What’s Barnes/ Roehampton like?

[Firecrest17]

Hi,

my family (DP, two young DC & I) are looking to buy a home to south London - moving from a tiny rental in north London. We’ve been looking at the Doverhouse estate between Barnes & Roehampton & wondered if anyone could share any experience of living there?

we’re drawn to the proximity to green space & the river, plus it looks reasonable to drive out to countryside? We like the access via Barnes station to Richmond/ Kew/ Vauxhall/ Waterloo… plus we like Barnes for the village vibe & Olympic cinema. We miss cycling and like the idea we could do more outward bounds things with the children.

I suppose I’m wondering are these realistic plus sides? And do they get brought down by plane noise & traffic? What is the community like? And the schools?

one of our children would still be pre school, are there playgroups and pre school activities?

really any insight/ experience would be hugely appreciated. We’ve been down a fair few times to visit but obviously not the same as living there!

Barnes is ok but Roehampton has council blocks. area to be avoided. wrong side of park x

Barnes is just ok? It always seems so nice! I’d be v curious to know what brings it down…
thanks for the tip about Roehampton, although we’re not adverse to council blocks. Does that impact negatively on Doverhouse do you know?

No Barnes is lovely! But barnes bridge train is a pita and it's a "village" vibe so quite yummy mummy ish.

Dover house has some lovely, affordable houses. Would you get east sheen primary from there? Not sure I would buy there as miles from Barnes/trains, if you work at the hospital maybe. A lot of roehampton is very dodgy and unpleasant but down by the priory there are some very £££ houses.

I live just up the road - even closer to the council blocks! It’s a nice area. My parents lived on Dover House so I know it well. The council is strict about the conservation area so the original cottage estate design has been preserved. Houses are on the small side but lots have big gardens. Access to the Putney Commons, Richmond Park and river is amazing. If you’re at the bottom of Dover House it’s a short walk across to Barnes Station. Also nice row of shops at the bottom.

Main downside is the situation with Hammersmith Bridge and currently Wandsworth Bridge also closed - makes Putney a bottleneck and can be a real pain for commuting. Putney High St still has some good shops but many empty units. Nice cinema and restaurants.

My kids are all grown up so no insight about play groups sorry. There are good primary schools at each side of the estate - Sacred Heart and Granard.

Parking is pressured on the estate and there have been various consultations about CPZs - don’t know where they’ve got to

HTH.

Barnes is gorgeous but expensive. No tube line but it is an oasis, like a village rather than feeling as if you're in London. Roehampton has its nice parts eg the Dover House Estate with some lovely houses and on the Putney side of Roehampton. Also no tube or rail but plenty of buses.

I live in Putney - the best of both worlds!

This is brilliant, thank you so much for sharing. I hadn’t realised Roehampton had a bit of a reputation!

Yes Putney is the best of both worlds (unless you drive lot) quite mixed and has an urban feel imo but also very friendly.

This is really helpful, thanks! So you think if we were in the end of Doverhouse nearer Barnes station it would be reasonable to use the station to access London & we could get into Barnes village easily enough? My partner is worried we’ll feel too cut off…

we’d be relying on rail, walking and cycling to get around, possibly with some minimal driving locally. I get very travel sick so can’t really do buses/ Uber etc. trains are ok.

I’m not sure it’s great if you can’t do buses at all. You need to bus to the tube, for example. But yes easy hop across to Barnes station from bottom of Dover House Rd

Barnes and areas of Roehampton is lovely! I went to the university in Roehampton the areas around the uni is rough, or at least was when I went there. Closer to Putney and entrance to Richmond park is lovely and great for being active. Unfortunately don’t know about schools etc. If I had the choice I’d live in Barnes

Hi all, had a similar question I went for a viewing at Medfield street and the house looks good but left confused by the vibe of the place. Any thoughts/experiences of living around Roehampton?

My information might be a bit outdated as it’s from autumn 2023, but we had to write off this area in the end, much to our disappointment as there was loads about it we loved. We were looking specifically at the Dover House estate, so just a couple of roads north of you.

Our main reason was it turned out to be a bit of a state school black spot, at the time. We also felt access to Richmond Park was less easy than we originally thought, as was access to a train station (although we had very specific reasons we wanted both these to be very close). We also were a bit put off by crime rates (again, this was at the time and in comparison to where we lived at the time, where crime was very low).