Author:  Colleen

Relocating to London with a family - nappyvalleynet.com

Moving to London with children requires a different set of property and location criteria than when relocating to London as a single person or with only a spouse. Safety for children is of utmost priority in selecting a London neighborhood, and you’ll likely want to live near enough wherever they will be attending school. You’ll also probably desire extra rooms/space in your London apartment rental so it doesn’t get too close for comfort with multiple family members. With the added expense of providing for others, getting more bang for your buck (or should I say more pow for your pound?) when you rent in London doesn’t hurt either.

If this situation applies to you and you’d like advice on where to start looking for your London apartment, popular family-friendly London neighborhoods include Holland Park, Richmond, and Wimbledon in the west and St. John’s Wood, Hampstead, and Highgate in the north. All of these offer green space and a more peaceful residential versus urban feel that allows you to stretch your legs a little and feel safe walking your kids and the family dog to the park. They are also all in proximity to a tube station to give you easy access to central London for work or play. Of these six named neighborhoods, however, the northern three are more affluent and therefore more expensive; not that the western three come cheaply either…while Richmond and Wimbledon might get you more value for being less central, their quality standard of living is still enough in demand to keep prices relatively high.

For a chance at finding relatively less expensive (yet still quality) alternatives that will keep you within family-minded communities, you might also consider London’s southern postcodes in the general Wandsworth, Lambeth, and Southwark boroughs. Within these, the Clapham neighborhood has been locally known as “Nappy Valley” (“nappy” is British English for “diaper”), and Dulwich is on its heels for claiming the title.

A comprehensive resource that could prove most useful to you, in fact, is Nappy Valley Net: www.nappyvalleynet.com. As of now, the site covers Richmond (including Twickenham and Teddington) and Wandsworth (including Clapham and Battersea) and gives oodles of information on childcare, shopping, schools, fitness, home and garden, and the like.

So if you’re relocating to London with a family and would like to inquire into London apartments to be found in any of these London neighborhoods, please do give London Relocation a call or fill out our online web form!

Aaaahhh…London has been rescuscitated back to life with the onset of real Spring weather.  Hurray!  I honestly have to laugh at myself and how much I comment on the weather here in our blog and on Twitter, Facebook, etc.  Hopefully that’s not a sign of how boring I’m becoming—if it is, then it applies to everyone else I know here.  I think talking about the weather is mandatory for local residents; you’ll see for yourself if and when you’re relocating to London.

The logic is as such:  increasing duration of daylight + higher proportion of that daylight that is sunshine + warmer temperatures = an awakening of the senses, rotation of the wardrobe, and overall higher motivation to get out there and do everything worthwhile doing outdoors.  I, for one, went for a wander yesterday with my husband over to Battersea Park, just south of the Thames from Chelsea.  This substantial bit of green space gets overshadowed by more touristed parks like Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James’s Park, so I recommend it as a more local spot of tranquility.  One can rent cycles, paddle boats, and row boats there, visit the children’s zoo and pagoda, play cricket, tennis, and other favorite sports, or just lie about on the flat expanses or little hills and watch the dogs dart about at full speed while the herons stand perfectly still.  Not too far a walk toward the main roundabout is a relaxed pub named The Masons Arms that offers a healthy menu, unlike most pubs, and provides a low-key place to chat or read amid good music and local artwork.  The walk across Albert Bridge in itself is a treat (though mind the construction that is presently diverting motor traffic).

I’m also in the midst of brainstorming our next London Living social, tentatively scheduled for later this month.  Sunshine and ever-greener trees makes me yearn for pints in a proper biergarten, so some possibilities I’ve offered up to our Londonistas are the The Spaniards Inn in Hampstead and Stein’s Bavarian Restaurant in Richmond for a chance to visit non-central areas with great charm.  For something more central, there is Henry J. Bean’s on the Kings Road in Chelsea.  I actually just hung out there on Saturday after the Grand National horse race; while the interior of the venue as well as its menu are blatantly American-inspired, it does have a large and atmospheric beer garden in the back.  Another hot spot you might hit for enjoying your libations out of doors would be the Ice Wharf in Camden, located right on the canal—this one comes highly recommended by my colleague

Whatever meets your fancy outside this Spring, make sure your indoor space does as well by entrusting your London flat-search to London Relocation Ltd.