South Woodford, Woodford Green or Buckhurst Hill?

[wndrwoman]

Hello!

What are your opinions on these areas as places to live and bring up a young family? I know the least about Buckhurst Hill.

We are looking to move as we hear there are good schools, green space, and friendly communities. We are a young couple, no kids yet but would like to have a small family in the near future. We work in the City but would love to be able to relax/coffee/brunch/park in our local area on the weekends and avoid travelling towards central.

We care quality of schools and being part of a community.

I would appreciate any advice you can about these particular areas/ and their personalities.

Thank you!

Loughton is proper Essex, but with a tube & good schools for primary & secondary. Buckhurst good for primary but no secondary. Redbridge has very very competitive grammar schools & v good private schools.

There’s a saying..... “Buckhurst Hill - old money, Loughton - new money, Chigwell - funny money”

Jumping on this thread - we are thinking about a move to Theydon Bois next year as we like the idea of a village but yet on the tube. DS1 is finishing year 3 so we are thinking of Davenant for secondary (we should have enough church attendance points). Does anyone know if it is too horribly Essexy? I tried to find a Facebook group to get a sense of the area but they only group that came up was called something like "Theydon Bois Villagers (For Villagers ONLY)", which didn't feel very welcoming or inclusive! I'm a bit worried about moving out of multicultural north-east London to there...

Wincher thats my main worry about moving as well, I grew up in east london and i'm a bit worried about the contrast in moving a bit out.

does anyone know why south chingford & chingford mount are not as good as north chingford?

Church End is nice, I know my neighbours and Halloween you get 100s of kids round so be prepared! The forest is a few roads away but so is the north circular so it can be smelly and noisy. Loads of kids clubs, yoga places, cinema, supermarkets and Westfield a ten minute drive away.

We are renting at the moment but when we buy we'll go to highams Park; train line better than the tube, more villagey vibe and good schools.

My second choice would be Loughton but DP needs to be closer to the city.

Tbh it is a bit of a culture shock. It’s very white here. No diversity to speak of at all. Can’t get a decent curry or Vietnamese. It’s exactly like a village. Just with a tube station, and you’re only 35 mins away from Oxford Circus.

You've got to be kidding? Right? I can't think where you live in our area but it's extremely diverse IME. I don't mean to be argumentative I am just baffled

Obviously I’m not going to say exactly where I live but it’s in that general ballpark area. We moved there from Whitechapel so I found it really, really different. Still do.

Hi OP, local person here to all the areas you mention. In all honesty, it depends massively on your budget. Property is not cheap in any of these locations at all.

Buckhurst Hill is absolutely lovely, great schools, Waitrose, lovely mini-high St (called Queens Road).
South Woodford is so close to BH, and again nice, little M&S, but Waitrose, cinema (which might be closing!).
If you're looking at this vicinity, and can afford it, do checkout Wanstead too - a little bit more trendier, but a lot pricer.
Some great schools in Churdfields and St Johns . A real mixed bag of secondary schools, to be perfectly honest.
I have lived locally all my life, and really disgree with HRHCatherine actually too - all races, ethnicity's, and all sorts really - though she's right about struggling to get a really decent take away!

South Chingford/Chingford Mount, historically less popular because further from stations and mostly interwar housing stock rather than Victorian/Edwardian. However getting more popular as more space for money and often big gardens. Also used to be very white.

We used to live in a part of Whitechapel that still hadn’t been gentrified and some of it was still quite ‘raw’. Moving over the border into Essex, it was soooo different. Yes, it’s true there are different ethnicities here, but not like Whitechapel. Here feels a bit like footballer’s wives land. Everyone drives a shiny black Range Rover or Porsche Cayenne. No one’s poor, is what I’m saying, basically.

When I lived in Whitechapel, the Pakistani guy who ran the dry cleaner on my road would alter my clothes for a few quid. I had some trousers shortened at my local place the other day and it was £12.50!

Anyway, but of a derail. I’ve just found it’s taken a lot of getting used to.

But I think Wanstead, Woodford, South Woodford; the closer you are to London proper, the more diverse it is. Once you get out into Theydon Bois, Epping way, to me, it starts to feel a bit Daily Expressy.

You're absolutely right about that HRH, it is different ethnicities to Whitechapel (I lived in Bethnal Green during my 20s) and a totally different vibe. There's absolutely no 'London' feel to these areas (except maybe Wanstead) and there's a shit load of Range Rovers - you nailed that. And there's even more massive brown tattooed eyebrows too!

To me, Theydon and Epping are that bit further out, and deffo more villagey- Ongar too.

Night Tube, on Friday nights and Saturdays finishes at Loughton so you (DC)would need to get a taxi home if you live further out than there.

Agreed that North Chingford is more expensive than South Chingford and Chingford Mount due to transport. North Chingford has a bus station and Overground station that goes to Liverpool Street.

The other two don't.

OP, we are looking to move at the moment and use the quality of the local shops as a starting point to judge the local area. For example, if a parade has a Costa coffee it has people living around there who have time and money to spend on non-necessities.

If an area has a Waitrose or an M & S there are folks around willing to spend on ready made foods or high end stuff.

I reason that these large companies have done their research. If you were able to find out that a Waitrose was about to open then this would be a bonus point for an area.

I'm probably telling you what you already know though.

South Woodford has HoHos resturant (its worth moving there for that )

Some roads are a bugger to park (Churchfields is one of them , even outside of school traffic)

I prefer Wanstead over SW myself .

good grief, is that still going? I was nearby a month or so back. Is it full of fashionable SW café society?

Thank you everyone, for your insights:)

Ho Ho's closed many months ago. It's still empty.

Ho Ho's closed many months ago

Damn It that was the nicest resturant , unfortunately they didn't deliver to my neck of the woods and getting a take out was a gamble because it was tepid by the time I got home.

I take it back about South Woodford ....but not about the parking (can be a nightmare )

We are a young couple with no kids either yet and had the exact same search area as you. We ended up in Loughton a few weeks ago and so far so good! Tube into Central london from Loughton is great - I get a seat most mornings! It’s also much better having some more open & green spaces and it feels much safer than where we moved from (zone 3 east london). Best thing we found was to come up this way over a few weekends, walk around the town centres and through the forest (easy in North Chingford & Loughton) and eat out in a few local restaurants/bars.

I have lived in a few places in the area. S.Woodford is nice but quite crowded - lots of traffic and housing quite close together. Probably not noticeable if you're moving from central London though. Woodford is greener and more spacious. The Monkhams estate is nice but pricey! Woodford Bridge less nice. S.Woodord and N.Chingford are probably the most "London" feeling. Parking is definitely awful in S.Woodford.

Further out: Buckhurst Hill, Theydon Bois and Epping are all pleasant and good for families but feel more like Essex than London. Not very diverse at all, but more so than they used to be. Great access to the forest and green spaces though. Theydon Bois doesn't have much going on in terms of facilities - you would find yourself in Loughton or Epping for food shopping, sports activities etc.

I don't like Loughton personally, but it has more in the way of shops and restaurants.

You can park in Sainsbury's car park for two hours for free, it's in the centre of SW or in Waitrose car park for two hours for free too. There are lots of parking places (meter spaces) where you can park free for the first half hour and then pay. There are residents' parking spaces on the streets which operate only Monday to Friday (8.30am to 6.30pm) and the rest of the time are free for anyone.

I disagree that parking is bad in SW.

OP how are you getting on with your search? my head hurts from looking at so many areas!

Creativemumma you can say that again! I've got about 5 viewings in Chingford this week. I really want to like it there, it seems quiet and friendly enough.