anyone moved/moving out of london?

[Greatfun]

We are in SW London. Not the swanky bit just the average bit. DH and I are seriously considering moving away to get more space and better schools. Our house is lovely and the area is lovely but some of the surrounding areas are not. DD is at the local primary which was the best we coudl get into. Its quite mixed in terms of social backgrounds but alot of the parents are what I woudl describe as rough. DH and I just didnt picture this for our kids. We are tentatively looking at either moving further out into Surrey on the SW train line or anywhere out from Victoria or DH may look for a job else where so we will move in the direction of Bristol (very general direction). Sorry I really am ranting on now but my general questions are:

1. Is life as you would expect after moving out? Were the schools really better?
2. How did you adjust or was that not an issue? DH particularly has a great social life courtesy of London so I know he would miss this but says he wants a better life for kids.
3. Do you think kids out of London have more freedom? Thats one of my big things. I really want my kids ot have more freedom as they grow up whereas here I can't imagine that happening.

Thanks. I look forward to your replies.

That's a good point about free transport. Ds 13 gets a lot out of this.

I think it really depends on what makes you and your family happy.

I grew up in a not very great area of London, and went to quite a rough secondary school. I am sure my primary school was not great either but I was young enough to have only good memories of this and being told off! I was a teenager in London and it sucked until I went to college when I then spent a lot of time clubbing etc with my friends, but that involved a lot of night travel by public transport in order to do this. I did not do that many activities (sport etc) although funnily enough I did sailing.

I moved to the south west as a young adult and would not consider returning to London, especially now I have a family.

The positives for me certainly are:
Access to the beach, daily if I chose, within a 20 min drive, access to the sea within a 10 minute walk
Access to the countryside within a 20 min drive max, the moors, woods, open space.
Access to watersports - a must for me.
Schooling - the schools are smaller here, I beleive anyway, certainly at primary level. I am sure there are problems at primary here as well as in London, but the severity of inner city problems are not so prominant where I live (although still a city so has its share).
It is easier to find a nice area to live that is not overun by deprived areas.
Accommodation is cheaper
There is plenty to do activity wise, in particular outdoor pursuits for the children as they grow older.
You don't have to travel so far to go on holiday in beautiful locations! [biased emoticon]

Negatives:
Work can be difficult to come by, especially if in certain professions
Wages are lower - this is probably the biggest negative of living in the south west.
Culturally less diverse
Night life is not as good as in London - less options for theatre, art galleries etc (but you can go back to London to visit those), clubs shut early.
Depending on where you chose to live, you might have to travel to take your children to school and there might be less options for secondary schools.

But I think for me, over and above everything, the ONE thing that keeps me here, is the ability to walk out in fresh air with my family, the countryside and the sea being so close to me. I would not swap that for 3 times my salary and an enormous house without access to it.

hmmm interesting. I have strange fantasies of my children playing in grassy fields with their friends and attending cute primary schools where all the children are clean and perfectly well mannered and have parents who become our best friends

I am only joking! But I do wonder whether my idea of life outside of London won't match the fantasy. Maybe if we had more money and could therefore afford to live within the required 300 metre zone of the well regarded school nearby I wouldn't feel this way. Instead my DCs are bundled off to the nearest primary school we can get into where staff bull terriers wait outside the school gates with the Vicky Pollard mothers.

Pavolv - We visit the SW regularly as DH is from there (Exeter area). I love it there.

TBH the secondary school situation is dire here. Our nearest looks like a youth offending unit. The only decent ones are catholic and we are not so thats out of the window.

We house hunted in the SW a couple of years ago as I'm from Devon. Changed our minds for various reasons including:
Schools - dc are in very good schools and secondary are good. Yes, there were good schools in the areas we looked but a gamble still.
Children are mix raced - doesnt make a blind bit of difference in London but elsewhere would also be a gamble.
University - ds is 13 and with grants no longer in existence at least he will have the option of staying at home and going to a london uni.
I will move one day though.

Ah but if they skip in grassy fields, they will certainly not be clean

Would your DH miss the social life? ...I do not know whether there would be a compromise area for you, not too far out of london, but perhaps towards a better school, bit of countryside - i guess those areas are sought after and costly? It is a difficult balance. I personally do not miss the social side of things, as I found what I needed was where I am, I was happy enough with a club shutting at 2-3am not 6am, and I was happy that I could afford the short journey home by cab! We did move to Exeter where clubs shut at 1am and that was a shock for us pre-kids, but now, it would suit us perfectly as we just do not live that type of life with kids in tow! And I am happy at eating in good restuarants for much less than in London, although perhaps without the variety.

