St. Albans vs Bromley/Beckenham (evaluating other areas too)

[manub]

Hello everybody,

we now live in Staines but we're potentially thinking of moving due to my commute being exceptionally long (I work around King's Cross area) and wanting to be in an area that has a bit more independent shops / things to do. We like where we are, but the fact it takes me 1h30 to go to work is paying a toll and with a 14 months old boy we'd be happy to have a 1h tops commute!

We've been looking at St. Albans and Bromley/Beckenham - they both have good links (although the latter seems more connected) and look a bit more lively than where we are now. We'd be looking for a 3/4 bed house (planning for a second kid in a couple of years) and budget is 550/600, close to a good primary school (not religious as we're not). Anybody living in one of those areas think they could be good for us? Also - if anybody has suggestions for other areas which would be within the 45-50 mins mark to King's Cross and could fit the requirements that'd be great.

Many thanks!

We live in Watford - literally on the outskirts of st Albans and it's a lot cheaper! We spend practically every Sunday in St Albans park and town as it is so beautiful - only a ten minute drive away. We are religious so my children go to the local catholic school but our local primary has just been awarded Ofsted Outstanding. Hubby says you should be able to get to Kings cross in about 35-40 mins from Watford Junction. I am selling a 3 bed - with plenty of scope to extend up and out. Pm me if you are interested and I will send you the link 😁. We are relocating to Swansea.

Thanks @kiely but right now we're more into evaluating areas than ready to put actual offers in. If you weren't to drive to St. Albans on Sunday what would you be able to do in Watford?

St Alban's is lovely and there are a lot of really good private school around there. You may also want to consider Radlett-it's well connected a Das far as I remember a bit cheaper.

Another vote for St Albans - spoilt for good state schools, a selection of bars and restaurants- not all chains. Good links to St Pancras (as you already know!) and a fab independent cinema.

Actually there is plenty to do in Watford too. Many parks, the biggest being Cassiobury www.watford.gov.uk/cassioburypark
Three swimming pools in close proximity, 5 minute walk to my closest - also has gym, badminton, running track...
There are children's centres with organised mother toddler groups - in fact there are a wealth of preschool aged groups in the area from tappy toes to messy play.
I live by a small village - Abbots Langley - that has coffee shops, pubs and a few shops. I also have soft play, cinema, bowling and a couple of restaurants in walking distance. There is also a huge redevelopment of the town centre going on. It is a great central place to live where you couldn't possibly get bored! We are only moving because we are relocating to Wales. ☺

I'm the happiest I've ever been, living in St Albans. We moved from N London, rent at the moment. The trains are fast and very frequent - you will get to St Pancras in 17 mins on the fast train. However, the trains are not cheap.
The park is beautiful, there's a good leisure centre, lots of things to do, other things to do in surrounding areas.
Although your budget would get a lot in other parts of the country, St Albans is expensive. A three bedroom terrace in Fishpool St (really beautiful part of St Albans) was on the market for around £600K.

If you're looking for independent shops Bromley's not it, it's an identikit high street that could be anywhere. Fine but bland.

@kiely thanks for the tips about your area, probably worth checking it out as well!

Re St Albans I know it could be a tiny bit stretched for budget, but if we can find a 3 bed that can be extended that's good as well. We don't particularly mind living a bit further out the town centre (if St. Albans it could even be 20 mins walking to the station as trains are faster). Are the trains reliable? Never took Thameslink myself and I'm used to South West Trains (which are not too bad). We'd be looking into state schools.

I noticed Bromley has more standard high street shops (however still better than where we live now), that's why I was looking at Beckenham which is supposedly also to be a bit greener (but I haven't been there yet to check). Train would be a bit cheaper (my season ticket now is just tiny less than St Albans) and there would be more connections.

Would anybody recommend other SE areas?

Bromley's reasonably green, though the parks always seem empty. Presumably because people stick to their gardens. I moved here about 18 months ago for schools from SE zone 2. It's a bit too suburban and bland for us, so we are moving on. Beckenham has a little more of what you are after I think, though from what I recall of the high street still quite chain driven.
If you want something more hipster-y, where the prices haven't gone too crazy yet, try Plumstead.

