Moving to London from Cheshire

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Hi all, just wondering if anyone had any advice. We currently live in Cheshire/South Manchester (grew up here), but I have quite a few job opportunities in Central London and the surrounding area (Hemel Hempstead etc), but none up here- so we're thinking about moving.

However, we're now quite used to driving everywhere, living in a nice houseman the burbs etc, and I'm not sure if we'd survive city life. Fiancée hates crowds and the tube so he's not keen, but he understands that it's the way for me to progress in my career, and with his job he can work anywhere.

We're still relatively young (30), and so we do both like the idea of trying city life for a bit while we can, so I think whilst we don't have a mortgage we should try it for a couple of years.

Anyone done the same, and found it worked for them? Any advice welcome. Thanks :)

I come from East Cheshire, now live in NE London and commute to Central London daily (40mins). It's been a big change and I do miss a lot of bits of my old life, but London is great and the bit we're in is cheaper than most other parts of London. I never used to like crowds and I still like quiet countryside village places, but I love it here.

My DS lives in Cheshire and we live in SE London. You may be used to driving, but in and around south London it can take a lot of time to drive a very short distance. This is due to the volume of traffic, road works, temporary traffic lights and just trying to drive down roads with parked cars on both sides. I would make sure I lived near to good transport links because of this.

Parking is also a problem, off street parking would be a must for me. These both sound negative things, but there are lots of positives, I live near several lovely parks, the transport links are good, you never have to worry about running out of anything as the shops are always open. :)

Good luck with your job and home search.

Also from Manchester originally, moved to London for a few years in my 20s, now in South Manc / Cheshire (we might be neighbours ). I would say go for it. Yes it will be a change but I enjoyed my time there. It is quite anonymous sometimes, you'll see the same people on the tube every morning for a year and never swap even a "good morning" whereas you'd be friends here! Second what's been said about driving, I lived in Islington which wasn't too bad (then) but most people rely on the tube and buses (much better).

Wouldn't have wanted to settle there and bring up children, my job is not London-centric, but if it means opportunities for you and its not necessarily permanent then you haven't got much to lose? Its only a couple of hours away on the train to come back home for a bit of family nurturing and countryside !

Thanks, feeling a little more positive about it now! :)

I'd definitely want to keep my car and would ideally like off road parking, but I don't know how viable that is for us, especially as we have 2 cars - I don't know if we'd even find that for one car. We're not huge earners so we're not going to be looking at anything too extravagant.

I'm torn at the moment between looking for something further out/Hertfordshire way to commute in, so it would be a bit more like what we're used to (but obviously being a way out) - versus making some changes to what we're used to, but being a bit immersed in things.

I'm just so used to living in a semi, quiet street, quiet outside at night, drive wherever I want... I just don't know if I'd survive the noise and bustle! Pathetic, I know :)

Will you be renting? What is your budget? That is going to be the biggest factor in whether or not it can work out for you in London, tbh. But I would encourage anyone to live in London for a while at least - it is just a really brilliant place to get to know.

We did this a few years ago and spent some time in London. We lived in SE London, in Blackheath, which is quite leafy and naice. We started out living in quite a large conversion flat but neighbour noise made us move to a terraced house. Parking wasn't an issue for us as we lived in a residents-only zone so we had a permit and there was always space. I wish we had lived somewhere more central to be honest - we wanted a garden, so we chose our places for that reason, but if I had my time again I would live in zone 1.

We moved back to the north west when we decided to have kids, and it was the right move for us both times. Good luck!

PS If you want to look at Blackheath/Greenwich area, they are about 25 mins on the mainline train from Charing X so for me my work commute (to Fleet St) was about an hour including walking to the station and then a 15 min walk at the other end. You don't need to be as far out as Herts to have greenery and villagey life.

We'll be renting, definitely. We currently pay £700/m for a 3 bed semi up here, but could probably afford £1k+ and know we'll get a lot less for it there!

I'm not fussed about a garden - we have one here but aside from a couple of BBQ's a year it gets neglected, so that's not such an issue.

The more I think about it the more I'd like to live a bit more central than St Albans/Hemel as I'd originally thought - if we're gonna do it, we might as well do it properly! But it's just whether I can cope with that change

Aside from coming down for meetings and shopping, I'm very unfamiliar with it all, so I need a lot of research. I'll take a look at Blackheath though, thanks.

You will get a one bedroom flat for £1000 pcm in some areas of London.

Hmm yes, I know it doesn't seem a lot looking at some of the areas...

Realistically for the moment I think we're looking at around £1400. I'm not factoring in any increases in pay we'll get by moving there (as that is as of yet unconfirmed), and also I'm reluctant to look above that for the moment - I'm too used to northern pricing! :)

You can rent for £1000, not in great areas.Your 2 cars will be parked up for most of the week.I would reduce them to 1.

Blackheath www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?locationIdentifier=REGION%5E85278&insId=2&maxPrice=1000&googleAnalyticsChannel=renting

St Albans, you would also have to consider your travel costs from here
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?searchType=RENT&locationIdentifier=REGION%5E1244&insId=3&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=&minBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&minPrice=&maxPrice=1000&maxDaysSinceAdded=&retirement=&sortByPriceDescending=&_includeLetAgreed=on&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&letType=&letFurnishType=&houseFlatShare=false

Quite a lot of those Blackheath properties are in Kidbrooke (which I would avoid, personally - you can afford to live somewhere nicer than that) and one is in Woolwich. You can do a search for SE3 and then see how close places are to the train station, which is in the heart of the (naice) village.

Lee Rd, Lee Park etc are nice. We lived just off Lee Terrace. If you do a search with the max rent at £1400pcm you can find nice 2 beds within the village area.

I should point out that the OP hasn't particularly indicated a huge desire to move to Blackheath, I think I have derailed a bit there - sorry OP! There are, of course, other places to live in London - although you could do worse than Blackheath, it is nice with a villagey feel, nice bars and restaurants, close to Greenwich etc!!!

St Albans is a pleasant spot but be aware that the mainline station is not in the centre. And as noted, check season ticket costs because they are EYEWATERING. Also look at total commute time.

remember, don't talk to people on tubes or buses.

Yes, I think the most important thing to do when considering a move to London is to identify (roughly if you are not sure) the area you want to move to. This usually starts with identifying the point you are likely to work in within a couple of miles, and working outwards.

London is vast and divided in to postcodes N, S, E and W. You would be a bit mad to commute daily from an E to W postcode or a N to S postcode as it could take you hours.

As a starting point, most people decide if they want to live north of the river Thames or south of it, with the north generally accepted to be the most desirable (and expensive) because most of the Tube network is north of the river. If you look at the Tube map all will become clear.