Help! Does a nice affordable London suburb exist??

[extracrunchy]

We (DH, DS, possible DC2 and I) are looking to buy a 3 bed property in London or a suburb and we need some advice about areas. We'd also consider renting while we wait to find the right property.

Most important to us are good schools/kids activities, safety, and green spaces, and DH needs to be able to commute to Notting Hill in preferably no more than an hour.

Our budget to rent is max £1300/month or to buy max £350k.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks so much!

According to Metro, Petts Wood is the cheapest part of London (that's reasonable to live in) once you take commuting distance and travelling costs into account.

Have you thought about Colliers Wood / Tooting Borders? Walking distance into Wimbledon, Morden Hall National Trust park nearby, good primaries, quiet residential area off the main streets.

Not as nice as Richmond or the nicest parts of Wimbledon but there is a re-gen plan for Colliers Wood so potential to go up in value.

We're about to swap our 2 bed flat in Wimbledon for a 3 bed house in Tooting Borders all because the house has a CR4 postcode but only 0.4m from the northern line!

Direct trains from Streatham Common and Balham to Shepherds Bush, if that's close enough to Notting Hill for you. Lots of nice areas of green round there with good primaries and fast-improving secondaries.

You lot have been incredibly helpful! I've just had someone suggest Epsom. Any thoughts?

Parts of Croydon are ok with fast rail links. Look at areas south of the borough. New overground will make it easy to get to west London.

Epsom is lovely. Always in the top ten for the best standard of living in uk.

It certainly sounds good. My mum has just said she thinks we might think it's boring! Not sure what she thinks we'll be getting up to with a one year old. I'm happy if there's a cinema, a few good restaurants and reasonable shopping. Is there??

I'd agree with epsom. Some parts are expensive and you wouldn't get a house for your budget, but other bits are less so. Easy train to Wimbledon then District line to west London. Main centre is fine for shopping day to day and Kingston is a 15 minute drive away or a bus trip. WoRcester park is also nice - a little closer to London but you would still need to go to epsom or Kingston for "proper" shopping (there's a good waitrose and sainsburys so food shopping is fine, but not so much for other stuff).

Lots of parks and green areas and yes, there's a cinema! Also good schools.

Restaurants are mostly chains but its getting better with some decent independents and again, Kingston isn't so far away.

Worcester park is more affordable than Epsom. Cheam is ok too. Look at Banstead and coulsdon too.

Not really London but my son is renting in Morden which seems to be cheap and safe, an your into work at Westminster. It seems to be populated by people pst the first flush of youth who have lived there for years and has nice parks.

Most of our friends and family live in West ish London so we've narrowed it down (sort of!) to Epsom/Ewell, Motspur Park/New Malden or Carshalton/Cheam/Banstead.
Anyone got any thoughts?

I live in Carshalton Beeches. It's fab and should be within your budget. The schools round here both primary and secondary are really good; there are loads of parks/open spaces; it is close to Croydon for shopping and not too far from Kingston if Croydon sounds scary (it's not, shopping is good there).

I love living here, people are friendly, transport links into London are good(ish) no tube but frequent trains to Victoria and London Bridge.

Oh and I grew up in Banstead, also gorgeous, lovely village but transport links not great. Banstead station is miles from the village and not frequent trains. I think most commuters (including my dad) drive or get the bus to Sutton for the station which would obviously add to the commute.

we're in surbiton and just bought 3 bed house for 350k. excellent schools, easy access to lots of green species, can get to Waterloo in 15 mins. the area between surbiton and tolworth is full of young families. and a3 is just down the road too.

that should be green spaces not species!

I grew up in Epsom/Ewell. All the areas you named are nice but if it were me I'd go for New Malden/Motspur Park as they're a bit more Laaandan IYSWIM and Kingston and Wimbledon are both lovely shopping towns (as opposed to Croydon which has its ups and downs). Epsom and Ewell are a bit more posh outer suburb, Cheam a supposedly less posh outer suburb (though it's all relative). Banstead basically felt like the countryside to me growing up.

Plus the commute from New Malden/Motspur areas will be reasonable. For Epsom, Ewell, Carshalton and Banstead I think you are looking at well over an hour to Notting Hill unless you are on top of a station.

Wanstead, Redbridge, Gants Hill, South Woodford- Central line 30-40 mins to Notting Hill.

Just to add about primary schools in Motspur Park (and I have confirmed with my friend who lives there). The 2 nearest schools are RC and very strict in terms of admissions. Then you have West Wimbledon which has an outstanding ofsted but a small catchment which you would need to look at. When I say catchment, none of the schools have fixed areas but tend to consistently only go so far. Alot of the children go to Green Lane and Burlington. These are both in Kingston Borough as Motspur Park is on the edge of both boroughs. Also quite a few at Hatfield and Hillcross. If you google 'primary admissions Kingston' and the same for Merton you should get links to their PDF docs which I believe give you an idea of distance. The real problem is secondary schools as the nearest is Raynes Park High which is not great at the moment but I live in hope for a huge improvement in the next year or so.

Re: Epsom. I used to work there. It's a pretty, leafy market town and has more going on than Motspur Park/New Malden but also further out. Personally it's too far out for me and I don't like it that much (sorry if that insults anyone). I just prefer somewhere more into London.

ruislip/harrow/pinner/northwood
lovely schools, parks, children's activities coming out our ears!