cant decide where to leave- (london areas)

[vannah]

So sorry, this is a bit long..
I recently posted about how heartbreaking it is to leave an area that you are really attached to.

But the time has truly come for me to hurry up and make my decision as to whether or not to proceed with the sale. (our buyer is waiting as are the agents)
We have a gorgeous flat though squashy and no garden, in a trendy part of north london. The local primary is ok, but secondary schools around here are not very good at all and its hideously expensive, the garden flat option also £££.

We are trying to decide between a place in west london near Harrow, where the houses are cheaper (though very suburbian feeling and looking to us) and the schools are good with one very good secondary not too far away.
And Finchley, (west finchley) near to moss hall school where the house we have found is lovely, - much more our thing, plus its closer to the area where we are living but quite a walk to the shops and the roads are v busy and ballards lane (the main shopping road) looks rough really busy/fast cars/noisy/ lots of kebab shops.

Dont know whether to
a. stay put in the squashy flat and the lovely area (not great school and there is a bit of a racial divide here - not so good for my little ones, often notice that my boy is lonely..deprived kids of a garden

b. move to what feels like the other end of the world (near harrow) to lovely people,good-ish schools but feeling isolated and possibly depressed about the not so nice 1930s semi....

c. finchley - nice school, nice house,closer to our current area but dont like surrounding area at all, not 'walk friendly' and will have to move again for secondary.

I should also add that Im really attached to a new sport that Ive taken up here and have fantastic teacher - I would be devastated to leave this and have researched similar in the proposed areas but not found anything good...

thankyou if you managed to read this far!
any thoughts welcomed

How old are your children?

hello nkf.. my son is almost 4 (at nursery) and my daughter is 17 months..

The reason I asked about ages is that I chose an area where both primary and secondaryr schools were good. Also, there was a choice of selectives if we decided to go that route. I wanted my children to have local friends and move up schools with their friends. So, in your situation, I would choose an area where I could stay put.

That said, I know how terrible it is to leave an area you love. I left my lovely, totally unsuitable flat close to town for suburbia.

If suburbia is not your thing why not move out of London totally to a small city/large town within an easy commute (if you need to be near London for work) and find a place in the centre of that town/city?

This is what we did - can be in central London in 30 minutes, have good schools, easy access to good parks and countryside, loads of restaurants & bars within walking distance and friendly people.

many thanks to you both.
nfk - thats what I originally wanted, a house which is close to both good primary and secondary -very hard in london unless you go the independent or religious school route!
really dont want to have to move several times..
grapefruitmoon, we did look at amersham - but for various reasons couldnt do it,
where did you move out to if you dont mind me asking?

Hertford would tick a lot of those boxes ie: in central London 30 -40 mins, very good schools, good parks, loads of restaurants and cafes, everything in walking distance. Property usually very expensive though but at the moment you could probably get a bargain.

whereabouts in hertfod pinkteddy? thankyou..

Don't live there but have friends who do, they leave close to Hertford North station which seems to within easy walking distance of town centre and also in catchment for good schools. Probably worth looking at up my street website and ofsted maybe, postcode is SG14. HTH

Sorry - I mean live close ...!

Hertfordshire for me too - but on the Thameslink line (though the train is not so fab at the moment due to engineering works, depending on where in London you want to go...)