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!
