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

hethmar

Woolwich is an up and coming area, near Greenwich, new DLR station due next year in time for olympics plus a lot of money being spent on it?

impy78

I live in Vauxhall/Kennington, and it's good in terms of price and location - 7 minutes to oxford street, 10 minutes to bank.

We're paying £1600 a month for a 4 bed flat between 4.

sooz

olly300 wrote: »

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.

many more horrible than nice bits IMHO.

Austin_Allegro

It all depends on what you want. Personally I'd prefer dull and a bit further out than 'edgy and vibrant' areas with kebab shops and grotty council estates.

This is all my personal prejudice but a general rule is avoid anywhere with an 'E' in the postcode, (apart from EC but there's not much residential property there). There are one or two nice areas in the SE postcodes (eg Dulwich, Blackheath and Greenwich) but these are pricey. The N postcodes can be a bit dodgy though N2, 3, 6, 10 and 22 are nice. Most of the NWs are ok (with the exception of parts of NW6, NW9 and NW10). The SWs, Ws and WCs are generally ok apart from SW16.

There is supposedly a lot of decent cheap rental property in Docklands now though, due to bankers losing their jobs.

Another thing to bear in mind is if you can avoid the tube or buses and walk or cycle to work, your sanity and finances will be in generally better shape...

clk299

There are other nice areas in SE postcodes. There are areas like parts of Bermondsey, New Cross, etc that are lovely with some great properties (Nunhead, Telegraph Hill, St Johns etc are also nice) and close to transport links and shops etc, that are overlooked because people think they are 'dodgy'. No, the area is diverse and not all shiny and polished but it doesn't mean that they are any more 'dodgy' than anywhere else. But then I'd not live north of the river... nor really in an SW postcode!

byrneand

Totally depends about what's important to you:

1.) Travel time
2.) Cost
3.) Expectations of interior
4.) Location of friends.

From the brief report you've given I'd recommend starting to look somewhere like Sheppards Bush, Acton or Ealing but if you give us a little bit more information I'll rack my brain for a few more ideas for you.

neverdespairgirl

hethmar wrote: »

Woolwich is an up and coming area, near Greenwich, new DLR station due next year in time for olympics plus a lot of money being spent on it?

Woolwich is pretty grotty, it's got a long way to up and come.

hm71_2

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Woolwich is pretty grotty, it's got a long way to up and come.

100% with you on that! much of my ill-spent youth was used up hanging about in woolwich and I wouldn't venture there now!!!
I would suggest going slightly out of london, kent, essex etc..all have good train links etc Greenhithe( near bluewater) bout 40 mins to central london, Chafford Hundred in essex about the same to circle & district line or change at west ham for jubilee line.

Gingernutmeg

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Woolwich is pretty grotty, it's got a long way to up and come.

Couldn't agree more. It's a horrible place stuck in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by very little apart from more developments. All you've got around you are places like Thamesmead, Plumstead and Erith. Someone was seriously deluded when they thought that 'young professionals' would be attracted to that area if they whacked up hundreds of blocks of shoddy flats ...

LillyJ

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Woolwich is pretty grotty, it's got a long way to up and come.

I agree, I think the waiting to "come up" would drive you mad!

South West is OK, it appears that almost my entire school year (except me and OH) now live in Clapham (although we grew up just outside North West London, with a 25 min commute to Euston!).

My Sister is moving to a similar sounding job (not working for Delloite are you OP?!) and she is looking East, but sort of central East if you see what I mean (Bow and areas like that), as money is fairly important to her (saving it I mean), and so is partying so she wanted somewhere to be able to walk back from. Probably not the nicest places to live, but she really is a work hard, party hard sort of girl and wants to cycle or walk to work when she is office based, or at a client in the city, go out for some drinks, come home, then get up and go to work again.

She will be staying at home for the first couple of months with our parents though until she decides exactly where she wants to be so she is lucky in that sense. Unfortunately though the season ticket is over 3.5k a year!