Moving to London - where should we go?

[Sorryforthechange123]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping you would be able to help as I am about to go crazy.

My partner and I start new jobs in London in October. We will be moving from Scotland. We are now down here viewing flats (we've had 13 viewings just today!!!) and we narrowed our choices down to:

• Greenwich Penninsula/North Greenwich
• Royal Docks (Royal Victoria station/Emirates Airline)
• Limehouse (nice part next to the Narrow)

I will be working in Canary Wharf and my partner in London Bridge area. We are wondering if these areas are fairly safe and what would you say about each of them? We don't want to spend too much time commuting, we want to feel safe walking home at night as well as have some amenities/restaurants/pubs within a walking distance. We don't have kids at the moment.

Would you be able to give me some insights/advice?

All three work for both London Bridge and Canary Wharf. Personally I would add Borough / Southwark (and dump Royal Docks from your list) if you are young free and single (it is a short walk for your DH and 15 mins on the Jubilee line to CW for you). Also loads of bars / restaurants / central London on your doorstep! One bed flats from about £1400 a month.

Limehouse and Greenwich are ok too (though lots of tourists in Greenwich - I don't know why only in Greenwich they annoy me - though it is nice - and not enough good restaurants there for me!).

I think all of London is safe - in 20 years have never felt anything else!

Thanks :) I'm sure all of London is safe but I'm sure like with every city there are areas that are safer than others?

North Greenwich is perfect - near the tube. Such a great area. Also 20 mins from west end. I lived there for eight years and worked in Green Park. Not touristy at all in that area, only in Greenwich Village.

Also very safe!

North Greenwich is fine, not as fab as the town centre though. Add Blackheath and Blackheath Standard to your list, they're at the top and side of Greenwich park.

There's very useful shops in all three of these places and they're very safe areas.

I walk down through the park to Greenwich every day, it's just lovely.

If you're thinking about having children soon then I'm going to recommend you're in walking distance to Greenwich park whichever area you pick - it's literally all about the park in summer. My kids are grown up now but my niece was here over the summer and we were in the park and the kids play park over the summer lots - loads of activities for kids too.

I think the place we're thinking about in North Greenwich is very close to O2 within the new Greenwich Peninsula development. I believe it's about 20-30 min walk to the park?

Lots of buses (all journeys are £1.50)

Around the O2 is mostly flats and retail park - it's fine as I said but not really a family place, the town centre (there are flats there too) has more useful shops/restaurants/things to do.

It's very much the Dome and that's it.

Are you renting? There's not much difference in rents at the O2 and the town centre.

If you were in the town centre you go from Cutty Sark station to Canary Wharf - very easy.

No idea what your budget is but this is in a great area.

And this one

Yes, we will be renting. We are looking for a 2 bed for not more than £2,000 per month. I admit I am quite particular about a lot of things so it's a bit of a hassle to find something. The problem being that we have our own home back in Scotland and I am so not used to renting any more - it's hard to find something that would feel like home. That's why we are mostly looking at new developments to make them feel more "ours", if that makes sense :)

Lots of development happening near there so areas are changing a lot I think. There are bits of Canning Town/custom house that are pretty rough which is nearer to royal docks so depends where exactly the flat would be. Big events happen at excel centre which might either a good or bad thing depend on your view of things (there is currently a big arms fair on )

Then this new flat is right in the heart of things

Or this one if you want to be actually on top of M and S food and Cutty Sark station

I lived in many millennium village, very close to where you're looking. It's 15 mins walk to the park and you can get the bus there too. I would highly recommend the area. If I hadn't moved abroad, I would never have moved out of that area. A lovely school there too, if you're planning on having kids.

I would disagree it's not a family place. It has a real sense of community and lots of things are organised near the ecology park for kids. My daughter had lots of friends there and we
loved it.

LaurieFairyCake would you be able to send me a link to the Welland Street one? I can't find it on Rightmove :( (obvs if it's not against mumsnet policy)

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-61683823.html

It's this one - it's 1850 on website Rightmove and 1800 on the Rightmove app!

Thanks! It's not available any more :( but we keep looking! We actually saw a few good flats, but there always need to be a compromise of some sort I guess. The question is what are you willing to compromise on... So far, the flat in Greenwich Peninsula is our number 1 - it's quite small for the price (63 sqm) but it has a lot of perks (like gym etc) and the view is stunning.

Another thing that maybe you could give me some of your thoughts on:

The flat is facing NE (more towards East than North) - not ideal, but all walls are pretty much glass so I presume it wouldn't be too dark?...

I think that's good. You will get all the morning light when you need it and less of the afternoon heat.

All of them are really nice. Although as some mentioned before I would also have a look at Borough, and maybe Bermondsey, as both of them are really nice and Bermondsey has one of my favourite restaurants - Pizarro

www.elitetraveler.com/finest-dining/restaurant-guide/best-restaurants-in-london#/28

Have you considered actual Greenwich town (near Greenwich mainline station)? It has DLR for the wharf and at some point the LB service I'm sure is meant to return. In the meantime change at CW for LB. In my opinion that's a much better choice than North Greenwich. There's loads of new build blocks there too near curry sark dlr which will be in your price range. Good luck we moved down from Glasgow 10 years ago...was meant to be for a few years...

We looked ar Greenwich town and seen a few flats there but what was available wasn't really as good value for money as the other places. We've just seen a lovely spacious flat facing the Limehouse basin and now we're a bit torn between that and North Greenwich.