uk family locations

[Satellite]

Was away in London to look for location sto live in which has good STATE primary and Secondary schools.

Looked at Teddington, Ealing, Wembly and Redbridge.

As we were with 2 children, couldnt' look a the places as thoroughly as I would have liked.

How far to central london from Redbridge via tube? Mr Sate says the tube goes to Liverpool station (as he doesn't think that If I were going there frequently, driving to london would be a good idea - with traffic jams and parking charges etc) which is far away from teh west end (which apparently is the 'happening' place to be) Is this true?

Also, is the east end of london generally speakinga dump?

I like activity around me so that wehn I look out my home window, I want to see some (not violent ) activity - hustle and bustle basically.
I felt all except redbridge had that. I wouldn't mind living in Kingston at all but not such great schools there.

What about Clapham, is it a dump?

And chiswick (they had very nice houses there - but any good pri and sec schools?)

Any suggestions? Comments?

[Lichtgestalt]

Don't forget the congestion charge when driving into London. Chiswick is great (lived there) and apparently has good schools.

[BoD]

Litething is right. You won't be driving to central London. You will find local shops and decent sized supermarkets close to wherever you live. Pubs are everywhere. The West End is the shopping/entertainment area, but with 2 kids I can't see that you will be spending a lot of time there. Oxford Street is the main shopping street, but apart from a couple of decent department stores (John Lewis, Selfridges) there is little to recommend it. If you live in the west somewhere then Westfiield would be a better bet

if you want to calculate tube journey times go to http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/X ... anguage=en. Ideally Mr Sate needs to be able to get to work without changing tube lines/trains.

Teddington is nice, but judging by the messages I frequently get saying 'stuck on a train..signal failure' the rail service is a little flakey. Parts of Clapham are certainly not a dump, but will be a lot more expensive than say Wembley. Similarly Chiswick. Kingston is a little further out, but not sure why you think there are no good schools there

For schools check http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/

[Satellite]

thanks that's very helpful.

I wont be going to central londong with the children. Just send them to school and off I go, hopefully returning in time to pick them up.

Said clapham might be a dump as a friend got mugged right outside her house one night even though it is relatively busy. It is definitely somewhere where I could live we stayed there during our trip but for a decent sized and layout 3 room house, it might be over our budget. However we (he) checked for schools but couldn't find decent ones (ie >70 of 5 GCSEs + good/outstanding Ofstead report for both Primary and Secondary schools). But i suspect he is a bit bias when it comes ot location.

I thought Kingston was closer to c. london. Does it share the same line with teddington?

What about redbridge? Any idea? I am seriously considering that.

[BoD]

Redbridge is in Essex (I had to look it up), so not somewhere I have ever been. That said, it is probably much more convenient for Liverpool Street than anywhere in the west.

[Lichtgestalt]

Have you thought of Crystal Palace? Met someone recently who told me that there is a direct train to Liverpool now