Moving to London.. but where should I think about living?

dander

TheGame7 wrote: »

Hi,

• The nature of my work is project based, i.e. on the client's site so I could be working anywhere in the UK from Monday to Thursday (if not Friday) for 3 months, 6 months or a year. Therefore, paying high rent - at least initially - for a place I'm not at makes little sense.

If this is the case, why go to London at all? Anywhere in London is going to be expensive, even the more inconvenient places - as you say it seems a waste to pay London prices if you don't actually need to be in London.

ema_o

I've lived in London for the past few years and agree with the advice about going for a house share rather than a flat for the two of you. It'll work out cheaper and be more flexible, usually they want you to stay for 6 months but you can get out of the contract early by finding someone to replace you (there is always someone!) I lived in 2 great places, one was £350 a month living in Clapham about 20 mins from tube and the second was £480 living in Putney - 5 mins from tube! Transport links are one thing you pay for.
I wouldn't worry too much about number of changes, some changes just involve a 1 minute walk, others can take about 5 - 2 or 3 short changes are ok, but factor this into your travelling time.
If you are travelling anywhere in the UK it might be easier to drive out of London. The south circular is basically a 1 lane road through high streets so can get very frustrating, I would avoid the south if I had a lot of travelling out of there. Mind you if you end up working somewhere south of London it might be the best place, and you can find short cuts or routes that avoid traffic!

Jonbvn

In the OP's position I would live outside London and commute. There are loads of good places to live, well within 30 minutes commute.

Of course you have to balance your transport costs and rent to suit.

benood

Rabiddog wrote: »

Avoid the uxbridge road as only the worst sort of low-lifes stay there.

You lived there for a while too RD?:p

jaype

I'd say southeast London as it's cheap and green. Somewhere like Beckenham is 20 mins by train to Victoria or 25 to London bridge fr the City. However, getting to White City is a bit of an !!!!!. You'd get a decent place for £400 pcm each, as well.

claireabelle_2

if you want to check journey times to work, try the journey planner on https://www.tfl.gov.uk, it's usually pretty good. Also, bear in mind that in the city you can walk to other tube stations easily so you don't necessarily need to be on the central line... bearing in mind the white city factor, hammersmith is nice, might be a direct bus from there and easy to get onto M4 and M40.

Gingernutmeg

jaype wrote: »

I'd say southeast London as it's cheap and green. Somewhere like Beckenham is 20 mins by train to Victoria or 25 to London bridge fr the City. However, getting to White City is a bit of an !!!!!. You'd get a decent place for £400 pcm each, as well.

I'd avoid SE London like the plague. I'm currently moving away from there and I shan't be sorry to see the back of it. So much of it is really depressed and it's all a bit too 'edgy' for me, and you pay extortionate rents in the few nice areas just because everyone's so deperate not to get stabbed lol. I'll admit we've had a bad time with our LL and LA so that's soured me a bit, but to me so much of SE London just isn't worth the money you have to pay to live there, there's no real quality of life and you get the negatives of the 'London attitude' without any of the benefits of actually feeling like you're living in the city ...

SW London is much nicer, if you want/need to be south of the river. Travel links aren't quite so brilliant and rents are high, but if you're looking to get to West London then there are worse places to live.

hethmar

My son works in White City. He currently commutes from peterborough - its an hour to central london and then across from Kings Cross. This isnt as bad as it sounds as he works unusual hours and days patterns so he is rarely in the rush hour. He is thinking of moving to south east london and it will take him about 40 minutes to get to White City from there.

He didnt like West London - the places he could afford were apparently souless and drab. He does like south west but the prices are very high for a decent place. North London is ok but the nice place are very expensive and a bit of a pain for getting to the west.

Its a difficult one. If you are going to be travelling a lot - on expenses I take it? - then why not stay out of London and just commute when and as necessary?

milliebear00001

I used to live in Surrey Quays (the south of the river bit of docklands) and it's pretty quiet and safe. For zone 2, it was also fairly cheap! On the little known East London Line with a station for the newish Jubilee line too so good links.

If you don't have to be though, I would go outside London. Look at places like Sidcup/Bromley in Kent and other 'outskirt' areas, which are much cheaper but still very commutable.

Oh, and ignore all the doom sayers - London is a great, world-class city, and very safe as long as you are sensible.

olly300

TheGame7 wrote: »

Hi,

I am starting a new job at the start October and with summer drawing to an end, its about time I started looking for a place to live. A friend, who is also working in London, will be moving in with me (he is currently staying in Ealing).

Some of the factors:

• The three base offices I can work from seem to be accessible from Bank and St Paul's (Central Line) but there are others.
• The nearest station for my friend's work place is White City.
• The nature of my work is project based, i.e. on the client's site so I could be working anywhere in the UK from Monday to Thursday (if not Friday) for 3 months, 6 months or a year. Therefore, paying high rent - at least initially - for a place I'm not at makes little sense.
• Equally, not tying myself to a twelve month contract initially would be beneficial for this very reason too.

Where should I begin my flat hunt? I have lived in the Midlands all my life and have only been to London on a handful of occasions so would appreciate some direction.

.

All your other questions have been answered however for location I would start looking in Acton.

Acton has the transport links and is cheaper than Ealing. Like all London areas there are nice bits and horrible bits.

Also if your friend is already in the area and likes it, he generally won't want to move too far away.

You've not made it clear whether you will be driving or using the train. If you are driving you need to take into account that lots of areas in London require you to get a parking permit to park on the road and they have pretty strict rules about getting permits so ask about this when you are house hunting.