re-locating to south west London

[confusedinbrussels]

Hi everyone,
We are relocating to London from Brussels and are looking at areas to live in. Husband's office is in Hammersmith so looking around Barnes and Sheen but we are also interested in other areas. Any advice on where to look for houses? Kingston? Wimbeldon? I just don't know these areas at all. I am used to living in the centre of town and would love to live somewhere not too quiet. Thanks for any advice you may have.

Carshalton? Battersea?

Richmond is lovely, and has a good shopping area so not too quiet. It's on the river so it's gorgeous too.

This is north of the river, but do look at Ealing. It has all the benefits of the SW London areas, but only 2/3 tube stops to Hammersmith from e.g. South Ealing, Northfields. My husband does that commute every day and doesn't need to leave until 8.30 and is home every night to bathe the baby. Also Ealing is quite a bit cheaper than SW suburbs, and better access for getting out of London too (M4, M40, mainline train, several tube lines etc.)

It has great facilities for families - lovely parks, lots of playgroups and activities etc. Lots of good local restaurants. It's great for shopping - Ealing Broadway has lots of shops including M&S, Boots etc and west Ealing has Saturday farmers market and lots of greengrocers plus a huge Waitrose and smaller Sainsburys. Northfields and Pitshanger are two parts of Ealing with their own parade of shops with butchers, bakers and lots of independents like bookshops etc.

Basically I think it is fab! We thought about moving to Sheen/Barnes but it was more expensive, more congested and facilities were comparable not better.

In fact you can buy our house if you want - just put it on the market as we have finally decided to leave London. But we've been in Ealing 7 years now (after previously living in lovely places like Hamsptead and Dulwish) and if we wanted to stay in or move back to London we would always choose here!

Have you got a price in mind? Richmaond is lovely, and Kingston too but ££££££ was way out of our price range when we were considering the move to SW LOndon. In fact, we had a good look around and promptly decided to stay in Germany.

What age are your children? Are you looking for/planning on state education or private? This may affect which areas are best for you.

Sheen and Barnes more expensive than Ealing?

Ealing is really pricey!
agree it's a lovely area tho, lived there for several years before we bought a property. was pushed out due to crazy prices and that was 8 years ago!

I would also start with schools first if you have kids.

hana - believe it or not, it is cheaper! we would have got a lot less for our money buying a house in barnes/sheen than in ealing. maybe ealing has held its prices more in the recession but 4 years ago when we briefly toyed with moving south of the river, we would have had to spend almost £100k more to get a 3 bed house!

HQ where are you moving to? We've recently moved out of London too and I need ex-Londoners to keep me sane!

Confused - would you consider somewhere on the Piccadilly line (direct to Hammersmith) in north London? Longer journey, but some parts are cheaper than the (admittedly lovely) places people have mentioned.

Ealing is definitely a possibility as I am looking to put my eldest child in Durston House which is a private school in Ealing and the other two will go to state schools for a couple of years still. What are the nice parts to look at in Ealing?

Northfields and Pitshanger for slightly more village like atmosphere (i.e. have nice parade of independent shops and both have parks). Otherwise north of Ealing Broadway or around Ealing Common.

Pitshanger is a long walk or bus ride to the tube. Ealing Common and Northfields are much better for commute to Hammersmith, but even from Pitshanger it's reasonable.

Good estate agents are Sinton Andrews, RSK, Tuffin & Wren, Northfields, Winkworth, Grimshaw.

MissM - we're hopefully moving to Sussex, just north of Brighton.

confused - who does your DH work for? Just wondering if it's the same company as my DH, as they have a big Brussels office and are based in Hammersmith. Clues are fine if you don't want to say!

Sigh, wish I could move to Brighton! Sadly my job relocated elsewhere.

I live in Sheen
It is farking expensive yes
The primary schools are superb and easy to get into for year 4/5/6 as so many people move out of the area or send their dcs private because
the state secondary option is a total no-go. Very easy to Hammersmith on the little bus or cycling/running.

The planes are noisy obviously in Sheen and Barnes. (less so if you can afford parkside)

There is a truly fantastic sense of community here. (I'm sure that is true of Ealing etc too). We are so happy living here. The shops are great too, lots of little individual ones and not many chains.

I live in Wandsworth and really love it. It's very family friendly and there are some great schools. Wandsworth Common and round Northcote Road are really nice with lots to do.

Wimbledon Village is gorgeous so if you can afford something up there definitely worth considering.

Also, as others have mentioned, Barnes is lovely too.

Why not live in Hammersmith itself? The Ravensoucourt Park area is gorgeous, has brillaint state primaries, great private schools and loads of young families. Unlike Barnes and Sheen it is on the Tube (in fact it is near 5 different Tube lines) so people can visit you easily and you can take advantage of all London has to offer. It is a short walk to Chiswick with all its family friendly shops too.

I must say there is a LOT to be said for being on BR - at ealing you get the best of both worlds. We lived in Putney for years and I almost never got the tube as the train is so so much nicer and air conditioned!

I lived in Chiswick for ages and the tube really got me down

Chiswick is vair nice have you considered that?
Some lovely bits eg Bedford Park (nice big houses) and most of it tbh

We live in Merton Park - SW19 (although it also strays into SW20). Good transport links - tram into Wimbledon/out to Croydon, Northern Line tube at South Wimbedon, easy walk into Wimbledon for District Line and overground trains to Waterloo.

Very good state primaries.

But it all depends on how much you want to spend on a house!

What's your budget?