Ilford vs Limehouse, Tower Hamlets

Hello everyone,

I graduated high school this year, and am taking a gap year before entering college in 2008. During that time I am going to live in London, work at a school, and play football. I currently have two job offers, one in Ilford, Essex, at Glenarm College, and the other at Sir William Burrough School in Limehouse, Tower Hamlets. I assume I will live as close to where I work as is available and affordable.  I know very little about the advantages of one job over the other, but as I have to decide which to take I am trying to find out as much as I can about the neighborhoods.

I hope to play football in the Southern Amateur League while over there, and the closest club to the schools seems to be in Walthamstow, the Old Esthameians. I believe that the school in Ilford is almost twice as close to the club as the one in Limehouse, so right now the proximity of Walthamstow to my place of work and living is the only advantage I see to taking a position at either school.

I am wondering if you know of any other factors that might be of concern in choosing between the two schools, or could tell me a little about the neighborhoods (nice? trashy? etc)

Thank you all for any help!

I'd choose Ilford.  But those 2 are both a lesser of 2 evils.  Ilford will be easier to find nicer housing.  Tower Hamlets has a lot of rough pockets.

actually, limehouse has some fantastic housing along the river and is generally much nicer than ilford, but will be expensive. it's also quite quiet there; mostly residential and not much going on at night. many limehouse residents work in canary wharf which is an easy walk.

I would be very careful about the limehouse, tower hamlets area.  I work in the City and my company does voluntary work with schools in that area and they can sometimes be really rough.  But like NCNY said, along the river are some beautiful places.  I think it's being marketed towards the well-heeled city boys who want to live closer to where the work.  It's close to both the City and Canary Wharf, which are the financial districts. 

Either place is still going to be relatively easy to get to Walthamstow.  The tube and the overground trains go, as well as buses I am sure. 

Just because you work at one place, doesn't mean you have to live right there.  It is so easy to get around on the tube/buses.  And neither of those places are particularly far away from each other.

I would recommend that your first week or two here, just stay in a B&B or hotel.  Go check out the areas and see what you find.   I think every one on here that rents would agree that it is not wise to rent a place, sight unseen. 

What do you want to get out of your gap year?  If you want the experience of living in London, I would take the job in Limehouse.  You could easily commute there from a more central location.  We have an intern at work (in other words on a limited income) and she lives in a shared flat near Baker Street tube, so it must be possible to find cheap shared housing right in the heart of the city.

Of course, the closer you are to the action, the more you'll take advantage of it and the more you'll spend!  Another consideration.

Hmm...

First, thanks for all the posts. I genuinely appreciate all the help.

Hard to tell what's better... I definitely will take the advice about getting a neutral place to stay before deciding where to LIVE live. I've been checking gumtree.com, and thought i might try to arrange something over here before i left, but I'll wait I guess.

I get mixed feelings for the transportation business. I've heard, and know, that public transport is amazing in London and can get you anywhere, but I've also heard that living as close to all the things you do on a daily basis (for me work and football club) is best because commuting every day is expensive.

What's biking like? I ruled it out a long time ago, just because I assumed it was a no-go, but now I've heard bits of people saying that it's ok. Anyone got any idea what it's like?

Again, thanks for the help.