London Home Confusion

[Montevi]

Lifelong Londoner here in a huge conundrum.

DH and I travel a lot for work and need to be quite close to Heathrow (20-30 mins max).

But don’t want to live under a flight path!

Any suggestions for where is good to live with nice houses and also a quick commute to Heathrow? Plus a good train line/tube to get into central London as when not travelling we are in the office.

I’ve lived here my whole life and cannot find an area that fits the criteria!!

Further out on the Elizabeth Line? Though to be honest, being close to the flight path really isn’t that bad. I see to live in Windsor, you quickly get used to it and tune out the noise (and I am a noise sensitive person).

Forgot to add we drive to the airport, so don’t need a tube with connection to Heathrow if that makes sense! Oh really, how was the noise in Windsor? I keep reading about windows shaking in Richmond etc.

Affordable option: West Drayton. Its on the Elizabeth line and close to Heathrow, but not om the flight path.

More expensive option with better schools: Burnham or Maidenhead. Again on Elizabeth line, with good grammar schools.

Even more expensive option with good schools: Ealing Broadway or Ealing Common. On Elizabeth, central, piccadilly and district lines.

You will struggle. What works now may well be affected by CAA review of flightpaths and potential third runway. Concorde used to go directly over Egham and Windsor only escapes near the castle. Perhaps further south near M3?

Whats your budget/needs? ..Ealing currently doesn't have much air traffic noise... although 3rd runway may change that...if you're north of the airport...get less noise generally

Criteria:

still in London, near a tube station, small garden. Budget £1.9.

Teddington? No tube but train 40 mins into Waterloo. Buses to Heathrow. There is some flight noise but less than many parts of West London.

We actually looked there but local residents in a Facebook group told us the noise was unbearable in the summer….

Really?! I can't say I've ever been bothered by aircraft noise in 15 years here.

Okay that makes me feel better!! In a group I’m in someone said they couldn’t open their windows all last summer!!

Ealing/acton/Chiswick?

Maybe somewhere like Hampton if you can sacrifice the tube?

Though if you're only a 30 min drive from the airport, I think you are going to be somewhere with a reasonable amount of air traffic. You do get used to it though!

Maybe in the Concorde years but once that ended I barely noticed the planes when I was in Windsor, certainly no rattling windows!

Echoing the Teddington suggestion, I lived close by in St Margaret’s, near Marble Hill House, and don’t remember the planes annoying me.

Edit: sorry, not near a Tube station! Didn’t see that when I posted

Go directly north or south of Heathrow. The runways are aligned east-west. There is more noise to the east due to prevailing winds meaning the planes are on approach from teh East. Takeoff is noisy - but they tend to go up quickly compared to landing so the noise area is smaler.

South you have a lack of tube, but overland trains. Kingston isn't on the flight path, Richmond is. Teddington north would get noise, the further south the better. Hampton, Sunbury, Walton on Thames are pretty quiet (not just plane noise quiet!).

North you have Uxbridge, Hillingdon and Goulds Green. Quiet, but not inspiring for me.

Just goes to show how Heathrow blights huge areas of London and really should be shut and other airports grown. Boris's idea for an airport to the East made some sense in terms of prevailing winds.

I'd also take road traffic into consideration. 20-30 mins drive at 6am is very different to 9am. Anywhere along the A4 / M4 or just off it can be a complete nightmare during morning and evening rush hours.

Do you take a car to the airport? If so, I'd say Notting Hill, Queen's Park, Kensal Rise aren't bad. Chiswick, Hammersmith, Acton, Ealing are pretty quick - I don't think they're under the flight path, but don't know that for sure.

Paddington for the Heathrow Express? Loads of flats around there these days.

I grew up in Richmond, my parents still live there, and they've never had their windows rattle despite planes flying over their house when approaching to land! You very, very quickly become used to any plane noise - despite having moved away a long time ago, I still barely notice it when visiting my parents.

Hammersmith, Paddington, Earl's Court.

Surbiton is about 35-40 mins drive to Heathrow, not under flight path, and fast trains take 20 mins into central london.

I live in W London between Southall and Ealing on the Lizzie. We are under the flight path about 1-2 days in 10 but it is just not a big deal. I long ago stopped noticing it, even outdoors. Our area is lovely, friendly and green and you'd get a lot of house for your money here.