Moving to London (eek!)

josievg

zizu73 wrote: »

A lot of west Londoners here I live in Acton, west London, further to the west from Hammersmith. I hate living in London, but that's a different story. We live in a nice area of Acton with good transport links, with District/Piccadilly/Central Line nearby and lot of buses. All depends on your budget.

josievg - is it why you are packing? time to buy a house?

Hello neighbour.

Yep, Acton could be a good bet for the OP or Ealing. Richmond is nice too and, although a bit further out (ie not exactly in London), is an easy commute to South Ken (less than half an hour with no changes) because it's on the district line. Ealing and Richmond are both well connected with bus, tube and trains.

Yes, I am packing because we have [nearly] bought a house. It's located just over an hour from Kings Cross which I am viewing as a very distant outer suburb of London ... in Lincolnshire!

It can take an hour to get from west to east London so an hour north is no problem. That's what I'm telling myself anyway ...

ViolaLass

olly300 wrote: »

Depends where you live south of the river.

I did say it was intended as a generalisation. Also, I don't think it's unfair to generalise that where the transport links are less good, accommodation may be cheaper.

OP, you may want to consider getting a bike. It could save you a lot of time getting round London. And before anyone jumps on me and suggests that I am trying to get the OP killed, I lived in London for five years and used a bike for the last three of those. I had no accidents, suffered no injuries and never had a bike or any parts of it stolen. It's a great way to get to know the city too although it obviously limits how far you want to live from work.

olly300

josievg wrote: »

Hello neighbour.

Yep, Acton could be a good bet for the OP or Ealing. Richmond is nice too and, although a bit further out (ie not exactly in London),

Richmond is in the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames so if it's not in London where exactly is it?

Oh and it's expensive to rent in Richmond. If the place isn't expensive then it will be a fair way from the train/tube station.

Edited to say: There are 33 London Boroughs so London is a massive city.

DonkeyKong77

Oh goodness, I knew you guys wouldn't let me down! I am an old time poster, new time sit-backer but thanks everyone :T


I think this is going to call for drastic action on my part...yep, I am going to have to make a list :shocked: Bearing in mind I don't do lists for food shopping or anything else for that matter, this may prove tricky.

With regards to budget I am guessing in the truest sense of maybe 800-1,000 (the top end including bills, but I may be pushing my luck there!).

I will more likely fatshare than not, which is something you have helped me decide. I need to re-visit Shallow Grave because the only thing I can remember is Chris Eclestone and then my mind just switches to 28 Days Later and I would be very unlucky to have Zombies as housemates

I am loving the positivity though, it's putting me in a good mood and my somewhat paranoid self more at ease

olly300

Just a tip if you can avoid living where your only tube station is on the District line then you will find it much faster to get around London. The District line is the slowest tube line which can be hell in summer.

josievg

olly300 wrote: »

Richmond is in the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames so if it's not in London where exactly is it?

Oh and it's expensive to rent in Richmond. If the place isn't expensive then it will be a fair way from the train/tube station.

Edited to say: There are 33 London Boroughs so London is a massive city.

I wouldn't call it London because it doesn't have a London postcode (TW) and the postal address is Richmond, Surrey not Richmond, London.

It is in the wider area known as 'Greater London'.

RedTomato

For a 1,000 a month you'd get a flat share in zone 1, you could live not too far from South Ken, walking distance I'd have thought.
Where to live depends also on what you like to do to socialise. If you're in to the more trendy, "happening" part of town, East London is where it is at these days. You could commute down on the district line to South Ken if you lived East (yes, it is slow).

Also, moveflat.com doesn't have masses of flats but it is a good little website.
spareroom.co.uk seems to be one of the most popular these days

hazyjo

joanna_johnson wrote: »

There is loads to do and once you have paid for your tube ticket (most people get a monthly pass for the zones they require) then you can use it as much as you like.

One option, I suppose, but most people Oyster cards now. Makes any additional journeys much cheaper. My card automatically tops itself up £20 once it gets down to a fiver. Much easier than renewing season tickets or having to queue to buy pricier tickets.

Hope all works out. Yep, it's a great city. I'm in East London but wouldn't like to commute to West London so it's best you start off over that way. Got friends in Hammersmith who are pretty happy there, and another friend used to live in West Hampstead and loved it. Got a feeling you'll end up in or around Hammersmith as others have suggested it too.

Make sure you're in walking distance of a tube!

Keep your wits about you. It's not as dangerous as people like to make out, but with any capital city (especially), you'll want to make sure your bag's done up at all time (if female, or into manbags as a bloke!), use your common sense (some bloke got something nicked on my train home the other night - think it was a phone or ipad or something. Think he'd put it on the seat next to him. Asking for trouble!)

Lots of open spaces - acres of parks, lots of markets which aren't so open, but you can definitely lose yourself in them! Greenwich is nice for a day out (lived there once) - that's south of the river. The river is still a huge divide here. People refer to it a lot.

Have fun! Let us know how you get on. Am sure you'll make friends through work.

Jx

ViolaLass

hazyjo wrote: »

One option, I suppose, but most people Oyster cards now. Makes any additional journeys much cheaper. My card automatically tops itself up £20 once it gets down to a fiver. Much easier than renewing season tickets or having to queue to buy pricier tickets.

Or have an Oystercard and still get monthly/season tickets (according to what suits you). The Oystercard only caps daily so you wouldn't save over a month if you travel regularly. And once you have your card, you can buy/renew tickets online, no queuing necessary.

joanna_johnson

Oh and another thing you'll have to get used to is that everyone talks in postcodes!!! It's true! I think there's info on the net as to what p/code is what area but you will find you'll need to know!

Hope you take the plunge and really enjoy living in London.