Shabby area of SE London or peaceful "posh" suburbs?

[littlecrystal]

Our options:
Currently: a lovely period house with lots of potential (not that we have money for that). "Up and coming" SE London area, can be described as inoffensive, cheap, convenient, family friendly.
Potentially we are looking at similarly sized townhouse in London suburbs, smaller space, no garden, but "posh" area and good schools.

We cannot afford SE London that everyone is talking about (Crystal Palace, Brockley, Forrest Hill etc), so really it is a question with 2 boys: stay a SE Londoner and take all risks coming with having the boys in London, or move to a quiet peaceful suburb, have a suburban life in a tiny town house and take the advantage of a good schools.

Which one would you choose?
I have been thinking about this for the last 4 years - since the minute I bought my house... (depressing really)

You dont have an issue with where your are
You are happy where you are.
What do your boys think, who are teens, and may not stay there for many more years.

I could be wrong, but are you just being swayed by what you read? But then again, you say your gut says move.
But I am not sure why really
[discalimer, dont know the area at all]

So you are in South Norwood but want to move to Bromley is that right?

Is it really that different in terms of who lives there? What are the schools like?

I don't think SE London equals gangs unless you're right in that mix does it.

And agree about Crystal Palace, people didn't want to be there either until recently. Same goes for many of the now better regarded areas you mention.

I lived in Catford/Hither Green and Lee before DC. Would not have wanted to live there with DC.

W.Wickham/Bromley/Chislehurst all very nice. SE London has sort of washed into them re amenities/train services but far enough away from the Big London to put space between you and it at weekends.

I live in Bromley, sorry but south norwood and crystal palace are no more london than Bromley is - you are getting hung up over a post code!

South Norwood is OK but suburbian Bromley borough could (?) be better. Not Bromley town itself. Being close to SE London high streets carries more risk (chip shops, drug dealers) than living in a suburb and having a school nearby on a residential road.

Do you think you can 'do' suburbia? If so then go for it. I couldn't afford a decent area in London so I moved to Brighton as I didn't want suburban I find it soul destroying. A few of my mates moved to suburbs and they love it though.

Lol @ downtown Beirut. Parts of which are more expensive than SE London

noddyholder I hope I can. I have never lived in suburbia before...

I grew up in Beckenham and West Wickham - West Wickham is lovely but the public transport is bobbins. Beckenham is nice, buzzy and has excellent transport links (hurrah for the tram and South London line!). I have friends that live in Mottingham, Eltham, St Mary Cray, and around Orpington and tbh there's not really any difference between them and Norwood. Bromley might be in Kent but it is a London borough and most of it looks and feels like a London borough. The exceptions I can think of are: West Wickham, Chislehurst, Green St Green and Locksbottom. There are the private estates like Park Langley, Keston Park, etc but houses there are in the millions.

I know a fair bit about Bromley schools, so just a bit of advice to check proximity circles very carefully if you have a specific secondary in mind. The last I heard the proximity circle for the most popular boys school was under a mile, but if my (dodgy) memory is correct it only went out 0.5 miles one year. There's always Olave's if your boys are academic but it doesn't matter where you live in the borough to sit for that.

Personally I think that the secondary school makes the biggest difference in how you grow up/who you end up kicking around with. So if you're currently in the catchment area for a good secondary I would stay put. If you're not then move, but remember that there are some crappy schools in Bromley as well as the good ones. The biggest sticking point for me would be having two boys and no garden - I don't think I could do it!

If I had the choice of Brockley our Bromley, I'd go for Bromley every time!

or

I am in Se25 also the nicer bit - you're right near me!

Dd1 goes into year 6 this year & I worry constantly about what we should do.

Spratly got my point spot on. I do worry about friendships formed at the secondary level. For everything else, I could stay where I am...

Hokey, what are you thinking to do re secondaries?

we did what noddy did
i used to live in SE London when dd1 was tiny, but couldn't afford a family sized house near an ok school without moving to the arse end of zone 6.
so we moved to a different city entirely. nice period house, good schools, dead close to all the restaurants/galleries/assorted wankery

Yeah,we moved out completely too, you can get an awful lot more house outside of London!

Dd wants to go to Shirley. I'm thinking archbishop tennison would be worth a try.

I'm looking forward to seeing the Harris but NJ is not the nicest of areas and oasis Shirley has such a bad reputation from the ashburton days, I think results have greatly improved though.

Then there's Edenham - in short I have no fecking idea!!

On the question of whether to prioritise a big-ish house over location in SE London, I would now go for location every time. We chose to move to the edge of an area we preferred, but had been priced out of (SE22), to get a bigger house and are now on outer edge of SE15. Honestly, I hate it. I completely underestimated how much I'd be bothered by all the stuff we miss out on by being out of one of the nicer, surrounding middle class bubbles. We're already planning to move further out (after less than 12 months here) so we don't have to make that horrid compromise between house v. location again. Don't be a mug like me and underestimate how grimy & unpleasant huge parts of SE London still are ... If affordability is an issue, I think you should just get out!

I have rather the opposite view to the poster before me. I live in SE22 and have been thinking of moving out for a couple of years. I rather dislike the middle class bubble it has become. Our neighbour has their house up for sale and all the viewers who came today were talking loudly in the garden about the loft extension and the side return extension they are planning to do. I fear its just going to become another Clapham where only the very rich can afford to live. I would rather live in a more mixed area.

Moaning again but I totally agree with Rosary. I'm no fan of SE London, I mean yes there's nice pockets but it seems disproportionately grimmer than SW, NW and NE London. I'm still feeling slightly traumatised by recent visits to Catford and Peckham. Now I live in a S.E dump and there's no way I'd raise kids here (thank God I'm renting and leaving in September). I grew up in a fairly rough area so I'm no delicate flower, btw.