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

That’s not even the right side for Graveney distance spaces.

If they’re coming up to secondary school age it might be too late to suddenly take the church route now. Have you read over subscription criteria for many schools?

If the budget allowed, the Wandsworth common side of between the commons - northcote road area

that neck of the woods they all go private for secondary

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.

If you're near the Sutton side you could also access those grammars.

You’d have to be pretty confident of having v academic (and well tutored) girls to be hopeful of a place at Tiffin Girls. I don’t know much about the others.

What about Hackney? Friends have kids in Mossborne Academy which they are very happy with. Your budget would run to a decent house, plenty of green spaces/shops:restaurants etc.

You’d have to be pretty confident of having v academic (and well tutored) girls to be hopeful of a place at Tiffin Girls. I don’t know much about the others.

I'm not sure about the admission for the girls school but for the boys you need to be within the catchment regardless of score. One of my friends moved that way specifically to target grammars & yes tutoring is the norm.

North Kingston three bed unextended semi detached houses are up to £1m (or terraced for £800-900k) and in catchment for outstanding nonselective Kingston Academy and walking distance to Tiffin grammar schools. The houses are within walking distance of Richmond Park but are rather small / narrow.

There are some good townhouse developments in the Richmond Park/Kingston hospital area for under a million.

And Norbiton is on a faster line than Kingston station.

Neither Norbiton or Kingston are "zone 1 to 3" and they are definitely suburban...

Dulwich.

What the issue with suburbia?

I'm in z3 but it's no different to parts of Dulwich or Kingston.

The OP asked for city living and specifically not Suburbia.

I'm not seeing any suggestions that tick all the boxes except for the north London Dartmouth Park / Camden area. The rest (Dulwich etc) are quite suburban feels.

@anothercold you're confusing leafy village parts of London with suburbia. Dulwich is not suburban!

Keston - semi rural but still in Greater London.
Easy to get to parts of South London, such as Croydon .

Dulwich is not suburban!

This is my point. Why the angst over suburban? I grew up not far from Dulwich & would consider parts very suburban, why is it not?

The OP asked for city living and specifically not Suburbia.

I don't think living in parts of z3 is anything like living in z1

Now I'm basing this on my definition of suburban which is mainly an area of residential use with more houses than flats & bigger houses & it's own community.

Another vote for Tufnell Park/Kentish Town/Camden. Excellent state secondaries here, though careful with your 'catchment' boundaries and where you buy. Burghley, Parli and CSG all very oversubscribed.

I grew up in Chiswick, definitely suburban but inner suburb rather than outer (which I would classify Kingston and Malden as). Greycoats might be possible from bits of Camberwell or E&C which is definitely not suburban !

OP doesn’t have an inner London budget. Posters are suggesting areas she could realistically buy a family home with good secondary schools.

There’s a lot of confusion over inner/outer London and what is a suburb.

Chiswick is partly in the borough of Hounslow (outer London), partly borough of Ealing (outer London) and the Ravenscourt Park area is borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (inner London). Barnes is also technically outer London as it’s in the borough of Richmond. But Putney, which is next to Barnes, is in the borough of Wandsworth so inner London. Dulwich is technically inner London as it’s in the boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth. Wimbledon is technically outer London as it’s in the borough of Merton.

Nevertheless all these places are zone 3 (parts of Chiswick zone 2) with similar leafy chic, good shops and good transport into central London. They’re not suburbia - which refers to the outskirts of London.

However you don’t get much for 1.1/2 in any of these areas.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/124541540#/?channel=RES_BUY

1.25 M zone 1 4 beds

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127433840#/?channel=RES_BUY

Another one

OP doesn’t have an inner London budget.

There are plenty of areas in z3 you can buy a house for under 1.2m. Parts of Balham, Streatham, Wimbledon, West Norwood. Colliers Wood, Norbury.

Nevertheless all these places are zone 3 (parts of Chiswick zone 2) with similar leafy chic, good shops and good transport into central London.

But that's my point, plenty of areas in Z3 aren't particularly close to good shops & could be 20 mins walk to a station. I just don't understand why if you have 2 adjacent roads that are identical but one is z4 & one is z3, the z4 is suburbia but the other isn't?

I think OP will have the issue of good state schools in non-suburban but nice parts of London. Often you can get one - inner city and nice but no good state schools or good state schools but perhaps not as nice or inner city - hence people mention Dulwich, Herne Hill, Muswell Hill, Tufnell Park, perhaps bits of Hammersmith. The reality is there arent many genuinely good state school esp. mixed or boy ones in cool areas of London. HIstorically, it's because parents in those areas used to opt for private schools e.g. Putney, Hammersmith, Islington etc. Things have been changing but it's still not as easy as it should be

@hjbmb89hjl agree

Well I beg to differ! It doesn't feel like you're in London at all and there's no tube. You can't see any of the centre of London or any high rise buildings and it feels disconnected.