Thinking about moving from the U.S. to the U.K. with young kids. What is the best place to live close to Londo

Question

This is a work transfer and should have about 3000 per month to spend in rent. I am looking for a high class neighborhood with young families. I would like it to be close enough to London to enjoy it. It would need to be not too far from one of the airports.

update....$4,000 USD, so $2,000 sterling.
My husband will work out of the house, thus the need for access to the airport.

We have heard some great things about the American School, however our kids are 3 and 1, so they it will be a year until the older child can attend.

Thanks for all of your input, I hope to see more.

Answer 1

right. We need more information first.

1) 3,000 Dollars or Pounds? Either way that is a lot of dosh so you should be ok for most expensive places I would have thought.

2) Do you definitely want to live outside London and commute in, rather than living in one of London's many high-class enclaves (which some people say are "village-like") - e.g. Hampstead in the north of London, Belgravia in the central/west area, the soviet-brutalist style Barbican (central/east)?

3) If you do want to live outside London then remember it is a big place! You basically need to work backwards. First you need to know what part of London you are going to be working, then figure out the best London mainline railway station for that place, then work back from there to your place to live (I take it you aren't going to be crazy enough to try to drive into London every day? ) What you don't want to be doing is living somewhere that has an overland train service to the South of London but you work in the North. Or an overland service to the West and you work in the East. Unless getting across the length or breadth of London on a tube train or in a cab in the rush-hour as part of your everyday commute is your idea of fun.

So: Liverpool Street and tiny little Fenchurch Street overland ("mainline") railway stations are good for people who work in the City (Financial District), and Waterloo station is OK too if you don't mind taking the "Drain" (Waterloo and City line of the underground) direct from Waterloo to Bank station as part of your commute. London Bridge station is ok too for the City. Waterloo and London Bridge are both not bad for Canary Wharf - as they are both on the Jubilee Line of the underground.

More overland mainline stations: Paddington is good for the West End. Charing Cross is good for Central London/Westminster. King's Cross/St Pancras and Euston are all good for North London.

Victoria overland station is good for South West London.

Basically Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street serve counties to the East and North East of London. Cambridge is a nice town. Essex tends to be stereotyped as being for the Nouveaux Riche but has nice places. King's Cross, St Pancras, Euston serve the counties to the north. Paddington serves counties to the West as does Waterloo, strangely, considering where it is located. Surrey is to the west and is traditionally solid stockbroker land. Kent, the "garden of England" to the south east is served by London Bridge and Charing Cross. Sevenoaks is a nice town you might want to consider.

Charing Cross serves the south and south east - Sussex and Kent. they aren't generally as wealthy as say Surrey. Don't bother going anywhere further south than say Haywards Heath - Hove is nice, by the sea etc but a daily commute will kill you.

If you want an airport they are to the West (Heathrow) South (Gatwick) and north east (Stansted). I'm sure Heathrow has flights to the USA, possibly also Gatwick but not sure. There is also City Airport (Central/east, in Docklands, near Canary Wharf).

Well, the above is my understanding, others may have a better idea.

1) work out which station you need in London. 2) Work out which county & town you can live in to get to that station.

Information provided in the hope that relations between Londoners and Americans can improve, despite your government's recent foreign policy and all it has brought to our city....

Answer 2

Somewhere around the south west of London would do you as you'll not be too far from either Gatwick or Heathrow airports.
There a some very nice areas around there that you should fairly easily afford to live in.
Personaly I like Epsom and most areas around Richmond are nice. I would avoid Slough like the plague.

Answer 3

Definately not Slough.

Is that 3000 UKP or USD?

There are 2 American colleges near Egham in Surrey with quite a large US student community from what I can tell when I've walked around there, so you might feel at home there. I would assume their parents live in the area.
http://www.acs-england.co.uk/schools/index.htm
http://www.tasis.com/England/

Answer 4

Parts of Kent, good network links to central London. Quite peaceful, not much crime, a bit of rustling, about it. Gatwick about 30 minutes, Heathrow 1 hour, both on Motorway 25.

Answer 5

Why not live centrally? Putney, Fulham, that sort of area. If you are looking at £2,000 a month rent, shouldn't be a problem!

Answer 6

Cobham or Richmond in Surrey. both have American community schools

Answer 7

Bromley,Kent

Answer 8

Slough, cracking place to live. The chuckle brothers live there dont you know. And Madona has a flat there too

Answer 9

I can get you a great place for £3000/month. I'll email you my bank details, and we'll take it from there.

Answer 10

Richmond Surrey...High class indeed.