Family friendly areas of London - North or South or outskirts?

[fifipink]

Hi, we're currently renting in North London but im looking into buying - i hate the idea that we're paying lots of rent to cover someone else's mortgage and i want more stability for my dd and to feel settled in an area - we only have our current flat until October and i cant face the prospect of moving every year!

Obviously, i have lots to take into account with having dd - child friendly area, good nurseries etc (she's only 2months at the mo but i want to get settled in). But i also need to consider commuting times into work (we both work around the Kings X area) and i like a simple commute - ideally i wouldnt want to have a massive walk to a train station to then get a train and two tubes to work for example, but i may just have to grin and bear it and think of !.

Where can people recommend? I've been looking at Greenwich and Crystal Palace but i just dont know the areas well enough - are they safe? have a community feel?. Alternatively, would living in a commuter town be a good idea? Im a young-ish mum (27) and not entirely sure im ready for a life of suburbia just yet!

Hi fifi, we just moved to Beckehham in anticipation of starting a family! Been here since November and we are really enjoying it. We have 3 stations near us - Beckenham Junction, New Beckenham and Beckenham Hill and can get into Kings X, Charing Cross, Victoria, London Bridge and Waterloo East within 30 mins (depending on which station you use).

The highstreet is really nice - a good selection of shops, restaurants and coffee shops etc. There are also loads of parks and good schools as well.

A bit like you DH and I wanted somewhere we could start our family but not move somewhere so far out that it would take ages to commute so this suits us great. Having lived in Clapham for 10 years we were very spolit with lots of things on our doorstep, but we are totally loving here already. We brought last year and are currently in the middle of renovations!

Crystal Palace is down the road from here and I love it for its vintage and retro shops - takes about 10 mins to drive down there.

Other areas that are also nice are East Dulwich (although VERY gentrified and pricey - tiny houses for quite lareg amounts of money). I guess it depends on your budget as well.

Good luck!

HI Fifipink

I live in Herne Hill and really recommend it - it's a great family friendly area and you can get a 3-4 bedroom family house here for what my old 2-bedroom flat in North London sold for recently (unfortunately I didn't own this flat anymore!). There are trains directly from Herne Hill to Kings Cross St Pancras (about 20 minutes I think) on the Thameslink. From HH station you can also get to Victoria (12 mins) and from Denmark Hill on the other side of HH its a short ride to London Bridge (or Clapham).

Herne Hill has lots of little shops; butcher, bakeries, fishmongers, a toy shop and a children's book shop as well as various cafes and child-friendly pubs. Oh, and the Lido which is packed in the summer!

Agree with Lankylegs that Beckenham is also very nice and very family friendly.

Good luck!

Beckenham is nice... might be worth considering schools too tho' (I know it seems early!). I have a friend who moved to Beckenham and has to get a bus past her nearest primary to get to her sons school as the catchment was so small.

I guess that's the downside of family-friendly!

Hi all, thanks for your responses, truly there is too much to consider, it makes my head hurt! Going to the bank tomorrow to see what mortgage size i may be offered. Im not expecting to have much to play with - less than £300k most likely. Must stop looking on RightMove, it's torture seeing all the lush properties

As everywhere is so new to me South of the river i may look into renting again (for one more year, grr) to get a feel for the area. I had a look at Beckenham and Bromley and Sydenham - all are truly delightful and would be good places to bring up DD. Have a friend who lives in East Dulwich but i think i'll be living in a shoebox if i moved there :(

Good point about school catchment areas too, now i know what all the fuss is about on LocationX3 - seems like location really is the most important thing about houses...

Also, something I've posted on another thread - don't just look at banks for mortgages. They have some great deals at the moment, but they can only tell you the most suitable from their own range.

Chat to a mortgage broker too - they have a different set of options which may / may not suit you better, but at least you'll have a better overall picture.

Fifi I can highly recommend Greenwich! DH and I moved here from Holborn in October as we have a DD on the way. It's VERY family friendly, feels very safe, villagey, lots of nice shops, cafes, and of course the huge park for the DC to play in.

What swung it for us was the very easy commute. I work from home but DH works in Clerkenwell and as he never had to commute before what with being 10 min walk from work, we wanted somewhere quick to get to.

It's 8 minutes overground to London Bridge, then approx 10 min tube to KX.

Property can be very expensive here, but we somehow got lucky and got a 2 bed maisonette with a 70ft garden for £289k. It feels like a little house as it's on the ground and first floors.

Check out Honor Oak Park and Forest Hill/Sydenham - good primaries and decent transport links. East Dulwich/Peckham Rye is wonderful for families with small children but we are having to leave because it's so expensive and the primaries aren't that great.

Renting is a great option to get to know an area. (that's what we did - too bad we aren't prepared to spend enough to get what we want around ED/PR though!)

You might also want to have a look at Nunhead and Brockley. More good primaries and transport at relatively affordable prices.

tigerbear - im showing DH your post - he works in Farringdon and is in no way a fan of commuting but you make it sound easy

a girl in my office lives in Greenwich and if she can make it to work then i can, right?! Majorly jealous of what sounds like a bargainous property , well done you!

Hope your pregnancy is going well so far and thanks for the positive Greenwich write up - i keep coming back to it on my housesearches and in my head i have fantasies of summer in the massive park and trips to the observatory - maybe not just a pipe dream after all...

fifi you know what's even better? My DH doesn't even get the train/tube (unless very pushed for time) - he commutes by BOAT!
Greenwich to Blackfriars pier = approx 25 minutes - then he walks up to Clerkenwell via Smithfields and Farringdon! :)
DH loves the boat - big comfy seats so no having to stand AND there's a bar on board with morning coffee and pastries for the way there and beer on the way back! What's not to like?

Sign up for updates on new properties on Primelocation - that's where I saw the place we have.

Tigerbear - thanks for the advice re: boats to work, i could probably sell any move to Greenwich to DH on the strength of coffee and pastry and beer to and from work - it sounds great!

And Harimad i shall see how tomorrow goes at the bank and then see if its worth chatting to a mortgage broker too. Oh, its so nerve-wracking dipping my toe into property ownership! i feel very grown up now...must be one of the side effects of motherhood!

Brockley is nice, cheap, v child friendly and trains direct to King's Cross and Farringdon from Crofton Park Station.

Penge is lovely, situated directly between Beckenham and Crystal Palace, 4 good primary schools, 3 of which have nurseries attached. 2 train stations, which go to Victoria (15 minutes) and Waterloo (20 minutes.) Lots of parks, shops, good community feel, much more multicultural than Beckenham and much cheaper, too!

Hayes (Kent, not Middlesex) is lovely. You're in easy reach of London, 2 stations, Bromley south , or Hayes which get you into Victoria and charing Cross respectively. Excellent schools, and lots of green areas.

If it is Kings Cross you need, and are looking at all at South West London as well as South East, anywhere on the Thameslink line could be good if you want a direct, albeit longish journey time.

For schools, Sutton is a very good borough, and has three stations linking to the Thameslink line - Sutton, West Sutton and Sutton Common.

I'm looking at your budget, which won't go very far in much of London, but you could still afford a 3 bed house in the Sutton area. I think Penge and some of the other mentioned bits of SE London are also quite affordable and will get you a house rather than a flat for less than £300k.