Winchmore Hill versus Oakleigh Park

[msmagoo]

Need to move out of central London this year
DS1 is 18 mos. and we are currently renting in a pokey but very convenient flat.
Which of Winchmore Hill or Oakleigh Park is a better bet for:

1. transport to Kings Cross
2. local amenities (grocery, other shops, cafes, restaurants)
3. schools/nurseries
4. neighbourhood feel

What are negatives in each area?

Don't know Oakleigh park at all- but I like Winchmore hill and erm without giving too much away I know a lot about the schools- primaries are mainly fine- secondaries- lets just say interesting- some very good but erm erm I probably wouldn't send my kids to them!

Fab restaurants in winchomore hill- Dipali and Bombay Spice are two faves. Winchmore hill isnt great for shops other than basics but enfield town isnt too far away.

Neighbourhood feel anywhere in london is pretty depressing- i guess its some streets are better then others and its how much effort you make with your neighbours.

Negatives- spoilt rotten kids, pushy parents, lots more money than sense, its nouveau richeville- some "guardian readers" but I fear it is a "daily mail" enclave.

Thanks, Thandeka, that's really helpful and more or less chimes with my initial impressions of Winchmore Hill. Liked the park and Sainsbury's seems ok, but not too impressed with range of shops otherwise. Thanks for info on schools!
going to check out Oakleigh Park tomo.

I lived in Winchmore Hill for 2 years and worked there for 3 - I far preferred it to Oakleigh Park, which is much more suburban, and there's a lot less in terms of places to eat out etc. Have never lived in Oakleigh Park so I don;t know what the neighbourhood feel is like - it's a bit Greek Cypriot area (well, so is Winchmore Hill, and Palmers Green, and all round there TBH) and having worked with some Greek families, they have a huge sense of community. But that can be kind of 'exclusive'. You tend to find more community once your kids start school, but I have to admit, I didn't think the Toddler groups in WH were that great, but this is 4 years ago, so they'll be all different now. There's one in the church hall just off Green Lanes that was ok.

Transport wise, Winchmore Hill is fine IF you're organised enough to get to the train on time - Oakleigh Park at least has the advantage of being on a tube line, so even if it takes AGES to get to Finsbury Park, at least you can stay out a bit later on a weekend night, (if you're lucky enough to have a babysitter!)

On the whole though, I definitely prefer WH - there's a brilliant, MASSIVE park at the bottom of Church Hill, so that's a really good place to go for a walk with a pushchair and there are often lots of other mums by the play area - it feels like Hampstead Heath in parts, because you can't see any houses! There are a couple of nice pubs, The Kings and the Queens Head,with gardens, and they both do great food. There are very competitive parents, but the schools are all fairly decent.

Hope that has helped a bit!

1. Transport to Kings X: both much of a muchness really. Both have reasonably reliable train lines into Finsbury Park, though Oakleigh Park has the back-up of the Northern Line nearby.

1. Local amenities: I don't really know about O.Park but W.Hill has some boutiquey shops, a good curry house and loads of Italians, plus Sainsbos. Some OK pubs too. If you want high-street shops then Enfield Town is very near.

1. Schools/nurseries: don't know because DC not old enough yet!

1. Winchmore Hill is much nicer imo. Oakleigh Park is in the arse end of nowhere and just feels like another suburb. W Hill has its own kind of villagey feel (especially up by the green). Grovelands Park is brilliant.

I would say the negatives of W.Hill is it is pricey, but O.Park is pretty dull by comparison.

Re OPark

1. Transport is great - same line as WH but you have the back-up of the tube if needed and if it was really bad the Piccadilly line isn't too far away at Arnos Grove.

Can make it to Kings Cross in 12mins I think. Also if you change at Finsbury Park it's really quick into the West End

1. Local amenities - Waitrose in Whetstone is fine but not cheap, Tesco at Colney Hatch is the nearest large supermarket. London colney on the M25 is fab and about 20 mins most of the time down the back route (avoids Barnet High St)

Can make it to Muswell Hill in 10 to 15 mins if you want nice local boutique type shops and cafes, Highgate Woods similar time. Local cafes not my thing - there's a Costa and a few coffee shops but no tea shops (there is however a gorgeous one called Treacles in WH Green so maybe that's worth moving there for alone!)

Quite a lot of restaurants on the Whetstone High Rd - Pizza Express, Haven (pricey but swanky), Ask, Orange Tree (gorgeous location for family Sunday lunches, gastropub type menu), can drive to Muswell Hill, Highgate, very quickly.
Fab fish and chip shop a few mins away in East Barnet!!
Fave sushi takeaway near Totteridge station just closed down sadly.

High Street is a bit boring for strolling up and down with a pram.

No park in OP itself, so you have to go to Friary Park (Friern Barnet) a few mins drive, Swan Lane (bit of a walk and not very exciting) or Oak Hill Park (East Barnet)

Fab play place called N20 for toddlers upwards - good food and cleanish compared to most. Also a coffee place with a big toddler playzone (although gets a bit chaotic) called Coffee and Tease (naff name!)

1. Schools - state schools good (there is an outstanding catholic primary called Sacred Heart), good solid CofE schools but not great if you aren't happy with a religious primary.

