Bickley - what’s it like to live there?

[tigerbear]

Especially if you have tweens?
DH, DD (12) and I viewed a house there at the weekend, and liked the quietness, house sizes etc, but not sure if it’d feel like the back of beyond?

We currently live in Greenwich, close by lots to do. I don’t drive, so it would be down to DH to ferry DD around.

Anyone else made the move with tweens/teens?

It's lovely, close enough to Bromley for shopping and a short drive and you're in countryside.
Not sure I'd call it back end of beyond, but it's a very different vibe to Greenwich.
Guess it depends on what you're looking for. We love the ease of transport into London and good schools. But it is quiet.

It’s fine. I like it - because while quiet-ish, travel connections reasonable. Great schools. Trains from Bickley/chislehurst/petts wood and buses between.
Depending on where in Bickley, can walk into Bromley in 20/25 minutes.
We are south Bickley/Bromley Common. Good local park - has beer festival and other stuff going on. Lots of green space around generally.
It‘s down to perception I suppose -
my children teen/late teen and plenty for them to do. Eldest at university and she feels like a Londoner and is pretty streetwise in comparison with lots of her university friends.

Thank you @Hiyawotcha , that’s really helpful. DD goes to school in Westminster, so already does the commute into Victoria from where we are now, and the journey time is the same.
She is already quite streetwise due to this commute, and being ‘in town’ every day will make it easy to still go out with school friends after school if she wants.

Other friends are based Blackheath, Lee and surrounding areas, so I guess there are frequent buses to Bromley to go to the cinema, bowling etc?

Whereabouts would you go for a nice restaurant, nice coffee shop etc? Are there places in Bickley itself, or would you go to Chislehurst?

Bickley covers quite a large area really. I’m technically Bickley, 5 mins walk from station but for coffee and stuff I go to Chatterton Road - couple of delis there. Tend not to go to chislehurst so much, because work and local friends more Bromley
Common direction. Plus I work in Bromley so when office-based will
go to pret or Gail’s there.

I do drive and spend quite a lot of time in keston - lovely woods and coffee places. Do quite a lot of walking including across Hawkswood to chislehurst or to petts wood. Or south and through Bromley common towards locksbottom/keston.

Bickley Arms is good for lunch. Is quite posh relative to how it was when I was young - it was our underage drinking place of choice.

DH and I grew up around here - he went to school on the train from Bickley towards London, I went to local state school.

Thank you @Hiyawotcha , much appreciated.
This May be irrelevant if you don’t have a dog, but if you do (or know friends with dogs), are there plenty of dog friendly parks/places to walk? I can see lots of greenery on the map, but not sure which are best?

You can take a dog on a lead around Whitehall Rec where there is also a gym. Which road in Bickley, its quite a big area. You have a lovely walk nearby in Norman park or go a bit further out to Scadbury, Beckenham or the woods behind The Bethlem are very popular with dog walkers.

That’s really helpful, thank you @HappyHamsters
The house we’re looking at is off Page Heath Lane.