. So I'd say the total commute from Harrow to your husband's new office is close to an hour.

I have a weird theory that all London commutes come out as an hour. It's a strange law of physics requiring much additional research.

I rented a 4 bed house right next to an outstanding primary school in Ealing for £1850pcm. It was actually a nice house with a miniscule small garden. My understanding is that for ks2 (so age 7+) has more movement in state primaries as parents move their children into the private school system.

Youlllaugh -- I buy that theory I always felt that to get anywhere in London was either 30 minutes or 1 hour but nothing in between.

Youlllaugh, I find all my journeys, whether to Kensington to Islington to Hoxton or Brixton, take 45 minutes. It is INFURIATING.

I live in the east. Why does it take me the same time to get to Hoxton as it does to get to Brixton?

Glad I am not the only one to notice the strange time paradox!

My DH commutes from East Hampshire every day and it takes an hour and a bit each way. His commute is often the same as those who live within London and the suburbs. The only way to get a short commute is to have loadsamoney.

www.rightmove.co.uk is useful for looking at house prices and rental costs and what you can get for your money.