Moving to London: advice required

A friend of mine went to UCL and comuted everyday from where we lived in Sidcup not to bad about an hour by public transport. Always took a lot longer after we'd been to the Union for some reason

I moved away from outer London cos i got so sick of the congestion and house prices. Hitchin/Stevenage area is 40 minutes by bike and about the same by train to LOndon but you just do not get all that congestion and you wont need to pay silly money for a home. Think about it

Prof it'll cost you a fortune

Thanks for the replies.

My budget is around £500K which means I cannot afford anything decent in Highgate.
With Finchley it would probably be the same. I will have to look further afield.

Sidcup isn't in the right direction. As to Stevenage, I heard good
things about it but probably too far for my liking.

I understand that I it is possible to live in Surrey and work at
Euston, but I don't like the idea of living on the wrong side of
town.

As skidmarx suggested, I started by examining the underground map
and the rail network map. Watford and St Albans seem to be
reasonable areas to commute from. Has anyone experience of living in
Watford or St Albans and commuting from these areas? From what I've
heard St Albans is nice to live in but I am worried about relying
solely on Thameslink. Watford appears to have the advantage of
better public transport (more frequent trains + tube) but I don't
know whether it is a nice place to live in.

no idea about st albans and thameslink although i think thameslink is one of the better ones.

check out the car parking situation at the station too - a mate of mine bought a house in surrey, and then discovered there was a massive waiting list for a season ticket for the station car park. unless you had a season ticket, you had to park some distance away.

the thameslink franchise has recently been taken over by a new operator - you could look at what the new franchisee is promising customers in terms of peformance and pledges to upgrade the service etc.

good luck

Parking round Euston is hell mate, I am at UCLH, and I do a little work with some of the UCL IT guys.

If your on the bike, there are plenty of parking spaces for bikes, but you have to get there early!

During the day, its ok bike wise to park there.

St. Albans is not bad, you also have the option of Watford, but I don't know the area, so someone can likely tell you more about it.

I wish you luck mate, I am tried of the comuting into London but that's just me, and I live in Wellingborough so its a long old slog for me, Sandy is a nice place to live (My folks are living there), not sure on where the train station goes into, but the prices are on the Up, but its on the A1 which is a much nicer road to be on, than the M1, but you have all the work up there with the Black Cat roundabout, etc, etc its still might be a bit far out!

Ummmmmm, I lived in Enfield for years, zone 6 pretty cheap comute cost wise, but the area itself has changed since I left, not sure if its somewhere you want to consdier, and its Damm expensive to buy a place.

Enfield Town station goes into Liverpool Street Station and you can go from there, or change at Seven Sisters station and get the victoria line, but remember you get the Edmonton and Totteham lot on that train, during a football match, good luck if you can squeeze on the train! (Personal experience!)

You could get the Enfield Chase train station, much more pleasent. That goes into Morgate station, or change at Finsbury Park to go to Kings Cross station, one down from Euston (walking wise, and Finsbury is the last stop before Kings Cross!).

Much more pleasent and all most every time I managed to get a seat!

Hope this helps, good luck at UCL, might bump into you perhaps?


Cheers

Rich

Originally Posted by getyerkneedown

Houseprices - same as up here in York. But on a pro-rata basis. Cost of living reflects the wages and vice versa... its all comparative.

Public Transport - yeah.. you got a system in place. We havent.

Id love to live in London.

No they're not. I can get a nice house for just 4x my annual wage up here!

[Spiderman]

Originally Posted by Professor

Thanks for the replies.

My budget is around £500K which means I cannot afford anything decent in Highgate.
With Finchley it would probably be the same. I will have to look further afield.

Sidcup isn't in the right direction. As to Stevenage, I heard good
things about it but probably too far for my liking.

I understand that I it is possible to live in Surrey and work at
Euston, but I don't like the idea of living on the wrong side of
town.

As skidmarx suggested, I started by examining the underground map
and the rail network map. Watford and St Albans seem to be
reasonable areas to commute from. Has anyone experience of living in
Watford or St Albans and commuting from these areas? From what I've
heard St Albans is nice to live in but I am worried about relying
solely on Thameslink. Watford appears to have the advantage of
better public transport (more frequent trains + tube) but I don't
know whether it is a nice place to live in.

Not read all this yet cos i'm at work but have a look at this if you havent already done so. www.findaproperty.com as it gives helpfull info by area or postcode.

However, i would suggest you rent 1st for 6 months just to make sure you are happy with your selected location.
15yrs of selling property under my belt here Prof and i now work with private clients only.
Feel free to PM me for advice, or if you come into london anytime soon, buy me a coffee or 2 and feel free to pick my brain.

I've either lived or worked in the areas you are looking at too and the g/f is currently in rentals, so she can add her 2p worth too.

And dont worry, no fees for .org members Prof.

Originally Posted by rwoodcock01

Sandy is a nice place to live

...

Hope this helps, good luck at UCL, might bump into you perhaps?

My daughter's boyfriend recommended Sandy. I checked it out over the internet
and it is indeed a nice place. But a bit too far out for my liking.

You are welcome to drop by at the maths department. I expect to be there after 1 July.

Originally Posted by Spiderman

And dont worry, no fees for .org members Prof.