Where to live with good catchment districts

It is looking more and more like we will be headed to to London after Christmas!  Now, to begin planning everything and I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. We currently live in the Oak Park/River Forest area of Chicago   Can anyone give me some advice on the following:

1.  My spouse will be working on Fleet Street.  Anyone have any good recommendations on a place to live in North or West London?  We want to keep his commute to 35-40 minutes or less.  Our hope is for a little garden space as we have small dogs( shih tzu, papillion and teacup Yorkie) and <fingers crossed> a parking spot.

2.  Are there any decent suburbs that meet that commute criteria?

3.  We have a 6 year old who is currently in first grade, and a 3 year old.  I recognize that since we are moving mid school year schools may be an issue.  Can anyone recommend  some catchment areas we can look at?  My goal is to live an area where even if we don't get our top choice school, the alternative schools are also good for my girls.

4.  Any recommendations on preschools for my 3 year old?

5.  How much can I expect to spend for all of the above?  Dare I hope to keep it to 2500-3000 pounds per month?

Thank you so much in advance for your advice and encouragement.

Thank you in advance for your responses!

Hi

This is one of those questions where advice and recommendations for each element to what you've asked has been given and discussed. However, ultimately, it will come down to you and your partners choices as only you know realistic income levels for you to evaluate where you can live for the goals that you'd like to achieve.

In a nutshell, there will be suitable areas and catchment districts for what you'd like. I'll stick my neck out and say these will be in upper middle to highe end areas and they'll be very expensive - the figure you mention will probably only just cover the rent costs perhaps in these sorts of areas.

If you're figures there are for all your monthly mandatory costs then I think you'd need to set your sights on areas and places to live and most likely not having the top choices in schools, but the best of the rest as it were. Each and every area in London has many schools, you'll need to evaluate things like school reputation and quality of teaching etc etc and look at the lists of the ones who perform to what you'd like. See where they're located and then look around those areas with your other criteria.

Cheers, DtM ! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks for responding DTM!

I have been going through the old posts and they have been very helpful.  Some of them go a few years back and I have been wondering if everything still applied.  My only experience has been with the US markets and things here are so fluid. 

Wish me luck!

Hi there. Would you consider living a bit outside the city? If you want REALLY good schools, I'd recommend living in the St Albans/Harpenden area (Hertfordshire, north of London). The trains from there go directly to City Thameslink station, which is on Fleet Street. Fast trains take about 40 minutes, and a travel card runs about 300 GBP a month.

The council taxes are higher because of the good schools, but my guess is that'd it be worth it if education is your main concern. There are a lot of young families in the area because of the schools. Also, living out here, it'd be fairly easy to find somewhere with a parking space, so I wouldn't worry about that. And there's plenty of green space for your dogs!

I think you could easily find something within your price range. Feel free to send me a message if you want any further info about the area - I've been living here almost a year (was previously in central London) and can easily say it's a very nice place to be.