House location advise - London

[Danini]

Me and my DH are planning family and TTC. We'd like to buy a small house/flat/conversion flat, 1-bed/-2bed, and would like some advise on good areas.

We are looking for good state schools, nice social community feel, parks etc., and rather a little more space around the houses than narrow streets with tiny cottage terraces. I work West, zone 4, DH is flexible. To have a reasonable commute (unless I change jobs which is not preferred when TTC) I think best would be West/Northwest/Southwest. Our budget is 350-400, and we'd be looking at zone 4-6 or somewhere we can get central with a train in 45 m/1 hour.

So far we have considered Hanwell, Boston Manor, Northolt, Brentford, Harrow, Ruislip, Uxbridge, Slough, Maidenhead. When reading this forum on similar topics many do seem to recommend Southwest. Even if I do love Southwest (I lived briefly in Richmond) my concern is for our future children to grow up in a posh area where their family would be less affluent than their peers as we are middle-class. Neither of us are British so the wast income differences especially in London is a bit new to us.

Which areas would you recommend? Have I got the wrong impression of Southwest? Are there any other nice areas we haven't considered?

Thanks!

pinner? It has a good tube link (in zone 5), lots of nice restaurants and a mix of shops. most of the schools are very good too

www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/compare-schools

You can search by borough to get an overview of where the best schools are in each area.

In SW London, New Malden has very good schools and towards Coombe the buildings are spaced out and there’s more space and room to breathe.

If Sutton is workable for your commute (zone 5, trains to Victoria, London Bridge and the Thameslink), then the south side is very green and you can even walk to the countryside (but there are many parks and lots of amenities too). The schools are excellent and you get a choice of selective and non-selective options for secondary.

There are many huge apartments like the one below with an en suite, a utility room, balcony and parking. On street view you can see how very green the roads are.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-74718136.html

Thank you both, I'll definitely add Pinner and Sutton to the list! And thanks for the link on school - great for research.

Would you say that any of the areas I mentioned before would tick our boxes? (Hanwell, Boston Manor, Northolt, Brentford, Harrow, Ruislip, Uxbridge, Slough, Maidenhead)

Harrow I think would, i'm not too familiar with the others (sorry!). from what I understand west or north harrow is more desirable

I’m afraid I don’t know that side of London much. I know Slough is pretty bad for crime rates. You can look those up on police.uk (enter postcode, and then choose performance and compare). The website below tells you more about London. Harrow looks very safe. Might be nice to pick somewhere that you’re less likely to get burgled, mugged or see drug dealers hanging about.

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

I’d add hatch end to the list as I think it’s quite a nice area with a high street with plenty of restaurants.

So far we have considered Hanwell, Boston Manor, Northolt, Brentford, Harrow, Ruislip, Uxbridge, Slough, Maidenhead

I can only comment on Ruislip and Uxbridge.

Ruislip- It’s a nice enough area but I think it’s expensive for what it is. I’m also not over keen on the secondary schools that typically fall into the catchment area. You’re also not in the catchment area for any grammar schools that I could figure out. Traffic can sometimes be a nightmare making Ruislip quite difficult to get out of as you’re surrounded by entries to big roads.

Uxbridge- unless you live near the station, then you’re going to be relying on the bus to get to the station which would make your commute quite long. The surrounding areas aren’t particularly nice either so between Uxbridge and Ruislip, I would pick Ruislip