Live in London, Work in Kings Langley

[Greenparent87]

Hi everyone,
My wife and I are living in Hemel Hempstead at the moment and both are working professionals working in the same company in Kings Langley. We have a 6-year-old daughter. Actually, we have been living in the UK since Feb 2020. Our long-term plan was to move to London, because of loads of opportunities London offers to families. Meanwhile, we found that our landlord sold the flat we are living in, so we need to move out until October. This made us think, maybe it is not a bad idea to move to London right now. The fact that after the pandemic, companies are not that hesitant about working from home makes this plan for us a bit more tempting. In fact, for us, it is possible to work from the office 2-3 times a week and work from home the rest of the week.

So we thought maybe we can move to an area in London which offers a good connection to Kings Langley and we ended up Chiswick.

Before we go for this plan, however, we wanted to know your thoughts about this plan.

Many thanks
Ali

Firstly, did you mean to sign off with your name?
I’m not sure how you think you get from Chiswick to KL easily? Are you thinking the train from Wembley? Surely you’d want to be near one of the stations that the train stops at, not somewhere that is a bus or train ride away from the mainline.
Have you looked at housing costs? I’m assuming you want to rent not buy? You’ll be able to rent a match box in Chiswick compared to what you could rent in Hemel for the same money. You are 30 minutes from central london in Hemel, so you can easily explore everything London has to offer by doing day trips and saving yourself an awful lot of money on housing. Other than the ‘living in london’ experience I’m not sure what you’ll gain by moving.

Thanks for your answer. Very helpful indeed.

We would commute by car so being close to a motorway is important.
I agree that living in big cities are more expensive but we cant deny the advantages of big cities: health care, good schools, amenities etc.

Seems like a crazy idea - if you move to London then get new jobs in London with an easier commute. Seems ridiculous to travel back out of London everyday - that commute is ridiculous tbh

Also living all the way out in Chiswick

Pressed send too soon

Have you been to Chiswick before? Maybe spend some time there first!

I’m not really sure what you are looking for tbh

why Chiswick.
it's not in the same tranche out of London to KL ?
what about Harrow, Barnet, Brent boroughs.
that seems a more natural place to look.
and it's not as if Chiswick is cheap.
do you really need/want to be within greater London, or just nearer to KL ?
what about Watford. that has fast easy train into Euston, for trips.
i don't know if health care is obviously better within the M25.
and i presume you are under age 60, so not looking for freedom pass.

You may be talking about private schools when you say 'good' but you are catapulting yourselves out of Hertfordshire, which has some fantastic league-topping state schools.

Also commuting out of and into London by car (even only 2-3 days) on the A4/40/M25 is a gruesome thought. Have you ever seen that road at rush hour? I'd worry that you've only experienced it during lockdown, with Heathrow more or less shut, and would be for a real shock in a few months.

If you like Kings Langley then I'm not sure why you would move to considerably more expensive Chiswick. KL has decent road links, easy train routes to London, reasonably priced, things to do and lots of lovely surrounding villages. Chiswick doesn't really have the 'London' feel that it seems like you're looking for, it's just a suburban area. What draws you to the idea of living in London?

I think driving in the rush hour is a ludicrous idea. It could take you hours.
Far better to stick around Kings Langley areas and then visit London evenings and weekends.
Chiswick is both expensive and a trek away.

And if good schools is what you want then check out Watford or St Albans

I'm not sure that healthcare would be any better in London than Hertfordshire?
The commute by car would be busy and stressful I expect.
I would try to be clearer on what you expect the benefits of living in Chiswick would be compared to KL or surrounding areas as like other posters I don't see that you'd be gaining much and costs would be considerably higher.

Personally I think this idea is madness the miles distance from Chiswick to kings Langley are small but it could take around 2 hours each way in rush hour. I can see you haven’t lived in the UK long but try exploring other areas of Herts first. If you have bad schools/healthcare in Hemel Hempstead try St Albans/Watford as previous poster has said look at the schools league tables online etc to get an idea and go visit these places and even try the commute one day during rush hour and double it for post pandemic to give you a better idea.

I imagine you haven't had chance to really get to know the UK given Covid, but you really don't need London for good schools, amenities and good health care.

Thanks everyone for very insightful ideas. Many of you have mentioned the slow traffic during rush hours. Is it the case for London-KL in mornings and KL-London evenings as I expected that the slow traffic should be the case for the reverse path.
Thanks

I think you'll be creating unnecessary stress for yourselves, with no gain.

Try Watford, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Abbots Langley. Fantastic schools, housing significantly cheaper than London, and you can be in London for your social life whenever you want as you have a range of transport options.

The commute will be a nightmare, which ever way you do it, and I just can't see any advantage to you or your children.

London traffic is horrendous which ever way you go. I think you might have been lulled into a false sense of what London traffic really looks like because of lockdowns but I have done a similar journey and I really would think you would have to estimate about 2 hours each way.

Think of London as one big traffic jam with inordinate amount of traffic lights and bus lanes grown in for good measure.

Kings Langley is mainly served by London Northwestern trains from Euston and their service is pretty appalling. Trains are often cancelled last minute and when they are running they end up pretty crowded. It's a frequent occurrence (several times a month) where getting home takes an entire evening or you just have to give up an get an Uber. I live somewhere further north on the same line so am speaking from experience! Commuters in my town have set up a Facebook group specifically for clubbing together for taxis out of London and it is regularly used.

If you have to commute to Kings Langley, I would definitely go for somewhere that avoids having to come out of London via Euston.

Try Watford, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Abbots Langley.

I agreed with these suggestions for the reasons Iknowtheanswer already stated. Watford is on the same line but at least there's the overground if you really get stuck. Rickmansworth and Chorleywood both on the Met line and served by Chiltern trains out of Marylebone, so better commuting options.

I don’t think commuting is the problem as Greenparent87 works in Kings Langley

I do think you need to look at schools. There are some fantastic schools in Hertfordshire.
Agree Watford, Rickmansworth, Chorleywood, Abbots Langley and Berkhampsted St Albans are close with good schools. They also have great links into London for when you want to go in for a day or night out

Major cities possibly do have some of the best state schools - but they also have the worst.

You need to be sure you are living in the "right" catchment & even living in the catchment areas doesn't guarantee you a place in London.

Isn't Chiswick also hugely expensive?

I spent a period of driving frequently along your proposed commuting route to visit a sick relative and the only time it’s not a nightmare is late at night. Don’t forget it’s the main route to Heathrow (and also through to Gatwick) for many people coming from all directions, so not as simple as people coming to London in the morning and leaving at night.

honestly that's a mad idea! I think the grammar schools in watford for example are consistently high up in league tables. .,its so easy to get to London from watford. ,20 mins on a train to Euston. .In fact if I was you i would buy/rent in Kings Langley

What advantages can you get in Chiswick that you’d use on a daily/weekly basis that you can’t get get in Herts? The massive commute alone would have a huge impact on quality of life. Unless you’re v high earners you’ll be living in a shoebox.