South London with handy amenities or leafy suburbs but no amenities?

[lookingforhome]

I hope you can help! I am currently living in South London and looking to buy my first home. I can't decide whether to choose a handy spot in South London (e.g.Penge) where I wouldn't need a car, plenty of corner shops, easy commute, diverse schools... Or leafy suburbs (Shirley, West Wickham) with good schools but having to drive everywhere. Schools are important but so is convenience of daily life. What would you do?

You can live in places like that and have shops nearby. There are high streets in the suburbs you mention.

That's meant to be helpful rather than short

I'd buy near whichever school appealed to me the most - I don't know if that would be Penge or one of the other suburbs. Not getting my child into a good school is a dealbreaker as far as I am concerned.

We moved from Croydon , (where we lived before kids), with everything on our doorstep to Biggin Hill. no train station but good buses, good amenities, and I feel happy with schools here for my son. It feels like a community that we didn't have before.
West Wickham is nice, good schools, transport is easy and amenities good. A good friend has just moved there and loves it.