Afternoon all, I'd like to throw an important life decision open to the STW Tips, Facts and Opinions Generator.

My girlfriend's just had an interview. It went well, so we need to start thinking about where we might live if she gets it. I'm guessing our priorites might be shared by a few people on here, so I hope some of you can provide some ideas.

I'm working near Liverpool Street, she'd be near Paddington.

Priorities to be juggled are:
– Easy access to Not-London at weekends
– Commutes that aren't too long or too expensive (if we stay where we are now we'd be paying £800 a month between us for rail and tube)
– Nearby green space
– Unexciting neighbourhood, if you know what I mean
– Easy parking, 2 beds, bike friendly
– Moony-stickness, given the requirements, but we'd rather sacrifice size and plushness rather than location

Borehamwood looks worth investigating from a very quick look at the map, but I know next to nothing about it.

Where shall I live?

Thanks,

Ed

Borehamwood is OKish in parts.How about St Albans?

I've got a couple of friends near St Albans – he gets to ride to the station in the mornings. It's very pleasant, although quite significantly more flat than a flat thing, from what I can tell.

They set fire to tramps in Borehamwood, it's where Big Brother house resides and they've got the world's Biggest 24hr Tesco.

It's a bit chavvy but the surrounding area is lovely though…

20mins on a train to Kings Cross.

In fact if you are so inclined you can put your skinny jeans on and be boozing it up with Amy Winehouse in Camden in 30mins.

A friend of a friend works here http://www.yeo.co.uk/

Just don't live on the High Street it's a shithole!!!

I used to like living in Balham. There are lots of houses like you describe, it is quiet, full of green stuff (surrounded by Clapham, Tooting Bec & Streatham commons) and it is easy to get out of London from (and you're at the right side of London to go riding). Houses are probably quite expensive round there though.

You'd have an easy commute (northern line to Moorgate / Bank (or bike obviously). To Paddington would be change at Elephant and Castle, but at least you'd be getting on the Bakerloo line at the end of the line.

Although possibly some horrible place in N or E London might be a bit more practical from the commute point of view (like on the Hammersmith and City line or something), although they suck in terms of riding, are more expensive, you'll probably get mugged, and everyone knows that south of the river is where all the nice green stuff is.

Joe

No kids right? Live in town, London is great. One of you City, one of you West, you want to live in North London……Cricklewood, West Hampstead, Finchley, Crouch End, Muswell Hill, Winchmore Hill, take your pick.

Although possibly some horrible place in N or E London might be a bit more practical from the commute point of view (like on the Hammersmith and City line or something), although they suck in terms of riding, are more expensive, you'll probably get mugged, and everyone knows that south of the river is where all the nice green stuff is.

Utter pish. I ride around town all the time, N.London is where the frenzied singletrack of Epping Forest is. Come ride with us.

No kids, Mr Mcboo. Will have a look at some of those. We've got a couple of friends in Tufnell Park. There's the lido near there too. I should have mentioned outdoor swimming! I'll have a look where's close to Epping, too.

St Albans is going to be worth a look too, cheers Ben, I hadn't realised the train was so quick into london. 20 minutes to whichever station it is ain't bad. But there's the flatness. There's some riding in Herts though isn't there? or is it limited to jedi's wood?

I'll scale back my Borehamwood enthusiasm to "cautious, guarded" Careful local research needed by the sounds of things! Cheers for the link.

Balham, Brixton and Clapham are obvious choices, we know loads of people round there, right side of London for Surrey Hills, South coast, decent airports. Relatively green and pleasant, her brother's family's in Brixton, my family's all south and west of London… Because they're obvious choices, I'm avoiding them for now, mostly for the same sorts of reasons I didn't see the point of moving from Guildford to Clapham a couple of years ago, but partly because I'm a bit awkward. Part of me has a grudging acceptance that we may end up there anyway, though.

Save me!

i work in Borhamwood. beyond the fact that its very cheap its not exactly desirable. StAlbans if you can afford it. further up into herts if not. hertford is a resonable train ride from liverpool street.

BWood's a dump and theres no riding around there.

i live in hertford 🙂
loads of xc locally

I also live in Hertford. Two train lines into London and local riding.

I tried St Albans but its expensive and I found it felt like a small town which had got overgrown. Traffic was dreadful.

Used to live in London and Crouch End was good for the social side side of things. I found I just went to the darkside for riding as it was pain to get to Epping forest.

