Where to look in London...

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We will be moving to London, don’t know London that well and are lost as to where to start looking! North London preferred – don’t want to be too central, want green areas nearby, and want it to be quiet… School catchments are not an issue. We are initially looking somewhere between the Jubilee line in the west to Islington/north of in the east.

Would prefer to spend around 350’ but could possibly stretch up to 400’. Don’t need a house, a nice spacious flat is ok too, preferably with a communal garden! Prefer good access to tube, 10-15 minutes’ walk ok… (not sure if that is a lot or not…)

Discussed it with a London friend, but any tube station I mentioned, apart from Hampstead basically, they went “no, not nice…”! Surely there must be some ok places that don’t cost an arm and a leg… What about Neasden, Hendon, Willesden, Brent Cross, Dollis Hill, Colindale, Finchley, Wembley (Fryent Country Park looks nice?)..?

Am also wondering if the Clapham Junction area might be nice – good for transport!

Help! Where do we start looking? Grateful for any suggestions, even suggestions in the west, that we don’t know at all!

How many bedrooms are you looking for for £350-400k?

I don't know the areas you mention but further east (Hackney) a 2-bedroom flat with no garden is going for around £450k.

I would imagine Clapham Junction may be closer to £500k.

Agree we need to know how many bedrooms. How many of you are there? What do you like to do in your spare time? Children?

Your friend sounds like a not at all uncommon type of London person who has very set ideas about which areas are 'nice', and they often match quite closely with areas that oligarchs and top financiers think are 'nice' and are thus ridiculously expensive.

Thank you for responding :-)

Don't want Hackney really, it feels too urban! We don't mind being a bit further out for some "real" green spaces, not just a small park.

Bedrooms - 2 or 3, but they need to be sizable. We started out looking for 3, but turns out the 3rd one is always so tiny it hardly counts, and then we'd rather have two big ones. We want to be able to get into London, but quiet and close to green space the main important things. We are eco-minded, so less interested in big supermarkets than small greengrocers! (However, not massively into gardening, so a shared communal garden that someone else maintains would be great...!)

Yes, I think my friend might have unrealistic ideas of what is possible, so that's why I thought I might get better ideas here... ;-)

Walthamstow?

Have a look at Brockley SE4 and the immediately surrounding streets of Lewisham/Ladywell SE13. You could still get a really nice spacious 2 bed conversion flat for around £350k there.

A weekly market with organic veg/fruit, bread etc. and the Broca food market/shop during the week. One of London's few Green councillors was elected in Brockley. It's quite eco/bohemian/artistic minded in general. Urban but has a huge park, Hilly Fields. Trains from Brockley or St John's take about 10-15 mins to London Bridge which connects you to the Jubilee and Northern lines, or continue on the train to Charing Cross or Cannon Street. Your friends will not consider it a "nice" area but it really is lovely!

Hmmm I think you're going to be lucky to find that in London. We just moved to Kent on that budget, 3 bed, garden, good transport links.

Real green spaces, consider the northern most stations of the picadilly line, e.g. Southgate and surrounding areas such as Winchmore Hill and Palmers Green.

Hackney urban?? I can see what you mean but if you find Hackney urban I'd avoid Neasen/Willesden/Dollis Hill!

Second the Brockley vote. Nunhead as well, vey nice.

Leyton/Leytonstone appears to be becoming the new Walthamstow, it's less urban than Hackney, you can go out to the forest. It's not great for indie shops, but I have a feeling those will be sprouting soon, judging from the number of people I know who've gone there after being priced out of Hackney/Stokey/Walthamstow Village. Transport is pretty good, too.
Or of course there's Walthamstow itself, but I don't think you'd find much in the nice parts, and the less-nice parts are significantly less nice.

Crouch End/Haringey are lovely, but transport isn't fantastic - but then, as a result they can be a little more affordable. Really nice village vibe in crouch end though and very indie, very close to proper parks.

At the money, you will get an ex-council much more easily than a period place, so if you're open to that I'd recommend it.

Some ideas:

Crouch end: www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34375166#vzkPb26e68af75C3.97

Leyton: There is quite a lot around Leyton like this, so have a go on Zoopla but as an indicator..
www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34148717#HgPlUIGQeLHqegKC.97

Peckham/Nunhead: I personally think this is rather nice, but not so much from outside, of course. You would get a bit more for your money in Brockley as transport is not quite as good as from Peckham: www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/34365613#AV42UiXdEywFO2IG.97

Stoke Newington: Not big, and not pretty, but Stoke Newington is lovely in a lot of ways, lots of eco-stuff, parks nearish - the church st is lovely, if I remember rightly www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/33800587#Qf2ofAg8xc4yHItr.97

Would you be willing to go east and look at Loughton? This is well in your budget and a few minutes walk from Epping Forest and very close to the Central Line station.

Thank you so much for your suggestions, has given me a lot to think about! We should perhaps look at the end of the tube lines then - I guess most places further in would be urban too...

