St Albans

[May172010]

Have never considered it before but have a few people we know moving up there. So have decided to look online and it appears you can get a decent 3 bed for around £800k? Like this place.
Woodstock Road South, St. Albans
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-85075957.html
We know nothing of the area so can anyone advise is this an ok area? If not, what is an ok area for a family with a young child that works in London. So something close to the train station.
Also, is it a good area to be?
We are currently in Muswell Hill and love it but can’t afford a house there that cost ££££££.

That’s fairly easy to get into St Albans city. The train station is the St Pancras line. Where did you need to get to for work?
Do you drive? It looks a nightmare to park. But, as St Albans is an ancient city with lots of history that’s a given wrt the central location.
Have you thought about schools, state or private?

I live in St Albans. It's a great place to live; beautiful and lots going on. I live 10 mins walk from the centre and love it.

My tip is to position yourself close to one of the good secondary schools - Beaumont and Sandringham are mixed and excellent and STAGS all girls is very good too. If you have boys I would steer clear of Verulam, which is single sex boys - this is my personal experience, I'm sure others might disagree!

It’s a lovely place to live. I’d avoid being very central as we experienced quite a lot of noise from pubs, clubs, people in the street at late hours. Fleetville is very nice and you are near Clarence Park. I would take a day to walk round different areas. With your budget, I think that you should have your pick of some lovely houses although prices are going up.. The house on your link looks great but I’ve also seen some very nice detached houses in good locations. They seem to go quickly and it may be worth joining local FB groups to see if anyone is selling and hasn’t gone with an agency yet?
Good luck with your search. I’m afraid to say that I wasn’t massively impressed by St A estate agents and we ended up going with a brilliant agency just outside of the city.

Thank you everyone.
@Longdistance London Bridge and the City. So it appears to be an easy commute. Are the trains frequent? Are they crowded in the rush hour?
State for primary. Potentially, private for secondary.
We don’t own a car as never needed it in London.

Can anyone recommend which areas of St Albans to concentrate as? We will go for a visit one weekend and have a wonder around.
Our DD is only 3 years old so we need to be close to a nice primary school. Are they all oversubscribed?
In relation to the parks/walks - are there many parks/woods etc. nearby? We are next to Highgate Woods currently and are there every week. I presume there is something like that in St Albans. My apologies if I sound ignorant it’s just when I was looking on Rightmove I couldn’t see too a lot of green space.

I would suggest cecil road , they’re around 550 or around that area, it’s just a suggestion to research. It’ll be close to the station, Clarence park, walking distance to the town and fleetville school, Verulam, or Cunningham school. ! I lived very near there For 20 years and brought up children who between then went to 4 different schools. I loved the facilities. St Albans is a commuters town, and anywhere in reach of the city centre station you’ll only get Clarence park really for green space, but it’s a lovely park. Old London road has houses for 750 ish and a little further from the station, and park, Still walkable, but all the schools in St Albans are quite good, so you can’t go far wrong with that.

It’s a good town to be in, but I’m moving to the deep country and I’m sure I’ll miss the hustle and bustle and convenience of everything St Albans has to offer !

Oh and St Albans st Stephen school is catholic, I worked there and yes it’s over subscribed. If you can afford Clarence road\Jennings road/ Marshallwick road/ Marshall’s road then you couldn’t do much better.

Happy hunting and good luck x

Thanks so much @Classicbrunette x

@May172010 yes, trains are regular. Sometimes the last stop from St Pancras (already been to London Bridge) is St Albans. Can be overcrowded unfortunately, with Covid it’s been fairly quiet according to dh. Lots of people from Bedfordshire are already on the train as it goes through St. Albans.
That house is walking distance from the train station, if you don’t drive, win win!
Register with a few estate agents, go there, get a feel for St Albans to see if that’s what you want.
It’s about spending time in the area to see if you really like it. Maybe enquire with some schools too.

You will be spoilt rotten for nice walks and woods. Hertfordshire may not have great hills or views, but it has lovely trees!

I think you will need a car though at some point as DC get older.

The secondary schools mentioned up thread are very good. Secondary private schools are St Albans (boys) and St Albans High School for Girls. But kids also travel to quite a few others.
There are lots of people in St Albans who go private for primary (Beechwood Park - coed, ST Albans High School Prep - girls, Aldwickbury - boys).
Good luck!

Thank you so much x

We live here, it's a great place to raise a family. It's also full of green spaces - as well as Clarence Park you have Verulamium Park which is large and full of history (Roman ruins). There are lots of other smaller parks and some beautiful places to walk - the River Ver walk is particularly lovely.

The best primary schools are the Abbey Primary school (though you may need to be a church goer?) and Maple Primary. Both Outstanding and both listed in the Sunday Times best state primary list. You'd struggle to find a bad school here.

At the moment the Thameslink is not crowded at all - but it is under normal circumstances, very much so! DH used to be out of the door before 6am just to ensure he could get a seat! It's not the most reliable line but it's not the worst either.

Good luck!