Calling all Stoke Newington / Dalston / Islington people! Any nursery or childminder recommendations?

[Nickname1980]

My DS will be one in February and I'm self-employed so I have no rush to get him in nursery but am starting to look with the hope he'll get a place within the next 6-9 months. I have his name on the waiting list for Coconut Nursery, which I really like but it's very expensive.

Any others you'd recommend?

I heard lots of bad things about Independent Place... Don't know if those are justified?!

Am also open to the option of a childminder. I like the idea of him being with other children in a warm, loving and fun environment.

Not sure if you're still reading this, but we LOVE our childminder in Dalston. We found them by getting a list of all the childminders in Hackney/Islington and interviewing the ones who had Outstanding Ofsted. This was really only because we didn't have recommendations -- we gladly would have gone with a Good one if we had a personal rec, so we used Ofsted as a proxy. Happy to recommend if you message me. Councils also hold meet and greets with parents and childminders, so look out for those.

We started out with a nursery but hated it and left after a week -- loud and overly stimulating and not enough personal time with the kid (even though we liked the people who worked there.) Our childminder loves our daughter, who has been with her and her daughter since she was 6 months (young, I know, there were good reasons for this) and it's a warm, homey (though not fancy) environment. She's bonded to them, and always seems very happy there.