Walthamstow we hadn't considered, thought it was too far east (to get out west of London!) but reading the article it was actually not too long on the Victoria Line. Will check out more.

Will also check out Brockley, Peckham, Nunhead, Leyton and the end of the Piccadilly Line - know nothing about these areas. Although Leyton might feel a bit too far east, but worth checking out too.

And removing Neasden etc from the options list then :-)

Definitely open to ex LA, in a way prefer that, as long as it is not a 20 floor block - period houses are generally very energy inefficient, and being eco nuts we don't like that (and flat layouts are generally sooo odd in converted houses...)

Thanks again!

Oh, just saw Loughton suggestion - adding to list!

This is so interesting, I'm really surprised by what you can get in London for that budget.

Some of the places suggested/linked to are very nice

don't discount Dollis Hill! I lived there for many years and on the right side of the tube station it's lovely! Lovely huge park on a hill - fantastic views at the top and lovely leafy streets everywhere. nice flats and houses around here.

I'm up North now but would move back in a second if I could.

OK - that flat I linked to wasn't so great (have just looked at the pictures!) so possibly the flats/houses are out of budget - which is why we could never live there - but it's a lovely little bit of London that's easy to get to.

North Chingford would be a good place to look. Train straight into Liverpool st and right on the edge of Epping forest which is beautiful.

Ah, you're looking at a west commute.

Leyton is on central line so not tooo bad. You could also try Isleworth, it's quite quiet but quite pretty in parts, and is west. Or further south into Kingston perhaps? I've never been there though, so not sure if it'd suit.

Otherwise, I guess I could revise my opinion on Willesden, taking the commute into account - if you look at bits closer towards Kensal Rise/Brondesbury you'll get access to their nice shops and things. Not huge amounts of park space though.

I third Brockley. Brockley is on the Overground, and thus on the tube map. This has rendered it visible in the eyes of many Londoners for the first time. The Overground makes it easy to get to Highbury/Islington, Whitechapel and various other places on the fringe of the City. You can also change at Canada Water to the Jubilee Line. Lewisham is a short walk away and from there you can get the Docklands Light Railway direct to Canary Wharf.

Also a fairly easy walk over to Greenwich and Blackheath for yet more open space and greenery. Blythe Hill, Ladywell Fields and Telegraph Hill are good local parks too. One Tree Hill gives you access to a remnant of old wood. Dulwich Woods are great, and not that far away.

Have a look at Honor Oak/Forest Hill too. A little further out, still very green, still on the Overground. Horniman Museum/Park.

What about Acton, if you are thinking west?

If you want to get out west of London why don't you look in West London? I live in Ealing which is a very leafy borough, famous for its leafyness.

This one is at the top of your range, but pretty and you could definitely find cheaper as you move outwards along the Piccadilly line into Hounslow.

I'm actually surprised at how expensive Ealing is these days! I was going to suggest it but couldn't really see anything with enough space - that flat is pretty though.

Dollis Hill might tick your boxes.

Wow, so many suggestions - thanks all! We won't be commuting west Daily, so more for weekend getaways really. And since quiet is a high priority I have read a lot about flight noise west so thought large parts of Hounslow / Ealing / Isleworth would be out for that reason!?

Kingston I have been to a few times, but seemed quite expensive.

Will definitely look into South more - hadn't thought about the greenery in Blackheath etc so definitely an option.

@DottyDot, the flat was quite nice, but too small for what we want, we want at least 80 sq m/850 sq ft. I wish there was a search engine where you could search for sq footage/mtres space - some of the 'three bed flats' I have seen are no more than 35 sq m/350 sq ft - and I wouldn't call that a 3 bed flat, irrespective of how many corners they manage to cut off and create a "room"...

Definitely consider south of the river as you'll get more for your money, & anywhere on the overground gives you great transport options. We live on the border of East Dulwich and Peckham - we hang out a lot in Dulwich Park, Peckham Rye and the Horniman museum, all great for kids. Second the votes for Brockley/Nunhead, also consider Sydenham, and Penge, which is not as nice but heading up in the world (also on the overground). We get the train into London Bridge in 12 minutes, so if you look beyond the tube map you open things up.

We have friends who live out west in Twickenham - driving is a bit meh, & takes an hour just to get that far, but you can get the overground to Clapham Junction in ten minutes and then get almost anywhere. But there are lots of options for heading south into Kent for day trips, and it's easy to get to Whitstable if you want a bit of sea air.

Have you considered Hampton Hill, very cute, very green (runs down the side of Bushy Park) and close to the river, near lots of train stations. Lots of little independent shops etc.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-44322214.html

Hampton Hill was completely unknown to us - thanks for the tip :-)

And thanks for everyone's feedback, has really given us a lot to think about!

South London is very green and has lots of areas that have a village feel with small indie shops. 400k can get you a good size flat in Forest Hill. Forest Hill has lots of nice little shops and you are also close th Honor Oak's high street and Lordship Lane in East Dulwich.

Forest Hill isn't too far out and its good for commuting to multiple mainline station in Central London and has the added bonus of the Overground.