Living In London – London Neighborhoods – North London- Image via Wikipedia

We’re up to  north again and this area is the choice of many Americans moving to London. North London is a massive area with dozens of postcodes and suburbs. Mostly residential, many people who work in the city have chosen to live in North London for schools, amenities and the feeling of being slightly out of the city, even if you’re right in the thick of things.

North London – Hampstead

Hampstead is one of the greenest suburbs in London. It is also a suburb that has a village atmosphere and quaint shops and streets surrounding the magnificent green area of Hampstead Heath. This atmosphere comes at a price though. A London flat in this neighborhood can cost you anywhere from £1000 -£ 4000 per week. Houses are even more expensive.

Council Information: Hampstead falls under the Council Borough of Camden with annual taxes ranging from £900 – £2700.

Transport: Hampstead Station falls under Transport Zone 2 and is located on the Northern Line of the London Underground. The Hampstead Heath Station serves the overland trains and there are several buses from Hampstead into London, including the N5 night bus right to Trafalgar Square.

Shopping: Hampstead offers a number of excellent grocery stores that offer home delivery like Tesco Express and Waitrose but the real treat of living in Hampstead are the smaller shops that line the streets of this residential neighborhood. Specialty grocery stores and health shops,​ as well as boutiques and excellent restaurants can be found in this area. Hampstead is one of the suburbs in London where being seen out and about is more about celeb spotting than anything else!

Doctors: there are a number of excellent local GP’s in the area as well as the Royal Free Hospital which has an A&E as well as being an excellent maternity hospital. If you’re looking for a pharmacy in the area then you can find Boots on Hampstead high Street which is one of the biggest chains of pharmacies in the country.

Other Amenities: There are a number of excellent schools in the area from kindergartens to post graduate colleges. The borough of Camden has a large number of independent schools and international schools.

Living In London – London In-Depth By Area – North London Part II- Image via Wikipedia

Discovering London before you start living in London takes a little work but it’ll be worth the effort when you’re choosing your new London rental. If you’re moving to London you’ll want to know as much as you can about the different areas and their amenities before you splash your cash on something unsuitable for your needs.

North London – Camden

Camden is the home of the trendy, upwardly mobile, and young professionals and you can expect to pay anywhere from £1200 per week for single studio London flat to £6,000 per week for a four bedroom apartment in this area. Very close to central London though which makes for an easy commute into work this is one of the most vibrant suburbs in London.

Council Information: Camden falls under the Council Borough of Camden and annual taxes range from £1000 – £ 3000.

Transport: Camden Town Tube Station is located on the Northern Line of the London Underground and you can be in central London in under ten minutes. You can also travel to Richmond and Kew in less than an hour if you fancy a day trip out to Hampton Court Palace to enjoy the summer gardens. If you’re travelling by bus the C2 bus to Oxford Circus will get you right into the shopping district of London and if you’re out for the evening the night bus N253 will get you home in the early hours of the morning!

Shopping: Sainsburys, Tesco and M&S all offer large stores with all of the groceries that you need. Check out your local supermarket to see if they deliver in this area.

Doctors: The Ampthill GP Practice and the Camden Road Practice both provide excellent NHS surgeries for the resident of this suburb.

Other Amenities: Camden is a diverse and vibrant place and though it might look a little rough around the edges it is great place to live if you like to get out and explore London. The Camden Lock Market and the Stables Market are fabulous if you like original food, art, music and the more alternative side of London life. If you’re in Camden in the first week of May there is a live music festival t​hat’ll have you out on the streets enjoying everything from African fusion to punk rock. Camden knows how to rock!

Author:  Colleen

Knock-knock.

Who’s there?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange you glad I’m not going to write about UK taxes this week?

(Whoa boy…UK taxation might be preferable to resurrecting hideous knock-knock jokes from childhood, huh…)

Sorry about that.  My brain is trying to get out of weekend-mode and not having a little difficulty doing so…not that telling bad jokes is how I spend my weekends….In truth, though, my weekends might not shape up to anything much cooler than curling up with a book on the sofa.  I know there’s a marvelous city out there with limitless options of things to do, but sometimes a gal needs a weekend when London can wait.  Yesterday in particular, however, for having not emerged from my cozy London flat all day, I sure felt like I had traversed the entire city, from the touristed parts to the off-the-beaten path.  It was an adventure of the mind and a very fun way of revisiting many places I’ve been.