Not many private options very close by so you're in for a bit of a drive if you want to go private. State secondaries - grammar is QE Boys one of the best in the country but v competitive entry. Non-grammars are OK but not amazing from what I know. Nurseries - Magic in Whetstone or HeadStart in East Barnet are close by and good.

1. Neighbourhood feel - don't see the Greek Cypriot thing going on that someone else mentioned. No more the case than in WH anyway. It's pretty mixed socially - not dominated by any single group like some N London areas. So there's a good mix of non-ethnic minority (cr*p terminology sorry) Jewish, Greek, Asian.

I do like parts of WH, in fact I prefer the Green area to OP but unless you're getting a period property near there, I don't like the rest of the area.

BTW a friend has a lovely 2 bed terraced period house for sale in a great spot in WH if you're interested! You could bypass the estate agents!!

p.s. one of the local estate agents in OP is rather renowned for over-pricing....don't want to get myself sued online. Erm think yellow....

Winchmore Hill is lovely, but pricey. The Sainsburys is v. good and there are some nice restaurants there (a new Turkish place on the Green which is fab).

There are some very good schools, but they are over-subscribed so you would need to ensure you buy close enough to them - there's no catchment area as such as it changes each year depending on numbers of siblings. There's also a great C of E school, but you need to go to the church to get in. If you're Catholic, there's a great school in Southgate, but you have to live close to the church in Winchmore Hill to get in! If you find a house you like, you can phone Enfield Council's admissions service with your potential postcode and house number and they will tell you how far you are from each school and whether you would have got in this year (allocations for primaries are announced on 1st April this year).

I don't know a huge amount about Oakleigh Park, but I take my DCs swimming there - the impression I get from driving through it is that Winchmore Hill has a nicer feel to it and has nicer properties for sale. I think there is more of a neighbourhood feel in WH. I live in Southgate, towards Palmers Green (which is the next station down the line from WH) - it's a bit cheaper than WH but still has some lovely period properties, if that's the kind of thing you're after.

TBH Tbk the swimming pool isn't on the nicest part of OP. It's on a boring main road and the nicer roads are behind there towards the station.

Mrsmagoo - if you come to visit the area by train go left out of the station not right!

Oops misleading message there - I mean go right at the footbridge and then left at the road!

I think Winchmore Hill has a bit more to it, to be honest. The High St is fairly good. Oakleigh Park is quite dull.

I've only been to OP station once camembertandcranberry and that was when my mum got on the wrong train at highbury and islington! I hadn't been down that way before so I wasn't paying much attention, I was just cursing my mum (although DH has done the same thing once or twice) . But I remember vaguely now, it's definitely nicer than where the pool is on the main road .

MrsMattie is right though....it's nice in OP but actually it is just a name for the OP station half of Whetstone - there is no centre to OP or anything like that. Whetstone is the town centre iyswim.

So to be fair you'd have to compare Whetstone to WH.

Further points - there's a fab massive park with a lake by WH (can't remember the name of it).

That said there are lovely country walks down the back of Totteridge Lane (2 mins drive from OP) - you can turn into open fields and kid yourself you're in the countryside!

Thank you all for these extremely helpful postings! We'll be doing some more visits on coming weekends; really helps to get some more detailed local info. But sounds like we'll have to get a car if we're going to move to either WH or OP. How long did it take you to feel at home in either place?

I think moving any distance from your home is hard - we moved from Hackney to Southgate when DD1 was 2.6 and DTs were 10 months. I found it incredibly difficult to start with, but once DD1 started at nursery and we started going to some toddler groups and other activities, I met a few people and now that DD1 is at school and DTs are at nursery I have a great group of friends. Certainly having children is a great way to get to know people, but it can be difficult. There are some really nice toddler groups up here - but I think you're right, you probably will need a car to get around. If you end up in Winchmore Hill I can recommend some toddler groups in WH, Southgate and Palmers Green where you'd hopefully meet some like-minded mums.

Oh one major thing I forgot to mention that stopped me making friends as a mum around here at first, or at least made it difficult.

There are a lot of quite glitzy (not necessarily rich weirdly) women. How can I explain this without sounding bitchy....erm there are a LOT of nail salons and hairdressers round here and some clothes shops with hideous lacy, sequiny concoctions and Juicy Couture type tracksuits. I don't think you get that sort of woman in WH so much. Oh that does sound so bitchy. Sorry....

I did find vaguely like-minded mum friends (not saying they all had to be just like me - they don't) eventually....people who had actually had careers of sorts etc. and were into talking about more than only the contents of Hello Mag but it took a lot longer than I think it would have in say, WH or Muswell Hill.

WH is great with young children, the park, etc. but applying for the primary schools is very stressful, as it would be anywhere. Only one week to wait. [fingers crossed]

Don't know anything about OP, sorry.

is that because there is little choice in primary schools? i think i saw one that looked not very good at all (if you can tell from the ofsted reports) and not much else to choose from depending on what side of the tracks you are on.
hope all goes well for you.

No, all the schools are really good (I've visited most of them) apart from one, which is meant to be up-and-coming (though I wasn't impressed with it). It's just that they are all so oversubscribed, you have to live within an inch of the school or be more or less married to the vicar to get in.