Is worcester park a nice area to live for young family?

9 replies

Washman · 16/03/2014 16:17

Hi everyone,

We are trying to find a london suburb with easy access to city and also nice for family with young children. With our budget the only viable options seem to be sutton or bromley, we have narrowed it down to Worcester Park vs. West Wickham/Hayes. Both have good schools and about 30min commute to london.

I have been to both areas multiple times. I have to say West Wickham/Hayes looks a lot safer and quieter, with cleaner high street and better traffic. The downside is, it looks very suburban (i'm not used to village life), and i have never lived in south east london so it feels like I don't belong there.

On the other hand, Worcester Park is closer to where we live now (wandsworth), and close to places we are familiar with, ie. Kingston. But I found the high street is bit intimidating, after 6pm there are quite a few groups of teenagers walking up down the street, and some men drink beers outside news agents..

So does anyone live in Worcester Park? Can you please tell me what it's like living there with a family, is my first impression about the area correct?

OP posts:

Dapherdoo · 16/09/2014 22:15

Hi,

I just read your post Washman and I was wondering if you had made the move to Worcester Park yet and which area you had chosen.
We are in the process of looking at houses at the moment and we have visited the area on multiple occasions to get a feel for the place.
We saw a house on 'The Manor Drive' which seems to be a nice area.
We saw our ideal house in Colborne Way which is on the other side of the high street and Station... I work in Putney, so access to the A3 is important.
My son is starting school in September, so we need to move before end of this year with number 2 on its way end of November. A bit of a deadline looming. Would be good to hear your and anyone elses' thoughts on Worcester Park and the better areas there to live - with access to the outstanding schools which are Mead Infant School and the COE Malden Manor school on The Manor Drive.
Any info you have on what would be considered better (having come from a lovely area in Putney) would be great!
Thanks a mill

stridesy · 21/09/2014 08:27

We live in Sutton but my son goes to dorchester Worcester Park year 1 which has had a huge amount of building work done due to the area of sutton being heavily oversubscribed.i can't fault the school (although not any of our four choices due to small catchment areas of 500 metres) my son has really progressed.in general it has a low crime rate,good schools and grammes schools and seen as a good place to live.you have good open spaces non such park and are in between croydon, Kingston and wimbledon and good for the tube (morden).not heard of mead school but I would assume that's more towards new Malden another cofe is St Dunstall cheam which is near the train station.

Poems · 27/09/2014 07:48

Worcester Park looks busy but is nice & safe. If you look further south there's Cheam, especially the village/southern part, or Ewell West. Good schools, safe and sedate but not too suburban.

AnSol · 02/08/2018 17:08

Did you move to Worcester Park? I’m considering moving there. My husband and I are planning to have children soon ... so any information on what it’s liek to live there would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
A

Leleophants · 15/01/2019 14:13

Would you say it compares well to Ewell west? We love how green it us there. When do you stop getting a seat to London?

MumOfAlmost2 · 27/02/2022 21:43

Hello everyone,
With my family (2yo and baby number 2 on the way), we are looking to move to Sutton.
We have taken a few trips there and have now narrowed down our choice to Stoneleigh and Cheam as they both have what we are looking for:

nice high streets

-villagey/community feeling -station conveniently located by the high st and equally nicely connected to Central London

green areas and parks.

We cannot make up our mind on wether to move to one place or another. Primary (but also secondary) schools are very important to us too and it's difficult to gauge where they are best/where I would have more choice. Do you have any recommendations in terms of where the best schools/catchment areas are? I'm not after private schools. Which would you consider to be the best streets? Does one place offer more activities for kids than another? Atm I'm particularly attracted by the area by Cunnington park in Stoneleigh and the one next to the Loyd's gym in Cheam but I haven't seen any houses on the market so far. Thank you so much. Any comment will be appreciated even just an opinion on what you have experienced first hand.

MumOfAlmost2 · 27/02/2022 21:46

nice high streets

-villagey/community feeling -station conveniently located by the high st and equally nicely connected to Central London

green areas and parks.

Hasselhoffsheadband · 27/02/2022 21:47

This thread must be one of the most drawn out threads on the whole of Mumsnet - the time gap between each post!

SomeoneBurntTheToastAgain · 27/02/2022 21:53

Sutton is awful. Someone on MN described it as a narrow-minded place with delusions of grandeur. That still stands.

Flip