Manub, Royston is 35 minutes from kings cross on the fast train. Lots of housing stock available, outstanding and good non religious schools.
And housing is much cheaper than St Albans.
x

Hi Op, Bromley is the main shopping centre has 'the glades' which is a mall so has the usual chains etc Bromley high street has some really good restaurants/theatre/cinema, Bromley is a very large area so depends on what part would suit you more.
Beckenham has a smaller high street, has some really good coffee shops & again some very good restaurants & bars, has a Waitrose/M&S/Sainsbury's/Lidl a leisure centre & cinema, also has some really lovely parks especially Kelsey park & Croydon road recreation park, which are very well used .
Schools are good & it's very family oriented, the transport links are good three stations Beckenham junction/clockhouse/kenthouse.
It is as pp said quite suburban but Beckenham is a nice place to live.
Can't comment on St Albans as not very familiar.

Marshalswick in St Albans is very nice with v good primary schools and sandringham in the neighbourhood. It's 650-700 for a 3 bed but we have many friends with kids around that area who are v happy with the neighbourhood and schools.

Beckenham is lovely. Nice shops, great parks (Kelsey Park is brill, Crystal Palace isn't far and Kent is just a hop and a skip away) fast trains into London and some good schools too.

Not sure about schools but Berkhamsted has an interesting high street with a lot of independent shops

Berkhamstead trains go into Euston so a 10 min walk to St Pancras if OP is not going further, and is a min of 30 mins on train. As far as I remember, there is only 1 state secondary school and the rest are private schools and the primaries are over subscribed

Beckenham is great and the parks aren't empty - used to spend a lot of time in them with the dcs.

It isn't massively "greener" but feels that way due to the lovely tree lined streets etc.

The biggest issue and why we moved was because of the secondary schools. We lived in beckenham itself and there weren't really options other than private or grammars nearby. You have to move to get a decent state school.

But the primaries were great.

Friends of mine have just moved to hitchin and commute to kings X. It sounds great tbh and cheesier then st Alban's.

Superpug isn't Fishpool Street in the conservation area, and therefore pricey?We lived in Romeland Hill and loved it.

Welwyn Garden City?

Thanks everybody for your answers!

It seems I may be able to get better value for my money in the south east - being outside the M25 St. Albans would already be a bit stretched for me so I don't really want anything further out and I really can't afford more than 600.

@believeitornot I have to admit that I didn't look at secondaries due to my child being 1. Ideally this should be our home for years so not keen in moving after a bit but nobody knows what will happen in 8+ years time.

Regarding Bromley and Beckenham, any particular areas you'd suggest? We'll probably go and check further the are in one of the upcoming weekends.

From what we've seen of Beckenham, we love it!

Don't live there but we have viewed lots of properties over the past year, sadly it's out of our price range- we could only realistically afford the ex-council 2 bed flats which felt mega £££ for what you got.

Your budget is almost twice as much as ours so I'm sure you'll find a decent house for that amount.

There are lots of flats in Beckenham (appears to be a decent buy to let market, so many people looking for convenient commute into town) so I'd say that the parks will be busy as not everyone has their own garden.

We visited Kelsey (I think) park once and the playground area was rammed, plus lots of people in the park itself, although it was summer time.

I do agree with the schools thing- the primaries all seem great but there is nothing much at secondary level...think Sedgehill is the closest but it's Lewisham borough maybe?

Also, I noticed that a lot of vendors who owned 2 bed flats, they often had a young child and were looking to move to another part of Bromley borough to buy a house e.g. West Wickham, Hayes

So even with an extraordinary rise in price of their property (often the price had almost doubled in a few short years) they seemed priced out of the Beckenham market for an actual house.

Although, it could have been a secondary schools thing, but I don't know whether you look that far ahead with an 18 month old (we certainly haven't).

Good luck with the search!