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

hethmar

Oh dear, shot down on that one wasnt I! But the Royal Arsenal development is beautiful and they have the river bus now and the DLR due next year plus a new square to be built. They said east London was a rat hole, ditto Docklands - you couldnt afford them now.

GDB2222

Just out of interest, what's wrong with Ealing, where your friend already is living?

Debt_Free_Chick

If you're going to be based near Bank, you have plenty more options by commuting into London Bridge/Cannon St. Personally, I'd avoid a daily commute by tube and definitely avoid the Central Line :eek: closely followed by the Northern Line :eek:

Parts of SE London are fine - but I guess I'm talking about out towards Bromley, Beckenham, Chislehurst etc (no, they're no longer in Kent - they're in Greater London )

Even Orpington is only 20 mins to London Bridge 9 times out of 10 it will take you much longer to commute on the tube. Fast trains from Orpington too. I don't like the place, but it's not so bad - I simply use it as an illustration of an easy, quick commute into LB, with property likely to be far more affordable.

HTH

Bf109

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Even Orpington is only 20 mins to London Bridge 9 times out of 10 it will take you much longer to commute on the tube. Fast trains from Orpington too. I don't like the place, but it's not so bad - I simply use it as an illustration of an easy, quick commute into LB, with property likely to be far more affordable.

I have noticed the quick trains from Orpington to London - you say you dont like it though, can I ask why?

bookduck

I live outer london and work inner london, but some times live in inner london too. There are a few deciding factors:
(1) your income, and how much of it you want to spend
(2) Live close to your friend/in his pocket, or will see him on weekends only - be realistic here.
(3) Your work location - do you really want to travel for 3 hours or so every day too and from work?
(4) the area you want to live in.

It takes me approx 1h20m to get to work, and often slightly longer to get back home. I live in Harrow which is 12 miles away. Travel and work consume so much of my time, by the time I get home it is too late to do anything or go anywhere. It wold approx take me 2-2.5 hours to drive in at peak time.

You can rent a room per month or per 6 months etc. I rent my rooms in a shared house in central-ish (border of zone1 &2 - kennington) on a monthly basis and so do many others.

Chelsea, Kensington, Hamersmith and Ealing are all fairly good areas, but further out you go, less transport and less frequent the transport runs. There is one night bus every hour to Harrow and I think one night bus every 12 mins to my place in Kennington. Living in zone 5 it cost me about £1500+ for a season ticket and an oyster card cost me £1 per bus trip from kennington to my work.

Trains offer a faster and often more reliable service compared to The Tube, however The Tube runs much more frequently.

Think you can still get a few places for around £70 per week but this is the bottom end of the market. Some places exclude bills and my house bills (not mortgage or telephone) are about £6000 per year and you probably would not want and to share that.

I personally would opt to live near work. I do not know what you do, or where you are working, but ask your manager where is a good place to commute into work from and that is reasonable. Work £££ gives you the ability to have good times to have good time with your friends. If you decide to live near your friend try and get good transport links. Know your area before you move there!

I had two girls that moved from my place into another area SE (old kent road opposite asda, approx 2-ish miles 'down the road' from my place). They got a studio flat for £80 a week. I charged them £140 for a large room, so the difference was large. On their second week they asked to move back as they (a) felt fearful of the small dimly lit, urine smelling corridors (b) early every morning one or more people would start to scream, shout and/or cry, often asking for help 'Call the police' and this happened on a nightly basis many times per night and early morning. When they had left I immediately gutted the place and replaced the bathroom and kitchen, leaving the toilet and handbasin down stairs, and they were still chomping at the bit still moved back in even though it was a building site with no kitchen or bathroom.

bookduck

I live outer london and work inner london, but some times live in inner london too. There are a few deciding factors:
(1) your income, and how much of it you want to spend
(2) Live close to your friend/in his pocket, or will see him on weekends only - be realistic here.
(3) Your work location - do you really want to travel for 3 hours or so every day too and from work?
(4) the area you want to live in.

It takes me approx 1h20m to get to work, and often slightly longer to get back home. I live in Harrow which is 12 miles away. Travel and work consume so much of my time, by the time I get home it is too late to do anything or go anywhere. It would approx take me 2-2.5 hours to drive in at peak time.

You can rent a room per month or per 6 months etc. I rent my rooms in a shared house in central-ish london (border of zone1 &2 - kennington) on a monthly basis and so do many others.

Islington is trendy. Chelsea, Kensington, Hamersmith , Clapham and Ealing are all fairly good areas but cost extra £. Further out you go, less transport and less frequent the transport runs. There is one night bus every hour to Harrow and I think one night bus every 12 mins to my place in Kennington. Living in zone 5 it cost me about £1500+ for a season ticket, and an oyster card cost me £1 per bus trip from kennington to my work.

Trains offer a faster and often more reliable service compared to The Tube, however The Tube runs much more frequently.

Think you can still get a few places for around £70 per week but this is the bottom end of the market. Some places exclude bills and my house bills (not mortgage or telephone) are about £6000 per year and you probably would not want and to share that on top of your rent.

I personally would opt to live near work. I do not know what you do, or where you are working, but ask your manager where is a good place to commute into work from and that is reasonable. Work £££ gives you the ability to have good times to have good time with your friends. If you decide to live near your friend try and get good transport links. Know your area before you move there and a few hundred yards can be the difference between penthouse and pavement

I had two girls that moved from my place into another area SE (old kent road opposite asda, approx 2-ish miles 'down the road' from my place). They got a studio flat for £80 a week. I charged them £140 for a large room, so the difference was large. On their second week they asked to move back as they (a) felt fearful of the small dimly lit, urine smelling corridors (b) early every evening and morning one or more people would start to scream, shout and/or cry, often asking for help 'Call the police' and 'he's going to kill me' - this happened on a regular nightly basis, many times per night and early morning. When they had left, I immediately gutted the place and replaced the bathroom and kitchen, leaving the toilet and handbasin down stairs, and they were still chomping at the bit still moved back in even though it was a building site with no kitchen or bathroom and still move back in. - On the good side, then no longer complain about expensive rent

Bf109

Its certainly worth investigating train times though - bear in mind you can get from Woking to Waterloo in almost the same time as from Wimbledon.

hethmar

Re Orpington - I grew up there/Chislehurst and its a great place for families - but for young/single people there is really very little.

ruggedtoast

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?

:-O

:-|

AHAHAHAAAHAHAHA HEEE HEEE HOOOOO HAHAAAAA!!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

The only things coming to Woolwich are dispersal zones and banning orders, and thats if its lucky - currently it has to make do with a "Warning you are very likely to be mugged here" sign that the Met put up outside the railway. And thats about the extent of the authorities efforts to civilise the place.

It is a total dump, riven with social problems, desperate poverty and is home to some really serious no messing about criminals. I would not recommend anyone to live there.

hethmar

Blimey, so who are buying all the 400k flats in Royal Arsenal then? Do they all have white sticks and dogs?

But again, remember - who would have thought east London would be so expensive and trendy? Or Bermondsey?