“Naice” yummy mummy/ Gail’s area london

[Xenaaa]

Hi

I would really appreciate any help!

I’m expecting my second child at the moment and we are having to upsize to a house. I’m really looking for a villagey london urban area that’s “naice”.

Think yummy mummies, coffee shops, Gail’s, Waitrose… bookshops, speciality shops, boutiques etc … basically I’m painting a picture of Richmond/Chiswick. But unfortunately they are out of our price range.

I came across "Askew village” in Shepherd’s Bush- it’s more within our price range- not far from Chiswick…Hammersmith is in close range for independent schools for secondary.

what do you think? Is it up and coming? Or am I being delusional and it’s actually not what I’m expecting.

any advice welcome!

Thank you.

'Chicken shop' is such a racist dog whistle. Pls just move to Tunbridge Wells!

Budget. BUDGET. BUDGET.

Though never in all my years on MN have I ever gotten such strong St Albans vibes OP.

Budget?

What have is all the AIBU pearl clutchers jumped onto the property board? I agree the overuse of naice is grating, but if you've been on mn long enough you know exactly what it means. Only a certain level of affluence and lifestyle in an area could sustain a Gail's, where once upon a time the marker would have been Waitrose.

OP, I do think however that your connecting chicken shops with grotty is unfounded and your protest that you frequent them doesn't come across well.

The beauty of London is from one street to the next you never know what you are going to get. You need to tread the streets at all hours of the day and night to make sure you are happy with it.

I also think the fact you rate Chiswick High Road so highly proves how subjective this is. I think it's a truly, truly awful drag. Give me Barnes, any day.

Naice is a mn thing and it's time it was eradicated, it's always irritated me. It seems to have started because some people were embarrassed to say they wanted to live in a pleasant, safe area with good facilities...so weird and eccentric, only like millions of other people, so they couldn't just say nice, which is a rather weak word but for advice on where to live threads I'm sure we'd understand.

The word they’re not saying is ‘middle-class’. Mn is both deeply class-conscious, but also often quite reluctant to be upfront about it.

IME up and coming areas stay like that for a LONG time. Cousins bought in an up and coming area 60 years ago. Still hasnt ‘gone’ anywhere!
basically I’m saying the differences will remain. Gail’s may move in beside the chicken shops but the basics stay.

I had to Google naice and chicken shops.
and I’ve never heard of a Gail’s!

I'm assuming it doesn't sell chicken.

On the pedestrian high street, near to Pret and almost opposite the entrance to the Glades. There is also a Dough right inside the entrance now :)

Not sure Gail’s is anywhere not already expensive

Dulwich Village fits the description but you’ll need a decent budget

I find Barnes high st so... self-consciously chichi that it gives me the ick. A designer dog lead with your organic coffee? And some sourdough... from Gail's!😁

Seconded. Also laughing at the idea that Brockley might suit the OP. We don't yet have Gail's or Waitrose here! It's a wonderful area with a lot going for it but it's not like Clapham or Chiswick.

@donkra Absolutely fair 😂

I guess I was thinking more about the environment than the shops while thinking of comparing the two.... river and duck pond vs, traffic thoroughfare.

My next door neighbours sound very like you. We live in a thoroughly Gails/organic butcher/gelato-saturated area that up and came. Great parks, plenty of good state schools and quite a few private.

They are just constantly cats-bum mouthed about the fact that they still live in London. In a lovely, shockingly expensive terraced house that has council tenants on one side (great family, very friendly, but they don't frequent Gails) and urban grittiness a fairly short walk away.

They are proper horrified that rental tenants can see into their garden.

That every good and great school will still be full of children from the 'chicken shops streets', because that's a London state school.

If you, like they, want to live a life of middle class white naiceness, unmolested by urban grit, please move out of London.

Also: You are buying property in London, not a wheelbarrow full of lottery tickets. Your life savings are likely secure, should you choose to sell up later, pretty much irregardless of location.

One of them isn't even born yet!

It is, I grant you, a generally much nicer environment than the Chiswick High Road 😉

I expect there were people there who looked and sounded as if they might not have gone to independent schools.

I've lived in London for 44 years. When I arrived here as a naive and sheltered 18yo, I was amazed by the diversity of the population, and I loved it, after growing up in a succession of white lower middle-class suburbs. I am about the most risk averse person you could hope to meet but fortunately that hasn't led me to classify everyone who isn't like me as a risk and an undesirable neighbour. If you can't cope with a very diverse population, don't live in London.

Yeah, if someone who normally goes to chicken shops enters a Gail’s, a thunder clap ensues and then the space-time continuum rips asunder.

Ironically, I got mugged when I was living in Northfields but had lived pretty close to The Bush for years without encountering any street crime.

(Admittedly I was sexually molested in The Walkabout during that time but don’t think that was a Shepherd’s Bush phenomenon).

Attempting to be helpful, I think what the OP is looking for is a thriving NCT scene?

Look on the NCT website and also for NCT groups on Facebook.

Agreed. I live in Barnes and actively avoid Chiswick unless seeing friends.

Avoid Gail’s too as the bread is vile.

Yes, Chiswick High Road - the longest high street ever.

You can guarantee that whatever shop you want is at the opposite end to wherever you may be at any given moment.

If there’s a Gail’s it isn’t up and coming, it came up and went already.