Where would you spend a million in London?

[hiphophippity]

I have NCed for this. Would love some ideas/MN wisdom. if you have a budget of a million or thereabouts and wanted to buy a family house in London for a young family of 2 young girls where would you look? Can budget for independent school. Have been looking West but wanted some new ideas thrown out. Happy to go pretty urban... Too suburban would probably put us off.

But more I would love to here where YOU would go (or already are) and why. Need reasonable access to town for daily commute (West End/City). We have lived all over (but not with children, and now moving back from abroad)

I must admit I'm not a fan of east dulwich or Peckham (used to live there as a student) but I'm biased as have grown up in dulwich village and still think of those areas as the less desirable places. BUT they have improved a lot, young families are particularly keen on them and so I've recommended. Personally, I would go to Putney/fulham/southfields but you will get less for your money. I don't think moving from £1 to £1.1 million is going to make much of a difference. £100k at that level buys precious little extra in London. Around £1.5 m and you'll see what the extra is buying.

Blackheath. But you would be lucky to find something good for that money - Cator Estate is the best and good Indy schools. Or Greenwich but not Maze Hill as the previous 'Greenwich' house linked to. For your money and schools I would look SE but not Peckham..

East dulwich is lovely for families. Great parks, schools esp primary and Horniman museum, nice green leafy feel plus a great high St, lordship lane, for when you want to go to nice shops/ cafes etc. new secondary school proposed too.
Housing stock Victorian terrace predominatly with small gardens. Prices seemed to have dipped a little recently so would imagine a 4 bedder would be around 1m. You could also look on bordrs with forest hill, behind horniman, where you get more for your money (4/5 beds sometimes detached) and bigger gardens, and nearby a v sought after primary school. Good luck!

Bellenden rd and surrounds is peckham rye and is nice IMO but would avoid anywhere North of that, personally I would also avoid camber well as it's very busy with traffic and fewer parks but that's my own opinion

I think Southfields or Herne Hill. We've just bought a 3 bed in Southfields for £825k so for your budget you should get 4 or even 5 bedrooms. Good schools, good transport, between two parks (Wimbledon Park and King George's both lovely). For shopping you can get to Wimbledon and Wandsworth easily. Only reservation is might not be urban/interesting enough for you.

Herne Hill another good one. Park is right there, for transport the train gets into the city in 20mins. For schools you're near Dulwich, for urban and interesting you are near Brixton. For even better value for money you can look towards Tulse Hill. I think if I was thinking longer term I'd be looking at Herne Hill.

You'll get much more for your budget in these areas than you will elsewhere in Clapham etc, but they're still really nice. I think a better option for transport links than East Dulwich too.

Blackheath- there's Greenwich park on your doorstep, and quick train service into London. Lovely arty village atmosphere! m.zoopla.co.uk/#/for-sale/details/35263370

Wow that's scary money.

I'm glad I live where I do.

A nice 4 bed semi in a nice area. £150,000

Just look at an example of what you could have out of London.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-38872756.html?premiumA=true

Not very commutable though, Scarborough.

The Peckham Rye side of Peckham is indeed unrecognisable from even two years ago. The demographic has changed dramatically, and there are now bars, cafes, delis, farmers markets and Indy shops galore, centred around Bellenden Road but fanning out over an increasingly large radius.

We've lived here on and off for the past 12 years, and my husband grew up in Peckham. Lordship Lane 20 years ago used to be as bad as Peckham was 10 years ago, and look at it now..! It's very close to the centre (15 min drive to Southbank) and has great transport links now with the East London Line.

Nunhead is another quietly transforming area, where you'd probably get a bit more for your money than Peckham proper - it's just the other side of Peckham Rue Park, which is a lovely large green triangle. There is LOADS of green space in and around Peckham, Nunhead, Dulwich etc. I've never felt unsafe here either. I think teenagers are more likely to encounter gang-related trouble/muggings here than adults or children.

Dulwich

I'd buy a house up here and go shopping with the change .

Basically I'm just here for the property porn. Have fun house hunting!

East Dulwich is lovely. We've been here 6 years and are just in the process of upsizing from a 3 bed semi. We viewed the house on Ewelme Road in September and it is lovely, but next to an estate which put us off in terms of resale in the future. We looked all round ED, Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park and Herne Hill before finding our new house and deciding to stay in ED.

