considering moving but not sure about travel into London

[cubmum]

We are in sw London and it takes me 50min-1h door to door to blackfriars area daily. Dh cycles to west end in about 35-40min. He is moving jobs to Farringdon. I've been scouring train maps and can't quite work out if bromley (chislehurst, beckenham, petts wood, orpington) any better for us to move? St albans would be great for him for example but cant afford and i have a fear of the North. We want a detached, good pri, walkable to park but also one of us should at least have an under 45min commute. Any ideas? Tia

Bromley South has fast trains if that is your priority. Petts Wood however is a great area to live. I commute into Cannon St and the train journey is 28 mins, with my walk from home at one end and office near Liverpool St at the other end my door to door commute is just under an hour but if my office were on top of Cannon St it would be 40 mins. The Blackfriars trains which also continue into Farringdon tend to stop at every lamppost and take 45 mins so not fitting in with your timeframe. I do find that when most other areas get train troubles we can normally 'fiddle' our way in as we have the choice of trains on the Charing Cross / Cannon St line and also the Blackfriars/ Victoria line. PW you'd get a detached from about 700k, more likely £800-900k and they are rarer as 85% of the housing stock is semis. Great community feel. Great primary school and independents and grammars within short travel. Beckenham may be another place to look if travel times are key, but property is pricier and detached even more so. Good luck.

You should check out clockhouse/kenthouse area. Dependent on distance from station each end you may well both find you have that sort of journey time from there. Prices have rocketed a bit recently though and not so many detached probably as other parts of Bromley - still some lovely big houses though.

Another option is hayes line into cannon st - train a bit slower but lots of detached houses around park Langley area and great schools (both primary and secondary). Not cheap again though, so difficult to say if realistic without knowing your budget.

Are you set on having a detached house? Some of the semis in the Kent House area of Beckenham are very big indeed.

As a PP mentioned, transport links are excellent - Kent House station takes you to Victoria and St Pancras, whereas near by Clock House station will take you to London Bridge, Cannon St and Charing X - always useful to have more than one route available to get to and from work!

We are moving to Bickley close to Elmstead Woods station because of the selection schools and lovely area. 25 mins to London Bridge, not more than 30 to cannon street. I work at Aldgate station and it takes me 45 minutes.

Your best bet would be Bromley South I think.

I'd say most of the primary schools around Bromley South are pretty good. However, I'd think secondary too unless you want to move to a new neighbourhood once your children reach secondary.

So:

I'd choose Highfield or Pickhurst to then go on to either Hayes or Langley (even if you moved again, it wouldn't have to be far). There are a few detached in the Pickhurst and Langley area.

I'd choose Raglan, Bickley or St George's for Bullers, Bishop Justus or Hayes (again, you may move but it wouldn't be far away).

I'd expect the travel, door to door, to be more like 50 minutes though as none of the schools are right next to the train station. But you should be able to do both do it in under an hour.

The issue is there aren't a lot of detached houses to choose - especially not near good primary schools. You could get a semi-detached next to a good primary school and move again in say 8-9 years to a detached next to the good secondary school.