New Cross / Brockley / Honor Oak / Forest Hill / Sydenham / Crystal Palace - please help me decide!!

[stressbunny3]

Hello! Just that really. Looking for any views on what its like to live in these places - positive or negative. We want to buy a long term family home and along with probably a thousand other people, we're hoping to move to South East London. We need to stick to the East London line for work and are currently looking along the stretch between New Cross and Crystal Palace (not really wanting to go any further out at this point). We've 3 young children so proximity to good schools is really important to us, as is a nice garden and a largish house (minimum 3 beds but ideally 4). Would like to be somewhere which is safe (not looking for too much urban grit!), but which still has a bit of life to it. Max budget circa £700k. I realise our options may be a bit limited in some of these areas these days, but also hope they should all be achievable in some form. I don't know SE London very well, but quite like all these places for different reasons based on what I've seen of them, so am going round in circles trying to decide where to focus our search. Not looking for advice per se, just hoping someone may inspire me with their experiences one way or t'other! TIA :-)

Oh and I should qualify the above by saying we need good STATE schools. Can't afford private. Thanks.

Hmm. Not sure what you're looking for - I know these areas well, have experience of the schools etc and wrote a long post but reread your op and saw you aren't looking for advice per se - so if you have any questions, I might be able to answer? Would that be helpful?

Fwiw whilst not profering advice, if it were me, I would plump for Forest Hill - either area between Woolstone Road and Stanstead Road / Perry Rise, or the other side of the station - Devonshire Road and neighbouring area towards Honor Oak.

Thanks conina. Sorry, i re-read my post and my wording was a bit strange I guess! Any advice welcome :-) I was just trying to say I'm not looking for people to figure out the answer for me, rather just share their own feelings about these places (likes, dislikes etc) in the hope it might give me a better feel for the areas and help me decide where to focus my attention. Probably a ridiculously open-ended question really and reflective of my utterly confused state of mind!! I get the feeling all these areas have decent schools, at least for primary - although maybe we'd have a much better chance of getting into a good school with our house budget in some areas than others? In your opinion is there much difference across them in terms of levels of family-friendliness (if there is such a word!), so crime, kids stuff to do, green spaces, restaurants etc, or are they all quite similar and it really just boils down to personal preference?

We live in FH and absolutely love it. The Horniman is down the road, there's a brand new pool in walking distance and the community spirit is great. There's a reasonable and growing set of shops, cafes, pubs, etc with East Dulwich down the road if you want more choices.

Here's a decent option on a nice street with good options for schools. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25916115.html

The views into London from this road are amazing and also well located for schools.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42115037.html

That bit of FH has easy access to Dulwich Park and Peckham Rye Park.

NC seems a bit too urban for me, Brockley is insanely pricey and Sydenham seems ok but I prefer FH/HO. I do like the look of CP and it was a place we were looking as well. It is a short drive / bus ride away from where I am.

And with links activated

Here's a decent option on a nice street with good options for schools. www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-25916115.html

The views into London from this road are amazing and also well located for schools.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-42115037.html

Thank you YellowDahlias. Those houses look great. When I say NC am really thinking Telegraph Hill vs NC rd - still too urban, or just insane prices a la brockley? Would you mind telling me what made you go for FH over CP? Was it just the fact it's a bit further in or were there other reasons?

We are in Honor Oak, bought here one year ago. Feels like the area is getting more and more popular with house sales going to sealed bids pretty much everywhere. I prefer our high street to the one in FH as it has less traffic and feels more villagey. FH just a short walk away if you want more shops and cafes. ELL is extremely close. Just got a new Sainsburys which has breathed a lot of new life into the high street. Horniman just a very short drive away. Street parties in the summer in our area. We know loads of our neighbours by name, has a lovely community feel. Good primary state schools everywhere. Not sure about secondary but we are still far away from that. You should have no problems finding a lovely house on your budget. Some lovely smaller parks and green spaces like One Tree Hill, Blythe Hill Fields, around Camberwell Cemetary, Devonshire Road..
Hope this helps.

I live in Brockley. I love it, but as others say, depending on your budget, for a reasonable sized family home, you might be best looking around Honor Oak/FH. Where we are also has a nice community feel - we chat to neighbours, feed their cats while they are on holiday, etc. There are nice parks around, plus the Horniman, and lots of independent shops and cafés. There are local summer festivals in Brockley and Blythe Hill, adding to the community feel.

We might move out soon though, and the biggest motivator is property prices - we just can't get the sort of home we want round here for the budget we have. But it will be hard to tear myself away from the convenience of shops on my doorstep and a station a few minutes away that gets me into town in 10 mins.

