Moving to London in July

Hiya,

Been reading this forum for awhile and it's been very useful. We currently live in Northampton and decided we'd love to move to London, as we spend most of our holidays there and love it. My other half applied for some jobs and got one almost instantly, which was fab, so we're now planning our move to London! Our rental contract runs out end July, so that's when we'll move.

We've asked friends for advise on where we should be looking to rent and they gave us some good ideas, but their knowledge has only got us a certain way - any more advise would be great.

Details of what we'd like:
- We want to spend up to £1000 a month
- Be within about 30 mins train/tube ride from Old St station in Shorditch (for his job)
- We need at least 2 bedrooms
- We have 3 cats, so a small garden/courtyard would be good, plus we'd like to live in an area where it's safe for them to go out.
- Fairly nice/safe area
- decent transport links so we can go into the heart of London at night

Ideas of areas:
- South Camberwell
- Walthamstow
- Tooting
- Greenwich
- Clapham South
- Finchley
- East Finchley
- Bow

What do you think about these areas or suggestions for any others? Any help is really much appreciated.

Thanks

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I'd stay away from Tooting. It's a dive. Though one end seems tongave nice houses but most of it's poooo

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Ok will do - thats crossed off the list!

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Hello, me and my girlfriend did the same, although a year ago. We moved to greenwich, if you want to be in a nice part then £1000 will only get you a 1 bedroom flat!

James

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Not really... guess depends how central you go. Where I live you can get two beds easily for £1000 and I live in a 'nice part'.

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Welcome BelleBee,

Sorry we're so late to welcome you and reply, been a bit hectic here!

Well done for deciding to move to London, it's the right decision, anyone who says otherwise is wrong... fact. Congratulations on your partner's job success, nice to hear about people getting into jobs easily.


Right then, here's a broad and blunt summary:


- South Camberwell
(not much knowledge of the area sorry)
- Walthamstow
(Has improved recently, up and coming although not sure how far up it can go)
- Tooting
(Not the best, even the cats go around in 2s)
- Greenwich
(Lovely area, not cheap and a bit of trek to other parts of London, should be fine for the city though)
- Clapham South
(Nice area, great nightlife, nice parks, the tube at rush hour is a joke, the carriages can make a sardine tin look roomy).
- Finchley
- East Finchley
(Some parts are very nice others not)
- Bow
(Not much knowledge but not great according to the person sat opposite me)


If I were you I'd try looking north of Angel. Angel is pricey but further north it gets cheaper, it's nice and close to the city and has great nightlife. The question is how far north you'd have to go to get outside space for the cats, it's worth chatting to some estate agents.


Hope that's of some use, let us know how you get on.

AIL Staff

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Welcome to the site JamesW :wave:


AIL Staff

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Hee hee - luckily people have said great things about living in London - anyone who doesn't we've just ignored ;)

There seems to be a lot more jobs at the moment, he was able to pick and choose which interviews he went to and what job he wanted. Last year they were much more thin on the ground.




Thanks for the help, it's great to have some insider knowledge. I've just bought a A-Z so when I go walking round the streets of some of the areas I can cross off bits I don't like. I'll have a look abouve Angel next then - see what I can find.

Many thanks for your help! And for your warm welcome!

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Ok so I was having a look further North than Angel, as suggested. I used the tube map for ideas.

So far somewhere like Wood Green looks like it's got the right commuting distance plus the right priced housing. What do you think of this area?

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Have you considered the area of Hammersmith? It's a fairly young, hip district with many of the trendy elements you seem to favour. It is located in Zone 2. There are many young singles, especially young professionals trying to establish themselves. There are many interesting shops, restaurants, and lots of entertainment venues (theatre, etc). It is easy to access central London via the Underground; simply take the Hammersmith station to the Hammersmith and City line. To get to the heart of the city, you will need to make a fairly easy transfer at either Edgeware Road or Baker Street.
I believe London is one the most exhilarating places on earth to live. Best of luck.
Thanks !!
http://www.wozzon.com/

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Unfortunately we wouldn't be able to find a place the size we want in Hammersmith for the money we want to spend. London has many lovely places, but I don't want to spend all our money on rent so we're limiting the budget.

After advice on here and advice from lots of friends in London we have narrowed it down to 6 areas:

Walthamstow
East Finchley
Ealing
Wood Green (Possibly Southgate)
Hendon
Harrow

I'm popping down to London in a couple of weeks so I'm going to try and visit as many as I can, we're particularly interested in the top 3.

2 months till we move, so I'm getting really exited about it. My other half is really enjoying his new job down there.

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