Actually, for as fantastical as it is, parts of this novel almost read like a tutorial in relocating to London.  The book is Her Fearful Symmetry, written by Audrey Niffenegger and set in London’s Highgate Cemetery.  Not many average tourists are keen to make that trek up the Northern Line to the North London Highgate/Hampstead area, but I encourage you to do so, especially if you’re moving to London and will have the time.  It is so lovely up there, green and residential with a village feeling, yet with convenient access to central London.

In any case, Niffenegger herself (author of Time Traveler’s Wife, if the name isn’t ringing a bell) is an American expat living in London.  When she began this second novel, she at first intended to set it in one of Chicago’s most historic cemeteries, but the the cemetery became such a dominant aspect of the plot that she realized it needed to be the end-all-be-all of cemeteries in the world.  So she came to London and, more specifically, Highgate!  As part of her research, she became a volunteer for the Friends of Highgate Cemetery, and to this day if you take the tour of the West Cemetery, you may get a tour guide named Audrey .  Throughout the novel, she lends her American perspective to her two female protagonists, naive twins originating from Chicago, Illinois’s Lake Forest suburb.  It is comical to read how they acquaint themselves with the London flat they’ve inherited (demonstrating their surprise to find a washing machine behind a cabinet door in the kitchen, just as I’ve written about before in my “Crouching Tenant, Hidden Dishwasher” post) as well as try to learn the local lingo.  They familiarize themselves with London public transportation, suffering the crowds of the Tube at rush hour and learning what an *ouch* black taxi fare is from Heathrow to North London.  They find the great neighborhoods for shopping like Sloane Square and Knightsbridge, which stores to shop at for practical needs like groceries and toiletries, and how to register with NHS.  They also learn the histories of London’s Magnficent Seven cemeteries that were established in the mid-eighteenth century to accommodate the overcrowding of the dead in the city’s churchyards.

Oh, and did I mention their flat is haunted?  Ah yes, ’tis a bit of a ghoulish read that is perfect for this time of year as we approach Halloween.  Another modern-day book I’ve read that comes to mind about an American staying in a haunted London flat is Gregory Maguire’s Lost (again, if the name isn’t familiar, he’s the author of Wicked).  Now that I think of it, perhaps I should compile a haunted London literature list for you at some point this month to get you in the mood for the season and your new, utterly atmospheric city if you’re moving to London soon.  I’ll keep you posted!

This semi-sunny, on the cusp of Spring day compels me to recommend a lovely spot in Northern London where you might fancy living if you’re moving to London, or to at least visit:  Hampstead.  Maintaining a village atmosphere, this area experienced population growth during the Victorian age, to which many of its quaint buildings date back.  It is known as an artistic and literary haven, and no doubt Hampstead Heath has provided much of such inspiration over the centuries.  Nearly 800 acres in size, the Heath is an immense bounty of green space to be had in London.  With its wooded trails, open, rolling meadows and ponds, it’s a tranquil retreat from urban life that is easily accessible from the city center.  Even just strolling through the pristine, postcard-perfect residential streets is a calming treat that takes you back to another era.  One particular home of interest in Hampstead is Keats House, where the poet lived from 1818 to 1820 and wrote some his most notable poems, including “Ode to a Nightingale.”  The Spaniards Inn, which Keats himself liked to frequent (as did Lord Byron) alleges that this poem was written in its gardens; whether true or not, I highly recommend this pub as a stop for food and libations.  It has a charming beer garden, and whilst sitting there you can revel in its history–it dates back to the 16th-century and is even mentioned in classic literature like Dickens’s first novel, The Pickwick Papers, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

It’s true that this is a very expensive neighborhood to live in, so if it’s a bit outside of your budget, you can content yourself that London Relocation Ltd. will place you in a lovely locale that meets all your needs and will be close enough to public transport so you can catch the Tube to visit Hampstead whenever you want–take the Northern Line to either Belsize Park or Hampstead stations and step right onto the high street to delight in its cute boutiques and cafes.