Moving to London (eek!)

hethmar

Re not knowing anyone. Do you have any hobbies? Without doubt there will be clubs or associations that you could join or volunteer with.


Have a look at various flat shares:

http://www.spareroom.com/flatshare/?postcode_id=2473&search=South+Kensington+%2F+Knightsbridge

DonkeyKong77

Once again, thanks for the advice and input, it’s much appreciated

I am now in a bit of a flux, or maybe it’s my mind playing Sunday morning tricks on me! :huh:

The good news is, it’s official and I am moving down, and am really looking forward to this new stage of my life. I know that sounds a bit clich!, so maybe it’s a Sunday morning thing!

Anyhow, having taken on the advice and thoughts, my initial idea was probably to move to the West side of the city, possibly Hammersmith and Acton, but my head is being turned towards Clapham and maybe even Greenwich. Clapham seems very practical, in that there are possible transport links to my place of work, it also seems to have the feel of being close enough to the hub without being too close if that makes sense.

The more I read about Greenwich, the more I like it too, however, I presume that it is a bit too out of the way to be practical enough to get to South Ken without a stretch of a commute. I am no stranger to commuting, even up here to get into Manchester it would take me 1hr15mins on a good day, if leaving before 7, or 1hr45m plus on a not so great day. Ideally I would want this cutting down, because it just builds up and by Friday, I wouldn’t need a drink to feel like zombie

The only places I seem to have ruled out are North London, and that’s purely on the convenience of getting to/from work but they also seem to be more expensive, and it appeals more in a visit in your spare time kind of way.
Now having gone past the point of no return (yep over 31 ) I am past the stage of wanting to go out every night and feeling like yesterday never happened (ah those were the days, pass me my pipe ad slippers!), but this is where the flux comes in.

I brought into the idea of house-sharing, but doubts have come to mind and maybe I like my own space a bit too much or I may just be being swayed too much by horror stories

So I am now considering the option of having my own place, but presumed it would be the size of a couple of box-rooms.

Considering the costs there is a slight increase in potential costs for a single bed flat, compared to a house share which is understandable but in some cases there is an increase of £150pcm which I could potentially justify but I guess it may be more challenging in the short term before I find my feet. To be honest, I don’t know how much my monthly income will be, as it is an increase on what I have been used to, and have just taken 30% off the gross to account for taxes and pensions. Now woth the London weighting it all seems nice but Ideally I didn’t want to spend half my salary on rent, but if i include bills then that may be the norm.

It would also allow the opportunity of having friends over without getting permission etc and I have received the odd request of visiting from up here which would be nice.

With regards to hobbies and interests, they sometimes range from being in an active mode in sports and fitness, boxing to yoga, to a more sedentary mode of just wandering round galleries and parks/open spaces, I do need to re-ignite the need to see live music though and I want to learn a new language, and I imagine there are lots of opportunities for all that and more. One of the reasons to go in favour of the house share was the potential to get to know people but I guess there are other ways to do that if I go down the route of a 1-bed place.

OMG, this post is going on a bit isn’t it... and I haven’t even made a point!

What are the thoughts on own place as opposed to sharing, I know there is a mass of generalizations and it is dependent on costs to an extent but I’d be interested to hear your views.

Also, Clapham and Greenwich? Good, bad or indifferent choices in terms of getting to South Ken and having enough character about the area.

Really looking forward to it, but getting pangs of panic because I start the week after this and there seems so much to do...:eek:

kmmr

I wouldn't go to Greenwich if you are working in South Ken. It is a long old commute, and will be a pain after a short while. Unless you have friends there or something to make it worthwhile I don't see a good reason for it! I don't know Clapham well, but it's not somewhere I would choose.

If you want green space what about going south along the district line towards Richmond. There are nice places that would be no more than Greenwich in Putney, Barnes, even down to Richmond. There are nice villagy places down near Richmond, and the Thames is very nice if you want to go wandering. And it will be a pleasant commute to South Ken, even on a Tube strike day! It's a bit further out if you want to go into town on the weekends, but pretty easy so long as the tube is running.

What is your budget again?

kmmr

If you can afford your own place then I would always so go for it. I loved sharing in my early 20's, then tried it again at just about your age and remembered all the bad things! You end up fighting over the stupidist little things, and it just "did my 'ead in" as they say. So I swallowed the quite significant cost and got my own place.

Having said that, I did have to move from Bayswater to Whitechapel. To a little 1 bed place that I loved and could afford to buy at the time. So it was a big step change for other reasons, but I did look around Bayswater and there was no chance of being able to afford a rental or purchase there.

