Safe place for fresh french family

[DocThor]

Hi,

My wife, our 3 months old baby (girl), our dog and I are moving to London soon - I will start to work on 15th January (at UCL, center London).
We are both french. My wife is not fully comfortable with english and she won't work in order to take care of our baby. So we are looking for a nice, safe place to live. We like green areas (for walks with baby + dog) and don't need to have plenty of bars and night clubs close. Just some local amenities.
As we wish to have a garden and avoid too long commute time to work (30min would be perfect, 45min cool, 1h max), but we have no expendable budget (1400£/month top max), I selected some interesting areas :

Woodford/Buckhurst Hill
Cheshunt
New Barnet
Edgware/Mill Hill/Colindale
Borehamwood

But I have never been in these place !
Would some of you have advice/experience with these areas ?

I really thank you in advance for your help !!

Sorry to add.....If you want countryside, West Cheshunt is better.

Also look at Brickendon and Bayford (a few minutes outside of Cheshunt). They are on main train lines to King Cross but in the Hertfordshire countryside

I work in Barking and Ilford......stay away, there is nothing nice about it and it's not safe.

I wouldn’t look at Dagenham.

I think you might be luckier renting a property that doesn’t mind a dog if you are in more of a county area. More people have dogs but you would need to check with landlords and agents.

I have lived in the Ilford area as well as north London and St Albans.
Ilford isn't particularly unsafe but it is less leafy and pleasant than most of the areas served by the northern line or St Albans.
It is a lot cheaper, which is why as we worked in East London we ended up living there. (It is really part of Essex)
But if you are only in London for a couple of years and want to experience its best side I wouldn't choose there.
If you didn't have to take your dog you would find a much wider range of choices, most Brits wouldn't get a dog unless they owned their property and weren't living in an apartment block.

Woodford is fine but expensive in travel, and will take you close to 1hr to travel without any delays. Buckhurst Hill is expensive rent wise. So I’d go with the other options you have been given

Blackheath and Greenwich are lovely with an easy commute to central London. Both have green spaces. Quite expensive though.

Chislehurst, which is in Bromley, is also very nice indeed with woods and ponds; it's also quite a safe area and has good train services to London.

There is a scheme: Lets with Pets. It is acknowledged that pet owners take a lot longer to find a rental property. This scheme might give you some pointers.

in terms of comparing how safe areas are, the police provide very detailed stats:

www.met.police.uk/sd/stats-and-data/met/crime-data-dashboard/

If you go into 'safer neighbourhoods', you can look on a microlevel.

To compare London to places outside London, go to police.co.uk and you can input a post code and compare areas in the 'performance' section.

Ilford has high crime rates. In terms of Dagenham, it's just the sort of place where you'll find fewer highly educated people in professional jobs so with your wife looking after your child, she might find that she doesn't have that much in common with the other local mums. You'll also find that in areas popular with professional families, there will be lots more on offer, eg mum and baby yoga, buggy fitness, baby classes, eg sensory, sign language, music, swimming etc. You wife my want to join those to fill her days and make friends.

Look at Berkhamsted. There’s a 2 bed house on Right Move at £1250. With garden and walking distance to station. Very regular 40 mins into Euston which is a 10 min walk to UCL.

Big village / small town. Lots of SAHP. Lots of restaurants and cafes. Canals, Ashridge Estate for walks.

My local has Dad & Baby yoga and the classes seem to have about 6-8 Dads each time. I'm in one of the areas mentioned. They also do postnatal pilates.

But yes, I believe commuting in from outside London may be best for the OP.

Woodford proper is on the Central line and can tend to be more expensive. Highams Park is adjacent and the over ground from Chingford runs to Liverpool Street via Walthamstow so links are good onto the Victoria line. It has a great community feel even though close to London and I consider it a safe area of London. However you would definitely get more for your money if you go further out as really your budget would only get a flat I think. Depends what you want to trade off in terms of space/city/suburban living. Best of luck with your search!

DocThor to get back to Canterbury, while you cam never guarantee safety anywhere, it’s certainly going to be safer than east London and south London. There will be other French people there and it’s a university town, very lively with lots of academics living in and around the city.

@whataboutbob

The police would beg to differ.

