Living in Blackheath

[RagDollies]

Thinking about moving to Blackheath in the next couple of years. DH used to work in Canary Wharf but is now in the City. We don't have a car and we will have at least one toddler. I work in areas all over london. Do you need a car to live there? Would the public transport get annoying? Obviously Greenwich itself is better connected with the DLR, but we do love Blackheath...

A car is not necessary; there is a good mainline station with links to London Bridge/Cannon St/Charing X and also to Lewisham (for DLR). So good for both the City and Canary Wharf.

Lot's of good nurseries and primary schools within walking distance of the high street, many restaurants and useful shops too.

Where in Blackheath are you looking? Village or Standard?

Thanks. Looking at the village ideally. Just weighing up losing the convenience of transport versus the lovely setting. We are currently 2 mins from the tube network but longing for more green space.

Depends how often you want to venture into central London on weekends.

The convenience factor won't make a difference on weekdays if you already commute into central via tube. I'd argue that the national rail system is a bit nicer and less stressful than having a 100% tube journey.

The real difference is the weekends. I found that when I lived on the tube network, I often went to other parts of London via tube on weekends. I was on the Bakerloo line, so had some lovely weekends around Maida Vale, Marylebone, Oxford St etc.

When we moved to a national rail area, we tended to spend weekends in our area and ventured out much less. This meant it was much more important that we lived in a nice area with nice things to do on weekends.

I loved living in Blackheath! It's a great village, good community feel and lots of open spaces.

When I lived there a few years back the overground ran very smoothly with trains running frequently. 20mins to get to Charing Cross is no time.

I did have a small run around car which helped with buying groceries but now days you have so much choice for online delivery.
I would move back in a heart beat

Blackheath is lovely and the overground trains are approx every 10 minute to Central London. There was some talk of the line to Victoria stopping but I'm not sure what's happpened with that. Blackheath Village can get congested, especially in the summer- the through traffic is pretty bad. The Cator Estate is lovely if you have a budget of £800K+. Primary schools all good but secondary more hit and miss. Some good independent schools nearby.

Blackheath is really lovely, up in the Standard you get a lot more house for your money than Blackheath Village. The only thing to remember is that the main line has engineering works relatively often so you can't just make plans assuming you can jump on a train. We've been caught out a few times (we're a bit further east but have a few more transport options, thankfully!).

Don't forget your Dh could walk through the foot tunnel over to the City or take the boat up the Thames to work.

We've got it all in the Southeast. Except tubes.