How do I decide between Bristol & London (Hither Green)?

[BipBippadotta]

DH and I are at something of a life crossroads and need a big change. We are moving from our London neighbourhood which has bad / sad associations for us, and want to find somewhere we can have a nice quality of life, which for us means:

• more space (ideally 4 bedrooms)
• nice walks / parks / woodland nearby
• not an eye-watering commute
• minimal depressing urban scumminess (fly-tipping, drunk men fighting in the street, etc)
• access to friends / like-minded people
• a couple of nice pubs / restaurants nearby

*NB - no children (can't have them) so schools are not a consideration.

We have our eye on a huge, lovely house in Hither Green / Lewisham. It would be the house of my dreams, if it weren't near the scumminess of Lewisham High Street, hostage to a station where trains are few & far between, and impossible to get to from N / NE London, where most of our friends are. This place suits our budget if we sell up.

A more radical option we've been considering is moving to Bristol. DH can work remotely, and my job is portable. We could just about afford to buy a good sized period house in Montpelier, and hang on to our London house and rent it out. We've got our eye on a nice house on a little wonky street with a lovely view. Needs a bit of work (which we wouldn't immediately have cash for).

We can't for the life of us decide what to do & are trying to balance what would be a sound financial decision with what will bring us pleasure.

Pros of the Bristol plan:

• near lovely countryside
• can live somewhere nice & away from hideous London squalor
• can have a rental property in London which is a good long-term investment

Cons:

• only a couple of friends there
• further from airports (my family lives abroad)
• lower earning potential if we change our current contracts
• will be quite skint for a while

So I suppose what I'm asking is:

• is Bristol as nice to live in as I imagine it will be?
• is being a landlord a massive faff / worth the payoff?

If you live in Bristol, do you like it? Is it easy to make friends there (if you have no children & work at home)?

If you live in Hither Green / Lewisham, are there lovely aspects to it I'm missing?

Help me decide!

I love that there are now 2 people here who've lived in both Hither Green and Bristol! I feel I am getting sound & objective advice! I do like Southville as well - right near Leigh Woods. Took in the farmers' market last weekend as it happens. Back again this weekend for another tootle round.

Alas DH and I can't share an office as part of what I do involves seeing clients at home so I need a room that's permanently mine. Plus he's got hobbies that take up lots of space. Might as well indulge ourselves with a bit of room if we can manage it.

Have booked a viewing of the Charlton place backing on to the animal park - very excited by the idea that my cats could make friends with deer.

Oh no, why is Charlton horrible?

The Charlton one isn't really in Charlton, it is closer to Woolwich, though a lovely street. Thinking about your criteria and wanting things to do, I wouldn't move to the Charlton area of SE London.

I live in Hither Green at the moment (though have sold and am about to move out). One of the main plus points of this area is the transport links into London.. one stop into London Bridge/Waterloo/Charing Cross. The area has an increasing number of lovely cafes, the pub is good and there are some great little shops around the place. It is extremely popular with families (though I know not a consideration for you, but something to consider as there are kids EVERYWHERE and a lot is geared towards children). Three brilliant parks in the area, a 20 minute walk to Blackheath and you are 20 minutes/a short train ride to some lovely countryside down the A20. Lewisham has some great restaurants and plans for more to come (Polpo I believe, amongst others) and has the street feast on weekends which is an extremely cool.export from Shoreditch.

However, HG is still zone 3 and is near to Lewisham. So you will still have an element of the 'scummy' factor, though in the 4 years I have lived here it gets less and less. I don't know where the house you are looking at is, but be careful because estate agents are sneaky and describe houses in Lewisham as being in HG because it is more desirable. I would say that despite your budget being really decent, you will struggle to find 4 beds on a nice HG Street now. Prices have gone mad (we have just sold our for £350k more than we bought it for).

If you have any other questions about HG feel free to ask. On the whole it has a lot going for it, but at the end of the day it is still city living and not for everyone.

Re: Totterdown - I've got friends who live there. It is nice but seems a bit overpriced to me given that the houses are quite small. DH is super tall so we don't get on too well with cottagey-type places.

Yeah I think some can be a little small. I used to have a Victorian terrace which had nice big ceilings. Smashing views too.

Lived in Lewisham and have family in Bristol. Personally of the two options, long term Bristol would win on lifestyle. Not sure of prices as we left 3 years ago but if I were you look more at Brockley than Hither Green. You have Hilly Fields for more green, better transport and more restaurants etc. Blackheath even more so if budget will stretch. Bristol I only know certain areas well. If going out, restaurants etc are important I would be looking towards Clifton (again if budget stretches). If you want a quieter lifestyle Henleaze, that area has changed in the time I've known it and has lovely shops etc now. We settled for Surrey. London wages but better lifestyle. I wonder if you have looked at Reigate from what else you like. Not that we moved there - we went more rural.

Thanks re: Hither Green info! The place we're looking at is10 mins to Hither Green but equidistant from Lewisham station. Near Mountsfield Park. 3 bed rather than 4 bed, but enormous & needs nothing doing to it. We've got an offer in on it, so a stake in the ground.

I'm surprised to hear transport links are OK from HG, as every time I've gone there I've had to wait 15 mins for a train & then it's gone quite slowly, lots of stops on tracks, etc. But is it OK? Have I just been lucky?

Did think about the kids everywhere aspect of Hither Green - & that's another reason Bristol appeals - there don't seem to be these whole areas where it's NOTHING but families with young children (or by contrast areas where it's nothing but 20-something hipsters) like in London. Much more of a mix rather than a series of monocultures.

Thanks, cats dog - Brockley & Blackheath out of our price range, sadly. Clifton probably as well as we'd be holding on to our London place to rent out. Will have a look at Henleaze!

