Where would you live in London if you…

[Twittwhoo]

…had soon-to-be-secondary aged kids (and planned on state schools)

…liked feeling ‘in London’ (ie not suburbia)

…valued the usual stuff - access to green space, independent shops and businesses, villagey neighbourhood-y vibes, etc etc

…were open-minded to north and south

Rutlish and Ricards Lodge are both non-faith, and both are rated outstanding by Ofsted in relatively recent inspections. Rayners Park HS is rated good. Harris Academy has not been inspected yet, but should also receive a good rating.

What counts as suburbia? I'm in z3 & think it's pretty suburban but others get offended by that!

I can only talk for SW London but would consider Wandsworth eg Graveney & the tech one, Wimbledon & Worcester Park/New Malden where you can access grammars, & some good state options. Obviously you could commute further for the grammars as not all have catchments.

But none are particularly village except Wimbledon village & if you can afford that you would be going private.

None of these areas feel particularly London imo but I consider London to be z1/2.

All have green spaces & some degree of independent shops

as others have said better to find the school & then the house

Holland Park

Why Holland park - it doesnt have decent state schools now that Holland Park school has been downgraded - while beig pretty toxic throughout

E Dulwich or Herne Hill in catchment for the Charter schools.

West Norwood or Streatham Hill in catchment for Dunraven

Balham for Chestnut Grove

It is downgraded, but still highly successful academically. In the recent revelations about public schools, the school my dcs go to was mentioned amongst all the others from Eton to Westminster (every school in the country must have 1 or 2 lads that made immature comments or have been downright nasty). I still think my dcs school is a good school, and so wouldn't rule out Holland Park if I felt it was overall meeting my dcs needs. You can expect that there is a lot of bashing of schools going on atm that are perceived as 'elite', and personally I think that is a bit hypocritical as we are less than perfect as a society and as parents but expect schools to turn out morally perfect young people and keep them safe and even 'unoffended' even outside of school (most of the bullying, harrassment and pettiness at Holland Park, like all those other school scandals, happened outside of school or on social media). Schools, especially if they are secondary day schools, are foremost responsible for teaching academic knowledge and skills. Parents and society, incl. the media and the police, should be held responsible for morals, enforcing the law and keeping people safe. For Holland Park as a part of London, I genuinely always experienced it as a very save and extremely friendly neighbourhood, the kind of place where dog walkers stop to talk about their pooches and you get to know your neighbours as 'Alfie's and Tissel's doggy dad' and only ever hardly register that they are the owners of Southerbie's or some billionaire tycoon (when I lived there I was a poor student, but everyone still stopped to chat and was friendly, even though I wasn't high net worth). Most of my friends from Holland Park went to private boarding schools so I actually know very few people who went to Holland Park School. But none of those who did were monsters, albeit they had a bit evangelistic champagne socialists attitudes.

What's the budget?

Interested in this thread too!

Camden town area as it's an easy bike ride to British museum and the British library and regent park.

Yes definitely Camden area - nice streets by Regents Park, Primrose Hill, Belsize Park, Dartmouth Park area. The secondary schools are amazing and you can walk to the West End / Bloomsbury etc easily.

North London is so much nicer and better to get to places!

If I had a girl, definitely Dartmouth park/tufnell park. Ideally inbetween parliament hill and Camden school for girls. Maybe still for a boy as there is achland burghley, William Ellis etc.
Decent transport links, close to the heath and villagey feel.
I like muswell hill but lack of a tube is a big thing (for me anyway).

@TrainSet agree it’s a wonderful area, but you’d need at least 5–10 mil to buy a house on one of those streets

The OP hasn't set a budget has she?

In any case I don't think that's quite right. Only oligarchs live in actual houses don't they? There are some lovely flats and maisonettes with gardens, roof terraces and so on., which feel like houses and give lots of space and privacy. Still around the 800-1m mark depending on number of bedrooms of course!

Lovely.

Where would people recommend if they had a boy?

Budget? @Twittwhoo?

Enfield, especially EN2 post code or Winchmore Hill?

Ah budgets….tbh I started the thread as interested in a general way/ people’s ideals as much as anything else….love the tiered budgets @GreenestValley !

For us - £1.1/£1.2 maybe at a real push.

And on other questions - I have some resistance to Catholic schools but based more on a general sense than any actual experience. I went to C of E schools myself and have no problem with them, though question how id actually feel taking myself off to church in order to get into a school - famous last words, hey?!

^And on other questions - I have some resistance to Catholic schools but based more on a general sense than any actual experience. I went to C of E schools myself and have no problem with them, though question how id actually feel taking myself off to church in order to get into a school - famous last words, hey?!*

Some catholic schools are very strict, especially secondary, so look into that.

for example they need baptism within 6 months and regular church attendance for an extended period- they’re well aware of people turning up for a few months to get into schools.

If your child isn’t catholic, hasn’t taken their first holy communion, and isn’t known to your local priest/community you won’t get in.

exactly! people keep asking the same question without saying budget.

Well that depends entirely on what "places" you want to get to.

Yes @Twittwhoo, as @Notanotherusername4321 says the reality is that most religious secondaries have hugely strict requirements so the reality is that you might have missed the boat on that one (some have a religious/ non religious intake split which might be worth looking into). Equally if you’re going for selective based on an exam you may well need to start with a tutor who can prepare them for that particular exam well in advance (like year 4/5). That’s why the best idea might be to pick a school, and ideally a backup and work from there. For example for your top budget you can probably still afford a small house in the certain catchment for Graveney or St Cecelia’s (which would basically guarantee a place without an exam/ religious criteria) but both have incredibly small catchments so you’d need to be in a position to move quickly and it’s no use if you don’t like the schools! So basically pick the school and then tick all the boxes to get in.

We opted for Camden area, very close to Camden School for Girls. I agree with pp who said to pick the school and then choose the house that meets the criteria (it took 8 months for the right property to come up for us). I think it's risky to buy in a nice area that is generally close to a few good schools, as you can end up not being close enough to get into any of them! And if the school is selective then living nearby may not make much difference depending on admissions criteria, so we didn't target those schools (although we may end up sitting for some selective schools anyway, but it's good to know it doesn't really matter if DD passes or not).

We bought our 4 bed house earlier this year for £1.6m, so it's definitely not oligarch territory. £1.1m would get you a very nice garden flat, or possibly a non period house. It's a great area if you like the urban feel and being connected - so easy to travel anywhere, but also close to the Heath and Regent's Park for green space.

On that budget I’d go for Muswell Hill for Fortismere, Sheen for Richmond Park Academy, South Wimbledon or Acton. MH would be pushing it on that budget, but you should scrape something in the other places.

Also consider N.Malden (or the bit of Kingston near Norbiton station) for Tiffins and Kingston Grammar 1.2 would buy a good-sized house, 20 mins to Waterloo.