I do know some people who found that career wise, and socially, the south west at least was too quiet for them and they moved further towards London towards the lights.

We moved to winchester 2 yrs ago from sw london and it has been excellent.

Dh still commutes to london each day but still prefers his journey now than from old house.

We do indeed live about 300m from great primary school also live 30 seconds from park, 2 mins from leisure centre and less than 10 mins from station. I love thinking about our children growing up here. It is still a town so doesnt feel too out in the sticks for me as i grew up in london. It is a short drive to coast or real true countryside.

I am very glad we made the move now and my only regret is my parents and sister are still in london and i miss seeing them so often.

Also have made friends quite easily and dont feel cut off and lonely. Our social life was destroyed once twins were born anyway! dh still manages the odd night out in london and i get together with old friends here and there.

Hercules - Are you in a nice bit of London? The bit we are in is nice but its the surrounding areas and particularly the area where the DCs schools are or would be. The decent schools have catchment areas (I know they dont really have catchment areas but in practice they kind of do) of less than 500 metres and the houses are ££££ as a result. They all have great results and few problems because of course all the kids parents are professional middle class and want their kids to do well. DD doesnt notice the things we do of course so I kind of think at this stage its not a great problem. Alhough I do keep correcting her when she drops her 'T's' and now she corrects me.

Fairly nice. Catholic schools which were very hard to get into. If we hadnt got them in then we'd have moved like a shot.

i love exeter. We moved out of Exeter as we could not afford to buy there at the time. Wish we had overstretched ourselves and did it anyway. But, the parking and traffic is dire.

If the secondary schools are dire, you do need to change that when they area ready to go. I went to a dire secondary school and it had a detrimental affect on my life. I was fortunate enough to move on, but many of my contemporaries did not, some ended up in her majesties accommodation.

Ahhh more replies. Excellent. Egg- I had looked at Winchester as my mu said its lovely but very pricey. Its not beyond hope though as we may leave it a few years. How long does it take your DH to get into London and are the trains horribly busy?

hercules - we probably live in the same area except we are unable to make use of the much better catholic schools.

greatfun, we are in a 'normal' bit of SW london too - I did get my dc into an amazing primary with miniscule catchment by waiting and moving her in year 2...

Its OK Egg I ahve just looked it up its about an hour to waterloo. Dhs job is quite far from there so probably not an option for now. He is looking else where though.

Did you Tocca? I have wondered about this. What happens about siblings as I have a DS 2 years behind DD? I assume he woudl get in on the sibling rule. There are a couple of schools in nearby Wimbledon I would love the chance for the DCs to go to. I am yet to see any Vicky Pollard mothers with staffs outside so they are looking good to me {grin]

Yes, exactly - siblings get pulled in.

I am still pinching myself tbh, it is so good and has made such a huge difference.

I think you may well be v local to me...

I suspected so Tocca which is why I mentioned Wimbledon. Who knows we may have met! That sounded a whole lot more stalker like than I intended

Was the school you were at previously Ok? and just out of interest was your DC happy there but you decided to move them anyway.

we'd miss london terribly if we weren't in it

I think most kids have a great time in London. Free transport, loads of interesting things to see. Seems like a great life to me.

I can't see why children would have more freedom out of London.

foxinsocks i agree in that I don't think children outside of London have more freedom, just a different way of being free.

We do have free public transport here anway - push bikes

watching this with interest as we are now contemplating making the move
depends how old your dc are - both dh and me were brought up in the country and yes there is more freedom as a small child but as a teenager much more restrictive (have to drive to everything and nothing to do). we're resigned to moving out now while ds is a toddler and maybe needing to move back into a city (if not THE city) when older.
are you tied to commuting into victoria? surrey, hampshire, sussex all pretty expensive whereas kent is a lot cheaper and still has grammar schools......but you would be going into different station.....

Victoria or waterloo would be best. I had thought about Kent but its going in the opposite direction to our families so not ideal.

Dh was bought up in the country and remembers it being very restrictive when he was a teenager particularly as his parents don't drive and he lived in a teeny tiny village.

have you thought about moving to a different part of London?

SW London works best for us due to family. I could be wrong but I dont think we could better what we have on our budget.