Anyone who lives in Harrow/Kenton/Pinner or knows about these Areas?

[Leah4]

My dh works in west London and wants to move closer to work. We are considering moving to Harrow/South Harrow/Kenton/Pinner area either late Autumn or beginning of January.

I know about the sites with all the official figures on areas but would really like first-hand opinions on what it's really like to live in these areas. Is it a good mix of people? Does it feel safe? Lots to do with kids? Are the primary schools good? If so, which ones? Which parts of Harrow are really nice? I have so many questions! Thanks

I can't give you advice on Harrow as I don't know it too well. Pinner is great though, lots for kids to do and it has a nice family villagely feel. Northwood (the next tube stop) is also nice and if you fancy going out a bit further Rickmansworth is lovely and quite a bit cheaper than Pinner.

Hi Leah4, I have lived in S Harrow for the past five years since I got married.

I like it here, we are close to the tube station, good shopping (Waitrose, Sainsbury, Woolies, with opticians, chemist, banks/bldng socs, post office) - pretty much everything you could want. It's going slightly more upmarket dare I say - there are a couple of outdoor cafes, a Nandos, and a Subway

My ds went to a local pre-school playgroup which was OK - he was very happy there, but in my part of S Harrow there weren't many that had good Ofsted reports - the same goes for state primaries hence ds1 will be starting state nursery in Rayners Lane. Having said that there is one excellent but small state primary, Newton Farm, which we unfortunately are not in the catchment area for.

There are some parks near us, and if you drive a Whacky Wharehouse (if you like that sort of thing) and a David Lloyd Health Club - right near to where that young Sri Lankan girl was raped and murdered - but that is in Sudbury Hill.

According to the Ofsted reports for local schools - can't remember what year - it is actually designated as an area of social deprivation. There are a lot of families where English is the second language and it seems to be a centre for the Sri Lankan community, which makes it excellent for ethnic food shopping.

Can't think what else to tell you - it does feel safe to me and there are lots of different ethnic groups, but the local paper often has some scary crime stories. As I said I like it here, there is a community feel and we have never, thank God, had any bad experiences.

But, not having grown up here myself I don't have a feel what the nearby areas are like.

Hi,
I live in South Harrow too.I also work in West London. It is half an hour on the piccadily line to Hammersmith.
I have lived here for three years. Am starting to get used to it now, I moved here from Hammersmith so it felt ( and is ) very suburban to me.
DS will be starting school in Hillingdon in sept. Some of the schools around here are little bit below standard, but I had a teacher friend to look at the Ofsted reports and she said on the most part the are schools good. Apparently Harrow LEA is above average.
I think Harrow is safe, I read recently that Harrow has the lowest street crime in London. Other interesting facts are that it has the lowest divorce rate in the country. The third largest concentration of millionaires in the country as well.
What I do like about this area, is that is on the edge of hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire.Etc so it is easy to get out to the countryside. And for me after living in Hammersmith for years there are plenty of green spaces.

I dont understand why it is an area of social deprivation, a lot of the properties are owner occupied.
Agree with Saddia, you can always tell when an area is improving when they start serving decent coffee.

I used to live in Kenton about 20 years ago.

It was a lovely area then, no idea about it now.

Northwood and rickmansworth are nice

If you have loads of money go for Moor Park, between the two.

What about Icenham/Harefield/Ruilslip/pinner HM and TC live around there somewhere?

I don't know about tube trains as I never travel on them but think they go quite fast into london.

I grew up in Hatch End (near Pinner) and there are very good local state schools - Grimsdyke and Pinner Wood for primary, Nower Hill for secondary. Lots of private schools nearby too. Also all the usual stuff like TumbleTots and playgroups. Pinner has Sainsbury's and M&S, and the tube line; Hatch End has few shops apart from a large Morrisons and lots of restaurants, and the overground to Euston.
Watford very near for shopping etc.
My parents still live there.

I grew up in Kenton and used to love it - at the time it certainly felt safe and mostly normal (!) people about! Harrow was also great for shopping etc. I'm afraid I can't comment on the state of primary schools now - in my time (!!!) I know Mount Stewart Infant and Junior schools had a very good reputation. Harrow on the Hill itself is lovely. I have now been living in Spain for the past 5 years and have only been back to Kenton a couple of times and it more or less seems to be the same - perhaps the Asian community is a little larger than it was but on the whole it still appeared to have the nice mix of people that I really liked about the area.

