Recommendations for areas to live

my family of 5 (4, 3, 6 mos kids) are moving to london in jan07. my husband will be working in canary wharf. we are not familiar with the different neighborhoods in central london and would like to ask for recommendations as where to live:

these are our preferences:
1) proximity to work (under 1 hour commute door-to-door)
2) close to a park for the children
3) close to shopping, restaurants and other amenities
4) similar in feel to greenwich village, soho, east village, nolita, and tribeca in NYC
5) close to good schools for the kids
6) hip and artistic neighborhood/emerging designers
7) close to tube stations

my husbands' colleagues mentioned st. john's woods. i would prefer notting hill.
money is not a consideration since we have a generous housing allowance. hence, give us all your ideas!

thanks in advance

I don't know how generous your housing allowance is but zone 1 is prohibitedly expensive for most people.  For a family of 5, you'll need a decent sized place (but you probably already knew that) and finding a place like that in Notting Hill won't be easy or cheap.  Just to give you an idea, when we were looking for a place for us, just for kicks, I looked at a place in Notting Hill.  It was two bedrooms, smallish and £2000 a month. 

We live in North London (Southgate) and it is exactly one hour door to door to Canary Wharf.  We have a bigger place than the Notting Hill flat and we pay less than half the rent.  It is a nice area, we live on a dead end alley so it's just our building (4 flats) and a couple other houses at the end.

I hope that helps a little.  Good luck with the move and the home search

June

I have to tell you that I was in your boat a few months ago.  My family is that of only 4 (5 and 18 month old) but our situations are incredibly similar...from Jersey, moving/ed to London, generous housing allowance, our children's private schooling is paid for (hopefully yours is?), etc.  We're considerably lucky. 

We wanted Notting Hill too but found that it was just not worth it.  It's a lot of hype for not a lot IMO.  While I loved the idea of telling folks back in the states "Ah yes, we live in Notting Hill", I didn't love the space it would give us for what we were going to have to pay per week.  In order to get what I needed to feel semi-normal I would have had to pay between 3,000 and  6,000 pds. per week.  Seriously...and that is simply not in the definition of "generous housing allowance"...that is astronomical and ludicrous (BUT, I certainly wouldn't be turning it down if it were ever offered!). If you're in that type of boat...more power to you and enjoy Notting Hill.

We however live quite decently but in Zone 2...it's about 1600 square feet, 3 bedroom, 2 reception room, eat in kitchen, garage and garden, with off street parking...Belsize Park.  My rent per week less than 1000 per week.  It's right in the middle of everything I need and is close enough to my daughters private school which is in St. John's Wood.  The tube is a 5 minute walk, shopping is close, the busses are close, the park is close, Starbucks is down the street (though their coffee is terrible), the Swiss Cottage new state-of-the-art Leisure Center (i.e. Athletic Club/Gym) is a 5 minute walk and the library is right there too...I have yet to need a car other than my inherent need to have keys in my pocket, a place to keep the damn stroller and a means to get to CostCo.  Primrose Hill is close enough (with a FAB park) and I don't have to pay their rent yet can enjoy their high street.  It's lovely and it's big enough.  Oh, and I can walk for another 15 minutes up the hill and have Hampstead's High Street.   Perfect house?  Not by any stretch...looks totally like I'm living in the projects but considering what I get with it and how well done it is inside?  It ROCKS and there really isn't anywhere else I'd rather be at this point.  Steeles Road maybe but that's just for a look at Jude Law while he's popping in to say Hi to Sadie Frost!   

We moved from Jersey last month...Westfield area and my husbands commute into NYC was 1.5 hours on a GOOD day.  One of our necessities when we moved here was that his commute was 45 minutes or less.  His commute is now 30 minutes...he doesn't work at Canary Warf though but instead at London Wall.  I'm not sure what the commute would be like to the warf from here.  Regardless, NW3 is definitely something to consider and the commute time is good to have as one of your preferences.  It makes a HUGE difference to have him home at 6:30 instead of 8:30pm. 

PM me if you want to chat more about places...since we just went through it, maybe I can offer some other suggestions without boring everyone else with my jabbering:)  Good luck...it's quite a lot of work but oh so worth it!! 

kdunk27, is your child enrolled in the american school in st. john's wood? did you do research  of other schools? if yes, how does the american school compare? my daughter is the same age as your child--perhaps they will be in the same class!

your area does sounds very convenient given its proximity to many activities. what is the neighborhood vibe like there? a suburb?

we currently live in west orange, nj, which is 17 miles from nyc.

my kids are active in swimming and tennis. is it relatively easy to find facilities for these activities?

i am an artist so i would like to find an area to live that is a nice balance between hipness and convenience to kids activities/school and husband's commute. i lived in nyc for 10 years prior to moving to the suburbs so i'm excited to be moving back to a city.

Nope, we opted out of the ASL because of the waiting list...we would never have made the cut for this year.  Av is in St. John's Wood Pre-prep which is AWESOME (and they have swimming on Fridays)!!!!!  I highly recommend it!  It only goes until age 7 and then we will have to find another prep-school for her which is fine.  I'll know the area much better and I felt like I could make a much more informed decision in a few months after living here.  We will certainly get her on the waiting list for the ASL though...I've heard so many really good comments about it.

I was told through our relo agent that Hampstead and Belsize Park are full of artists, musicians and the like.  Not sure if that is indeed the case but I've heard it through more than one person.  I love the areas...it feels like Brooklyn Heights a little bit to me and I LOVE that feel!  London is such a wonderful city with a suburb feel...now, if I could just remember my umbrella!  As an artist, I think you'll LOVE it here!!

The Swiss Cottage Leisure center has a pool and is literally brand new.  It's awesome. I'm not sure if they have tennis or not though.  I think swimming is pretty easy to find...not so sure about tennis.   

If you are working in Canary Wharf, I would say that Greenwich would meet your requirements.  Easy to get to work, big open green spaces, and pretty funky.  House prices are a little less than zone 1, and the shopping is great!

Vicky

We have lived in Blackheath for 10 years,which is a village up the hill from Greenwich. I agree with Victoria that the area is a great place to live. Canary Wharf is close,and you are less than 20 minutes from the West End by train. Take it from me,your husband will enjoy a shorter commute. Blackheath and Greenwich have a great selection of private schools and most everything you require. Goodluck!

Kdunk, I almost could have written your post!  We're from Westfield also, and settled on the border of Belsize Park and Hampstead in early September.  Ditto to everything you said about the commute, the Brooklynesque feel of the area and the "city with a suburb feel."  Talk about a small world!  Do you think we know each other from NJ?

I highly recommend this area to the original poster.  My nearly-5 year old daughter had several wonderful schools to choose from, thanks to a great proactive relocation agent, and we love the one that we selected.  She's settled in beautifully into her Reception class and we've been very impressed with the quality of the education.  My son, who will be 3 in Feb., starts nursery there next term as well.  This area of London has many, many terrific school to choose from, which I suspect is one of the reasons it's so popular with expats. 

Good luck!

Kdunk, I almost could have written your post!  We're from Westfield also, and settled on the border of Belsize Park and Hampstead in early September.  Ditto to everything you said about the commute, the Brooklynesque feel of the area and the "city with a suburb feel."  Talk about a small world!  Do you think we know each other from NJ?

NO WAY!!!  Actually, now that I think of it...we might have a friend from Cranford in common...I'll PM you   How exciting...someone from home!! YAY!!!!!!! 

Wait, you're Cynthia's friend???  No way!  What were the odds?  Yes, definitely PM me... I'm so excited too!

YES YES YES!!!!   

So psyched!!