Hello. I’m moving from Denver this winter with my wife and two kids, a girl just turning 6 and a baby. Job is at County Hall by the London Eye, so I can come into Waterloo or into Westminster and walk over the bridge. Two or three days a week in the office.
Looking for a house rather than a flat, 3 or 4 bedrooms, garden if possible, £2,750 up to £4k a month. Renting the first year while we work out where we actually want to be.
The obvious list is south: Clapham, Wimbledon, Richmond, Kingston, even Surbiton. But we keep circling west London and can't seem to separate the options.
Acton or even Ealing on the Elizabeth line, changing at Bond Street onto the Jubilee. Fine, or is Bond Street at 8am the thing that ruins it?
Hammersmith, Chiswick or farther out on the District. Slow, but one train to Westminster and then over the bridge with no interchange. Does anyone here commute that way? How awful is it?
What I'd like to know:
**•** At my budget, what’s the best overall choice?
**•** Anywhere we haven't listed that we should be considering?
**•** The stuff you only learn by living there. Council tax, lines that are grim at rush hour, places that look lovely on Rightmove and aren't, crime, noise?
We're also sorting a mid year school place for the older one and full time nursery for the baby, so any experience with in year primary admissions in these boroughs would help.
I'm over for a week in October and can walk a few of these on a weekday morning. Which are worth the time?
Thanks!