I live in Ruislip Manor, which is about four miles away from Harrow. Personally don't like Harrow very much - prefer Uxbridge or Watford for shopping, for instance.

There are good schools around - like everywhere, some are better than others (Ofsted site is helpful to a certain extent with this).

Harrow residents get wheelybins, Hillingdon residents don't

Tubes to London are very good from here - the Metropolitan or Piccadilly line from Ruislip Manor and the Central line from Ruislip Gardens. I get to White City (where I work) in about 15 minutes.

I know the ickenham, hillingdon area, primary schools are good the secondary is awful.

Vyners isn't bad, I thought?

I've got some good friends who live in Pinner. Its a gorgeous village AND on the tube!! I wouldn't contemplate moving further out than we are (NW3) but I DO like Pinner and can see how lovely a place it is to live.
I grew up in Uxbrige, unfortunately the centre got rather ruined in the 60s/70s but its also got some very nice parts in the town centre and round the common and, again, is on the tube (I tubed to school in Ealing, also nice).

I know Thomcat lives in Pinner, and asfaik, she likes it....

Vyners is ok, infact better than ok. I stand corrected, was thinking of somewhere else that I didn't want to name as have worked there!

Thanks very much for all the replies. Sorry for taking so long to reply; I have not had any internet access at home due to Broadband problems. Grimsdyke School is still very high in the league tables. We had a look at a few houses last weekend, and we really liked Kenton. Harrow is very mixed area which is what we also want. Saw a lovely house in central Harrow but it was on a very busy main road, which we were not initially told about.

We are going to see another house near Harrow on the Hill this weekend, but I am not to sure about the primary school nearby - Marlborough. Norbury, St Anslem's RC, and Vaughn are also very close by. Does anyone know about these schools? Difficult to gain more insight from just looking at league tables. I understand that Harrow Borough allocates a school place in terms of how close you live to it, and are quite strict about this. Is this true?

DH also wants to see a house near Sudbury Hill which would be good for him to get to work but not for me. I have no idea what this are is like so may have to start a new message! Thanks

Hi there thought I would give my 2 cents having lived in Harrow my entire life and only just been able to get out of South Harrow after over 30 yeas there... sigh of relief! Yes we eventually got a nandos and a costa coffee but the crime rate has not improved - in fact has worsened. Not sure what the Waitrose is doing there actually as not many of the locals use it - you see more people driving in to it than walking. Soon the high street will go back to a higher delinquency rate when people start going to South Ruislip new Asda and Lidl complexes coming next year.

I can give more info on S Harrow if you want but honestly speaking I would not recommend it to anyone.

If you are on a tight budget consider: South Ruislip (slightly better than s harrow, better transport and new supermarket / cinema complex coming). Rayners Lane (good shopping and transport), Ruislip Manor (recently improved and affordable)? North harrow?

Rest of the areas you mentioned:
Sudbury Hill - Better if you stay close to the Harrow side rather than Sudbury Town side.

Harrow - look at North harrow (Pinner side not West harrow side). I'd avoid Wealdstone (the regeneration of this area will take forever) - Harrow weald is nice but further out and bad transport.
Kenton - Belmont is too much in the middle of nowhere, would avoid Queensbury / Kingsbury side but Northwick park side is nice.
Pinner - is lovely - good schools, good roads, high street is lovely - they will be developing it further (not sure why) but it is expensive. Alternatively consider Eastcote / Ruislip / Northwood?

I am house hunting too at the moment and if I could afford it I would go for Pinner any day. Hope this helps.

Dude, this thread is 10 years old. I suspect the OP has decided by now

Sorry I saw your question on the schools in central harrow - I know from conversations that St Anselms and Marlborough are good but not heard anything of the others you mention, Whitmore is good for secondary too and not far from central harrow.
Where does your dh work and how to you travel - car / pt?
Have you considered more North - Canons / Stanmore?

Again, this thread was made in 2005, you revived it 10 years later.

[facepalm]

Freeatlast0 thnx for reviving the post great info too
looking at High tech.College we are house hunting in the area
Pinner & Kenton are far where would u suggest?