Where to live in London ? Hampstead, Richmond or Greenwich for kids ?

[newlondener]

Hi dears,

My husband is going to work around London Bridge and we are looking for places to live in London best for my 5-years-old daughter's education.

Even many parameters show that Richmond may be best fit, it is about 1 hour commute for my husband to reach his workplace. So we are also focused on Hampstead and Greenwich as alternatives. Since it is year-in term for schools, as we talked to borough many schools are full for reception classes. I am looking forward to your comments where there are many good schools and great housing, safety, lively and leafy places to live as a family.

Have a nice day..

I'd look at SE areas like Dulwich, Herne Hill, Greenwich, blackheath etc too if you're commuting to London Bridge. Much easier than from N London - and totally hellish from SW like Richmond, even if your budget stretches to that.

You'd be looking at a couple of grand for a two bed in hampstead near a good school I think. Also state education there is mixed due to so many kids being sucked out by the (insanely competitive and expensive) private schools in the area.

I would really try to reduce/ keep as low as possible your rent to allow for bills/food + travel + childcare or activities for your dc. You could also consider west norwood/ Crystal palace and Beckenham. All in S.e London with fairly fast links over ground train links to London bridge and nice family areas.

If you are considering the SE, Blackheath is better than Greenwich for schools and family housing IMO. We made the move once our dcs were old enough for schools. All the private schools are on the Blackheath side and there are good state primary options but very difficult, like in Greenwich, to get a place in. There are more and faster trains into London Bridge from Blackheath than from Greenwich. Blackheath is lovely and villagey, is near to Greenwich Park, as well as the heath. Greenwich is for people who also need the DLR into Canary Wharf, tourists and trendy youngsters (you may be one).

I would agree that you would get more bang for your buck further out from Blackheath in the places mentioned. There are also green and leafy but I am not sure about state schools.

If you want to potentially reduce your housing expense, these areas have good state primaries: Forest Hill (Fairlwan and Horniman Primary); Crystal Palace (Harris Primary CP); and Honor Oak (Stillness).

However for your budget, you can definitely get a two bed flat in Herne Hill / Dulwich so if area is your priority I think that would have a lot of what you are looking for. Not sure about Hampstead but you should be able to rent what you want in your budget in Greenwich too.

Good luck!

Your original list of areas is basically a list of London's most expensive suburbs. Is there any particular reason you chose those?

Because they’re all nice places to live? I’d live in any of those if I could! (Well, not Richmond because of the planes.)

Indeed there is no very specific reasons to focus on that area but with some methods like below :
We have never lived in London before, I had just been there for a few days due to a business trip. Since I never thought before, I didn't investigate or travel that much. Walked central London as a tourist. However my husband received a good offer for us and we are relocating within 2 months.
When we search on internet like 'best places to live in London with kids' it mainly lists those suburbs.
Then we confirm thru web again for best state schools, check the safety area on uk police website and check the transportation options to London bridge. Additionally, we do care about safety and lively as well as leafy places. That's all currently we can do. For instance we also checked around wandsworth or merton but couldnt find currently available schools. Internet also says the safest areas are in south/west london and greenwich can be an exception if you are not too close to Brixton. I have no idea indeed and had to depend on web. My husband will only have 7 days to decide where we need to live and rent a house before start working.

Approx net income will be around 4k or 4.2k gbp including rentinf house and all others. My daughter will go to state school.
No private option.

That's the reason I am looking for further options. Hope that this more clear.

I think LondonGirl83 has your best advice tbh. Of your original lisr

...GAH. of your original list of 3 I'd rule out Hampstead straight away on cost and Richmond on distance anyway.

Greenwich is literally miles from Brixton so anything talking about it like it's right next door is offbase, and lots of people are raising families in Brixton - it's right next door to Herne Hill which is yummy mummy heaven. Very few areas of London are unsafe.

St margarets. 3 outstanding state primaries. Rent a 2 bed for 1500 - 1700. Lots of green space. 30 mins to Waterloo. Good community feel

You could get more for money by moving a little further out. Ealing is an easy commute and has good state primary schools, lovely parks and lots of families.

Just on the school thing: we’re in Richmond borough (Twickenham) and our (usually oversubscribed) primary has spaces in Reception - they say it was a low birth year so might be true of other schools too? ( I imagine the creation of two new schools plus some permanent bulge classes will have helped too...)

(In fact it is probably one of the outstanding state primaries mentioned above...)

I love Greenwich and Blackheath and have never had any issue getting into the city or Canary Wharf or further afield.

I think Herne hill and dulwich are great too and your money may stretch more in east dulwuch and or Lee / Forrest hill.

You could get more for money by moving a little further out. Ealing is an easy commute and has good state primary schools, lovely parks and lots of families.

I love Ealing, but it's an absolute bugger of a commute to London Bridge and there are several just as nice areas in SELondon with direct links.

St Mags trains are also not very frequent and would be a longer commute than Richmond even. I wouldn't look at West London at all.

Ealing is a rubbish commute to London Bridge!

You want to focus in south east London which luckily is cheaper than north or south west London.

I would also focus on SE London areas like Forest Hill and Honor Oak. Good train services to London Bridge, lots of excellent primary schools and for your budget you could probably get a 3 bed house with garden.

Another No to Ealing due to poor commute

If you need a place this September the very best state schools are often oversubscribed in London. However, due to a number of new schools opening in East Dulwich the only school I think that was oversubscribed this year was Harris ED. You could try Goodrich Primary which is very good and highly regarded locally but as its very large may have some unallocated space still. You can phone Southwark to find out though until you move to the area they won't be able to do anything for you.

What neighbourhood are you coming from now? If its in the US, Madrid, or Paris I might be able to tell you what would be similar in vibe in London.

In my experience no way could you get a 2 bed flat in Hampstead for £1750 - you'd struggle with a one bed. I have a two bed in Muswell Hill which is near and slightly cheaper than Hampstead and it's £2k a month not including bills. For a 2 bed in a nice part of Hampstead I think you would need £2,200 per month. I looked at this area a few years ago and even West Hampstead was very expensive.

Richmond is lovely but further to commute into London if that is important to you?

Muswell Hill is lovely, maybe one to consider. Lots of schools which have very good Ofsted results. It would be 45/50 mins to London Bridge on one tube line - no changes.

Good luck!

No tube in muswell hill
Unless you mean Overground
Or closer to east finchley tube

@cestlavielife Muswell Hill doesn't have a tube but it's a 7 minute bus to Highgate and the buses come every couple of minutes. My partner and I commute into central everyday and it's very quick.

Hampstead and richmond are too expensive for your budget.

Twickenham might be good (im SW so biased towards there!) And Archway both of which much cheaper. There are loads of nice SE places too where the trains are quicker.

St margarets is great but an infrequent and slow train, saying that we are lookong there and DH works in canary wharf so it is totally doable