Beckenham Hill opinion

[Robinko1]

Dear mummies,

We are interested to buy this a property closed Station Beckenham Hill but we do not know much about the location, schools, nurseries and day to day activities. Our child is 18months old.

Thank you for sharing your opinion

Were you meant to provide a link? Beckenham generallybis a nice area I think.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-66997528.html

Shame I would have offered an opinion but I'm not a mummy

Hi please share your opinion.
It will be defo valuable maybe not from raising child but from living in the location and commuting to London.
Thank you

@Robinko 1 it’s a nice enough area, although a fair bit of a walk into Beckenham from where the house is situated as it’s actually nearer to Catford , also it’s quite a busy road, tbh if I had a choice I would prefer to be nearer to Beckenham/Eden park areas.
You do have Beckenham place park just a few minutes away, which is lovely & has started to put on lots of community activities, schools are pretty good I think, St Augustine’s is highly rated, plenty of nurseries around, you also have a savacentre in lower Sydenham & a Gambardos soft play.

I would class that bit as Catford/Downham, less nice area. Also Bromley Rd is very busy. It is easy to get to the nicer bits of Beckenham from there and also to Bromley. If I had that budget, I'd look at Bromley itself or Petts Wood.

It's a bit of a no man's land IMO.
Beck Place Park is lovely though and they are about to do a lot of work to it,they have a bmx track and the new lake will be good for wild swimming.
Sedgehill school is right there,it's had a lot of problems and was inadequate but is on the up.

Sorry but that house is in Downham not Beckenham. It is on the main road and very close to the Downham shops. Yes, the nearest station is Beckenham Hill but that is nowhere the centre of Beckenham. The Downham location is reflected in the price of the house. A property that size would be far more expensive in Beckenham.

It’s a on a busy road but upside is it is close to shops. Bromley shopping centre close by, Beckenham Hill BR walkable, A’s is Beck Palace Park.

Good choice of primary schools, Downderry nearby. Secondary schools not so good. Defo more Downham than Beckenham.

Just looking at street view, that main road looks incredibly busy OP - are you ok with that? Have you done a viewing of the house yet?

That road is horrid. Big house for the price though. As people have mentioned, not really Beckenham at all. Depends how much you want to compromise I guess.

Definitely downham!!! I personally wouldn't want to be opposite the car wash, it gets ridiculously busy (blocking the road etc). The area, like many, has it's ups & downs, I grew up not that far from there & my mum still lives there, I've never really felt unsafe, there appears to be a greater community feel coming back. Plenty of shops, on several bus routes but that road gets exceptionally busy as pp has mentioned.

@Robinko1 I would start over from scratch tbh. Rather than buy a house and then ask about nearby schools, I'd do it (and did it) the other way around. You'll be applying for schools in two years and it will go fast. If you're going to buy, get that right now and you won't have to worry about it again. That should be your number one priority.

Start by identifying the primary schools you are interested in. Look at ofsted, reviews, Mumsnet. Look for ones that are well-rated, close to a station and then set up a rightmove alert for houses with garden and X bedrooms in the catchment for those schools. (On Rightmove you can draw a circle for the location you want to receive alerts if something comes up for your description!). In the meantime start visiting locations on the weekend. Drive to the parks like Beckenham Palace Park and you'll go through the area enough to get a feel for it.

As another PP said, I'd go a bit further out if you can. The schools around Eden Park are excellent - my child goes to one - and the transport links to London are very efficient. Yesterday I finished work in central London, came home, picked up kids, handed over to babysitter and was at dinner with friends back in the city by 7:30.