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!

Tooting/Wimbledon area is lovely. I always felt very safe there, good schools, lots of family days & craft fairs & great parks.

Crouch End, Muswell Hill, Stoke Newington, Walthamstow. It depends which end of your budget you want to land at.

@whotheeff you think it's offensive that a parent doesn't want to send their child to a school with knife crime? Maybe I just wouldn't want them to get stabbed/robbed of phone and lunch money on knifepoint? Is that really snobbery to you?

JoJoSM2: There are truly excellent state schools across the Streatham Hill / E Dulwich area.

There has been one school stabbing, about 4 years ago, I think, committed by a student who had been expelled from the school.

Any school in London could have anti-social young people within it. I could list the private schools near Blackheath with a drug dealing problem...

You are very squeamish about areas, and it does sound snobbish. Lots of perfectly decent respectable, even quite famous, families live in areas like Streatham Hill.

Not everyone has a budget for the very leafy areas you favour, paid for by your tenants paying for your ‘property portfolio ‘ in SW16 no doubt

@ReasonedCamper
I spent almost 2 decades working in secondary schools in London (over 100 of them in total). I have seen all sorts of crap. Violence against kids and teachers, gang fights that took 6 police cars full of coppers to break up. That sort of thing. I do have strong feelings on where I'd send or not send my kids if using state schools.

And just for the record, my top 2 suggestions and super lovely and down to earth and don't have crimes around. They're cheap for London too - you can get a small terrace for under 400k.

Agree Blackheath, Peckham, CP and Crouch End all feel like London - Dulwich Village still doesn’t!!

Wanstead! A village on the Central Line. 4 bed houses from 950k

@JoJoSM2 so keep your strong feelings to yourself and let others make decisions based on their own priorities for their children.

If you've worked in so many schools you'll understand that any school will experience anti social behavior at some point. It doesn't mean the school should be avoided - there'd be nowhere to send children if that was the case.

Schools are very personal and not all of us want our kids to grow up in bubbles of privilege. My children are thriving at an inner city school we were 'warned' about. Thankfully I shut out the noise and prejudices from those anecdotes.

JoJo “I spent almost 2 decades working in secondary schools in London (over 100 of them in total)”

Right, so covering a huge and varied geographical spread.

London is composed of micro-areas: millionaire conservation areas backing on to high density estates. You get mixed demography in many excellent state schools. Which on average outstrip the National stats in terms of attainment.

Streatham / S Hill is stuffed with barristers, actors, professional people of all kinds, successful business and trade people. There are many pockets of well connected friendly communities looking after each other. I would love to live in the streets around the so-called ABCD roads.

You can choose to live in the suburbs (as you have done ), for reasons of friendship, work etc, many find it much more convenient to live further in. And live good lives.

You can advise on what you like about your area without making generalised judgmental comments about others.

Anyone who moves into the catchment of Charter or Dunraven is bloody lucky!

However, the OP’s preference is for North.

“Right, so covering a huge and varied geographical spread.”

I.e hardly confined to Dulwich / Streatham in terms of nonsense. Bad behaviour goes on in all state schools. And loads of private schools too. Esp re drugs where pupils have money and liberal parents.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-81583892.html

This part of Tooting is wonderful! Walk to the tube and you're on the Northern line so very accessible to north of the river.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70331569.html

This one might also be in catchment for Graveney School (I think Ofsted Outstanding).

@mammabella1 catchment area doesn't guarantee a place. Many people pay premiums for homes in these areas only to have to travel to another school. Siblings take priority.

Westcombe Park... Which is the bit of SE3 (Blackheath) across the heath. Cheaper than Blackheath village but nearer Greenwich Park, good schools, local shops etc. Also the Maze Hill area next door which is the east bit of Greenwich

@CardinalSin good shout. Which bar has closed? I’m curious as l used to spend a lot of time in West Hampstead

La Brocca. I used to spend a fair amount of time in there...

Oh yes l remember it. Thought you were going to say there or Latelys

Each to their own.

OP, if you do happen to want a bubble of very safe, affluent loveliness, then check out the borough of Richmond. As mentioned above: Barnes, Kew, Richmond etc. All super lovely, by the river, fab green spaces (Richmond Park, Kew Gardens, The Wetland Centre), posh shops like Gail’s and Ivy Cafes but also many independents. Primaries are great, secondaries thin on the ground as most seem to go private. However, Orleans Park is lovely and you’d be in the catchment from the right side of Richmond. Stations are zones 3 and 4. IMO the only massive downside is that much of the borough is on the Heathrow flight path. And house prices are extortionate.

@JoJoSM2 that’s a good point re: flight noise in west London, especially if someone is moving specifically to get a garden.

Are you living in London now OP? If so where? And where do you and your OH have to commute to work for and what is your door to door limit?

What do you like and not like about where you live now? Do you want to be central in an apartment with terrace or shared outside space or suburbs?

Do you want to socialise in central London?

I think that Richmond etc are v much self sufficient suburban areas - same feel as Winchester, Windsor, Cambridge etc - whereas West Hampstead / Crouch End feel much more urban and central London focused if that makes any sense!

I think it's fair enough that posters say their negatives as well as positives. I would want to hear both if I were looking for a new place to live.

No point saying 'all schools have bad behaviour' or whatever as some are much worse than others.

Yes agreed - lego! Definitely good to get positives and well as negatives.

I, personally, went to a shit school. It was shit because the headteacher didn’t care, and bullying was rife. It was (is) in a traditionally poor area, but it was the management that made it bad. I want to avoid that for my own children, so the warnings about particular schools, or the recommendations, are all being keenly listened to!

I would prefer state schools both ideologically and financially. But wouldn’t rule private senior school out, because of my own school experience.

Currently live on the border of Islington and Clerkenwell, and love it but I want to be somewhere more family-focused - and want a garden. I love all the restaurants and independent shops, I don’t love all the traffic.

I do want to be able to socialise in central London, but I don’t get out much these days so that’d be less than once a month. I commute into Shoreditch, as does DH, but that’s pretty easy to get to from most places. We both work from home twice a week, so an hour door-to-door wouldn’t feel awful since it’s not every day. Having said that, we’re both used to a 15 min journey currently!

Thank you for all this advice so far! It’s going on a list so we can do weekend visits!

North Kingston and Ham are lovely. Ham a little more diverse socio economically than N. Kingston but lovely village and outdoor environment along river. No train or tube but buses to Richmond or Kingston.

North Kingston is excellent for primary schools and local environment (river, parks, Richmond park, bushy park) and overland train 30mins to London Waterloo. Very family oriented. Richmond a bus ride away (24hr bus route). Good choice of good high schools too whether state, grammar or private.

I don't mind parts of Streatham (near Tooting Common) & balham tube isn't far but secondary schools aren't great unless you are closer to Dunraven or Graveney, private options available though. Dulwich is lovely but a bit too remote for me. Wimbledon Village would be dream area as it has everything but for a big house you looking at 4m plus.

Most affordable areas with good state schools are probably Sutton/Cheam & Bromley but they are a bit too suburban for me.