Where should we live?

[august24]

We are moving to London, and we need to decide on a place to live. I cringe at the though of living ouside of London, but we have a 5 year old who needs a good(I'll settle for Okay at this point) We are moving from the U.S. and we are looking to rent a 2 bedroom flat. Any advice on places to look?!? In London and in areas outside of London?

august24, I have lived in St Albans for 17 years. My DD(17) and DS(16) come home late at night from St Albans and I have no major concerns about their safety. There doesn't seem to many problems of any kind. Walk for 10 minutes and you are in green leafy lanes, we have cycle paths and special scenic cycle ride routes that are maintained.

We have large communities of Italian, Asian, Irish, Carribean etc. I have lots of friends with biracial origins. There is no discrimination by children in schools that I know of. I have been a governor of three different state schools, primary and secondary.

My children went to state and private, there are no 'poor' schools in St Albans, and schools that are not so highly thought of do get excellent results if your children are prepared to work. The least highly thouight of secondary school, managed to get a girl who came to this country 3 years ago with no English to achieve 4 A's 4 B's and a coupl eos C's at GCSE. The same school also gets pupils with 4 grade A's at A level, they do not have any discipline problems.

What age are your children and I can give you some idea of school entry here. If you are starting at any age other that standard age 4+ entry, there is nearly always space in a school of your choice. We have a very good range of pre school, private, montessori, Rudolph Steiner and state nurseries too.

Feel free to email me for anymore info, Good luck!

yeah - come to st albans!! schools are a pain to get into - like everywhere, the nearest person gets in. but, they are all good, so probably better than most places.

you can walk around - lots of parks and shops and coffee shops.

two train links - to watford 1/2 hour, or kings cross 20 minutes on a good day (like all trains, can be fab, but can be bad enough to make you want to jump under one)

loads of mums and very friendly nct so you can meet loads of new friends!

lots of new restaurants - wagamamas, carluccios etc plus some good ones that aren't famous

west hampstead is cool too; cooler i reckon but more expensive. in st albans a 2 bed flat near to station would be £200-250K i think. probably more in west hampstead.

In defense of Hemel - I live in Boxmoor in Hemel and it is really nice - the local primary school is very high up in the league tables... although I agree most of hemel is pretty grim Harpenden is very nice...

Ahaahhaha - grommit I'm your stalker!! I live in grovehill so you can understand why I'm a bit down on Hemel!!

We have a 5 1/2 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. Looking primarily for a school for the older one, but also looking for my younger one to start some sort of nursery program. St Albans sounds like exactly what we are looking for. I am going to do some research on it, and send my husband to take a look around when he arrives there in two weeks. I hope to be able to come out and look too, but not sure if I will be able to swing it. My biggest concern is the whole school issue. Thanks again for all your advice!

If you are looking to rent, go to Darwoods, first class service and has only rental properties, or I could get you details of places in your price range.

If you want I could get some school/nursery stuff together for your DH when he visits, which schools have a place etc.

Nursery is not too much of a problem as there are loads of them that take children from 2.5 yrs, but I could find details of one near a school that has a vacancy.

When were your childen 5 & 2 and when are you looking to start living here?

Disagree strongly with the praise given to Darwood's Lettings of St Albans.
Tread with extreme caution....
Someone passed on a rumour alledgedly (!) that Darwood's Letting Agency of St Albans have taken upto £400 in what they call 'non-refundable holding deposits' for properties that are blighted by mould and in one case they let out a property that did not have planning permission and did not meet building regulations (it was a converted semi-detached council house made into upstairs and downstairs flats - the upstairs flat had the water tank but the boiler was out of reach downstairs/ the floorboards were not sound-proofed or fire-proofed and the electricity fusebox was out of reach downstairs).
Alledgedly when this person complained, Darwood's washed their hands of the problem, even when the council confirmed the flat should not have been let out, and Darwood's refused to refund the £400 holding deposit.
The head of Darwood's - Ian Truscott-Darwood - also alledgedly threatened the people with legal action if they went to Watchdog with their story.
Would you trust these people?

zeds, I am very surprised to hear this. ian has been in the business 40 years, he is regarded highly by all other agents in the area. Many estate agents started with him before runnung their own businesses.

I think you should be very careful about what you say, especially as it is'rumour'

I have known him personally for 18 years and have my flats let through him.

How far is Watford from St Albans? August, there is great shopping St Albans, a lot of history and definitely good schools. Use London for day trips, I wouldn't live there if I had your choice.

St Albans to watford - 15 minutes max, if you need to get back for a nursery run and you have left it a bit late it can be done in 10!

Funny, only one post ever from "zeds" on mumsnet when I searched out of curiosity - the one above. Nothing like trolling with a bit of potential libel thrown in!

Meant to add, my BIL and his wife lived in St. Albans pre-kids so no idea about schools, but they were definitely looking for a fairly "trendy" lifestyle and loved it there.

SD zeds also posted on a 3 year old thread! strange.