Thinking of moving to Enfield...

[ehmumbo]

So,
Where are the nicest parts of Enfield?
What are the best schools?
What do you like best about living here?
What do you like least?

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated smile

anyone?

Where are the nicest parts of Enfield? West of the A10 is generally nicer, Winchmore Hill and Grange park are the poshest. The worst is Edmonton, Ponders End and Lychet Way.

What are the best schools? Don't assume your child will even get a school place!

What do you like best about living here? Lived here for 35 years, I know lots of local history, every bus route, every road name, I have memories everywhere.

What do you like least? The above ;) And : lots of people are moving to Enfield these days, its not what it was. The town cant cope, crime is on the increase, the town centre is a complete shell compared to 10 years ago, its busy, there aren't enough local resources for everyone, chace farm hospital will be closing soon leaving only north mid and barnet, and all my friends have moved away because they hate it here now.

But! It has great transport links to the city :)

I grew up in Enfield and still live there now. It's pleasant enough and very convenient for commuting into London (we live very near Enfield Chase station) but we don't have children yet and I imagine we will think about moving away if/when we do.

West of the A10 is definitely nicest; don't even think about Ponders End or Edmonton unless you really can't afford anything else. Winchmore Hill/Grange Park are the most affluent areas (both quite chi-chi/yummy mummy in parts) but property is on the expensive side. We live on the West side of Enfield Town, which is nice and leafy and good for local amenities (library etc). There are also some nice smaller terraces around the Lancaster Road area which aren't too expensive.

Where we are feels quite safe, but agree with itsnotdarkyet that the Town itself isn't great at the mo; lots of empty shops, local demographic is rapidly changing (I'm a teacher, so have first-hand experience of this) and crime and anti-social behaviour are tending to spread here from the more deprived areas of the borough. There are also issues with school places at the moment; the best ones are drastically over-subscribed with tiny catchments and there is a lot of fair-weather church attendance to get kids into the more middle-class church schools.

On balance there are both better and worse places to live. Enfield has everything we need at present (lots of green space on our side of the borough; adequate shops and amenities; easy access to London) and to be honest we just avoid the less desirable areas - can't remember the last time I ventured over the A10! If children came into the equation, though, I think we would do what lots of my friends have already done and either sacrifice some space to live in a 'naice' area of North London or move out into Herts/Surrey/Sussex.