Charlton is quite rough, as is Woolwich. Both on the up but HGR is much nicer.

You have been unlucky by waiting for trains for that long, they go about every 5-10 mins either to London Bridge, Charing Cross, Waterloo east or Cannon Street

Ah, that's good to know re trains at HG. I guess I've not been travelling at rush hour.

Oh dear, I'm a bit sad that Charlton's horrible. Had got carried away with Disney fantasies about frolicking with fawns and bunnies at the animal park behind that house.

There just isn't much going on there asides from the soulless retail park. Your nearest 'busy place' is Woolwich and, although def on the up, isn't somewhere I'd want to hang out.

At least in HG you have a lot more small independent businesses which keeps things interesting. The streets up around Mountfield park are nice and increasingly people are buying there because they are slightly more affordable than down nearer the station (though that gap is closing). From an investment point of view (if important to you) you will still be able to make some money on a property up round there. You are near to Hither Green Lane which has some good amenities, though still an element of antisocial behaviour and HG has its resident homeless people. However, testament to the thoroughly friend nature of the community many people are quite protective towards them and they are on the whole not too much trouble. Like I said, it is still city living, though by no means knife amnesty territory.

Mountfield park has a fabulous community garden and planning permission for a gorgeous cafe to be built in time for next summer. It will almost certainly be full of kids though! And yes, you have been unlucky with trains!!

I would still consider bristol though! (We are moving to Wales)

Did you look at amersham?.Nice area and you can reach london in 40min

Well, if we stay in London we'll be going into the office at least part of the time, so need to get to Canary Wharf & Shoreditch easily. Amersham's in the wrong direction for that unfortunately.

OP, have you seen this:

www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-54405568.html

Worth booking a viewing if you are down at the weekend?

Ooh - v nice! & Cotham lovely - but it's above our budget for the Bristol move (we'd hang on to our London place, so wouldn't have sale proceeds to get a super fancy house). Seeing another place at the weekend though, will try to dig up Rightmove link.

Bristol is so much nicer than Hither Green - much better quality of life. Renting your London place is a good idea so you can keep a foothold, I would rent for 6 months in Bristol to see if you like it before buying though.

We moved from SE London (London born and bred) to rural Devon and rented for 10 months, were glad we did not buy (takes longer than London to sell). Nearly everyone we knew has moved out of London now.

We moved to Brighton which is fantastic - 30 mins to Gatwick, hour on train into London to see theatre/mates etc and a walk/short drive to sea and countryside and more things to do than you could ever manage. Could have a 4 bed in very naice area such as Fiveways for £700k .

Parts of Charlton are not nice [particularly near the station and retail parks] but parts are lovely and leafy? Parts of Kensington are pretty shitty too but I'd still happily live there It's a v quick hop to Canary Wharf, Shoreditch a bit more awkward but probably means connecting to the East London line somewhere. I would completely accept that its not cafe culture and luxe boutiques central but that sort of stuff is a 5 min drive/10 min bus ride away.

Woolwich has a lot of local authority housing but is in the middle of a hefty economic shock with all the old parts [terraced housing etc] being bought up and refurbed. Crossrail, SE trains and the DLR make it v accessible to the financial districts of London and weirdly the schools [not relevant to the OP but indicative of general gentrification] are all massively improved.

The specific house I linked to, is far away from the A2 not to be noisy and polluted, but close to parks and open space which the OP indicated are a priority [not galleries and museums] with the required space and easy access to nightlife bars and restaurants.

If you are viewing the house in Charlton, I'd recommend having a wander around the Cator Estate in Blackheath. The span houses are as ugly as sin on the outside imo but it is soooooooooo nice there.

Not a fan of that Bristol house! Is that all you get in Bristol for 500k?

Bedrooms on the G floor so lack of privacy in 2 and 3.
Rubbish outside space.
Bedroms are all tiny, and 2 are v ackward shapes. Doubt you would get a kind size bed into any comfortably apart from bed 3.
Lack of stoorage, esp in kitchen.

Bristol is expensive now (in parts). It's a great city and there are a lot of ex-Londoners with money moving in!

It's a great city and there are a lot of ex-Londoners with money moving in!

About 4 of my friends are moving to Bristol - it does seem v attractive to Londoners wanting greenery and a nice city vibe.

That wasn't meant to sound like a dig OP. Bristol is popular and obviously doesn't have a never ending amount of houses so prices are going up. The schools are pretty crap - secondary anyway.

This thread is making me envious and I've not long left the place.

Some more houses ... Any excuse to have a rightmove nosey!

Montpelier 3 bed with separate receptions

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-41992149.html

Southville 3 bed with separate receptions

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54371287.html

And this new build in Southville (great location) which I've thrown in as a 'mystery house choice'

www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-59807357.html

I'll shut up now

This is the thread for me! Grew up in Bristol and now live in Hither Green.

As a PP mentioned Lewisham is getting a Polpo and already has the fab street food venue Model Market. It is walkable to a number of nice restaurants (generally on the cheaper side) and two or three nice pubs. There are a couple of v good cafes. You won't get a 4 bed in HG proper for 700 though - far end of Mountsfield or towards Lewisham maybe. Or on the main road? Our 3 bed just sold for 700.

Main thing against Bristol for me personally is the lack of transport, though that's less of an issue if you're looking at Montpellier. That and schools but that's not an issue for you. Not sure it meets your 'leafy' criterion though. Maye Redland if in budget? . It's a great city with lots going on and good access to countryside and beaches.

I would still choose Hither Green any day!

I've lived in both. Hither green is a shithole, go to Bristol