Worcester park and surrounds? Abysmal train service though, being french you'll be shocked!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-87016655.html

Try to avoid the Northern and Central lines. The overcrowding is shocking. Take a look at Walthamstow. You'll get a 2 bed on your budget, its family friendly and around 20-25 mins to Euston.

@JoJoSM2 I need to read up some more on this, but on preliminary reading it does look worse than I thought.

Thank you BayandBlonde ! :)
I am really interested in Cheshunt but had no "witnesses" until now. You confirmed by good feeling about it. Broxbourne is just above and still less than 1h commuting to UCL, so I will have a look too.

Concerning Finchley, my future collegues adviced it to me. I took a look but all I found was too expansive and/or pets were not allowed...

Thank you Judashascomeintosomemoney for your experience about Woodford/Buckurst Hill. Indeed, the rare properties I found were quite far from tube so in the end, it was about 1h "door to door journey". But the area might be worth it. However, as you and other adviced, I will definitely think about somewhere on a fast train line and a bit further.

To sum up, right now best options seem to be -
Cheshunt (and around), Woodford/Buckurst/Higham, and definitely take a look to "fast train line town" such as St Albans, Berkhamsted and Welwyn Garden City. And... don't forget South London ! Also keep in mind Mill Hill and New Barnet, at least visit the area to make my opinion.

Well, I will continue to read comments, but my next week journey is taking shape.
Thak you very much for all your messages, each and every of them are useful. It is really enthusiastic to get so much help !

Will your wife be driving as public transport beyond greater London can be uncoordinated. You could look around the m25 / edge of zone 6 as the suburbs tend to be less built up and leafier but with access to public transport . Once you get beyond zone 6 the cost of commuting rises. You may just get a small 2 bed house in some areas for your budget as flats tend to be less pet friendly.

Well,
As we are currently preparing our relocation, I don't even have time to answer that I amready have new messages to read. Thanks !

Some of yo mentionned activities (JoJoSM2 and others). And off course it seems very interesting ! We would definitely love to have access to such offers and socialise with locals.

But the dog is still a big issue... In France, officially, landlords can't reject somebody because having a dog. And if you want to have a dog after you signed the renting contract, the landlord can't oppose to it neither. How does it work in UK ? The impossibility to have a dog is written in the contract ? What happens if you don't say you have one... ? Don't worry, it's not in my plan to be dishonnest. I prefer avoid problems and mentionne I have a dog.

Thank you again for all your messages, I am really thankful.

You'll see that adverts often specify 'no pets' which is perfectly legal for the landlord to ask. If you were dishonest and caught, you could be in breach of contract.

I think you'll probably less likely to negotiate to bring your dog along if it's a flat as 'no dogs' might be a rule for the whole block and out of the landlord's control. You might have more luck with houses. However, landlords might be reluctant anyway because, as of recently, they can't charge you extra deposit in case the dog causes damage.

You'll probably have the best chance with either sweet-talking a private landlord (not using an agency) or renting somewhere undesirable where they make allowances to rent the place out.

And yes, IMO local activities could be very helpful to stop your wife feeling isolated and lonely in a new country. It'll be different for you as you'll meet people at UCL but she might struggle unless there's something for her to do.

Most UK rental contracts state no pets automatically.
It is always worth asking the landlords if you can bring your one pet as an exception, if they are small, middle aged and non shedding this would all help.
Modern apartment blocks are often totally non pet even if you buy, MIL lives in one like this in Barnet. So sneaking a pet in is a non starter in such places.
You can no longer offer a bigger deposit to cover pets but some landlords are accepting pet rent, where you pay extra rent each month to cover your pet.
Houses in the countryside are likely to be the easiest to get pet permission for but any individual house might say yes.
If you choose to break the contract the landlord could serve notice on you this is a high risk strategy.

It’s worth offering / accepting you may have to pay a higher deposit if you have a dog. Always worth asking.

@SinglePringle new legislation means you can no longer offer a higher deposit for having a pet.
It is one of the current issues with renting with pets.

Pinner in Harrow is a village and has a direct line (Metropolitan) to Euston that takes 40mins- UCL is a short walk from the station. It's a relatively safe area- even though there's been an increase in crime recently because it's an affluent area. Having said that, it's very family friendly and your wife and child will be able to make friends easily. Look it up online.

Oh and forgot to mention, £1400 would get you a 2 bed flat very easily.