You definitely get more for your money in FH and HOP but a good sized family home in ED would be affordable at your budget. If you want to know which of the houses have been on a while and so would probably take an offer then let me know! I did loads of research on schools etc so feel free to PM me if you'd like details.

I may have missed it but where would you be commuting to? For me the east London line is no use so ED was better than FH/HOP and I use the Thameslink from Denmark Hill a lot.

Herne Hill has great transport links but is very expensive now and you won't get anything on a nice road for less than £1.2m and then they tend to be 4 bed loft conversions (so no potential to expand) with small gardens.

The parks round us are great, I can walk to Dulwich Park, Peckham Rye, Ruskin Park and Brockwell Park in 20 minutes and under.

We were doing so well. Over 160 useful posts with ideas and advice for the OP before someone came on to tell us what a million would get them in their corner of the north.

Must be a new MN record

looks like East Dulwich, Posh Peckham and bits of Camberwell are definitely worth exploring. Plus Stokey.

Thanks all.

Up for looking at any brilliant ideas anyone has. Though as I said - gotta be London

Did you consider West Hampstead? Quite nice, lots of professionals w families ie v safe, you can walk to Hampstead Heath, Jubilee Line and overland www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46991128.html

Stoke newington is a cool place and no-one weaves lentils!!

Mara someone got there well before me with a link to a house near Scarborough. Like I said, I'm just here for the property porn . I know nothing remotely useful about London but you lot are linking to some very pretty houses.

Another vote for Crystal Palace. If you want private schools, you've got all the Dulwich ones round the corner but you get bigger house for your money, all the green space etc. You need to be a bit more careful if you want state primary schools - the catchment areas for the good ones tend to be very small.

Commuting wise its 20 mins to London Bridge or the overground takes you to Canada Water for canary wharf. Also 30 mins to Victoria for the west end, but you"ll need to change to the underground for that, which is a bit of a pain.

Consider the northeast bit of the Central Line. It's very quick into the city (about 20min) and there are many good state primaries as well as independent schools. The Epping Forest is amazing and kept hush-hush deliberately. It's fine for the locals to ride their horses and mountain bikes through the ancient woods, but if all 10 million Londoners tried it, the place would be trashed.

For secondary you have Bancrofts, Chigwell and Forest on your doorstep with state primaries sending so many pupils they are considered "feeder schools." www.bancrofts.info, www.chigwell-school.org/Pages/Home.aspx, and www.forest.org.uk.

The area is getting more expensive, especially since nearby Walthamstow had the biggest price rises in Britain last year, but you can still squeak a large family house with a garden to play football in for about £1M.

Try Wanstead:
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-49265387.html

Woodford Green (IG8):
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46937101.html?premiumA=true

Loughton (IG10):
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47113795.html?premiumA=true

hiphop! Can the girls share a room?!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-33155133.html

Enough bedrooms, fabulous location

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-31856865.html?premiumA=true

Another vote for Crystal Palace.

Absolutely would choose SE23 over East Dulwich for the reasons that Somethingtodo explains - for me it is much better for the kids to have a bigger house and garden, to be close to the amazing Sydenham Woods, to the true resource and toddler / primary school gold mine that is the Horniman museum and to the lovely parks and high streets of Honor Oak Park and Forest Hill than the (still accessible) coffee shops and slightly superfluous-with-kids boutiques of SE22. Of a weekend we spend our time with our two DC in the parks and playgrounds of Forest Hill, Sydenham and Beckenham and only venture to East Dulwich if we desperately need to buy an overpriced candle for a birthday present... Even that is becoming less necessary as FH and HOP both have their own versions of those kind of shops and Sydenham High Street has all the practical things that Lordship Lane lacks plus a few lovely bistros etc. There are a huge array of playgroups, vibrant and outstanding state primaries (I don't care about independents personally but obviously you have lots of choice in Dulwich, West Dulwich etc) and activities for all ages local to Forest Hill and to me it has a much more interesting, less polished but more community minded vibe than ED. I've lived in both and wouldn't go back to ED now with a lottery win as i prefer the light and space of being up the hill, looked gorgeous when I was walking around this morning and everything was frosty. The houses and vistas by the Horniman are to die for and Blythe Hill and Mayow parks get better and better each year.

Have fun checking it out, I love living in FH.