AIBU to ask you lovely folk for some advice RE areas of London?

[juniper904]

My DP and I are looking at buying somewhere in London next year, but it seems like such a mind boggling thing to do.

We do live in London, but haven't explored much other than the centre so residential areas are new to us.

We've got an upper limit of about £325,000 and want somewhere with 2 or more bedrooms and a garden. I drive to work and DP commutes on public transport, but not into London centre. Both our jobs would be borough bound- making the location even more important!

So far we're looking at places like Stoke Newington, Crouch End, Tottenham, Raynes Park, Wimbledon etc but my brain feels like it's turning to mush and I'm finding it hard to find anywhere that classifies the general feel of each area. Upmystreet used to be fantastic for that, but it's been taken over and all the details about the area have been censored out.

Any advice, before my brain becomes stew? Ta :-)

P.S Leave the bastard!

So far we're looking at places like Stoke Newington, Crouch End, Tottenham, Raynes Park, Wimbledon etc

Wow, that's a pretty diverse set of areas in London!

Others will probably know better but £325,000 for what you want is a pretty big ask. A reality i find very sad.

Sorry, but YABU.

Big difference in atmosphere in those locations. Why don't you tell us what sort of place you'd like to live in and we can see if we can suggest somewhere.

Raynes Park has not got very good high school options, the local comp is crammed in between a motorway and a massive Tesco store. every child I know who is from that area got bullied in their high school classes, and this is loads of different high schools. If you're wealthy it might be different, you might be able to avail yourself of private schools, I don't know much about them.

We used to live in stoke newington and it does have a lovely relaxed hippy vibe about it. The cafes and bars were very family friendly and it is a place I would move back to again.

We had friends living in crouch end and again it is a very family friendly place to live.

I'm open to any part of London (possibly minus East) as both of our jobs are easyish to place. He will have Reg interviews in March and will be asked to choose a borough to work in, and as I am a teacher, I can follow him to whichever borough.

We're first time buyers and I'm hoping we might get up to 4x our joint salary, which will increase our options a bit.

Sounds like a diverse range of areas to me too - where do you both work and how far would you be prepared to travel?

I used to live in Kilburn and I really liked it.
West Hampstead nearby is lovely and village-y

Tooting much cheaper than Wimbledon. Crouch End very nice. Dulwich is gorgeous and 'Peckham village' very up and coming.

Try east barnet. Piccadilly Line is 15 minute walk from there and you'll get more for your money than places like Crouch End. It's a nice area with plenty of amenities, a beautiful country park, good schools and relatively low crime rate.

sorry - too slow.

arthurfowlersallotment Tooting is a lot cheaper, but also a lot scarier! Good for curry and Wilkinsons which is my version of heaven but I'm not sure I'd feel safe walking home alone at night.

We live in Wimbledon now, so we know areas like Clapham, Balham, Big Tesco etc. North London is a bit more of a mine field, but everyone I know says it's fantastic.

I loved living in Battersea/Wandsworth Common. You'd possibly get a 2 bedroom there but no garden.

"Peckham Village"? Really? Does such a place really exist or is it an estate agent term?

I think budget is going to be your big deciding factor here. Many of the places you mention you're going to find it impossible to buy what you want. There are not all that many lovely parts of London where you can find a decent size 2 or 3 with garden for £325k.

Beckenham?

Places like

this

this

this

it's in zone 4, 20-30 mins on the train to london, easy access to the motorway etc.

I used to live in tooting and we moved from there to beckenham on a whim! Love it now.

Tooting is not scary, really really not scary. Its a nice place.

You could go just outside London into Essex?

Epping, Hainault, Chigwell, Loughton maybe?

The one place i could recommend is Herne Hill.

The perfect mix of everything London IMO.

move to Greenwich. Its lovely. :)

I wouldnt touch any of the area anyone has mentioned - other than the mega buck end of Wimbledon, which I couldn't afford.

Ermmm don't try norbury. Used to be lovely but pretty rough now. We moved way way away after I got flashed at in the park in broad daylight, mugged on my way home, dh has his brother attacked for no reason and a student we had living with us was shouted at and thrown eggs at!! (??!)

I grew up there and spent 26 years of my life there but you couldn't pay me to move back now. We moved up east and the quality of life and the niceness of people is worlds apart in my opinion.

I like Wimbledon and raynes park off of your list but it all depends what you want from an area really.

I live in Kilburn which is in Brent but on the border with Camden and Westminster. Where we are we are an 8 minute walk from Kilburn underground (jubilee), 10 minute walk from Queens Park (Bakerloo), a 5 min walk from Brondesbury Or 4 minute walk from Brondesbury Park (overground). We also have the thameslink in West Hampstead which is a 15 minute walk. It's very well connected and we love it here generally.

The high road is very urban feeling. It's very multicultural with a great international supermarket. There are also lots of Cheap but excellent restaurants too. Our road where we live is so quiet it feels like we could be somewhere other than London! Our neighbours are great too. We moved in from outside London and I can safely say we've never had such lovely neighbours as we do now. We go out for dinner with one of our neighbours regularly and other neighbours have been really welcoming and always happy to help. One of them (who I hadn't met before) lent me an electic hedge trimmer.

Anyway that's me reccomendation! :)

Why not have a look at carshalton beeches or Cheam etc you could just about get the house you want and the schools are good and striking distance back to Wimbledon when you want.

Where is the mythical place of Big Tesco?