Family move to Greenwich?

[ItsJanuaryalready]

Hi,

Does anyone on here live in Greenwich and can give me some feedback on how it is to live there as a family? I have been looking at Blackheath to live with my family (husband and babies) as we love the villagey vibe and good primary schools, however nothing is available in our budget. But somethings come up in Greenwich itself, close to the Thames Path, just past the 'village' centre itself. We always worried it would be too touristy, and less community spirit, but I love this property so much so I am looking again. The local primary looks like it would be Meridian.

Does anyone live there with little ones?

Bumping in case anyone knows?

Is the property in East Greenwich by the petrol station?

Greenwich is lovely for young families and much more going on compared to Blackheath, but most move out just before secondary school as there are not many good secondary options. p

I live in Greenwich in the centre of the old part. Don't have a young family but shortly will do (18 weeks pregnant)! Cannot express enough how much we love it here. We currently live in a 1 bed flat which obviously is an issue for incoming baby but we would rather stick and make it work while waiting for something we love to come up than move further out just for more space. Obviously we will need to move eventually but hoping we'll find somewhere within the area when the time comes.
In my opinion it's perfect - you're about 20 minutes from bank on the DLR, 8 minutes from London Bridge on the overground, blackheath is about a 25-30 minute walk but it's through the park so wonderful. Also so much to do - Royal Naval College, Maritime museum, observatory, the park, lots of nice restaurants and a good range of cafes including chains and independents. If we could stay here forever we would!

I was born in Greenwich and know the area very well. Central Greenwich is a great place to live with children. So many things to do, places to eat, hang out and great transport links. I'd live there in a heartbeat if I could afford to!

@needabedinstyle

Is the property in East Greenwich by the petrol station?

Greenwich is lovely for young families and much more going on compared to Blackheath, but most move out just before secondary school as there are not many good secondary options. p

No not as far over but thereabouts

I don’t live there anymore but use to, it’s a nice place to live and Greenwich park is lovely, can’t speak for the primary schools as mine were babies when I lived there

Some friends kids go to meridian and they were very happy last time we spoke. Greenwich is wonderful, the problem is that once your kids are bigger and you need a bigger house then you’ll be stuck as larger houses go for so much money (unless you can afford it of course ☺️). We are looking to move to a bigger place but having to look around lewisham due to being priced out of Greenwich.

The only thing I’d say about living near the Thames path is to consider the traffic. If you need to drive anywhere, Trafalgar road is pretty bad usually.

Just to say I have lived in Greenwich for 12 years and have children, we have been very happy and Greenwich Park is just the best with kids.

Thanks for these. I know Greenwich already and I know I'd have loved to live there before kids. So it's really more about living there with young kids versus living in Blackheath village. As life changes so much after kids that all our priorities are not what they once were. I liked the idea of the villagey aspect of Blackheath, and yes, I detest the Trafalgar Road, so those are my concerns. So it's interesting to hear if those with young children would prefer Blackheath given a choice.

Have you considered Ladywell? It's got a really villagey vibe too - deli, two great cafes, hairdresser, florist, DIY shop, pub, post office, pizza... great transport links and it's also between two beautiful parks (Hilly Fields and Ladywell Fields). Primary schools are good/excellent and if you have girls then you are sorted for secondary too. We love Greenwich Park and the river etc and it is a few mins on the DLR from Lewisham, but Greenwich itself always feels very touristy to me.

Thanks. We definitely want to be very close to Greenwich Park or Blackheath, so Ladywell / Hither Green etc not really on our list.

Really interested to know about Blackheath vs Greenwich for young families.

Most of the people I know who lived in Blackheath and East Greenwich when they had very young children moved out of the area as their children got older. Lots have moved over to Ladywell, Hither Green and Brockley where the transport connections, parks and schools are excellent but where the traffic is less hideous, roads don't get shut for marathons, fireworks, location filming and parking is less of an issue. Others have moved to be closer to Bexley and Kent for the grammar schools or out of London completely.

The villagey aspect of Blackheath has always felt to me to be more of a commercial/shop village than a community village. We're close enough to walk to Blackheath and to Greenwich Park which is something I regularly did when the DCs were little and they do themselves as teenagers but when they were too big for pushchairs and wanting to walk independently, parks like Ladywell Fields were much more appealing than Greenwich Park with its traffic or Blackheath which is really just a green expanse surrounded by traffic a lot of the time.

Yes, I absolutely love Greenwich but we and the vast majority of my friends moved out once the kids were getting older either to get a bigger house, for secondary schools or because the sheer grind of Trafalgar road and the black wall tunnel drove them to insanity. I also agree that East Greenwich (Halstow catchment), Westcombe Park, Hither Green or Charlton slopes are better for young families generally (more relaxed, bigger places, better driving routes and generally better schools).

If it's any of the Banning Street, Trenchard Street or Trafalgar Grove houses, I'd avoid because of the Trafalgar Road traffic no matter how lovely the house. It's got worse along there since the cycle lanes and various restrictions related to local low traffic neighbourhood schemes have been introduced and because that area of Greenwich is a tourist attraction, the base for a university and music college as well as being a popular location for filming there's rarely a time when the road is anything other than busy.

So you're complaining about the traffic AND the measures designed to make people drive less

I’m more West Greenwich, just off the Heath and park. It’s lovely living here, I’ve been here since my daughter was born.
However, as a PP mentioned, it does get tricky when looking for secondary schools, as state options aren’t great.
I’m soon going to put my house on the market in order to potentially afford freeing up equity for private school. Let me know if you’d be interested in a 3 bed near the park 😀

We just bought in Hither Green/Lee OP - have you looked at this area? We were originally looking at Greenwich and Blackheath but anything more than a 2-bed is £££££ and seems to get snapped up in days (especially if you're looking close to the park / Blackheath common) unless it's next to a main road. There are some nice enough 3- or 4-bed houses in East Greenwich and Blackheath Standard with gardens, but we were put off by traffic noise.

Where we are now we've got a nice 4-bed house with a garden at a price that might have got us a small 2- or possibly 3-bed in Greenwich. We're just south of the A20, so 15 minutes walk to Blackheath (or less by car) and 5 minutes to Hither Green for trains into town. There's a nice little park nearby at the Manor House Gardens and it seems a family-friendly place that has a real sense of community. It's attracting a lot of families priced out of Blackheath and prices locally are definitely on the up.

I love Greenwich park, during lockdown it became our 'special occasion' park.

We live in Penge / Sydenham which is great with families. We can drive to Greenwich park pretty easily. We also have Crystal Palace park on our doorstep which is great.

I do love Greenwich and blackheath though so understand the desire to be there. The only thing I don't like about blackheath is there aren't many 'useful' shops. Loads of boutiques or 'posh' shops though. Penge high street isn't posh but does have a Wilko, Poundland and sainsburys. I can get pretty much everything I need from those shops.

With Blackheath you can walk to Lewisham though, which does have useful shops.

Hi,

Are you looking to sell or rent? Me and my gf are looking to move to Greenwich and are looking for a place to rent at first, then buy.

Kind regards,

Max

@MaxandFen will pm you