Londoners, need your help on locations!

Hi, me and my fiance are moving to london at the end of September and have no idea where to start.
Firstly, i need some advice on which areas are good based on what we can afford.

Were looking to rent a 2 bedroom house for around £1000 a month (we can afford to pay extra if the area is nice!) looking for a fairly decent area, im not asking for anything posh... just no shootings and chavs! It needs to be in either zone 2 or 3 if were pushing it.. my fiance is going to be working near Chancery Lane tube stop and doesnt want to travel from far or have a lot of line changes.

Any help?

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hiya.... welcome to London (nearly!)... :wave:
Not sure if you're after quieter or 'lively' but either way I think it will be a flat that you'll get for your budget rather than a house. £1000pcm although it's obviously a lot of money, sadly still doesn't get you too far... I would look at Earlsfield/Southfields/Parsons Green for slightly less expensive areas which still have relatively good reputations. Southfields is a bit more family-friendly whilst Earlsfield is more bars/restaurants/etc but not quite as 'pretty'. Battersea is always quite good value for money because of the lack of a tube, but there are good bus services and it's pretty central so may be worth looking at.

I don't really know east London so can't help you out there too much - have heard that Dulwich is really nice and leafy though and I think that's ok value for money to rent.

Hope that helps a little - feel free to post again with a few more pointers and I (and the others) can get our thinking caps on some more!

x

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Hi Sooz, many thanks for the reply.
Was actually looking at places like Leyton/leytonstone and walthamshow (sp?) today and saw some 2 bedroom houses for around £1000 p/month. Not sure what these areas are like though, wondering if you (or anyone else!) could tell us a little bit about these areas?

Were looking for somewhere along the central line, or somewhere not too far from the centre of London as my fiance doesnt want to travel too much! From the research ive done so far East London is looking to be the cheapest so i guess thats our best bet.

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mmmm don't know walthamstow at all but i did look at Leytonstone when i first moved to London about 6 years ago and if i'm honest we decided pretty quickly that it wasn't for us. It certainly didn't have a good rep then and wasn't a nice place, and from what i've heard it still isn't great. You have to remember that generally if there's a location relatively close to the centre and on the tube, if it's cheap there'll be a reason for that.

I remember someone saying that parts of Walthamstow are nice but that's on the Victoria line which isn't ideal for Chancery Lane??

To be honest though I think making one change on the tube really isn't a big deal and if your boyf would consider that you'd have loads more areas to choose from....

ooohhh all so difficult i know - remember being in your shoes myself! :-?

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Im sure he won't mind one change, and frankly if it means living in a nice area compared to a cr*p one then its more than worth it.

I think we are definately looking at East London just no idea where.... cant be too far either.

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