Moving to West London

Bomble

Hiya,

First post on MSE and looking for some advice/opinions. Basically, the girlfriend and I are moving to London to start new jobs (we currently stay in Edinburgh). As my job in Greenford and the girlfriend will be working in central London (near St Pauls), we're looking to rent a 1 bedroom place for the first 6months or so to get a feel for the area and settle into the jobs before (if!!) we buy somewhere.
From our recent trip down, we're looking around the ealing area as it on the central line as well as close to Greenford plus Ealing looks like a good place to live. Incidentally, we're looking to pay around 800-900 PCM

Any thoughts on areas/no-go zones or alternative locations we should be looking at (we going back down in a few weeks time to sort out a place)

Many Thanks
B

Molanole

I'm in Ealing and it's a nice place to live. Plenty of green space and lots of nice places to eat. But, if you want to rent anywhere near the station (and you'll both need to be near Ealing Broadway you'll be looking at £950 pcm for anything decent. Buying wise Ealing is quickly catching up with areas like Fulham in terms of prices (290K upwards for a one bad in the Broadway area).

Slightly cheaper you can find flat on the A406 heading towards Hanger Lane tube but it's not the best in terms of location. South Ealing and Northfields are nice and slightly more reasonable but they are on the Piccadilly Line (hence the lower price) which might not be great for your g/f to get to the City. The Pitshanger area is also nice but a good 20 minute walk to the station.

Having said all that though I think Ealing has the best of both worlds. Far away enough from town to be able to get away from it but really really good transport links in if you want to go out in town.

Good luck!

balsingh

I live in Ruislip which is Middlesex as opposed to West London. Its not as lively as Ealing but its a good area with loads of good pubs, shops, superstores, sports centres etc. As its a bit further out from London (zone 5), its more sensibly priced. Its only a few stops from Greenford on the Central Line (from West or South Ruislip) and theres also a BR train from those stations too which gets to Marylebone in under 20min. Alternatively, the Central line takes about 35mins to Oxford Circus. From Central Ruislip and Ruislip Manor, you can get the Met Line which is also very convenient for London but not quite for Greenford. You can happily PM me if you want to know more.

tonyivb

I guess the major factors are: -

How you are planning to get to work?
How long you are prepared to commute?
Are you the kind to go out or stay in?

For your GF I would definately suggest that you go for the Central Line rather than the Piccadilly, but don't discount the mainline trains. We are currently living in Sudbury Town and the Chiltern Line trains gets to Marlybone in 14 mins and she can tube/bus from there.

If you will be driving then consider your route carefully, especially if you will have to cross over the A40 or go past schools... they are busy during rush-hour and get congested very easily (as evidenced by Hanger Lane being gridlocked yesterday evening and this morning).

As stated by Molanole, Ealing is getting very pricey (especially near the town/tube). Greenford & Perivale are much better value and the tube stations are north of the A40 (important if you work on the North as well).

Another alternative is Harrow... similar feel to Ealing and should be a <1 hour commute to St Pauls.

No-go areas... that depends on your tolerance and most areas have their good & bad spots.

whambamboo

Bomble wrote:

Hiya,

First post on MSE and looking for some advice/opinions. Basically, the girlfriend and I are moving to London to start new jobs (we currently stay in Edinburgh). As my job in Greenford and the girlfriend will be working in central London (near St Pauls), we're looking to rent a 1 bedroom place for the first 6months or so to get a feel for the area and settle into the jobs before (if!!) we buy somewhere.
From our recent trip down, we're looking around the ealing area as it on the central line as well as close to Greenford plus Ealing looks like a good place to live. Incidentally, we're looking to pay around 800-900 PCM

Any thoughts on areas/no-go zones or alternative locations we should be looking at (we going back down in a few weeks time to sort out a place)

Careful with Ealing, West Ealing is not nice, and Greenford is *extremely* downmarket of Ealing Broadway itself. It's not a no-go zone exactly though. Ealing Broadway IMO is very expensive, but it might be ok if you are only looking for a one-bed.

Any of the Ruislip area would be handy for Greenford, and Ruislip itself is quite nice really, better than Greenford. Northolt is ok, a bit crappy on the High Street, but Northolt village is quite nice.

You can of course drive to your job in Greenford.

Sudbury Hill would be another option: Piccadilly to Holborn, then one stop on the central line. It's a 10-minute bus ride away from Greenford.