Relocating to London

abankerbutnotafatcat

Hi, I've been following your thread with interest. You want a non-intimidating area (because of your partner) for £700pcm with parking and transport links to The City.
I've got a couple of questions:
1) Is the transport link to The City your only consideration compass-wise or do you have any friends/family in London/The Uk you'd like to regularly visit or might easy access to an airport etc for visits overseas? (people often end up living in a part of London with easy access to their friends and family i.e. I'm from the South coast so would never live in East or North London because of the extra time/hassle in getting through/round London)
2) How do you imagine your ideal area from a lifestyle perspective? For instance - Inner-city, urban trendy (studio) appartment with cafes & coffee shops in a fast paced, young professional area OR Victorian terrace in a quiet surburban family street etc etc. I love Battersea but I moved out of it when my bf moved in because he was over-whelmed by the hustle and bustle so I moved out to the surburbs. It's all about preference.

In general, I would add my bit to the debate by saying that if you find a good transport hub you can move outside of London (the zones) and the extra transport costs can be off-set by the cheaper rent. To give you an idea - where I live is c35 minutes into London Bridge (then a 15 minute walk to Bank). The annual season ticket (just for the train journey, the zones are extra if you need to use tubes or buses) is c£2,300. Here you can easily get a one bedroom flat for £700 pcm - probably quite a decent one, and it's a family-friendly area (good schools etc) with plenty of countryside around. But I do miss the eating/drinking out options of Battersea!!

Hope I have helped a little. Good luck and welcome to London!!

FTBFun

linuxuk44 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply.
I am still looking as with my budget it is hard to find a decent place. Barking is still one of my options considering the price range.
However I had a look at rightmove and can find some places in finchley road, west hampstead or close to kilburn station for around £700. Are these locations good and safe to live?
I really appreciate all your suggestions.

Do you have any links for properties? I lived in that area for more than 5 years so know it pretty well.

Feel free to pm me if you'd prefer.

BitterAndTwisted

linuxuk44 wrote: »

However I had a look at rightmove and can find some places in finchley road, west hampstead or close to kilburn station for around £700. Are these locations good and safe to live?

Yes, they are. Given the choice I would most probably favour the first two rather than the latter.

FTBFun

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Yes, they are. Given the choice I would most probably favour the first two rather than the latter.

Really? I used to live fairly close to Kilburn tube and would rather live there than on Finchley Road.

neverdespairgirl

kmmr wrote: »

E1 is right beside the city, but the distance isn't always the same as the number. Technically I think the numbers are alphabetical!

Yes and no. "1" is not alphabetical, but after that, most of the postcodes are. WC1, WC2, EC1, EC2, EC3 and EC4 are all central.

Then, for example, SE1 is the most central part (Southwark, Borough) and after that it's alphabetical, so SE3 (Blackheath) is next to SE10 (Greenwich) and SE13 (Lewisham).

kmmr wrote: »

C Charge starts right on the edge of 'the city' which is just on the edge of E1. You get a discount if you live in the C Zone, but you will struggle to find parking. I think you still have to pay 10% of the charge every day, so it will add up. Better to be just outside the zone.

In the congestion charge, it'll be residents' parking. In WC1, costs us £80-odd a year for the permit. The congestion charge is then 90p a day instead of £9.

abankerbutnotafatcat

Re London postcodes - I think '1' is the depot/'postal town' (or whatever the post office calls it) and then it's alphabetical for 2, 3 etc. All except, from memory, SW where it is SW1 (depot) then SW2 (Brixton) - SW10 (alphabetical) and then it starts again at SW11 (depot) and then alphabetical again at SW12 (Balham) onwards. Yes, I am a nerd.

kmmr

abankerbutnotafatcat wrote: »

Re London postcodes - I think '1' is the depot/'postal town' (or whatever the post office calls it) and then it's alphabetical for 2, 3 etc. All except, from memory, SW where it is SW1 (depot) then SW2 (Brixton) - SW10 (alphabetical) and then it starts again at SW11 (depot) and then alphabetical again at SW12 (Balham) onwards. Yes, I am a nerd.

Thanks! I love this kind of quirk. I will file this information away for use in future quiz nights.

linuxuk44

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SuzieSue

I know someone who lives in Cheshunt (which is very close to Waltham Cross) and there are some nice areas there. The train service from Cheshunt is much better than Theobalds Road and Waltham Cross station as some of the fast trains stop at Cheshunt (8mins to Tottenham Hale station which is on the Victoria Line) but they don't at the other two stations.

There are some bad parts of Waltham Cross, but you need to go there and speak to some people who live near the areas that you are interested in to see what it is like. The residential areas around Cheshunt station are ok, but like anywhere, there is some anti-social behaviour, but nothing too bad that I am aware of. Again, it is important that you speak to people in the same block and also shop keepers to see what it is like.

SuzieSue

Also, I should add that there are some large council estates around Cheshunt/Waltham Cross which you should avoid as there is quite a bit of anti-social behaviour around there (at one time buses refused to go through the estates as they were being pelted with stones). Also, the schools aren't very good if you have children.