ooops have you considered moving further away to a different area entirely which might still fulfill your 'village' requirements. we are in hackney, which doesn't sound very promising, but it's brilliant. loads of stuff to do with kids, lots of parks & museums, pretty central (no tube yet but one is under construction), we have a fantastic farmer's market 5 minutes from our house, city farm. it's a really vibrant place to live. property is still a reasonable(ish) price for london. god, i sound like an advert! but do think about it.