Advice needed ? where to live in/around Crouch End???

[MissTea]

Hello!

Apologies if you've already seen this question elsewhere - someone suggested I might get more responses if I post it in the Haringey Local section, so here goes:

I'm 23 weeks pregnant and currently live with my husband in Finsbury Park.

We're thinking of moving to Crouch End or somewhere close by, but we don?t know the residential areas in and around Crouch End very well.

Can anyone tell me which areas are nicer/best avoided/cheaper/pricier etc?

I get the feeling that properties east of the broadway, towards the Haringey ladder, are cheaper but the area is grottier/more dangerous, whereas the properties and the area west of the broadway are more desirable (but pricier). Is this correct? And what about the areas to the north, towards priory rd and Alexandra palace? Any local knowledge, advice and recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

We're looking for a 2-3 bed flat with outside space for 350-400K (bit ambitious perhaps, but I think it's probably better to settle for a smaller flat if it means we can be in a nicer, safer area. Then we can always move if/when we have a second baby).

I would also be interested in your opinions on good local nurseries and primary schools and ? importantly ? their catchment areas.

Many thanks!

Hi Miss Tea

The shortish answer to your post is this.

On the eastern side of Alexandra Palace Park (the ladder, Wood Green etc) you can buy a house for the price you suggest. In Crouch End you might manage a small flat for the same money.

The property price delineator is basically the railway line that runs via Bowes Park and Ally Pally into Moorgate. The closer you get to the park at the Wood Green/ladder side of the railway line the pricier the houses. The further west you get on the Crouch End/Muswell Hill side of the line the pricier the houses. This is a generalisation but broadly correct.

I live just on the Wood Green side of the railway line. I like it there. If I want some real life and big shops I can go to Wood Green, if I want a cappuccino and some organic veg I can go to Crouch End.

Wood Green/Bounds Green etc also have the Tube which is also a big plus in my book.

Is it dangerous and grotty? Well I don't think so. I know the names of all my neighbours and attend parties at their houses! Last year there were a couple of burglaries - same as in your average street in Crouch End. There are a couple of fights on Wood Green High Road on an average Saturday night - just as in Crouch End you can find middle class young men being sick in the gutter outside the Kings Head. There are young black men talking loudly on mobile phones in Wood Green, just as in Crouch End there are posh white women talking on them even louder and with a much greater air of entitlement!

Schools: if you move to Crouch End there's a chance you'll have to fight for a school place. Most of the schools on that side of the railway line are oversubscribed. Look up Coleridge School on the local newspaper sites and you'll see just how ugly the battle for places has recently been (in essence the school's plans for expansion were temporarily blocked by parents who didn't want the catchment area extended because it would have meant children from nearby social housing would suddenly have been eligible for a place). The schools on the Wood Green side of the line have a much more diverse intake/their OFSTED scores are often lower - but what you want from a school partly depends where you sit in the great education debate.

So in short - if you want a decent-sized house and don't mind that your DC goes to school with children from a variety of backgrounds move east of the railway line. If you like to feel a bit posh, are inclined towards Bugaboos and don't mind living in a flat, move to Crouch End

My view is my own, of course and others will feel differently depending on their political orientation/level of household income

Good luck with your move.

Mrs Baldwin

Loved your post MrsB! I'm a local and I think that your post pretty much says it all lol!

Perhaps I should change my nickname to MrsWrongSideOfTheTracks

Brilliant! Thanks so much for all the info

Also very much agree with MrsBaldwin's post!

If you'd like more info/detail re the ladder area please feel free to CAT me (don't have any knowledge of private nurseries though)

I live much further the wrong side of the tracks in Tottenham. I also looked near Wood Green and Green Lanes but chose a small house further east into Tottenham rather than the dodgy conversions that were typical of the properties within budget 10 years ago. One estate agent refused to show me anything in Tottenham where I'd already rented for 2 of the previous 3 years and showed me a 2nd floor mansion flat on a really busy main road.

With a child on the way, I'd definitely go for value for money on the quality of property. But if you don't, do look up where things reallly are. One estate agent in the centre of Crouch End is advertising a home off St John's Way in Archway N19 as "Highgate periphery" - ummm, no.

Another advantage of slightly cheaper parts of Haringey is that you might if you're lucky find yourself in the catchment area for one of the Council's nurseries - some of them have really excellent reports from OFSTED and their fees can be about half the price of private nurseries, plus you don't have to pay £50 just for information or getting on the waiting list. I live too far from the two with the best reports in my area, but we were offered a place at another though DS is now happily settled at a fab, caring childminder very close to home.