Nice Areas Around London

Dummie_2

Hi There

Searching for somewhere to relocate.

We currently run a fish & chip shop in Somerset but am in the process of selling it. DH has a furniture business that he runs from home but needs to travel to and around London a lot to meet clients.

High on our list of priorities are the type of people living in that area and the schools. DH and I are keen to better ourselves. I come from a small Cornish town where everyone at school couldn't care less about their education as they planned to either get pregnant or work in a supermarket/factory (it's true. 8 out of 10 of my school friends had kids before they were 18:eek: )We don't want our toddler to grow up in that kind of environment so living in an area with highly educated professional people is very important to us. However, I realise that areas like that will come at a cost and am worried that we'll bit off more than we can chew.

Can anyone recommend some places to me?

Many thanks.

lewolf

Buckinghamshire has the Grammer school system if that appeals to you. You could look at amersham for easy access to central London 30mins by train and its still on the Metropolitan line. chesham 10 mintes down the road still has a tube line. House prices are pretty high but I was in Somerset 2 years ago when tthey took a big rise there so it may not be so bad.

skintas_2

slough it is cheap to buy or rent m4 close to london, or if your looking to buy i would go east london as rent and buy cheaper than west london. i live in acton having ha flat, so its cheap for me. burnham and taplow are also cheap and holyport are in the same area as slough, thames valley, quick and easy to get to london. or even reading as not far from london, cheap rents and nice areas not to built up! good luck

sanfrancisco

If your looking to better yourself then the cost of housing/living should not be top of your list. Good areas WILL be more expensive, but will attract more motivated / educated people. How close to London do you want to be? Less than 1 hour by train? I come from Surrey, so know it well. These areas are nice...Guildford, Farnham, Dorking, Windsor. Small market towns, v pretty.

With all due respect but Slough is not nice, neither is (generally) East London. Please don't shout at me.

wigginsmum

If you're looking for nice areas, don't go for Slough or most of East London. Enfield in North London has nice parts, and Hertfordshire in general is pleasant (I grew up there).

Bossyboots

I'm with the others on this - avoid Slough.

lush_walrus

Yep me too on Slough, definately AVOID especially if you are really considering your children's education. A friend of mine teaches in a school in Slough at the moment, and he is having enormous problems at the moment there. Slough has had a huge amount of new Polish immigrants, not a problem in itself. But there are many fights in his particular school between the Asian pupils and the Polish ones. Couple that with the fact that quite a lot of the Polish children aren't able to speak English yet, the schools are quite troubled.

I would say if you are considering Berkshire, try Reading, as others have said it has good links to London via M4 (although the train is about £4500 per year), also if you have daughters 11 plus, there is a brilliant grammer schools for girls called Kendrick.

If you are considering actually in central London, then it will be much more complicated in regards to schools.

lynzpower

Id say East London isnt the best place to create high aspiration in your kids in all fairness, theres LOTS of deprivation & schools aint fantastic. no way Id raise my kids here, although I love living here now.

Woodford green, chigwell, places like that are nice, but pricey, Im not too sure what the schools are like.

Herts, beds, bucks more likely or surrey. Nice areas in a lot of those and fairly close to london, altohugh yes, not cheap.

Mrs_pbradley936

Redbridge for schools and easy to get to London being on the tube. Enfield also good. If you want to go a bit further out Sawbridgeworth Herts is good for schools. BUT make sure you pay your council tax to Herts this is a funny place with three Councils all having their borders in Sawbridgeworth, namely East Herts, Epping Forest and Harlow. Causes no end of trouble every year when kids want to go to nearest school which is very good only to find the school is run by East Herts and mum and dad pay council tax to one of the others. Some years there are enough places which is fine, other years too many kids for the school which has everyone repeating the arguments we locals have been hearing for years.

LizEstelle

Well, where does one start?

Were one one, one would absolutely HAVE to consult the Independent Schools Council website, darling, where one could have a jolly old muck in with like-minded people who wish to keep one's offspring away from the other 95%, even at a certain non-moneysaving expense.

One imagines the Queen often sends out for a nice piece of cod from the local Windsor fried potato emporium.

whambamboo

lewolf wrote:

Buckinghamshire has the Grammer school system if that appeals to you.

AAAARGH

It's Grammar School.

If there's one thing they should teach you at one, it's how to spell it.