Hi, have NC for this as will totally out myself! I live in Sydenham and used to live in forest hill, up by the horniman museum. Now I live between penge east and sydenham stations in the venner road area. I really rate sydenham for the following reasons:

1. Transport links - sydenham is on east london line + mainline to london bridge. Penge east is on victoria-orpington line and stops at brixton, herne hill, west dulwich in the north and beckenham junction, bromley going south. Really handy for shopping or going into town.
2. Parks. I live walking distance from crystal palace park (amazing), cator park, mayow park and alexandra recreation ground. As I have 2 little boys this is brilliant.
3. High st. Sydenham high st has a good butcher + fishmonger, greengrocer, amazing health food shop, co-op, lidl, the penge food centre (which is so cheap and great quality), kirkdale bookshop (fab independent shop with little gallery) and several nice cafes etc.
4. Price. We bought our large 4 bed end of terrace for around the price of a 3 bed in the catford side of forest hill. We live on a lovely tree-lined street with nice neighbours and are only a few minutes from the high st and stations. Prices have gone up loads since we bought, but 700k would still get you a very very nicely done out 4/5 bed victorian terrace with garden.
5. Parking - most of sydenham is still free on-street parking (no resident's permits yet)

BUT - the only downside is primary schools. Where we are is a bit of a black hole, of our 4 closest schools one is outstanding (alexandra) and 3 are in special measures :(. They do seem to be making good improvements, and our eldest DS will start school in 2 years so there is time. But it's not great. In other parts of sydenham things are better - the sydenham station side of the high st has a better range I think, and st barts primary school near lawrie park road looks good.

Having said that, with the pressure on school places I expect that we'll probably get offered a place in hackney or lambeth anyway!

Thanks everyone, all really helpful. imme and Stainless, you're confirming my fears about the property market round there. Really not liking the sound of sealed bids :-(. My eldest is already at school so would be looking for a yr1 place, so not sure I'd be able to risk an area with poor schools unfortunately even if the houses are lovely.

Do try MN local too won't you?

The only Olivia - lewisham?

We've just moved from Honor Oak after living there for ten years. I absolutely loved it and it is definitely the nicest place we lived in London (we also lived in Canary Wharf, Angel, Clapham etc).

My DS was at Stillness School which was great.

The only drawback if you are buying is the housing market has just gone insane.

Good luck - I really miss it.

Forest Hill gets my vote every time. State primaries are excellent, great parks, good family vibe.

Have a look at the forest hill side of sydenham - the schools are much better and you may still benefit from the better sydenham prices. And you get to enjoy both Sydenham and Forest Hill!

Thanks Stainless, some of my neighbours have got their kids into Sydenham primaries so we're hopeful. At least the secondaries are good!

Hi bunny-

I'm currently in Nunhead but I've just spent all summer looking for houses in the areas your looking at. It is true that the market has gone in insane in the last 6 months but things are really slowing down now so there doesn't seem to be this insane pressure there was 3 months ago.

All of the places you are looking at have things to recommend themselves for families but I would say the safest bet would be Honor Oak/ Forest Hill in terms of your budget and need for schools, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't also cast a wider net. Our budget was a little different than yours but I noticed that things weren't come on the market in New Cross/ Brockley and Sydenham as frequently as HO/FH but you might find a great house near a good school.

We went for FH because we spotted an excellent right at the start of our search. It had the best mix of what we wanted so we pursued it and eventually got it.

I think we probably would have been happy in CP as well but have no regrets whatsoever over plumping for FH.

I'm just back from our new weekly farmer's market in the Horniman Museum grounds, which is one of the new things that have sprung up since we moved here.

The Telegraph Hill area of NC seems really expensive so we ruled it out on that basis. Our budget was less than yours though.

Hi Cali, glad to hear you feel the market is calming a little. I think we're probably about 2 years too late really! Are you still looking? Good luck with your search if so. Ditto to you eurochick.

Louschmoo, I'll definitely check out that side of sydenham, thanks.

YellowDahlias, seems FH/HO has lots going for it based on everyone's replies but maybe I'll give CP a closer look too - it's probably the area I know least about and sounds like I definitely shouldn't rule it out.

Someone just posted this datacollator.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/primary-schools-around-east-dulwich.html on the East Dulwich Forum. Should help you to look at areas by school catchments...
se23.com is the local HOP and FH forum, also good to get a feel for the vibe of the place.

Thanks imme, very helpful.

Stainless, thanks for the tip - will definitely check out that area. I'll be needing to apply for a reception place for my middle child next year too so whilst proximity isn't an issue for the eldest (although I do worry about getting allocated a school miles away for him!), we'd still want to ensure we were close enough to a good school for that reason.

I know your post says you need the East London Line but, depending on where exactly you need to get to, it might be worth looking at Ladywell or Hither Green.