Southdown area of Harpenden

[movingout1]

I'm looking at moving to Harpenden. What is Southdown like? Houses seem to be a bit cheaper here. Any areas to avoid?
Thanks

My best mate moved to this area last year and she absolutely loves it. Lots of young families, the Grove school, plus she says it's very friendly. She prefers it to St A, where she lived before.

Its really nice. My friend lived there and you can walk to town and there are some nice shops / deli there too. Lots of charity shop but I like them.

Live at the other end of Harpenden but Southdown seems really nice and everyone I know who lives there is very happy with it. The Grove schools are apparently v. good (infant and junior). Only thing I'd be wary of is not living at the extreme edge nearest St Albans - there's stuff in the local paper every year about children who live there not getting into Harpenden secondaries (although I think they do in the end, they have to go through all the stress of continuing interest lists).

Great - thanks for the advice. I've also heard bad things about Batford. Are these just scare stories or is it really better to avoid?

Houses seem to be cheaper here too, but it's pretty close to Sir John Lawes and St Georges.

To be fair you aren't really going to get dodgy areas of Harpenden. Maybe less desirable places.

Batford's 'less desirable' but seems perfectly nice. Anywhere other than Harpenden it'd be very desirable, I suspect... (the school down there, Sauncey Wood, used to be considered one to avoid, but I gather has been on the up for some time now. Again, anywhere other than Harpenden you'd have had people queuing up to get their kids in).

Southdown is nice - has its own little village centre and house slightly cheaper. I wouldn't make a decision based on schools - allocations this year have left 62 families without any school in the town including a number sitting on top of nearest primary.

Batford has some nicer areas and some to avoid.

Couple of very nice pubs in Southdown. The Engineer has to be one of the best boozers in the South East of the country.