Jowo_2

I have a friend who works in South Ken and lives as a lodger in a nice part of Battersea near the park. She walks to work or hops on the bus.

olly300

Clapham is fine as there are loads of bars and restaurants, but be very careful about where you actually live in Clapham if you working in South Ken as the commute could turn into a nightmare. There is a difference between living near Clapham Junction (actually Battersea as Clapham Junction is only the train station) and Clapham North (Northern Line) in terms of getting to work.

First I would use the TFL website and a paper tube map to work out roughly the locations you want to live in based on the time to get to work. Then start looking for places.

When you go to see a flatshare again use the TFL website putting the postcode in of the place to see roughly how long it would take you to get to work and the number of different ways to go to work from the property. Lots of flatshare adverts don't tell the exact truth on location so you will get people advertising that the place is Richmond when it's actually in Sheen which could make a difference of 30 minutes into getting to and from work.

Flat and house shares nearer to stations tend to be more expensive then those that are more than 10 minutes walk away. In addition those nearer minor stations say St Margarets rather than Richmond tend also to be cheaper because it's likely to add on a few minutes to your commuting time. (Not always true it depends where you work)

Oh and buy a proper A-Z they are really useful not just for flat hunting.

fg22

Mapumental helps give an idea of commuting times and house prices (you have to request an invite but this came pretty quickly for me).

Clapham's nice enough with quite a young vibe to it. Because of your commute I'd probably look at the area towards Clapham Jct but don't know that bit so well.

Greenwich is too far.

Most of the stuff along the river is nice (Hammersmith, Fulham, Putney, Barnes) but expensive. Acton would be the cheaper option if you want to try and get your own flat.

Have always flatshared in London and enjoyed it. Had more success with moveflat.com than gumtree as it has more detail and less scummy agents. The rent on shared flats often doesn't correspond with the quality and just depends on the landlord and when they last increased the rent.

mostlycheerful

“if I could walk to work, that would be ideal but all I know about that London is that area is rather expensive, so I have scratched any thoughts of such nonsense ”

Not necessarily, sofa surfing, house sitting, property minding, property guardianing and squatting are available in London and probably near enough to South Ken. If not these then it's staying with friends or private renting. Or maybe get a mortgage and buy a place if you want to and if you can.

“North or South of the river”

There's good and bad parts of both. Obviously, generally good is expensive and bad is cheaper. Can you put up with cheap?

“(I have no idea what that even means but that is what someone asked when I first suggested I may have to move down)”

Er, the river Thames cuts the capital into north and south.

"Which areas within easy commuting distance to South Kensington, which won't take me forever to get there (to be fair I am used to longish commutes and don't mind the "thinking" time that it allows”

You can look up the train, tube and bus travel times so perhaps decide how much travelling you're willing to do and then you can work out what areas are near enough. Most parts of west and central London are within an hour or so of South Ken.

“To flatshare or not to flatshare?”

Depends, a good flatshare can be fine but also, of course, there are grotty ones that are best avoided if possible.

“Now my initial though is that I should, for financial as well as social reasons but where the heck do I look?”

Moveflat.com is a good website, lots of nice places, some relatively cheap.

Also loot.com, both the website and the printed paper version available in shops and for free in libraries, is worth looking at. And there’s lots of others. And ads in shop windows can sometimes yield something good and just word of mouth asking about can also sometimes find something nice so might be worth asking around at your new job and there might be a room going spare somewhere.

“I know there is Gumtree but is purely down to pot-luck?”

Yes, watch out for con artists and fraudsters, there’s a lot of fake ads and people posing as landlords to rip off unwary customers.

“do you reckon it’s possible to get some “space”.”

Yes, possible.

“I don’t know if that makes sense but I mean in the proverbial, as well as the physical sense."

Yes, what you’re saying makes sense. Yes, it’s a big number coming to London to do a job and, yes, housing’s one of the first issues to sort out. And it would be good to get somewhere nice rather than something bad.

“Sorry for the somewhat basic nature of this post but my head is spinning a bit and it needs calming down.”

Calm down, calm down! Good luck.

sinbad182

MostlyCheerful has to be on crack. Theres no other explanation.

mostlycheerful

ah, you're back again, it looked like you got banned, what with all the swearing and hatred, about 8 of your posts got deleted due to the nastiness, the same as quite a few previous ones as well. And you've also had the distinct honour of being called a troll by tbs624 when you invaded the anti landlord thread and asked for an anti tenants thread, a rare accolade, so well done matey, and nice to see to see that you're still alive and kicking as opposed to being kicked as usual.