Where to live with family while working in London Bridge Riverside ?

[dummymum]

Hi all,

I am coming from overseas to London with my 4-years daughter and wife within 2-3 months and my workplace will be 3 mins walk to London Bridge station.

Our priority is of course my daughter's education and we will send her to a state primary school (seems to attend reception class). Her first language is not English so our concern is how she is going to adopt both English and London. Additionally, my wife will not be working for a while until we ensure everything is ok for daughter and so as a lively-streets lover I would like to know she will be also happy and not get bored while daughter is in the school. I pay attention to this as well since it may depend my wife's quick adaptation.

From my side, I like also lively-streets however would like to feel the nature, river, luxury and good pubs in London and will be happy if the location is not far away from my workplace.

Thanks God, London Bridge is a very central station direct links to Nothern and Jubilee lines and I can also take a short walk from monument bridge to the office (approx 10-15 min) which means I can use District or Circle lines as well.

According to my investigations the candidate places to live are;

• Richmond Upon Thames (42 mins to work)
• Wimbledon (41 mins to work)
• Chiswick (35 mins to work)
• West Hampstead (21 mins to work)
• May be Greenwich (23 mins to work)

Please note, I would like to ensure the resident area is very close to outstanding schools, decent and not very very diverse like Notting Hill, Chelsea etc. in terms of better adaptation of my daughter at school (I don't know where mainly EU peers or UK people live) and where decent people live next to us.

Can I ask your thoughts around all above ?

Thanks and cheers..

OP, are you planning to put your daughter in school (reception) immediately upon your arrival? If so, you will need to find out what schools have places right now as it’s midway through the school year (the academic year ends in July).

Each local authority will have a list of vacancies. For instance, for Wimbledon the local authority is called Merton and their list of vacancies is here: www.merton.gov.uk/assets/Documents/vacancy%20checker%2012.12.18.xls. You would then need to research the schools that have vacancies and decide which one(s) you think are suitable. To do this you may want to read the schools’ inspection report on this website reports.ofsted.gov.uk

Note that the list above includes all the vacancies on the Merton territory, not just Wimbledon.

I don’t live in the UK anymore but as others have said, you are not likely to find a great school with mid year vacancies as they are all over subscribed, so you will need to be somewhat flexible or go private.

Rent wise, you will be fine to get a 2 bed flat for £2000/month.

Over 65% of London children born recently have at least one parent who is foreign born, so you better embrace diversity! Don’t worry too much about this, all the areas you mentioned are diverse and your daughter is likely to have classmates from 10 or more different countries/heritages/ethnicities. The language at school and in the playground will be English and she will be fine.

You will need to factor in some additional commute time as the trains and tube are not always reliable. An hourlong commute is pretty standard in London.

Also OP, I get that English isn’t your first language but you really need to be careful how you express yourself. I don't know where mainly EU peers or UK people live sounds like a thinly veiled way of saying you don’t want to live in an area that has a lot of Asian, African, Arabic/Muslim families. Since you say you are not racist, please be mindful of how you come across. And bear in mind that Indian, Bangladeshi and Nigerian students, to name just a few groups, count among the highest achievers in the UK.

As it's London Bridge I would avoid the tube - and stick to overground options (personal prefrence) so Greenwich / Blackheath or Dulwich / Sydenham / Crystal palace. You will get more space for you money and a less costly commute.

Totally agree. I found myself at London Bridge tube station at 9am on Friday morning. The approaches to the platform were jammed with people. I had to queue to get onto the platform. Once on the platform I had to wait for 4 tube trains to go through before I worked my way to the front of the platform (whilst listening to the announcements that the barriers in the main concourse were closed to prevent more people from trying to get onto the platform). I eventually managed to force (and I mean force) my way onto a tube train - it was either that or miss my connection at Kings Cross.

Not an unusual occurrence. Overground trains are grossly overcrowded too - but at least you can see daylight

Greenwich ticks your boxes - the park and world heritage site is lovely, lots of outstanding primary schools and you can avoid the train / tube altogether and commute to London Bridge City by boat if you like.

Blackheath your best bet. Greenwich can be slightly hellish tourist wise in summer. Blackheath High Street is great and it is near the Heath/Park etc.

On the commute, I would definitely take a commute from South Wimbledon (end of the northern line, seats always available bar exceptional circumstances) over stations like Balham and Clapham. It may be 10 minutes longer on paper, but in reality it’s a much more pleasant experience and you won’t have to let 3 trains go before you can get in, so the time difference is negligible or non existent.

There’s life beyond Wimbledon village. South Wimbledon and Wimbledon town are nice too - though not as posh as the village.