Anyone familiar with New Malden? Is it a good area to raise a family?

[Cuphalfull]

Outpriced in most areas in South West London, we are seeing some properties come up within our budget in New Malden, although I'll admit I have never been.
How is it? Is it a good and safe area to raise children? Talk to me about schools, type of population, high street, green spaces etc. What areas should be avoided?

A couple of houses we have seen are between 800mt and 1.5 km from the A3

I would be more worried about the traffic noise than pollution

Now I am panicking about the schools as some I have seen are 500mt from the A3😐

Well you'd need to enter your potential postcode in one of the pollution monitoring website which I links to WHO safe levels.

Do bear in mind that you are moving to an urban area. There are lots of cars here and pollution caused by parents driving their kids the 500m to their school and people making other journeys under two miles (which is the majority of journeys in London) is more of a concern than the A3. But unless you are going to move to the countryside then that's what you are going to get in most areas.

@TwigTheWonderKid we are already in another part of SW London so don't think difference would be massive.
I don't get why people drive for such short journeys, baffles me really.

I totally agree. We live next to a park and I am always perplexed by the number of people driving their dogs there for a walk! Or everyone who drives to the gym. And the number of kids being chauffeured to school is crazy and I bet hardly any of the parents doing that realise that unless they have an RV, the pollution they are subjecting their child to inside the car is much higher than on the street.

Aww my Grandpa lived in Amberwood Rise until about the early 80s. Not helpful to you but it was a lovely house and garden.

Agree with you @Cuphalfull. Our daughter goes to Christchurch New Malden primary school and even though the catchment is about 0.3 miles so many parents seem to drive their kids to school.

@TwigTheWonderKid and@Cuphalfull the explanation is probably partly time poverty and less than ideal transport connections. I no longer drive my kids to school but for a time I had to because I moved to a less affluent area and there were no suitable public transport connections to the kids’ separate schools.

now I can’t adequately exercise my dog every day without driving to a good off-lead waking area whilst still working the hours Im contracted for.

I don’t doubt that some folks drive stupid journeys but many will be doing so out of necessity

We live in nearby Raynes Park and really rate New Malden. So much tasty Korean food! And as others have said, Al Forno is also great.

I really value walkability - if you live walking distance to the high street and the station, then you can access all the shops, the leisure centre, the park, a Waitrose, a Lidl, some good pubs, plus the segregated cycle trail that runs along the railway line - we love taking our daughter cycling and scooting along there and away from cars.

All I know about the schools is that Coombe Girls is one of the best in London and highly sought after - the people we bought our house from were selling in order to buy in the Coombe Girls catchment!

Don't listen to the poster going on about pollution - of course it's not perfect but it's no worse than any other built up part of London, unless your alternative is a cottage in the middle of Richmond Park!

We were going to move to New Malden about 4 years ago from another part of SW London.

Our reasons were (1) Coombe Girls School (2) in catchment for Tiffin Girls (3) in catchment for Nonsuch School (4) it's affordable (5) it's safe.

In the end, we decided not to move house as we prefer where we currently live, so have stayed put. I am glad we didn't move as think the traffic there would have driven me mad lol!

The traffic in New Malden is nothing remarkable. I genuinely don’t know why people have seized on that. Yes, there is the A3 and some school run traffic. Parts of Wimbledon and Raynes park are equally bad if not worse during school runs.

I doubt New Malden is any worse pollution-wise than anywhere else in the immediate area, and generally Kingston/surbiton has low levels of airborne pollution compared to inner London and some neighboring boroughs .

If you're looking at living in SW London, the singling out New Malden for either traffic or pollution is completely misplaced.

@iovebread Do you live in London? You have some pretty strong opinions which you're attributing to New Malden but which could apply to vast tracts of London.

Good train links I think
also it’s on the edge it the ULEZ so trafffic fumes should be lower - just don’t live too close to the A3
Berrylands is nice too, but quieter

I don't know much about New Malden except we go there when we crave Korean food! So I guess it may be true what a previous poster said about it turning into Ktown. There is already a huge Korean population living there and you'd hear Korean being spoken often on the streets.

It feels safe, is an easy ride away from central London, and has alot more shops than you'd expect from zone 4.

Where are you now and what's your budget?

There are pylons running through Sutton, maybe you're thinking of that?

The bad traffic I'm thinking of is along Burlington Road and Cambridge Road.

I know New Malden, the traffic there is no worse than Wimbledon, Tooting, Streatham etc. basically traffic is shit everywhere!

You could also look at Old Malden/Worcester Park. I know a few people who are there, there’s some excellent primaries in WP. Their dc attend state schools a mix of grammar & catholic ones, lots of options in that whole area.

There’s also some very good secondary options in places like Richmond/Teddington eg Grey Court & Orleans Park.

I checked and that street is 1km ish away from the A3, I am pretty sure pollution is much less impactful at that distance. Anything within 500-600mt would be a no go for me too but 1km seems reasonable to me. Isn’t it even more polluted to live in a big city centre for example?

That’s what I think too, surely most part of London and surroundings have similar issues? I have never lived rurally and would never want to, just not for me

New Malden is a hidden gem. Wonderful Korean restaurants. Some great cycle routes. We cycle there for Bing Soo as a treat. Lovely and quiet, great parks, good trains to Waterloo, good schools. Yes the A3 is close, but even a couple of streets away you can't hear it.

@Eddielizzard thanks! Some houses I have seen are 1km away from the A3, don’t think it’s such an issue

hi @Cuphalfull - glad to find your thread. I was looking in New Malden before.

Did you manage to find a property there?

Hoping to learn from your experience - could share what parts of new malden were good. I have a 950k budget (at a stretch). thank you

I live in New Malden @needybaby

This is what I would buy with your budget:

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134586833#/?channel=RES_BUY