“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.

Gails: if I want mediocre service and less-than-clean facilities I can get that much cheaper at Caffe Nero or Costa!

Didn't it start as a descriptor for ham? Shorthand way of saying 'expensive, no added water, made from high welfare or free-range or organic pork, i.e. not plastic ham'. Probably also including various continental types of ham you'd find in delis. Signifies someone with enough money to buy more expensive ham, but equally a foodie or someone concerned about animal welfare - or all three.

So well-established as a MN term that I've often seen an OP say something like 'Namechanged for this but I've been on MN for yonks - pombears, naice ham ...'

Anyway, I'm tired of it now.

I lived in Chiswick in 1979 and the High Road was pretty awful then. Some good shops but the traffic was incessant. From very occasional visits back since, nothing much seems to have changed. I did love Strand-on-the-Green, though. I used to walk along there and fantasise about which house I would buy if I were a millionaire. I don't think I knew about flood risks then, and climate change wasn't being widely talked about.

The other huge drawback about Chiswick is how far from the centre it is. The District Line is so slow!

I would not choose that place to live. It is horrible and dodgy people around all the time. The only good thing is the private schools nearby and a couple of coffee shops and restaurants. Do I want my kids walking to school around there? No.

I personally prefer nicer houses in better neighbourhoods. May be a bit farther from coffee shops but safer and lovely. Yummy mummies is a very short period of your life. Each to their own I guess.

If you both work from home, why llive in London at all? You could live in a nice village in Oxfordshire/Berkshire/wherever if you need to be close enough to commute in on the odd day. Or a really nice village in Cheshire/Yorkshire if you don't!

@Xenaaa

Do you 'need' to stay in London?

The thing is, if you want space, you are better moving out of London e.g. St Albans, Harpenden, Marlow, Sonning, Berkhamsted etc.

Unless you just absolutely love London. I was going to suggest Crouch End. Also Kingston

i haven’t read the full thread but I would be wary of ‘up and coming’ areas. By definition, they haven’t ‘arrived’ so to speak, and there’s a risk they may never.

I bought a flat in an up and coming area in Zone 3 in 2020, and the transition to “naice” has been slow, but I was expecting this and it has actually been exciting to see new things open one by one (and the less nice things closing).

A chain that is sprouting up everywhere so as to be about as interesting as living near a Starbucks is a strange qualifier for a desirable place to live.

And, yes, they’re even up north now, including Manchester city centre.

Which is just wonderful news as, on the evidence of this thread, the business model appears to be to move into a place that has got a decent independent coffee shop scene and then compete with those businesses.

Battersea - near Battersea Square

What about Northcote Rd and Wandsworth or one of the neighbouring areas (Balham etc) if that’s too expensive. Hard to say without budget. Check out the Nappy Valley forum.

I’ve never found Shepherds Bush to feel unsafe. Seems like you might prefer Surrey or something if you just don’t like urban areas? Have you been living in London long?

There's a Gail's bakery in Hillsborough, Sheffield. It's a bit of a commute, but you'd certainly get more property for your money.

Oh god please don't move to Herne Hill.

I think you need to be in Godalming or somewhere, it doesn't sound as if you actually like London.

Lots of houses just off askew road in the 1.5M to 2M range so assuming that’s the budget?

Just move to St Albans or something 😂

This has to be a joke post

Seriously? I was there last week and didn't see it and wouldn't think it to be the sort of place that Gail's would consider, um, Gail's worthy. It's not far from there that I once saw two women fighting in a greasy spoon one morning... But then that would be just like London as in you can have naice literally round the corner from 'less naice'.

Although I'm a Beres (amazing hot roast pork sandwiches) girl till I die so probably wouldn't look at Gail's if I was looking for food while I was there.

But I'm not sure why the OP is getting such a hard time, half the threads on here seem to be about reducing the risk of living near poor and/or working class people when buying property.

It's on Middlewood Rd @BarbaraofSeville - is that Hillsborough? Maybe I've got it wrong.
Like all big cities (and smaller towns) there are haves and have nots. And lasses who will have a punch up in a greasy spoon before work.

I don't think St Albans has Gail's (yet)

I'm not sure why the OP is getting such a hard time, half the threads on here seem to be about reducing the risk of living near poor and/or working class people when buying property.

Well a) anybody who proposed such a thing in London would get roundly mocked, because it's impossible to do that here; and b) OP has made it pretty clear that she likes her areas without any of those things brown people like, which, again, London probably not the city for you.

Unless you need the Tube.

I wouldn’t ever move to an area and hope it becomes gentrified because you do have to actually live there in the mean time. I second blackheath.

Yes, for me it needs to be at least semi-gentrified.

Somewhere that hasn’t even started on that journey is too much of a risk. A friend bought in Upton Park in 2017 and it’s still pretty much the same as it was back then 6 years later, despite thousands and thousands of new-builds and help-to-buy properties built in that time.

The OP is definitely getting a hard time.

Everyone knows what she means, and everyone in that position (new family, enough money to buy a house in inner London) wants exactly the same thing.

But of course this is MN, so there has to be pages and pages of obtuse nonsense.

I don't think there's the financial slack in the global economy for significant upping-and-coming the way there was fifteen years ago, tbh.

Also, I hate to say it but I think original property stock counts for quite a lot. Herne Hill might have been rough as a badger's once upon a time but it was still full of Victorian and Georgian properties perfect for the aspirational middle classes wanting a bit more space for Lily and Hugo's piano lessons. All the low-hanging period property stock has been picked by now, really, and big new developments need a lot more money behind them to have the same effect.

What is gails? A coffee shop?