Hello,
My wife and I are negotiating a move to London. We lived in NYC for 12 years and although both 42 years old, with 2 young girls (Almost 5, and 2) we still enjoy city life. My wife is French, and I've spent some time working here and there in the UK.
My job would be in Iver Heath, and my wife is currently looking for work - but her commute would mostly take her roughly to Oxford Circus.
No car, so using tube, etc. Ideally we'd like a 2-3 bedroom - £1,250 - £1,500 per month, with an very good state primary school as for us that's the most important element.
So, where to live? Help?
We were thinking Ealing, Acton, Chiswick? Seems like it's not too bad a commute for me (Piccadilly, central line) and I'd like my wife's commute to be quicker than mine...
Of course we'd like someplace with a nice high street etc... but beggers can't be choosers - so we'd love someplace that's not too, too suburban, but we do have two girls - so school, area is important to us - although unfortunately for our budget not sure what we can get.
Really appreciate any input!
Thanks so much. Looking forward to the adventure.
West London?
It seems to me that before you pick an area, you will have to know more about the schools and what you are looking for. What we think of in the States as "public" schools are called state schools here. Public schools are fee paying, private schools. One of the best places to start is to look in the Sunday Times schools guide (its available online) or schoolsnet.com for the best primary schools. I also found it was useful to get an online subscription to the good schools guide. Just a bit more information. The other thing that you need to be aware of is that kids start school much earlier here, so your child may not be in kindergarden (which is called reception)here, but could be in year one.
as you would be working in Iver Heath, a good location is Windsor.
a very nice location with high streets etc.
also there is regular train service from the overground to waterloo.
my wife and i, with our daughter live in west london, Twickenham. we both in banking and work in the city. but once we have our second my wife will find something local.
there are so many options. also if you do live near the M4/ M25 there are many more opportunities. we call this the M4 corridor as all the firms such as Cisco, GSK, SAP etc have thier head offices.
ive lived all over london and west is the place to be, again depends where you are but there is so many areas you can consider.
the site below will help give you some idea on rental prices. remeber everything can be negotiated.
findaproperty.com
also below id the link to the ofsted website which monitors schools etc.. you can type in the post code and check what rating the schools got on the last inspection.
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/schools/for-sc … ion-report
hope that helps. you can contact me anytime if you need help.
Kal
Maidenhead?
Windsor?
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