Re-Location! Where should we move to? Calling all Kirstie and Phil's out there!

[shoobaloo]

DH and I would like to move out of London as we want to buy a house and get DS into better schools etc. DS is currently 9 months but we're thinking about having another soonish. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we'll have between £250 - 320k to spend. It has to be nearish to London - within an hours train journey for DH to get to work, near good schools but also more importantly, has to be a 'cosmopolitan' area as I'm mixed race and therefore so is DS. We don't have any ties to any particular area and so we are currently at a loss as to where to start looking (although DH has got friends up in Northampton so he is poss thinking about being north of London rather than South). Any thoughts would be most appreciated. Many many thanks in advance.

Cambridge is v nice and I think reasonably cosmopolitan (not sure how cosmopolitan you need it to be?). There are non-stop trains into London which take 45mins IIRC.

i have friends in bedford and it seems very nice (we do day trips to cambridge too and that does seem lovely)

bournemouth?

oh sorry north

hmm i woudlnt bas any move aroudn freinds tbh

North of London in under an hour will take you up to Huntingdon on the Kings Cross Line, so you have lots of choice in between.

Cambridge gets another vote from me - what more do you want from a city - fantastic open spaces with great parks (limited graffetti), good schools (mostly), good shopping with interesting shops, a river, punting and very very clever people oh and a train ride to London!

I love it...but I need hills!!!!!!!!

bumping...

oxford is great - very cosmopolitan, good schools [though check ofsted for individual ones] good distance between northampton and london - bus takes just over an hour into london, trains into paddington. some areas are ridiculously priced though. Cambridge might be cheaper. You can get a nice house for that money in east oxford.

you can't get more cosmopolitan than Brighton, I reckon! I know it's not north of london but as cod said, I wouldn't base a move around friends, as things change.....obv. if you prefer north of london for yourselves that's fine but thought it was worth suggesting Brighton. Good links to london I think, and lots of lovely areas around for big period houses with the kind of money you have....

where does DH work? makes quite a big difference as something can be an hour's train ride from 'London' but then involve lots more time on tube/bus depending on which direction you're coming from.....

I love Oxford, and some of the satellite towns are nice too. Abingdon and the south of Oxford are handy for Didcot Parkway (45min to Paddington), but am mildly surprised it's thought of as cosmopolitan - maybe it's just my London background, or the circles I currently move in, but it feels pretty middle-England to me.

Another vote for Cambridge

Cambridge sounds perfect for you.
I grew up there and it is lovely. House prices are expensive though.

ever been to East Oxford Mrs Badger? Very multi cultural indeed. Try the Cowley Rd.

love the Cowley Road and spend a lot of time there, but my years in Hackney where I'd hear seven languages, none of which were English, spoken between the bus stop and my front door have redefined 'multicultural' for me a bit - guess I should stop comparing everywhere else to London!

i lived in bethnal green for a few years, and think Cowley rd is quite similar - but there are middle england enclaves elsewhere in oxford...

Brighton (if you go south)

Oxford and Cambridge and Brighton all sound like good starting points. But having looked at them, the prices are a bit expensive (typical!. DH works in Covent Garden so I know what you mean about adding on 'inner london travelling time' to the journey on the train. Mmmm.... this is gonna be a tough one methinks! Any other ideas? Or hints for the particular areas in Cambridge or Brighton that we should look at? It's so difficult when you have no idea what an area is like - take Brighton for instance - I only know the beach and the lanes and both have no bearing on schooling IYSWIM!