O/T - Anyone near London?

[Jamsvx]

Hi

As some of you may know, Cassie and I will be heading over to the UK in the next few months, most likely for paralegal work in London.

That said, we know nothing about London save in so far that it is an enormous city!!

We'd ve very grateful for any tips on what areas to avoid/look for when we are trying to find a place to rent (will help narrow down the online searches from here)

Thanks heaps

James

PS: may be able to go on an SVX run over there! I am sure Cass would love that - 12,000km, working holiday and I go out to find SVX's!!!

[b3lha]

Hi James,

Belha and I live just outside London, about 10 minutes drive from Heathrow airport.

The first thing you should probably consider is whether you want to live in London (expensive accomodation) or in the outskirts (cheaper accomodation, 1 hour+ commute)

Try and pick up a map of London showing the road, rail, bus and tube links. It will make it a lot easier for you when deciding where to live. If you want to get around in London, it's vital to be fairly close to a tube station.

IMHO (donning flame suit): The West of London is a nicer place to live than the East. I think that North (of the river Thames) has better transport links than South. Although there are *plenty* of nice areas in South West London.

I would start your search around Ealing and the surrounding areas. It's relatively safe, and convenient to the M4 motorway, the Paddington Train Line and the Central Line tube.

If Ealing is too expensive then try aound Harrow, a bit further out, but convenient to the A40 and the Metropoliton Line tube.

Phil.

[Jamsvx]

Thanks for that Phil

I had a look on the Net and, although hard to locate info since to me, the areas are just 'names', a number of places turned up - our main concern was somewhere safe, especially considering that we would likely to be working long hours (here, we leave at 8, 9 pm - sometimes 10pm and Cass has worked to 1am!)

Where we live at present is 25 mins by train (12 mins by car) from the CBD (central business district) and we pay $325AU per week for two bedroom, kitchen/dining, lounge, laundry and lock up garage in a very quiet safe area - equivalent in London is...err...a room!



When you say an hour from London, is that by train??? I was reading somewhere that some cabbie's won't go past a certain point later at night - essentially abandoned/stuck in the city...and keen to avoid that.

I'll have a look at those areas (the tube seems very comprehensive!!)

Is the area near Canary Wharf expensive?

Cheers

James

PS: would be great to meet up when we get over there

Hi James,

Canary Wharf is scarily expensive - it would depend on where you will be working.

I worked in London for 5 years, and managed about 8 months living south of the river - this tends to be cheaper. The rest of the time I commuted in from a place called Milton Keynes - which is cheaper for property and about 50 miles north of Central London - 1 hour commute.

I now live near Oxford, and have several friends who commute into Central London everyday, who don't think that it's too bad.

BTW, I'd be happy to meet up for a beer when you arrive... I get into London a fair bit, also if wanted to check out Oxford etc. I'd happily show around.

Jason
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[Jamsvx]

All great tips and info - will have to look into Milton Keynes...I did not realise that Oxford was close to London - guess my geography was a bit out!!



Did a bit more searching - the prices are incredible!!! Catch 22 situation - we won't know where we are working till we arrive so hard to pick a place but then, we'll arrive with nowhere to go

I think we should buy an SVX and sleep in a carpark somewhere

[b3lha]

It sounds like you probably want to be fairly close to the centre of town. So that you can work/party late into the evening.

If you look at a map, you will see London encircled by the M25 motorway. Inside that is another ring formed by the A406 North Circular Road and the A205 South Circular road. You probably want to be inside or close to this inner ring - or if you look at a public transport map, somewhere in zones 1-4.

The hour commute I mentioned was by tube from my nearest station, Uxbridge (Metropoliton Line, Zone 6) to the centre. You can drive it in less than 30 minutes except during rush hour. The only real (affordable) way to get around in Central London is to use the tube, regular users complain about it a lot, but they still use it because there's nothing better.

It's certainly going to be very expensive by Australian standards. The figure you quoted, equates to about 600 pounds a month. About 8 years ago we rented a tiny two-bed place in East Ham for that money. It's probably more expensive now, and it's not a nice area (although we never had any problems).

Places I wouldn't want to stay include: Brixton, Clapham, Bethnal Green, Forest Gate, Finsbury Park.

Places I know to be OK are: Chiswick, Kew, Acton, Ealing, Wembley (predominantly indian), Golders Green (predominantly Jewish), West Hampstead.

I'm not a Londoner and therefore not an expert on the place, please don't take what I say as gospel.

This website may be usefull to you: http://www.intolondon.com/findby_map

Phil.

That's a definate on meeting up - even better if you can make it to our 2004 meet.