Favourite part of London to live in?

[Newnamenewnaame]

We’re about to go up for sale... but don’t know where to move next we want more space and can get a bigger mortgage. But... that’s it! That’s all we know!

What’s your favourite part of London to live in? (With a family.)

(South London is a bit tricky because it’s further from friends or family, but up for hearing anything!)

What’s important to me is that there’s a friendly crowd and a villagey vibe. Of course excellent schools too, but London has excellent schools everywhere, it seems!

London has excellent primaries in many places but secondaries are pretty tricky in most areas: a school can be rated good/ outstanding, have decent results and youth carrying knives or drug dealers by school gates...

Anyway, what's the budget and what size house are you after?

I'm down in Sutton and the lovely villagey places around here are Carshalton Village and Cheam Village. (Sutton has a biggish town centre with a range of amenities). Schools are amazing (no rough crowd around here). Lots of green spaces, often walking distance to countryside, leisure centres and a great community vibe: community farm and ecology centre, farmers markets, music festivals, all sorts. Low turnover of people as they tend to buy and stay put. It's also quite affordable. Stations are zone 5.

CROUCH END. Every day of the week. Wish we could have afforded to upsize when we moved from our flat there. Loved it

What will your budget be? London is ££££££££££££

Budget somewhere between £950 and £1.2, depending on what we sell for and how enormous we want our mortgage to be! (Could go higher, but I don’t want to as that makes me too nervous!)

For that, we’d live in a flat in an incredible neighbourhood - but it’d have to be big enough for a family of four, plus a garden.

That’s a really good point about secondaries - it’s hard to think that far ahead when your kids are little, but it’s not that far ahead really

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72997310.html

This is the sort of thing you’d get in Cheam Village. At 1.2-1.3M you’d get a much much larger plot. The village centre has a large Little Waitrose and Sainsbury’s Local, all your independent places (bakery, butchers, cafes, restaurants etc). There a David Lloyd health club (indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, kids activities and clubs, gym, studios etc), also rugby, cricket and tennis clubs, dance studios. The local state primaries have lovely grounds with own swimming pools and tons of clubs. Secondaries: 5 grammar schools and excellent, high achieving comps. Fab indies too. The local park is Nonsuch, adjacent to a woodland trust area and has the feel of Richmond Park + the countryside is a bike ride away.

If you wanted more an upmarket urban village, then Teddington is lovely: by the river, posh shops, good state schools but the budget will get a small terrace.

Oh, Carshalton Village is less snazzy but IMO one of the most picturesque village centres in Greater London. Fab, refurbished leisure centre, parks, close to countryside, great pubs. Excellent, friendly community with lots going on ( fairs, Artists Open houses, 5th November fireworks, events at museums and many voluntary initiatives. Very few houses for your budget as it's cheaper so a 5-bed period .semi will set you back 700-800k.

Dulwich village is the most beautiful place in London but sadly you won’t get much for your budget

Carshalton village - second this, absolutely beautiful and touching distance to London

Second Crouch End.

Hertfordshire

Sorry - just realised you said London!

Funny someone just yesterday (without knowing I wanted to move) was telling me how Dulwich Village is their favourite part of London! I need to check it out! I looked at Rightmove, we’d have to spend more to get there. Not impossible, but definitely harder.

Love these suggestions. They’re all new to me so far! (Apart from Crouch End, which I do know a tiny bit, and like!)

East Dulwich is fabulous.

Not Kensington! It’s polluted, a major crime spot and overrated. The price of a damp 1 1/2 bed mews would get you 4 beds elsewhere and the entire borough seems to smell of dope.

And not Knightsbridge. The so called “supercar” racers wreck the summer evenings and there’s drunks on every corner and pickpockets on every street.

Be careful with Dulwich when it comes to state schools. There are 3 in the area and I do know of (non-fatal) stabbings on school premises and it's generally near some of the worst areas for youth knife crime (so the cims go to the same schools as the nice kids).

If you want to stay in zones 2-3, then my top pick would be Blackheath. Really gorgeous. I don't think it's near anywhere stabby but you'd need to choose secondary catchments carefully as some of the schools are poor academically.

West Hampstead. Absolutely the most fantastic place to live. Close to central London, but with a fabulous village vibe. OK, I've not lived there for a few years now (unfortunately), and the best bar has closed down, but it is still a uniquely friendly and vibrant place. If circumstances were different I'd move back there in a heartbeat.

A bit pricey these days though. This place looks nice, in a good location.

A friend bought a lovely 4 bedroom house in Streatham Hill just before Christmas. Its BEAUTIFUL and huge! Very nice area and good commuting of course.

Streatham hill has definitely come up but streatham high road is awful - the traffic through there is constant and the area is very polluted

It doesn’t have as much of a villagey feel either, towards streatham there are still lots of discount and chicken shops

I love Peckham and you'd get a 3 bed there for your money probably.

I've got a BTL near Streatham Hill and every time I visit the things that strike me are grubbiness and rude drivers... Some of the roads by Tooting Common are quite lovely, though. And the dual carriageway through the middle is really offputting.

I wouldn't send my kids to a secondary in the Peckham area either.

Dulwich Village is lovely...but it doesn’t feel like London at all and is a PITA to get in and out of central London (no tube for a start).

Dulwich Village is lovely...but it doesn’t feel like London at all and is a PITA to get in and out of central London (no tube for a start).

Lol. A LOT of London doesn’t have the tube, in fact - Peckham and streatham hill, both mentioned here don’t have the tube. Nor do Crystal Palace or blackheath, also beautiful places and most definitely London.

All well connected places with decent national rail stations

Richmond, Kew, Barnes, Chiswick, Putney...

Battersea, Clapham, Wandsworth, Fulham, you'd get a decent sized flat or small house with that budget.

We're in a flat Chelsea/Pimlico border and I looooooove living where we are!

Question: state schools or private schools for your DC?

It always amazes me on these threads the comments such as 'I wouldn't send my kids to school in xyz.' Just because you wouldn't doesn't mean it's not a great choice for others. No one should form opinions on schools based on hearsay. It's offensive and stinks of snobby, precious attitudes.