If all your family connections are south and south/west it would be strange to come north?

I live in Stroud Green (kind of between Finsbury Park and Crouch End) and it's quite nice. Our road is rather leafy and quiet, no problems parking (residents permits £15-90 a year depending on co2s) and no qualms about leaving my car out there either. Plenty of nice pubs/restaurants locally, loads more a short hop away on the bus.

Transport is great having overland, victoria and piccadilly lines to choose from, even if one's having problems or closed for works there's always another route in. In Zone 2 so a travelcard is under £100/month. 20 mins to Liverpool St, 30 to Paddington but both easily bikeable. Easy access to not-London? I'm on the A1 in a couple of minutes, on the M1 within 15. Depends where you're heading to though.

FP itself is nice for a run or just to mooch around on a sunny day. There's a disused railway line converted into a walking path that goes up to Highgate which is also nice for a run. Alexandra Park and Hampstead Heath too for a bit of variety. There's the Castle climbing centre just down the road, a few different pools to choose from, about 7 miles to Epping Forest for riding or 5 miles to Waterloo to jump on a train.

Despite all that though, if riding was a priority and family was in south London too it doesn't make a lot of sense to go North.

South London sounds like it makes more sense unless you really want to avoid the family. Clapham is a pretty obvious choice if you want to go riding as all the fast trains to Dorking stop there. I live in Brixton and it's a bit cheaper, a bit grittier and a bit further from Clapham Junction. Takes me 15 minutes to ride on my SS so it's not bad. Brockwell Park is lovely and has a lido and other cool stuff like tennis courts and the nicer bits of Brixton and Herne Hill are around it. Trains from Herne Hill go up to Farringdon, which is closeish to Liverpool Street, and the tube from Brixton will get your girlfriend to Paddington. End of the Victoria line so you can always get a seat. I ride everywhere though and both placs are about half an hour on the bike.

Hmm, easy access to both Liverpool Street and Paddington will be a bit challenging.

Unless you've tried it, you'd be suprised at how long it takes to get from one side of London to the other during rush hour (or at any other times).

Probably want to be looking at places which go into King's Cross – although getting on the tube there is particularly painful.

As said above, depends a bit on budget – Borehamwood and St. Albans are nice, but you'll find them expensive compared to surrounding area.

Might want to check out Barnet too (although again, pricier than surrounding area) – decent links into King's Cross, and has a tube station which can come in handy.

I would avoid any of the far out places with trains to Kings Cross. Getting onto the tube at Kings Cross in rush hour is a nightmare, and you force yourself to catch the tube that way, whereas if you live somewhere closer in, you have a bike option (always going to be the best, cheapest & most comfortable way to get round London). All you do by doing that is add an extra 20 minutes each way onto the public transport journey, and put yourself somewhere flat, far away from people you know, where the only reason people live there is because it has fast trains to get out of it. It isn't even all that cheap either. Oh and there is some riding, but a lot of people from round there make the trip all the way round to the Surrey Hills each weekend, which doesn't suggest it is the best riding around.

Joe

Thanks so much for this everyone, really useful local knowledge. I think Borehamwood's dropping off the bottom of the list! Hertford, Stroud Green area and Herne Hill-ish all definitely on. I have great memories of the Mosquito bikes Hell of the North Downs ride a few years ago which started from the HH velodrome.

Thanks Simon for reminding me about climbing walls! That's definitely a horse I want to get back on.

momentum, it's not that I want to avoid the family, it's more that so many people from school ended up in Balham/Clapham, I've had a bit of an aversion to it since as the default place to live in London. South London's biger than Clapham/Balham though!

Cheers Joe. Very good point.

"Where are you now?" is probably a good question.

Bikes are clearly the best way of getting around London, but then you need to factor in how far you and your girlfriend are willing to ride each day, and how you get in/out on off-days.

We are now in Wivenhoe, just past Colchester. OK for me, 45 seconds from the station, 1hr12 to L'pool St. Lovely village, nice coming out to the countryside in the evening. She's a bike ride away from work, good for her. One of us would have a commute whereever we live, and I'm happier living here and commuting in rather than living in London and her commuting out. I can think of better ways to spend £4K a year though.

Stupid staying here if she gets the job in Paddington. £8.5K a year on travel 3.5 – 4 hour commuting a day for her for her, 3 hours for me.