Moving to St Albans from central London -

[anotherglass]

Hi, my DH and our two boys (6&9 years) are looking to move to St Albans largely because of the excellent local schools.

My DH and I both work in the London Bridge / Blackfriars area so would need to commute.

Currently, we live a 25 minute bus ride to the office so the commute is fairly hassle free and cheap.

If you have two parents that work in the city, how do you manage the school run etc and after school pick up?

Is parking a hassle at the train station? Do people cycle?

The schools I am considering are Beaumont and Sandringham which are both quite a way from the train station. I am not sure how I will manage getting the kids to school then getting to work for 10am?

Is the train service fairly good or subject to lots of delays?

Please give me your thougths on whether this is do-able.

Thanks

oh, no thats Radlett, my bad

Himalaya, am loving your scarily accurate assessment of life in St Albans! especially this:

"One thing to beware of is that the commute does tend to push people into traditional dad/mum roles if you are not careful. There are upsides and downsides of living in the suburbs - a lot of people seem to end up in a situation where the wife takes all the career downsides, and the kids get the upsides in terms of education and safety etc... and the dad just gets to carry on as normal."

The commute certainly contributes to the predominance of the 1950s model, I think.

St Albans is about a 40 min commute to blackfriars but not cheap.

School drop off and pick up is tricky, best option is a childminder/au pair or we do a lift share with another family it means that I work longer hours on some days and leave at 4pm on other days but then I have a house full of kids.

It is well worth cycling, as the traffic is bad and parking is expensive at the station.

You would seriously struggle to get to the station and work on time from either B or S. I suggest that you look at schools closer to the town centre, maybe St Albans boys school if you can afford it. Its also a lot nicer to be in the centre of town, loads of shops, restaurants, walking distance to the station and the kids love it especially as they get older.

The train service is great but you do get occasional delays, which can be stressful.

Its do-able but in my opinion not with the schools you have chosen.

Hello I am thinking of moving the family to St Albans from Central London mostly to get more space, and I have heard & read good things about schools etc. Both of us would continue to work in London. I came across this thread and wondered if you took the plunge in the end, and if so how it's gone?! Any advice would be brilliant.

Have you both moved to at Albans ? I am curious how it’s going. We are considering moving back to London because of commute and not seeing kids enough :/